“No. Heads are high. Nostrils aren’t moving.”
“Listening?”
She nodded. “Possibly.”
“Listening to what?”
“Maybe to the baby.”
He glanced over again. “Sarah. The baby is out cold.”
“I know.”
“It isn’t making any noise.”
“None that we can hear.” She stared at the tyrannosaurs. “But they’re doing something, Ian. That behavior we’re seeing has meaning. We just don’t know what it is.”
From the high hide, Levine stared through his night-vision glasses at the clearing. He saw the two tyrannosaurs standing at the edge of the forest. They were moving their heads in an odd, synchronized way.
They took a few hesitant steps toward the trailer, lifted their heads, turned right and left, and then seemed finally to make up their minds. The animals moved quickly, almost aggressively, across the clearing.
Over the radio, they heard Malcolm say, “It’s the lights! The lights are drawing them.”
A moment later, the exterior lights were turned off, and the clearing went black. They all squinted in the darkness. They heard Malcolm say, “That did it.”
Thorne said to Levine, “What do you see?”
“Nothing.”
“What’re they doing?”
“They’re just standing there.”
Through the night-vision goggles, he saw that the tyrannosaurs had paused, as if confused by this change in light. Even from a distance, he could hear their growls, but they were uneasy. They swung their great heads up and down, and snapped their jaws. But they did not move closer.
Kelly said, “What is it?”
“They’re waiting,” Levine said. “At least for the moment.”
Levine had the distinct impression that the tyrannosaurs were unsettled. The trailer must represent a large and fearsome change in their environment. Perhaps they would turn away, he thought, and leave. Despite their enormous size, they were cautious, almost timid animals.
They growled again. And then he saw them move forward, toward the darkened trailer.
“Ian: what do we do?”
“Damned if I know,” Malcolm whispered.
They were crouched down side by side in the passageway, trying to stay out of sight in the windows. The tyrannosaurs moved implacably forward. They could feel each step as a distinct vibration now – two ten ton animals, moving toward them.
“They’re coming right at us!”
“I noticed,” he said.
The first of the animals reached the trailer, coming so close that the body blocked the entire window. All Malcolm could see was powerfully muscled legs and underbelly. The head was far above them, out of view.
Then the second tyrannosaur came up on the opposite side. The two animals began to circle the trailer, growling and snorting. Heavy footsteps shook the floor beneath them. They smelled the pungent predator odor. One of the tyrannosaurs brushed against the side of the trailer and they heard a scraping sound, scaly flesh on metal.
Malcolm felt sudden panic. It was the smell that did it, the smell that he suddenly remembered, from before. He began to sweat. He glanced over at Sarah, and saw that she was intent, watching the movements of the animals. “This isn’t hunting behavior,” she whispered.
“I don’t know,” Malcolm said. “Maybe it is. They aren’t lions, you know.”
One of the tyrannosaurs bellowed in the night, a frightening earsplitting sound.
“Not hunting,” she said “They’re searching, Ian.”
A moment later, the second tyrannosaur bellowed in reply. Then the big head swung down, and peered in through the window in front of them. Malcolm ducked down, flattening himself on the trailer floor, and Sarah collapsed on top of him. Her shoe pressed on his ear.
“It’s going to be fine, Sarah.”
Outside, they heard the tyrannosaurs snorting and growling.
Malcolm whispered, “Would you mind moving?”
She edged to one side, and he eased up slowly, peering cautiously over the seat cushions. He had a glimpse of the big eye of the rex staring in at him. The eye swiveled in the socket. He saw the jaws open and close. The hot breath of the animal fogged the glass.
The tyrannosaur’s head swung away, moving back from the trailers and for a moment Malcolm breathed more easily. But then the head swung back, and slammed with a heavy thud into the trailer, rocking it hard.
“Don’t worry, Sarah. The trailer’s very strong.”