Jurassic Park^TM III Novelization by Scott Ciencin Read Free Book Online Page B

reason—they’d wanted their eggs!
    Billy spoke even more quickly. “Plus it would be easy to get money. Enough to fund the digging for ten years. More. Whatever it took.”
    Disgusted, Alan shook his head.
    “I did it with the best of intentions,” Billy pleaded.
    “Some of the worst things imaginable have been done with the
best
of intentions,” Alan said. “You rushed in with no thought of the consequences, to yourself or anyone else.”
    Billy stared speechlessly, stung by the force of Alan’s anger.
    “You’re no better than the people who built this place,” concluded Alan. Then he turned away, leaving Billy to consider his words.

CHAPTER 10
    A LAN STOOD NEAR THE STAIRS at the center of the room, still stunned by what he had just learned.
    Paul approached him. “What do you think this place is?”
    “Some kind of observatory,” answered Alan. “It looks over the canyon.”
    Eric nodded. “We saw a boat at the bottom. Just downriver. We can get off the island.”
    “Come on,” Alan said. He headed down the spiral staircase, leaving Billy with his guilt. Paul and the others fell in line after Alan. Eventually, Billy followed—at a distance.
    The rusty stairs stopped on a lower level below the observation room. Above and around them, the fog was thick; yet below them, the view was clear enough for Alan to make out the river and the barge he and Eric had spotted earlier from the canyon ridge.
    Alan held Billy’s camera bag over the edge, ready to drop it into the canyon. But Paul stopped him, hand raised.
    “Can I offer a suggestion?” Paul asked. “Keep the eggs with you. At least until we get off the island.”
    Eric shook his head. “But then the raptors might keep following us, looking for the eggs!”
    Paul smiled. “And maybe they’ll follow us anyway, just for taking them. I’ve been working in sales my whole life, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that if you’ve got something the other fella wants, you don’t give it up. Those things may want us dead, but they want those eggs more. That’s the only advantage we’ve got.”
    Alan looked at him closely. Paul Kirby was more than a panicked father. More than a bumbling liar. There was something about this man, something he hadn’t seen before.
    Alan removed his pack and put the camera case back inside. Shouldering the pack, he led the way down the ramp to the landing, where a set of rusty stairs continued down the canyon wall.
    Alan had taken only a few steps down when the crumbling staircase broke away! Paul grabbed Alan’s arm and pulled him up as the staircase fell. It clanged against the canyon wall, then crashed far below.
    “You okay?” Paul asked.
    Alan nodded shakily and looked toward their only alternative now, a fragile-looking catwalk that extended out from the landing where they stood.
    “How about this way?” proposed Alan. “There’s probably another stairway on the other side.”
    “Do you think it goes all the way across?” Eric asked. The fog was so thick around them, they couldn’t even see where the catwalk ended.
    “One way to find out,” Alan said. He had not fully recovered from his near fall, but he knew the only way to get over it was to push on. Even so, his stomach turned at being up so high.
    Alan started across the catwalk, with Amanda close behind. Under their combined weight, the catwalk groaned unsteadily. Alan glanced back at Amanda, who had frozen with fear.
    “We’d better do this
one
at a time,” Alan said.
    Amanda nodded quickly and stepped off the catwalk.
    Alan carefully moved forward. The thick fog closed in behind him, cutting off his view of the group—and their view of him.
    All they could rely on was the slow creaking sound of the catwalk as he moved across it.
    After a few minutes, Alan stopped. He’d reached a lateral support beam that provided a small landing where he could catch his breath.
    Out of the dead silence, he heard an uncertain voice from the fog.