Control

Muldoon and Gennaro came into the control room just as Arnold clapped his bands and said, "Got you, you little son of a bitch."

"What is it?" Gennaro said,

Arnold pointed to the screen:

Vgl = GetHandl dat.dt tempCall itm.temp

Vg2 = GetHandl dat.itl tempCall itm.temp

if Link(Vgl,Vg2) set Lim(Vgl,Vg2) return

if Link(Vg2,Vgl) set Lim(Vg2,Vgl) return

on whte_rbt.obj link set security (Vgl), perimeter (Vg2)

limitDat.1 = maxbits (%22) to limit.04 set on

limitDat.2 = setzero, setfive, 0 limit.2-var(dzh)

on fini.obi call link.sst security, perimeter set to on

on fini.obi set link.sst security, perimeter restore

on fini.obi delete line rf whte_rbt.obj, fini.obj

Vgl = GetHandl dat.dt tempCall itm.temp

Vg2 = GetHandl dat.itl tempCall itm.temp

IimitDat.4 = maxbits (%33) to limit.04 set on

limitDat.5 = setzero, setfive, 0 limit.2-var(szh)

"That's it," Arnold said, pleased.

"That's what?" Gennaro asked, staring at the screen.

"I finally found the command to restore the original code. The command called 'fini.ob' resets the linked parameters, namely the fence and the power.

"Good," Muldoon said.

"But it does something else," Arnold said. "It then erases the code lines that refer to it. It destroys all evidence it was ever there. Pretty slick."

Gennaro shook his head. "I don't know much about computers." Although he knew enough to know what it meant when a high-tech company went back to the source code. It meant big, big problems.

"Well, watch this," Arnold said, and he typed in the command:

FINI.OBJ

The screen flickered and immediately changed.

Vg1 = GetHandl dat.dt tempCall itm.temp

Vg2 = GetHandl dat.itl tempCall itm.temp

if Link(Vgl,Vg2) set Lim(Vgl,Vg2) return

if Link(Vg2,Vgl) set Lim(Vg2,Vgl) return

limitDat.1 = maxbits (%22) to limit.04 set on

limitDat.2 = setzero, setfive, 0 limit.2-var(dzh)

Vgl = GetHandl dat.dt tempCall itm.temp

Vg2 = GetHandl dat.itl tempCall itm.temp

IimitDat.4 = maxbits (%33) to limit.04 set on

limitDat.5 = setzero, setfive, 0 limit.2-var(szh)

Muldoon pointed to the windows. "Look!" Outside, the big quartz lights were coming on throughout the park, They went to the windows and looked out.

"Hot damn," Arnold said,

Gennaro said, "Does this mean the electrified fences are back on?"

"You bet it does," Arnold said. "It'll take a few seconds to get up to full power, because we've got fifty miles of fence out there, and the generator has to charge the capacitors along the way. But in half a minute we'll be back in business," Arnold pointed to the vertical glass see-through map of the park.

On the map, bright red lines were snaking out from the power station, moving throughout the park, as electricity surged through the fences.

"And the motion sensors?" Gennaro said.

"Yes, them, too. It'll be a few minutes while the computer counts. But everything's working," Arnold said. "Half past nine, and we've got the whole damn thing back up and running."

Grant opened his eyes. Brilliant blue light was streaming into the building through the bars of the gate. Quartz light: the power was back on! Groggily, he looked at his watch. It was just nine-thirty. He'd been asleep only a couple of minutes. He decided he could sleep a few minutes more, and then he would go back up to the field and stand in front of the motion sensors and wave, setting them off. The control room would spot him; they'd send a car out to pick him and the kids up, he'd tell Arnold to recall the supply ship, and they'd all finish the night in their own beds back in the lodge.

He would do that right away. In just a couple of minutes. He yawned, and closed his eyes again.

"Not bad," Arnold said in the control room, staring at the glowing map. "There's only three cutouts in the whole park. Much better than I hoped for."

"Cutouts?" Gennaro said.

"The fence automatically cuts out short-circuited sections," he explained. "You can see a big one here, in sector twelve, near the main road."

"That's where the rex knocked the fence down," Muldoon said.

"Exactly. And another one is here in sector eleven. Near the sauropod maintenance building."

"Why would that section be out?" Gennaro said.

"God knows," Arnold said. "Probably storm damage or a fallen tree. We can check It on the monitor in a while. The third one is over there by the jungle river. Don't know why that should be out, either."

As Gennaro looked, the map became more complex, filling with green spots and numbers. "What's all this?"

"The animals. The motion sensors are working again, and the computer's starting to identify the location of all the animals in the park. And anybody else, too."

