The two explorers managed to relax a bit as they got closer to their home base on the far side of the island. As they approached the small lake nearest their camp, they stopped for a break and saw a familiar sight.
“Look! The Suchomimus!”
Sure enough it was the Suchomimus they had seen early in their stay. They had seen it only a few more times since then. Right now it was standing by the water, relatively still.
Nick and Charlie knew the drill by now and got out all their recording equipment. Shortly after they started it lashed out into the water with its front legs and brought out a large fish. It took a big bite of the fish and started walking away.
“A lot like the Baryonyx, isn’t it?” asked Nick.
“Yeah. It was probably related to Baryonyx,” said Charlie. “Both of them are thought to have been mainly fish-eaters, but we saw the Suchomimus eat whatever that Ceratosaurus had hunted down too, so I guess now we know they could have eaten meat, too.”
The Suchomimus was not heading towards their base camp, so they let it go and continued towards the place that had been their home for several months. There were no other major dinosaur encounters on the way, but they saw plenty of familiar smaller ones around.
The day was getting late by the time they got back to camp. Nick insisted that they approach quietly and carefully. “The Others don’t seem to know we’re here, but no point taking unnecessary risks,” he explained.
Fortunately their camp seemed undisturbed; much of it had been packed away anyway. They set up enough to have a stealthy late dinner.
“No campfires anymore,” said Nick. “We know they’re out there, and it’s always dark enough that they could see one if they wanted.”
“At least they probably didn’t see the smoke,” said Charlie, “since it’s almost always cloudy here the smoke probably blended right in.”
“Oh man, the clouds. I’d like to see the sun again soon,” said Nick.
That night they went uneasily to sleep. With only two, it didn’t make sense to set a watch but they did set up all the perimeter alarms.
The next day they got a call back from the professor.
“I know it’s not what we sent you there for, but if you’re willing, we want you to learn some more about these Others. Try to learn as much as you can without letting them know you’re there, if possible, and report back. After that for your own safety we’re going to ask you to head home.”
Charlie sighed. “I would have liked to see more dinosaurs if we could.”
“It’s fine. We’re almost out of food and other supplies now, so we’d need to be heading back soon anyway,” Nick reminded them. “We’ll do it. We’ll be careful. We don’t think they know we’re here.”
The Professor smiled. “Ok. Just be sure to be careful. I don’t like putting you in harm’s way like this, but by the time someone else could get out their to investigate they might be dug in or might have packed up and left without a trace.”
And with that they knew the plan.
They did not leave right away. They spent several days packing what they would want to bring with them for the spy mission, and packed away the rest on the boat.
They decided to keep the boat where it was. “It’s not huge, but they’re more likely to spot it coming than us coming in on foot,” reasoned Nick. “And besides, we know about where their base is and there aren’t any other good landing spots near there.”
“Ok,” said Charlie. “That means we’ll have to hike all the way there and all the way back, right?”
“Yeah. So we’ll have to plan carefully,” Nick said. “Probably we’ll be eating a lot of the lightweight emergency rations. I’ll take care of that part of it, it’s like the backpacking trips I used to do.”
Finally, after a couple days of preparation, they were ready. They were leaving most of their normal field tools and supplies behind in favor of anything that they could use to gather information on the Others, but that meant they still had their drones and lots of cameras. “This isn’t the end of learning about dinosaurs after all!” said Charlie when he realized.
They took much more care heading back to the other side of the island than they had the last time, but because they were not collecting and categorizing any kinds of samples they got there in about the same amount of time. Once they reached the other side, they spent one night at the same site they had used the last time they were over there, before starting to scout out where the Others had went.
They spent a couple fruitless days trying to find clues with no progress, until one day they heard the sound of people talking. Nick and Charlie looked at each other, got quiet, and hid.
The voices got closer, along with the sound of stomping dinosaurs. The voices clearly belonged to the two hired workers that had almost caught Nick and Charlie the last time. Before they came into view, they saw the dinosaurs.
One was familiar: the Giganotosaurus that had suffered a loss in its fight with a T-Rex last time. The other was another therapod they hadn’t seen yet, somewhat smaller but still quite large.
“Torvosaurus. Mid to late Jurassic,” whispered Charlie. “And the same Giga we saw before.”
The taller Other spoke up. “I don’t see any sign of that Rex today. Maybe we scared him off the other day.”
“Yeah, maybe. Ok, let’s head back to base for now,” said the other Other.
