“What’s happening?”
“I don’t know,” Malcolm said.
“The perimeter lights just turned on. I think the sensor was activated. But we don’t see anything out there.”
Eddie said, “Air’s cooling off fast now. Might have been convection currents, set it off.”
Thorne said, “Ian? Everything okay?”
“Yes. Fine. Don’t worry.”
Eddie said, “I always figured we set the sensitivity too high. That’s all it is.
Levine frowned, and said nothing.
Sarah finished with the baby, and wrapped him in a blanket, and gently strapped him down to the table with cloth restraint straps. She came over and stood beside Malcolm. She looked out the window.
“What do you think?”
Malcolm shrugged. “Eddie says the system’s too sensitive.”
“Is it?”
“I don’t know. It’s never been tested before.” He scanned the trees at the edge of the clearing, looking for any movement. Then he thought he heard a snorting sound, almost a growl. It seemed like it was answered from somewhere behind him. He went to look out the other side of the trailer, at the trees on the other side.
Malcolm and Harding looked out, straining to see something in the night. Malcolm held his breath, tensely. After a moment, Harding sighed. “I don’t see anything, Ian.”
“No. Me neither.”
‘Must be a false alarm.”
Then he felt the vibration, a deep resonant thumping in the ground, that was carried to them through the floor of the trailer. He glanced at Sarah. Her eyes widened.
Malcolm knew what it was. The vibration came again, unmistakably this time.
Sarah stared out the window. She whispered, “Ian: I see it.”
Malcolm turned, and joined her. She was pointing out the window toward the nearest trees.
“What?”
And then he saw the big head emerge from the foliage midway u one tree. The head turned slowly from side to side, as if listening. It was an adult Tyrannosaurus rex.
“Ian,” she whispered. “Look – there are two of them.”
Over to the right, he saw a second animal step from behind the trees. It was larger, the female of the pair. The animals growled, a deep rumble in the night. They emerged slowly from the cover of the trees, stepping into the clearing. They blinked in the harsh light.
“Are those the parents?”
“I don’t know. I think so.”
He glanced over at the baby. It was still unconscious, breathing steadily, the blanket rising and falling regularly.
“What are they doing here?” she said.
“I don’t know.”
The animals were still standing at the edge of the clearing, near the cover of the trees. They seemed hesitant, waiting.
“Are they looking for the baby?” she said.
“Sarah, please.”
“I’m serious.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“Why? They must have tracked it here.”
The tyrannosaurs raised their heads, lifting their jaws. Then they turned their heads left and right, in slow arcs. They repeated the movement, then took a step forward, toward the trailer.
“Sarah,” he said. “We’re miles from the nest. There isn’t any way for them to track it.”
“How do you know?”
“Sarah – ”
“You said yourself, we don’t know anything about these animals. We don’t know anything about their physiology, their biochemistry, their nervous systems, their behavior. And we don’t know anything about their sensory equipment, either.”
“Yes, but – ”
“They’re predators, Ian. Good sense of vision, good sense of hearing and smell.”
“I assume so, yes.”
“But we don’t know what else,” Sarah said.
“What else?” Malcolm said.
“Ian. There are other sensory modalities. Snakes sense infrared. Bats have echolocation. Birds and turtles have magnetosensors – they can detect the earth’s magnetic field, which is how they migrate. Dinosaurs may have other sensory modalities that we can’t imagine.”
“Sarah, this is ridiculous.”
“Is it? Then you tell me. What are they doing out there?”
Outside, near the trees, the tyrannosaurs had become silent. They were no longer growling, but they were still moving their heads back and forth in slow arcs, turning left and right.
Malcolm frowned. “It looks like…they’re looking around….”
“Straight into bright lights? No, Ian. They’re blinded.”
As soon as she said it, he realized she was right. But the heads were turning back and forth in that regular way. “Then what are they doing? Smelling?”