by C. G. Mosley
Chapter 29
Charlie arrived in the hangar at seven o’clock, right on time. She was not surprised at all to discover she was the second person there. George was there, still readying the vehicles and equipment. She glanced toward the cage near the back of the hangar and could see that he’d managed to catch the juvenile tyrannosaur and return it to the trailer.
“Good morning, sir,” she muttered, trying to be polite.
George looked at her and grumbled some sort of incoherent response, but he at least seemed friendly.
“How many vehicles will we be taking?” Charlie asked.
George had an arm full of ammunition, and he was neatly stacking it beneath the large gun on the back of one of the jeeps. He paused a minute and wiped a bit of sweat from his brow with a bandanna he retrieved from his back pocket. She knew he’d been busy for a couple of hours now.
“We will be taking every vehicle available, except for the wrecked jeep over there,” he said, pointing.
It was at this point that she noticed one of the jeeps was missing. She wanted to ask where the other vehicle was but knew if she did, it may give her away.
“Will you be driving one of them?” she asked, trying to warm up to him. He nodded in response.
“Well, would you mind if I travel along with you?” she asked.
This time, George shook his head. “No,” he muttered. “I’ll be driving the semi. I’ll have to pull the croc to the beach. It’s too dangerous.”
Charlie nodded. “I see,” she said. “Well, which vehicle do you think will be the safest?”
George checked the sight on the large mounted machine gun and then gave Charlie a look. “Probably the jeep pulling that baby dinosaur,” he said, pointing toward the juvenile tyrannosaur. “Job number one for whoever is pulling it is to get it to the beach and in the hands of our shipping team.”
Charlie nodded and did her best not to smile. “Well, I think maybe that’s the ride I’ll shoot for then.”
A rumbling sound approached from somewhere outside the hangar, and moments later, the missing jeep rolled in. There was a trailer attached to the back with another cage and a large dinosaur was inside. Charlie got closer for a better look. The dinosaur appeared to be a not yet fully-grown Corythosaurus. Corythosaurus was a duck-billed dinosaur with a helmet-shaped crest that adorned the top of its skull like the brush on top of an ancient Roman soldier’s helmet. The animal was a forest green color, with dark speckles of black splattered across its back. A fully-grown Corythosaurus could reach a length of thirty feet, which would be far too large to fit into the cage. This one would have had to be pretty young. The dinosaur was clearly distressed, making a pitiful sound that sounded eerily like a trombone. The sound originated from the crest atop its skull.
“I’m assuming you know what this is, Doc?” Glenn Hardcastle said as he exited the vehicle and stared at the panicked animal with indifference.
“Yes,” she replied, turning her attention to him. “It’s a Corythosaurus. It appears to be quite young.”
Hardcastle shook his head. “Nope,” he replied. “That there is bait!” He laughed, seemingly very amused at his own joke.
Charlie did not laugh; she only stared at him.
“Why would you use this particular animal to bait Sarcosuchus?” she asked.
“Because this particular animal is semi-aquatic,” he began, then paused to see how she would react. She stared at the animal and took a deep breath as she considered what he’d said. “I bet you didn’t know they spent a lot of time in water, did you?” he asked.
Charlie shrugged. “Well, there has been some speculation about that, but I personally never believed that they did. That is quite interesting though.” She paused and forced a smile. “It’s why I signed up for this job.”
Hardcastle nodded. “Well, since the super-croc spends so much time in the water, we hope that maybe this one will take off into the drink when we release it. Obviously, it won’t take long for the croc to show itself if that happens.”
“And then you spring into action?” she asked, trying to sound like an ignorant woman (she could tell Hardcastle loved that).
“That’s right,” he added, and he then reached in the jeep and pulled out a very large rifle. “I figure two darts from this baby will put that croc to sleep pretty quickly.”
“I bet,” she replied. “Just be careful that it doesn’t drown.”