Gennaro stared at the map. "You mean Grant and the kids…"

"Yes. We've reset our search number above four hundred. So, if they're out there moving around," Arnold said, "the motion sensors will pick them up as additional animals." He stared at the map. "But I don't see any additionals yet."

"Why does it take so long?" Gennaro said.

"You have to realize, Mr. Gennaro," Arnold said, "that there's a lot of extraneous movement out there. Branches blowing in the wind, birds flying around, all kinds of stuff. The computer has to eliminate all the background movement. It may take-ah. Okay. Count's finished."

Gennaro said, "You don't see the kids?"

Arnold twisted in his chair, and looked back to the map. "No," he said, "at the moment, there are no additionals on the map at all. Everything out there has been accounted for as a dinosaur. They're probably up in a tree, or somewhere else where we can't see them. I wouldn't worry yet. Several animals haven't shown up, like the big rex. That's probably because it's sleeping somewhere and not moving. The people may be sleeping, too. We just don't know."

Muldoon shook his head. "We better get on with it," he said. "We need to repair the fences, and get the animals back into their paddocks. According to that computer, we've got five to herd back to the proper paddocks. I'll take the maintenance crews out now."

Arnold turned to Gennaro. "You may want to see how Dr. Malcolm is doing. Tell Dr. Harding that Muldoon will need him in about an hour to supervise the herding. And I'll notify Mr. Hammond that we're starting our final cleanup."

Gennaro passed through the iron gates and went in the front door of the Safari Lodge. He saw Ellie Sattler coming down the hallway, carrying towels and a pan of steaming water. "There's a kitchen at the other end," she said. "We're using that to boil water for the dressings."

"How is he?" Gennaro asked.

"Surprisingly good," she said.

Gennarro followed Ellie down to Malcolm's room, and was startled to hear the sound of laughter. The mathematician lay on his back in the bed, with Harding adjusting an IV line.

"So the other man says, 'I'll tell you frankly, I didn't like it, Bill. I went back to toilet paper!'"

Harding was laughing.

"It's not bad, is it?" Malcolm said, smiling. "Ah. Mr. Gennaro. You've come to see me. Now you know what happens from trying to get a leg up on the situation."

Gennaro came in, tentatively.

Harding said, "He's on fairly high doses of morphine."

"Not high enough, I can tell you," Malcolm said. "Christ, he's stingy with his drugs. Did they find the others yet?"

"No, not yet," Gennaro said. "But I'm glad to see you doing so well."

"How else should I be doing," Malcolm said, "with a compound fracture of the leg that is likely septic and beginning to smell rather, ah, pungent? But I always say, if you can't keep a sense of humor…"

Gennaro smiled. "Do you remember what happened?"

"Of course I remember," Malcolm said. "Do you think you could be bitten by a Tyrannosaurus rex and it would escape your mind? No indeed, I'll tell you, you'd remember it for the rest of your life. In my case, perhaps not a terribly long time. But, still-yes, I remember."

Malcolm described running from the Land Cruiser in the rain, and being chased down by the rex. "It was my own damned fault, he was too close, but I was panicked. In any case, he picked me up in his jaws."

"How?" Gennaro said.

"Torso," Malcolm said, and lifted his shirt. A broad semicircle of bruised punctures ran from his shoulder to his navel. "Lifted me up in his jaws, shook me bloody hard, and threw me down. And I was fine-terrified of course, but, still and all, fine-right up to the moment he threw me. I broke the leg in the fall. But the bite was not half bad." He sighed. "Considering."

Harding said, "Most of the big carnivores don't have strong jaws. The real power is in the neck musculature. The jaws just hold on, while they use the neck to twist and rip. But with a small creature like Dr. Malcolm, the animal would just shake him, and then toss him."

"I'm afraid that's right," Malcolm said. "I doubt I'd have survived, except the big chap's heart wasn't in it. To tell the truth, he struck me as a rather clumsy attacker of anything less than an automobile or a small apartment building."

"You think he attacked halfheartedly?"

"It pains me to say it," Malcolm said, "but I don't honestly feel I had his full attention. He had mine, of course. But, then, he weighs eight tons. I don't. "

Gennaro turned to Harding and said, "They're going to repair the fences now. Arnold says Muldoon will need your help herding animals."

"Okay," Harding said.

"So long as you leave me Dr. Sattler, and ample morphine," Malcolm said. "And so long as we do not have a Malcolm Effect here."

"What's a Malcolm Effect?" Gennaro said.

"Modesty forbids me," Malcolm said, "from telling you the details of a phenomenon named after me." He sighed again, and closed his eyes. In a moment, he was sleeping.

Ellie walked out into the hallway with Gennaro. "Don't be fooled," she said. "It's a great strain on him. When will you have a helicopter here?"

"A helicopter?"

"He needs surgery on that leg. Make sure they send for a helicopter, and get him off this island."