Chương 16: Indominus Rex (16)

Asset hardly knew what to make of humans. Most of them possessed, to varying degrees, an irresistible urge to provoke trouble for themselves—and they spared no effort in acting upon it. When she kept to herself and remained peacefully in her corner, they did everything they could to drag her out. Housing her with her own kind, forcing her to interact with humans, letting visitors feed her—every new idea was more absurd than the last.

Yet when Asset finally decided to indulge them and genuinely "interact" with humans, they scrambled desperately to force her back into confinement. How ridiculous. All she had done was jump up and tear down a basket. Afterward, they welded three layers of electric fencing around her enclosure and increased the voltage. Boring. They knew they were weak, yet insisted on seeking out powerful playmates. Then, when they discovered they could not play on equal terms, they changed the rules.

It was as though they were saying, If I can't afford to lose, then you're not allowed to win. How ugly. If they could not handle the game, they should never have started it. Asset had no need for playmates who died at the slightest touch. If they lacked even the resolve to face death, why did they insist on involving themselves in everything? She did not understand them. Asset made a circuit of the enclosure and found that the additional fencing did not particularly bother her.

From a human perspective, the extra layers probably restricted her movements and guaranteed their safety. What they did not realize was that the arrangement benefited Asset as well. The humans would no longer disturb her so frequently. Wonderful. An intelligent creature could certainly be driven insane by a lonely existence, but dealing with a crowd of idiots was even more exhausting.

Given the choice between opening her eyes to humans leaping and shouting outside her enclosure or lying in one place and staring into space all day, Asset preferred the latter. Unfortunately, idling in the wilderness came with all kinds of inconveniences. Sometimes, a change in season could turn even the luxury of doing nothing into an impossibility. The long, sweltering summer arrived, and mosquitoes and flies multiplied.

The triple-layered electric fence kept out humans, divided the sky, and restricted the area in which Asset could move. But it did nothing to stop insects. If anything, it made the problem worse. Once mosquitoes and flies entered, they struggled to escape. They bred near the water, and their numbers inside the enclosure steadily increased. They could not harm Asset or pierce her hide. But they constantly flew around her body, buzzing without end until she found them unbearably irritating.

With no better option, Asset lay beneath the shade of a tree and pretended to sleep. Then she surrendered control of her body to her mutually beneficial partners. They were a group of seventeen or eighteen small lizards, each averaging about six inches in length and feeding primarily on insects. During both wet and dry seasons, whenever mosquitoes and flies troubled Asset, the lizards emerged from cracks in the rocks. They cautiously climbed onto her body and began a magnificent feast.

Their footsteps were extremely light, and they moved quickly. Their long tongues flicked out continuously, sweeping every mosquito and fly from her body. But the lizards were timid. While they hunted, Asset had to remain as still as possible. The slightest movement would send them scattering in every direction, and it would take a long time before they dared to return. After all, Asset was enormous compared with them. If they failed to move quickly enough, she would probably crush them flat.

The lizards were not her only partners. If she frightened them away, Egyptian plovers would take their place. If the cattle egrets left, red-backed weasels would eventually arrive. Asset did not know why the island contained such a wide variety of animals. But the laboratory had been built there, and animals were regularly transported in from elsewhere. The occasional escape was probably inevitable. Over the years, Isla Nublar had developed a complete food chain. Asset's position within it seemed quite high.

Yet at certain times, even she was little more than a walking storehouse of food. Whenever she opened her jaws, the plovers picked every scrap of meat from between her teeth. Whenever she closed her eyes, the oxpeckers removed every flea and parasite from her skin. And when the sun reached its highest point, it was time for the dwarf mongooses. These weasel-like animals had brown fur and exceptionally sensitive noses.

Agile and mild-tempered, they often slipped beneath the electric fence and treated Asset's body as an enormous hunting ground— Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. Digging ticks from her skin and eating them. From her belly to her back, from the top of her head to the end of her tail, they swept across her body without overlooking a single place. Whenever Asset moved toward the electric fence, they followed closely behind.

After every encounter with the fence, roasted morsels fell from her body. Clearly, cooked insects tasted better to them. But compared with her other partners, the dwarf mongooses were extraordinarily obnoxious. Much like humans, they often possessed an irritating talent for asking for trouble. Asset's relationships with her partners were normally based on a straightforward exchange. They performed their work obediently, and she made things convenient for them.

Once they had eaten their fill, they left, and she made no attempt to keep them. The dwarf mongooses were the only exception. Those creatures always wanted to leave something behind. Once they became comfortable, they treated Asset's body as part of their territory and carelessly tried to mark it. And how many ways did an animal have to mark its territory? The easiest and most efficient method was simply to lift a hind leg. Whenever Asset let her guard down, the mongooses left their scent on her.

For an apex predator, such behavior was absolutely intolerable. So whenever the dwarf mongooses worked, Asset had to keep one eye open and the other closed. Once their allotted time was over, she had to roar and frighten them away before she ended up literally covered in their filth. Today was no different. The mongooses had almost finished, and Asset was about to roar and drive them off when the sound of an approaching vehicle came from the distance.

They immediately became alert and fled, each one faster than the last. Who was coming? No one unusual, apparently. Only researchers and keepers could enter the old sector so openly. How rare. This was the first time since the failed hand-feeding experiment that Asset had seen so many people arrive together. They were probably planning another trick. And indeed, they were. Asset did not conceal herself.

The moment she met the humans' eyes through the electric fence, a tranquilizer dart shot unexpectedly from the corner and buried itself in the back of her neck. Perhaps her constitution had improved, or perhaps her body had developed resistance to the drug. Either way, she remained unconscious for even less time than before, and her mind awakened ahead of her body. Once conscious, she continued pretending to sleep. Her ability to deceive the humans had become increasingly refined.

"Body length: fourteen feet. Weight: three hundred and ninety-six pounds. It no longer qualifies as a lightweight dinosaur. It's more than doubled in size. Hey, watch it! Lower the weighing bar more slowly. Don't damage the Asset's spine!"

"It's already four years old. If it still couldn't grow, that would mean the Tyrannosaurus and Giganotosaurus genes had failed to integrate. We'd have no choice but to raise it as a hybrid velociraptor."

"It's still smaller than the other one. Is it really suitable for the next round of testing?"

"What are you worried about? It has never come off worse in a fight." After the failure of the hand-feeding program, the humans had predictably refused to abandon their ambitions. They had devised yet another "innovative" way to torment Asset. The still-unfinished project was called the Arena. They planned to redevelop the old sector as a fighting arena exclusively for dinosaurs. The animals would battle in staged matches, and the outcome of each fight to the death would determine their ranking.

Admittedly, the plan violated the laws of nature, human law, and the original purpose for which Jurassic Park had been created. But desire intoxicated the human mind, while power granted it permission to do as it pleased. Not only did they see nothing wrong with the proposal, but they also invented an impressive collection of excuses to justify it.

"Britain has Royal Ascot. Ireland has greyhound racing, Belgium races pigeons, Central Asia practices falconry, and the American West has bull riding. Why shouldn't Isla Nublar have dinosaur fights?"

"So what if people condemn it on moral grounds? The public will still be fascinated by matches like these."

"If we meet too much resistance, we can move the arena to Camp Cretaceous and restrict admission. I'm sure wealthy clients would be interested."

"That would also give the Scorpios rex at Camp Cretaceous a purpose, while allowing Dr. Wu to gather more combat data from the 'Asset.'" Their arguments sounded perfectly organized and reasonable. At that moment, they seemed to have removed the title of "scientist" and ripened into profit-obsessed businessmen. Asset did not find their transformation surprising. Susan had told her long ago that the more intelligent an animal was, the more it needed companionship. That was true for Asset.

Presumably, it was also true for the humans. She was confined inside a cage. They were imprisoned on an island. Asset and the humans were all captive animals denied their freedom. After spending so long inside a closed environment, perhaps they had already gone insane. And these lunatics were raising an entire island of dinosaurs. The first arena trial began the following day. Asset looked up as the roof of the electric enclosure opened and a lift began lowering a living Triceratops.

It was twenty-six feet long, nine and a half feet tall, and weighed roughly six tons. It was fully grown. Although it was an herbivore, it was far too large for Asset to challenge under ordinary circumstances. Had she encountered it in the wild, she would never have considered attacking. She would simply have gone around it. But now the humans had insisted on lowering it directly into her enclosure. What the hell were they thinking?

Asset weighed only three hundred and ninety-six pounds—roughly the weight of a thirteen-foot swamp crocodile. How was she supposed to fight a six-ton giant? It had tough hide, a thick layer of fat, and three sharp horns. If it charged her without restraint, a single impact would finish her. Damn them. Were they trying to get her killed? The moment the Triceratops reached the ground, Asset abandoned her position and disappeared among the broad leaves.

But the enclosure reeked of carnivorous dinosaurs and the carcasses of ordinary animals. How could a sensitive herbivore endure such a place? The Triceratops quickly entered a state of extreme distress. Almost entirely through instinct, it identified Asset's location, lowered its horns, and charged. It needed to drive the carnivore from its "territory." Otherwise, it would never feel safe enough to sleep. BOOM! By the narrowest possible margin, Asset avoided the Triceratops's lethal charge.

The animal crashed into a tree instead, burying all three horns deep in the trunk. For the moment, it could not pull itself free. Seeing her opportunity, Asset leaped onto its back and drove both foreclaws into the rear of its neck, leaving several bloody holes. The moment she realized her claws could penetrate, she drove them deeper and began tearing violently through its flesh. But the Triceratops was immensely strong. It swung its head with such force that it snapped the entire tree in half.

Then it roared and reared like a frightened horse, throwing Asset from its back. She struck the ground with a crash. Asset struggled upright, narrowly avoided another frontal attack, and quickly moved behind the Triceratops. She remembered eating a Triceratops carcass before. The species was not without weaknesses. But at her current size, she could not break through an adult Triceratops's defenses. She could not reach the back of its neck. She could not attack upward and seize its throat.

And remaining on its back was too difficult. She could not match its strength. She could not penetrate its defenses. Only one possible path to victory remained. Asset studied the Triceratops. Her extensive hunting experience told her that its attack speed was not especially fast, but its defensive ability was extraordinary. However, the heavy frill around its skull restricted its vision. Once it entered a charge, it could not easily look upward or behind itself. If Asset exploited that weakness, she could win.

With that realization, she roared loudly at the Triceratops, provoking and enraging it. If it had been facing an adult Tyrannosaurus rex, the Triceratops might have felt angry and done nothing more. But its opponent was merely an immature, "undersized" carnivore. It could not tolerate such an insult. The Triceratops lost its temper. Roaring furiously, it charged with overwhelming force. Asset turned and ran without hesitation. She raced straight toward the electric fence. The humans screamed.

The atmosphere became tense in an instant, and someone raised a tranquilizer rifle. Everyone believed the experiment had gone too far. Trapped between the Triceratops and the electric fence, the Asset was certain to die— Asset suddenly kicked off the ground and launched herself upward, twisting her entire body upside down. The charging Triceratops passed beneath her by inches. In the next instant, it slammed into the electric fence with a deafening crash— Becoming the reinforced grid's first victim.