Another man approached from behind her and said, “Trust me; we won’t go to this much trouble to let the animal drown.” It was Eric Gill. He approached the trailer and gazed upon the Corythosaurus. “Nice job, Glenn,” he added. “This one should serve the purpose nicely. Don’t you agree, Doctor Nelson?”
Charlie nodded. “I think it will do just fine,” she agreed.
“Very well, I think we’re just about ready then?” he said, peering back toward George in the hangar. George gave him a thumbs up, and a few other men that Charlie had never seen before headed toward the vehicles and took their places on the guns. George made his way to the semi and Eric sat down behind the wheel of one of the jeeps.
Charlie watched all of the men scrambling to their positions and, although she knew where she wanted to go, she figured she’d ask Eric.
“Why don’t you take a seat with Dave and help with the handoff of the tyrannosaur?” he said to her. “He could probably use your expertise in case the animal does something unexpected.”
Charlie nodded and did her best to refrain from smiling. “Sounds good…I just want to help,” she said modestly.
“Besides,” Eric added as he started the engine of his jeep, “you’ll be much safer handling that part of the mission. If we need you, I’ll come for you.”
With that, he gunned the throttle and began the convoy toward the other end of the island.
***
Jonathon spent every minute of time since he had parted ways with Annie pacing back and forth across the break room floor. His heart leapt when he heard the key hit the lock and he was tugging on the door the second Annie had it unlocked. This surprised her and Jonathon quickly grabbed her and pulled her into the room.
“Quickly,” he said, “Tell me what is going on.”
“I don’t know anything,” she replied. “All I know is that Eric left about 20 minutes ago headed for the hangar.”
“Alright, that means it’s all about to start. Annie, I need you to go back to Eric’s room and wait for all of this to be over. It really shouldn’t take long, but in case things go sour, you need to be within the safety of this compound.”
Annie gave no argument. “Jonathon, be careful. Eric is a determined guy, but I know deep down he’s a good guy. Please don’t hurt him,” she said.
He gave her an odd look and a slow nod before heading out the door without another word.
***
Jonathon reached the hangar just in time to see the semi pulling away with George at the wheel. The jeeps were kicking up dust in front of him, and he could clearly see one of them was still towing the juvenile tyrannosaur.
I guess George managed to catch it, he thought to himself.
He peered in all directions and carefully made his way into the deserted hangar. He immediately made his way to the battered jeep and prayed that it would start. The key was already in the ignition, and as luck would have it, the first turn of it was enough to bring the vehicle to life. Black smoke billowed from the tailpipe and the engine sounded awfully sick, but all he needed was for it to get him close to where the action would be taking place.
Jonathon put the vehicle in drive and took off in pursuit. He stayed far enough back to remain unnoticed, and the fresh cloud of dust in the air gave him an idea of how far behind he was. He continued following the convoy until he met a fork in the road. This concerned him because he could see dust settling down both roads. He knew that he needed to follow whichever vehicle was headed to the beach.
Quickly, he hopped out of the jeep and looked around in bo
th directions to make sure no one had spotted him. Satisfied his presence had not been detected, he examined the tire tracks leading away in both directions. After a moment, he decided that the deeper and wider depressions that veered off down the road to the right must have belonged to the large semi-truck. The semi would not be heading toward the shoreline yet; it was going after the super croc.
Jonathon jumped back in the battered vehicle that was currently barely sputtering enough to idle. He reached over to the glove box and opened it. Too his surprise and delight, there was a 9mm handgun inside. He snatched the weapon out, released the magazine, and was further surprised to find that it was loaded. After laying the weapon down on the passenger seat, he again took off to continue the pursuit.
The steering wheel pulled badly to the left and shook to the point that Jonathon felt his teeth would rattle loose. He wanted to ponder exactly what he was going to do when he caught up with the jeep towing the juvenile tyrannosaur, but the relentless shaking was making his head hurt. He believed thinking and planning was just going to make it worse.
