Jurassic Park^TM III Novelization Read Online Free Page B

mercenary rattle off his résumé. He interrupted the man without taking his gaze off Paul.
    “You duped us into coming here,” Alan said.
    “We needed somebody who knew the lay of the land,” Paul tried to explain. “Somebody who’d been to this island before.”
    Alan stared at Paul in utter disbelief. “I have
never
been to this island!”
    “Sure you have,” Paul said. “You wrote that book. . . .”
    Billy cleared his throat. “That was Isla Nublar. This is Isla Sorna. The second island.”
    In a low voice, Paul said to Udesky, “I didn’t know there were two islands.”
    Amanda moved toward Alan. “But, Dr. Grant, you survived dinosaurs before. You saved those kids.”
    Alan could hardly find the words to get through to these people. This was lunacy!
    “A
few
of us survived,” Alan said. “A lot more died. And we were better prepared and better armed.”
    Alan sighed heavily. He looked into Amanda’s face. Then Paul’s. He could see how desperate they were.
    For a moment, Alan tried to put himself in their shoes. If he and Ellie had remained together, if Charlie had been
his
son, he might have gone to any lengths to save him.
    “How many days have they been missing?” Alan asked.
    A look passed between Amanda and Paul.
    Paul straightened up. “Eight weeks.”
    For a moment, Alan was speechless. Then he glanced at Billy, who appeared equally stunned.
Eight weeks in this place?
thought Alan in horror.
It may as well have been eight years.
    Alan turned back to the boy’s parents. Hope that their son was alive was clearly the one thing keeping them going. Unfortunately, it was keeping them going in a direction that was likely to get them all killed.
    “After what you’ve seen today, do you really think your son could be alive?” Alan asked as gently as he could manage.
    Amanda’s eyes grew wide. “He’s smart, Dr. Grant. And he knows so much about dinosaurs.”
    Before anyone else could speak, Alan put his hand out to silence them. He could not listen to any more of this.
    “No,” Alan said. “I’m sorry, but
no.
We’ll salvage what we can from the plane. Then we head for the coast. There may be a boat left, something to get us off the island.”
    Paul reacted fiercely. “Dr. Grant, we’re not leaving without our son.”
    “You can stick with us, or you can go look for him,” Alan said. “Either way, you’re probably not getting out of here alive.”
    Alan turned toward the plane, and Billy followed him.
    “What do we do?” Paul asked the others.
    “Well, I think we should start searching for your boy,” Udesky said.
    “Which way?” Paul asked.
    The mercenary hesitated, then cleared his throat. “In the direction that Dr. Grant is going.”

CHAPTER 5
    T HE FIVE SURVIVORS moved quickly and quietly through the wreckage of the plane, looking to salvage anything useful.
    Billy found his camera bag, with the camera intact. Alan found a backpack. Amanda located her suitcase and went behind the plane to change into clothes better suited for the jungle.
    Paul changed with her, and Amanda noticed how much trimmer her husband looked.
    “How much weight have you lost?” she asked him.
    “Twenty, twenty-five pounds,” said Paul, clearly happy she’d noticed. “I’ve been swimming at the Y.”
    “You hate to swim,” said Amanda.
    “People change,” said Paul meaningfully. Then he added softly, “You look good.”
    “So do you,” said Amanda. She made brief eye contact with her husband, but then looked away.
    Around the other side of the plane, Billy had begun taking photographs of a giant footprint left in the mud by the dinosaur who had attacked the plane.
    “Obviously a superpredator,” said Billy.
    Alan nodded, mentally running through a list of dinosaurs that would have left a similar footprint.
    “Suchomimus. That snout,” suggested Billy.
    “They never got that big,” pointed out Alan.
    “Baryonyx?” asked Billy.
    “Not with that sail,” said Alan.