Nick and Charlie stayed hidden as the group moved off. Once they seemed far enough away, Nick slowly crept out, stood up, and then beckoned Charlie to do the same. “They’re far enough away, they can’t see us,” he said quietly.
The trail was pretty clear. Two large carnivores walking together tended to have that effect. Nick and Charlie followed it as quickly as they could while still staying out of sight and being as quiet as they could.
“I think we’re falling behind,” said Nick.
“Let’s send up a drone. Carefully,” suggested Charlie.
The drone showed them what they expected – the Others were pretty far away and still going, but at least in the general direction they expected.
Eventually, they got close to the edge of the island where the crater rim met the tall sedimentary formations that held the fossils. “Looks like they’re following that little trail we never got around to trying,” said Charlie.
“Ok. Let’s stay out of sight while they head up. I can park a drone in the top of a tree and try to keep a camera pointed at them with it.
They settled down for lunch while they watched what the drone could see. The Others and the two dinosaurs with them made steady progress up the fairly narrow trail. At the top, they walked right past the fossil bed Nick, Charlie, and John had explored and around a corner. At this Charlie and Nick packed up and started heading up as well.
“We’ll have to hurry,” said Nick, “there’s not much cover in some spots of the path up and we don’t want to be in the open if they come back.”
The Others didn’t come back, though, and they made it to the top without issue. They followed the trail they had seen The Others go down, but it came to a dead end – a sheer rock face on one side, a drop into the sea on another side, the long crater rim to another, and the path they had just taken on the last side.
Charlie frowned, feeling the rock face. “This feels weird… this isn’t natural, is it?”
Nick examined it. He brought out a magnet – which stuck to the rock face. “No. I’d say it’s not natural at all.”
“Locked though.”
“Yep.”
And like the trail, their investigation seemed to be at a dead end.
Some time later, as they hid nearby thinking what to do, they heard a rumbling and a clang, followed by stamping. They turned back to see the two Others walking out with a new dinosaur and a new person behind them all wearing a labcoat.
“What’s this called again?” asked the shorter one.
“We’re calling it a Carcharovenator for now,” said the scientist, ”a hybrid between Carcharodontosaurus and Neovenator. Plus all the other little bits, like the others… Take her out, let her run around a bit, observe her behavior, then bring her back.”
“Ok. Well you heard him, let’s go!” said the taller worker.
The new hybrid dinosaur looked like no natural predator seen before. It had huge spikes along its back and was bigger than anything Charlie or Nick had seen, even the Tyranosaurus Rex.
“Well I don’t think we have to worry about any other dinos picking a fight with her,” the smaller one said, “except maybe that pesky Rex.”
“Yes, yes, you’ll let me know if that happens,” said the scientist. “I’ve uploaded her chip’s address to your tablets already so it’s just like with the other ones, but turn it off when you get far enough away so we can see how she behaves.”
With that he turned around and the doors closed. The Carcharovenator growled and followed the two workers down the trail.
Once enough time has passed, Nick turned to Charlie and said “there’s no doubt now we’re in the right place, and no doubt they’re responsible.”
“A hybrid dinosaur?!?” asked Charlie, “as if there weren’t already plenty? I wonder what they’re trying to do?”
“Well… let’s try to find a way in. Let’s scout around a bit more.”
Eventually, Charlie was looking over the cliff face and he called Nick to come over. “Is that supposed to be there?”
Charlie was looking at a stream of water going down the side of the crater ridge into the ocean. It seemed to appear out of nowhere on the side of the mountain.
“No. I’d say not,” said Nick. “Let’s take a closer look.”
The two carefully set up some climbing gear and went down. Up close it was even more clear that the water was artificial – the source was a wide metal pipe set close to the edge of the mountain. It looked fairly new in design, but was already fairly corroded. “The weather here isn’t great for metals like this,” said Nick. “Always damp so they corrode pretty easily. In fact…”
Nick kicked at the grate at the end and one of the bars bent. “Just call me Bender. Bite my shiny metal… ah let’s just go.”
They stowed their climbing gear and went inside. “This is it. We’re in. We’re going to learn where these dinosaurs come from, and what these Others are doing here,” said Charlie.
At least, that was the plan.
Epilogue
The Nothosaurus was awoken by splashing. Nothing down here made splashes that big, not often anyway. It looked up and saw two of the bipedal mammals – the same kind that had released it into the sewer.
They were a bit big for it to hunt down, but one of them was much smaller, and after all there wasn’t much else down in the sewers for it to eat. It stirred and swam after them.
The End
Charlie and Nick will return in Dino Isle book 2… hopefully!