After what he estimated to be another three miles of driving, Jonathon rounded a sharp curve and spotted the sandy beach of the ocean. The gray mist that surrounded the island was still prominent, and for a split second, it surprised him. With everything that had been going on, it was easy to forget about the supernatural aspects of the island.
As Jonathon peered out over the ocean, in the distance, he could see the end of a large rectangular object sticking through gray mist. It was dark in color, and after straining his eyes, he decided it must’ve been a dark shade of red. Suddenly, it occurred to him that the object was a large barge floating in the deeper waters off of the beach.
That’s the ride for the Sarcosuchus, he thought.
He then noticed a large spool of cable mounted on the end of the barge.
Probably a wench of some sort to reel the large beast onto the barge…
When Jonathon returned his attention to the road, he could see the jeep and trailer pulling off the road and onto the beach straight in the direction of the barge. It was then that he noticed a smaller boat onto the beach and three men standing in front of it. So far, he knew he was outnumbered at least five to one. He suddenly jammed on the brakes and brought the jeep to a sliding stop in the dirt.
This is going to be tough, he thought.
If he didn’t do something quick, the men were going to load the cage holding the juvenile tyrannosaur onto the boat. Jonathon suspected there was a much larger vessel beyond the mist that was going to tow the barge and also transport the tyrannosaur. If the tyrannosaur made it to the large vessel, he knew stopping the entire ordeal would become significantly harder. As far as he could tell, under the circumstances he had but one option. He slid the lever into drive but held his foot on the brake for a few more moments.
He thought of Lucy and his mother. Lucy was the entire reason he even came to the island. He’d come to find a solution—the only miracle he knew of in the entire world that would save her life. Jonathon wondered if he’d have even come to the island if he’d known how deep he would’ve gotten into this crusade he now found himself in. A crusade to keep the dinosaurs exactly where they belonged: on the wretched island that they’d lived for thousands of years. If he got himself killed all in the name of this crusade, everything he came to the island for in the first place would be lost. Would that mean his death would be in vain? It was hard to see it that way if it kept the rest of the world safe from rampaging super crocodiles and terrifying tyrannosaurs. But still, hope of his wife beating her illness would become slim to none. And worse yet, would she even find out what happened to him? Who would tell her? She’d just lie in bed waiting…waiting for a husband that promised her he’d return. And what about his mother? She’d never learn of what happened to her husband. Jonathon felt responsible for his father tagging along and the weight of his death was heavy on his heart. It would be a very cruel and unfair twist for his mother to never know the truth of the terrible fate of her husband, and obviously, it would be even worse if she lost a son too.
Jonathon chewed his lip another minute while he pondered the situation. There was still a chance—although a slim one—that he’d manage to stop the atrocities occurring on the island and manage to escape back to his home with his wife’s miracle water in his possession.
What the hell, he thought. He’d cheated death on more than one occasion. He thought back to his last visit to the island. He remembered the large tyrannosaur that literally chased him over the edge of a cliff. Then he thought of the monstrous pterosaurs that he’d narrowly escaped from off of Angus Wedgeworth’s ship. Was that luck? Or did that mean there was still purpose in his life?
Of course that’s what it meant, he finally convinced himself. I’ve cheated death before, and it could’ve been for this very moment. This is the moment that could save lives on the mainland.
With that final thought in mind, Jonathon released the brake and accelerated toward the boat on the shoreline.
Chapter 30
So far, Eric Gill was very satisfied with how things were going. All of the vehicles had managed to form a sort of half-moon shape around the shoreline of the swamp. The jeep with the trailer containing the Corythosaurus had backed up in the center with Hardcastle perched on top of the cage, awaiting the signal to pull the gate upward.
Once the young Corythosaurus was released, Eric’s hope was that the strategic positions of all the park vehicles would be enough to force the animal into the water. Even if the Sarcosuchus was unable to catch the bait, it would at least lure one of the beasts to the surface and close enough for Hardcastle to get a clear shot at it.
