Jurassic Park (Page 35)
"Evidently they can," Gennaro said.
"That must be a bird egg," Harding said. "We have literally dozens of species on the island."
Grant shook his head. "Look at the curvature. The shell is almost flat. That’s from a very big egg. And notice the thickness of the shell. Unless you have ostriches on this island, it’s a dinosaur egg."
"But they can’t possibly breed," Harding insisted. "All the animals are female."
"All I know," Grant said, "is that this is a dinosaur egg."
Malcolm said, "Can you tell the species?"
"Yes," Grant said. "It’s a velociraptor egg."
Control
"Absolutely absurd," Hammond said in the control room, listening to the report over the radio. "It must be a bird egg. That’s all it can be."
The radio crackled. He heard Malcolm’s voice. "Let’s do a little test, shall we? Ask Mr. Arnold to run one of his computer tallies."
"Now?"
"Yes, right now. I understand you can transmit it to the screen in Dr. Harding’s car. Do that, too, will you?"
"No problem," Arnold said. A moment later, the screen in the control room printed out:
Total Animals 238____________________________________
Species Expected Found Ver
Tyrannosaurs 2 2 4.1
Maiasaurs 21 21 3.3
Stegosaurs 4 4 3.9
Triceratops 8 8 3.1
Procompsognathids 49 49 3.9
Othnielia 16 16 3.1
Velociraptors 8 8 3.0
Apatosaurs 17 17 3.1
Hadrosaurs 11 11 3.1
Dilophosaurs 7 7 4.3
Pterosaurs 6 6 4.3
Hypsilophodontids 33 33 2.9
Euoplocepbalids 16 16 4.0
Styracosaurs 18 18 3.9
Callovosaurs 22 22 4.1
Total 238 238
"I hope you’re satisfied," Hammond said. "Are you receiving it down there on your screen?"
"We see it," Malcolm said.
"Everything accounted for, as always." He couldn’t keep the satisfaction out of his voice.
"Now then," Malcolm said. "Can you have the computer search for a different number of animals?"
"Like what?" Arnold said.
"Try two hundred thirty-nine."
"Just a minute," Arnold said, frowning. A moment later the screen printed:
Total Animals 239____________________________________
Species Expected Found Ver
Tyrannosaurs 2 2 4.1
Maiasaurs 21 21 3.3
Stegosaurs 4 4 3.9
Triceratops 8 8 3.1
Procompsognathids 49 50 3.9
Othnielia 16 16 3.1
Velociraptors 8 8 3.0
Apatosaurs 17 17 3.1
Hadrosaurs 11 11 3.1
Dilophosaurs 7 7 4.3
Pterosaurs 6 6 4.3
Hypsilophodontids 33 33 2.9
Euoplocepbalids 16 16 4.0
Styracosaurs 18 18 3.9
Callovosaurs 22 22 4.1
Total 238 239
Hammond sat forward. "What the hell is that?"
"We picked up another compy."
"From where?"
"I don’t know!"
The radio crackled. "Now, then: can you ask the computer to search for, let us say, three hundred animals?"
"What is he talking about?" Hammond said, his voice rising. "Three hundred animals? What’s he talking about?"
"Just a minute," Arnold said. "Tbat’ll take a few minutes." He punched buttons on the screen. The first line of the totals appeared:
Total Animals 239____________________________________
"I don’t understand what he’s driving at," Hammond said.
"I’m afraid I do," Arnold said. He watched the screen. The numbers on the first line were clicking:
Total Animals 244____________________________________
"Two hundred forty-four?" Hammond said. "What’s going on?"
"The computer Is counting the animals in the park," Wu said. "All the animals."
"I thought that’s what it always did." He spun. "Nedry! Have you screwed up again?"
"No," Nedry said, looking up from his console. "Computer allows the operator to enter an expected number of animals, in order to make the counting process faster. But it’s a convenience, not a flaw."
"He’s right," Arnold said. "We just always used the base count of two hundred thirty-eight because we assumed there couldn’t be more."