The Lost World - Michael Crichton [39]
“This is cool,” Arby said.
Kelly didn’t answer. She was looking closely at the lab. Dr. Levine had designed this trailer, apparently with a very specific purpose. There was no provision for geology, or botany, or chemistry, or lots of other things that a field team might be expected to study. It wasn’t a general scientific lab at all. There really seemed to be just a biology unit, and a large computer unit.
Biology, and computers.
Period.
What had this trailer been built to study?
Set in the wall was a small bookshelf, the books held in place with a Velcro strap. She scanned the titles: Modeling Adaptive Biological Systems, Vertebrate Behavioral Dynamics, Adaptation in Natural and Artificial Systems, Dinosaurs of North America, Preadaptation and Evolution. . . . It seemed like a strange set of books to take on a wilderness expedition; if there was a logic behind it, she didn’t see it.
She moved on. At intervals along the walls, she could see where the trailer had been strengthened; dark carbon-honeycomb strips ran up the walls. She had overheard Thorne saying it was the same material used in supersonic jet fighters. Very light and very strong. And she noticed that all the windows had been replaced with that special glass with fine wire mesh inside it.
Why was the trailer so strong?
It made her a little uneasy, when she thought about it. She remembered the telephone call with Dr. Levine, earlier in the day. He had said he was surrounded.
Surrounded by what?
He had said: I can smell them, especially at night.
What was he referring to?
Who was them?
Still uneasy, Kelly moved toward the back of the trailer, where there was a homey little living area, complete with gingham curtains on the windows. Compact kitchen, a toilet, and four beds. Storage compartments above and below the beds. There was even a little walk-in shower. It was nice.
From there, she went through the accordion pleating that connected the two trailers. It was a little bit like the connection between two railway cars, a short transitional passage. She emerged inside the second trailer, which seemed to be mostly utility storage: extra tires, spare parts, more lab equipment, shelves and cabinets. All the extra supplies that meant an expedition to some far-off place. There was even a motorcycle hanging off the back of the trailer. She tried some of the cabinets, but they were locked.
But even here there were extra reinforcing strips as well. This section had also been built especially strong.
Why? she wondered. Why so strong?
“Look at this,” Arby said, standing before a wall unit. It was a complex of glowing LED displays and lots of buttons, and looked to Kelly like a complicated thermostat.
“What does it do?” Kelly said.
“Monitors the whole trailer,” he said. “You can do everything from here. All the systems, all the equipment. And look, there’s TV. . . .” He pushed a button, and a monitor glowed to life. It showed Eddie walking toward them, across the floor.
“And, hey, what’s this?” Arby said. At the bottom of the display was a button with a security cover. He flipped the cover open. The button was silver and said DEF.
“Hey, I bet this is that bear defense he was talking about.”
A moment later, Eddie opened the trailer door and said, “You better stop that, you’ll drain the batteries. Come on, now. You heard what the doc said. Time for you kids to go home.”
Kelly and Arby exchanged glances.
“Okay,” Kelly said. “We’re going.”
Reluctantly, they left the trailer.
They walked across the shed to Thorne’s office to say goodbye. Arby said, “I wish he’d let us go.”
“Me, too.”
“I don’t want to stay home for break,” he said. “They’re just going to be working all the time.” He meant his parents.
“I know.”
Kelly didn’t want to go home, either. This idea of a field test during spring break was perfect for her, because it got her out of the house, and out of a bad situation.