“I’m waiting,” Glenn Hardcastle said impatiently. He directed the statement to George who was holding binoculars to his face, scanning the waters for movement.
“See anything?” Eric asked as he stepped beside George.
He pulled the binoculars down from his face and shook his head. “Nothing,” he said with a tinge of his own impatience rolling off the words.
Eric looked back and up to Hardcastle. “How hard was it for you to catch that thing?” he asked, glancing toward the Corythosaurus.
Hardcastle glared down at him taking his meaning. “It took some time,” he replied sharply. “If we let this thing go and there are no crocs around to hear it, it’s gonna take me a little time to hunt down another one.”
Eric gritted his teeth a moment and then spat on the ground. He reached into his shirt pocket and retrieved the pack of Jupiter cigarettes. He lit one, took a puff, then said, “So really all we need is something in the water splashing and making noise?”
Hardcastle’s eyes narrowed. “Yeah, pretty much,” he replied.
“So I’ve been wondering what we’re going to do with Jonathon,” Eric said, staring at the water.
George abruptly looked up at Hardcastle, unable to hide his shock. Glenn shrugged in response and said, “If you throw a man in there, he’ll probably make more noise than this Corythosaurus.”
“What if we tied a rope to him? Do you think we’d be able to snatch him out of there before the croc could get his jaws on him?” Eric asked, still staring into the murky water.
Hardcastle thought a moment. “Maybe,” he said finally. “But I’m sort of thinking it won’t break your heart too much if we can’t get him out.”
Eric gave a slight nod in reply, and George thought he noticed the faintest hint of a smile as well. “Release the dinosaur,” Eric said. “We’ll take our chances.”
Without hesitation, Hardcastle pulled the rope attached to the gate upward. The Corythosaurus slowly moved toward what it perceived to be its freedom, but there was obvious skepticism in the animal’s movements. It seemed to sense something was off.
“Come on, you idiot! Let’s go,” Hardcastle grunted, and he began to stomp the top of the cage with his heavy boots.
The loud noises above its head frightened the animal, and sudd
enly it darted out of the cage. Just as Eric had hoped, the animal leapt into the water and frantically tried to distance itself from its strange captors. The men watched as the Corythosaurus swam further and further into the swamp. Finally, it approached a large crop of cypress, and soon after, they lost it behind the trunks of the trees.
“Well, that’s that,” Hardcastle said, sounding defeated. He jumped from the top of the cage, the rifle loaded with tranquilizers in his hands. “I think it might be time for Plan B, boss.”
George dropped his head, clearly concerned and not fully on board with Plan B, but he said nothing. Eric noticed his demeanor but did not acknowledge it.
“Looks like we don’t have a choice,” he said, and it sounded as if he were trying to justify it for George.
“No sense in all of us going after him,” Hardcastle said as he approached the jeep with the cage attached. “I’ll go get him and be back here in a jiffy.”
“Okay, but if you bring him back here unconscious, it’s not going to do us any—”
Suddenly, there was a loud shriek of terror from somewhere beyond the crop of cypress trees. Hardcastle ran back to the edge of the swampy water and readied the rifle.
“What was that?” Eric asked.
“There—look!” George shouted, and he pointed toward the Corythosaurus swimming frantically back in their direction. The animal was wailing and sounded strangely like a baby crying. The sound was unsettling and gave all of the men goose flesh.
Roughly ten to twenty yards behind the Corythosaurus’s wake, what appeared to be a massive stone with two very large eyes protruding from it quickly closed the gap behind the animal. Of course all of the men knew it wasn’t a stone; it was the large head of the beast that they’d come for.
“What are you waiting for?” Eric asked, his voice shaking a bit. “Take the shot!”
Hardcastle had the stock of the rifle against his shoulder, but he wasn’t firing the weapon. “I can’t take the shot just yet,” he said calmly, just above a whisper. “All I can see is the thing’s head; I need to see the rest of the body.”