Ch. 37 Digging

Ch. 37 Digging

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= SAND IS BLOWN AROUND AS people tread from one area of the digging site to the other, all trying their best to find what ever they can in such limited time.

"Billy? I don't think I'm doing this right." A woman, aged 21 was one of the many college students who had taken the role of fossil digging during the summer. She was brushing a brush along a fossil, one that mainly looked like a velociraptor.

The boy, aged 25 and who was the site manager and an associate professor, scoots over, lying down beside her to check if the female was doing her work correctly.

"You need to go slowly. See, just take it little at a time." The boy tells the girl, taking the brush and swapping it for a toothbrush and began brushing along the rock.

"I can never tell what's bone and what's rock." She reveals to the man who nods, licking his lips as he continues to swipe at the ground.

"Technically, it's all rock. The calcium in the bones is replaced during fossilization. But you can feel the difference. See? Rough, smooth. Rough, smooth." He tells the girl, brushing against the ground and then he takes her hands in his and runs her bare fingers over the two different patches, showing her.

"Rough." She whispers going over a certain rock and then to the different one. "Smooth."

They were about to continue before a shadow peers over them and falls across them, Billy looks up to see a familiar Paleontologist.

"Dr. Grant!" Billy jumps to his feet with ecstatic and shakes his boss' hand with a wide and broad grin. Grant has just returned, a bag over his shoulder.

"Mr. Brennan." Alan acknowledges the boy with a warm smile. Billy takes one of Grant's bags, talking as they go.

"How was your trip? Profitable?" Billy asks but Grant shakes his head.

"We'll be broke in four weeks." He reveals to the boy who sheepishly returns a smile, confusing the Paleontologist.

"Three weeks. I had to rent some equipment." Billy tells the man and they walk into one of the many tents which only has two walls. On a dust-taped table, a dusty Macintosh is feeing data into a strange machine the size of a dorm refrigerator. A mechanical arm sweeps back and forth across a tray of fine sand.

"You rented an automated litter box." Grant groans.

"It's a rapid prototyper. I feed in the scan data from the raptor skull, than the computer breaks it into thousands of slices which this thing prints, one layer on top of the other." Billy explains, trying to excite the man who was just not trying to be excited. The future of paleontology.

"Not if it can't dig." Alan grumbles.

The arm stops and suddenly the tray of sand shakes, dropping through holes in the bottom to reveal an object the size of a person's fist.

"I give you a raptor's resonating chamber." Grant hates technology, but he can't help but be amazed by the result. He lifts the strange object up, shaking out the remaining sand.

Billy puts it to his lips and blows through it like a conch shell. The resulting sound is unique and piercing, the cry of an non-existent animal. Grant is speechless with excitement. And so he uses it again and again, producing different sounds and variations.

In the distance, flocks of birds rise to the sky and fly off.

Billy looks up to see a man and a woman getting out of a Cadillac. Cheryl is pointing them in the direction of the tent.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you. Some visitors wanted to come by and talk to you. I told them you'd be happy to see them. maybe even have dinner with them."

Alan immediately shakes his head. "Absolutely not."

Billy rolls his eyes at the older males words. "They're here."

"What?"

Only now does Grant realize these two people who were walking up to them. Putting on a friendly smile, Billy goes up to them.

"Dr. Grant?"

Alan looks to the man with not much interest. "Yes?"

The man extends his hand with a broad smile. "Paul Kirby. Kirby Enterprises" he says reaching into his pocket. "My card."

"What can I do for you, Mr. Kirby?"

"Well sir, I am a great admirer of yours, and I have an extremely interesting proposition to discuss." Paul tells Alan with confidence. "Would you let my wife and I take you to have dinner tonight? Our treat."

"You know, I've been traveling and I'm very tired. Maybe some other time-"

"I guarantee it'll be worth your while." Paul assured the man and Kirby, Bill furtively rubs his thumb and fingers together, indicating the guy is loaded so in recognition, Alan musters a weak smile.

"It's be my pleasure." He responds.

They're only halfway through the entree, but Grant is ready to bolt. It's only Billy who's keeping him from being rude. They walk over to Paul and Amanda's table and sit down.

"First off let me say as a dinosaur enthusiasts, Amanda and I have admired your work for years." Paul tells the man and his wife nods eagerly.

"It is truly, what's the word? Inspiring." Amanda smile's triumphantly.

"Thank you." It's everything Grant can do just to be polite. He desperately wants to leave and get back to his dig.

"Amanda and I, well, we just love the outdoors. Heck we've been on pretty much any adventure tour they can come up with, Galapagos, K2, the Nile..." he began listening random things with a creepy ass smile.

"We even have two seats reserved aboard the first commercial moon flight." Amanda excitedly boasts like a little child. Billy nudges Grant.

"Hmmm."

"Now, for our wedding anniversary this year we wanted to do something really special, something..." He places his hand on his wife's.

"once-in-a-lifetime." She says.

"We've arranged for a private airplane to take us flying over Isla Sorna. And we want you to be our guide." Paul reveals the new key information to the man and the Kirby's looks as if they've offered him an amazing gift. But Grant just sighs and smooths the tablecloth.

"That's a very nice offer, Mr. Kirby, but I'm afraid I'm much to busy. If you like I can refer you to a number of highly qualified..."

"No, no, see Dr. Grant, you're the best. You've seen these animals in the flesh. No one else has come close to you." Paul quickly intervenes and tries his best to recruit the man.

"I'm flattered, but I've taken this little adventure tour. And with the air restrictions they've imposed after the incident in San Diego, you can't fly low enough to see anything of interest." Alan laughs awkwardly. Paul is momentarily stymied, but Amanda rallies.

"You see, that's just the thing. Paul and I have special permission to fly low." She grins at the surprised look on Billy's face.

"How low?" Billy asks.

Paul laughs with straight up awkwardness and shrugs their shoulders. "Well, I'm no aviation specialist. But I do know it's hell of a lot lower than anyone else."

Amanda joins in. "From what I understand, it's pretty much whatever we want."

Alan knew that wasn't true, hell they probably aren't even allowed to fly over the island anyway. "That's hard to believe."

"Let's just say that through my businessc I've made some friends in high places. In this case, the Costa Rican government." Paul explains and Amanda jumps to grab the man's hand.

"Dr. Grant, you don't know how important it is for us to have you come along. It would make all the difference." She tries to persuades. Alan is obviously trying to find another way to say no, when Paul pulls out his checkbook.

"And of course, we're prepared to make a sizeable contribution to your research here." Paul tells the man, clicking his pen and Billy looks at Grant. "I can write all kinds of numbers on this check. Just tell me what exactly it would take."

END OF CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN