Chương 20: Indominus Rex (20)

Sometimes, one seemingly insignificant choice sets off an entire chain of unintended consequences. Atheists call it chance. Believers call it fate. Asset called it insanity. Mr. DNA had told her himself, "My battery is almost depleted. Could you please recharge me?" Recharge? That was easy. There was electricity everywhere in her enclosure. She could charge him wherever she wanted and give him as much power as he needed.

If all else failed, she could wear the Gyrosphere over her head and wait to be struck by lightning. That ought to fill Mr. DNA right up.

"Power depleted. Goodbye, my friend. It was a pleasure serving you." Terrified that Mr. DNA might starve, she sprang into action and whipped the Gyrosphere straight into the electric fence. Unfortunately, the fence proved about as sturdy as paper. The moment the Gyrosphere struck it, white light and sparks erupted everywhere. The fence shorted out almost immediately—and Mr. DNA died along with it. Asset stared in disbelief. Her seemingly omniscient little companion had been that fragile?

She had killed him with one swing of her tail? Unable to accept what she had done, she curled up beside the pool and reflected deeply on her mistake until the humans arrived to recover the Gyrosphere's "corpse." They did not repair the fence immediately. Instead, they increased her dose of tranquilizer, loaded her onto a heavy truck, and transported her out of the old sector to a reinforced-concrete enclosure. Apparently, the decision had come from Dr. Wu.

There was no time like the present: now that both "assets" had reached the required size, it was time to implant the first-generation tracking devices.

"They haven't entered adolescence yet. If they continue growing and their muscles become denser, an implanted tracker could be crushed by the surrounding tissue. If the fragments enter the bloodstream and accumulate in the heart or kidneys, the resulting damage to the assets could be irreversible. It would also create a great deal of extra work for us." More than anything, it could destroy nearly seven years of work.

"The doctor said this is only a preliminary trial. The purpose of the first implant is to assess how each animal responds and adapts to the tracker. Once they reach adolescence, we'll replace the devices. That's also when we'll implant the micro-explosives."

"Micro-explosives? Dr. Wu is actually willing to go that far? Those two are his finest creations to date." The drive took half an hour. Unloading her took five minutes. The massive steel cage containing Asset rolled down a ramp from the truck and came smoothly to rest. Asset, ever the consummate performer, continued pretending to be unconscious. No matter how thoroughly the humans examined her, she did not move a muscle. Before long, the researchers gathered around her.

One of them stood behind her holding a tracker roughly the size of his palm, then reached out and felt along the back of her neck, apparently searching for a suitable implantation site. The back of her neck? How brave. That was hardly a safe place to touch. Asset had spent her life hunting and being hunted. A saltwater crocodile had torn into the back of her neck. A man-eating tiger had sunk its fangs into it. Even a full-grown hippopotamus had struck it with tremendous force.

Perhaps because the vertebrae in her neck were both fragile and vital, her body had begun adapting after so many injuries. Large dorsal spines had gradually developed along the entire length of her vertebral column, extending all the way to her tailbone. Those around the back of her neck were especially hard—and particularly sensitive to perceived threats. Her defensive response was entirely instinctive. Whether she was asleep or unconscious, it activated automatically, a survival reflex carved deep into her bones.

In other words, she could not control it— Sure enough, the moment the careless researcher touched the back of her neck, every alarm in her body went off. The row of spines lying flat along her back instantly stiffened and flared, like a startled hedgehog bristling. Before anyone could react, they punched straight through the researcher's hand. It took the unfortunate man several seconds even to understand what had happened.

"Ah! No—my hand!" he screamed, wrenching it free and clutching the wound. He collapsed to his knees in pain.

"No! It went through my hand!" To a researcher, the hands were practically a second life. His horror was understandable. The crowd erupted into confusion and quickly backed away from Asset. No one dared approach her again, even while she was supposedly unconscious. The tracker passed from one reluctant researcher to another until Dr. Wu finally took it himself. Ignoring everyone's fear, Dr. Wu approached calmly and personally examined the row of spines.

"Even with the same genetic foundation, the difference between a wild specimen and one raised in captivity remains substantial. Both have dorsal spines, but the first asset's are nowhere near as developed as the second's." This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

"Doctor, watch your hand!" He waved the warning aside and gestured for them to stay back.

"The cervical vertebrae?" he murmured.

"Because they are vulnerable, the body has adapted to protect them. Its survival instinct is exceptionally strong. It has become thoroughly feral and can identify the evolutionary path best suited to competition within the food chain…" He smiled faintly.

"A triumph of natural selection." Perhaps because he appeared so composed, the people who had retreated began to gather around him again, their shaken confidence gradually returning. Henry cautiously touched one of the spines, deliberately avoiding the back of the neck.

"It would appear so. The other areas aren't nearly as sensitive." He tested the spine's hardness between his fingers.

"Solid, almost like an exoskeletal structure. Could this be an abnormal expression of the Spinosaurus genes?"

"They probably can't detach from the body. If they could, it would give the animal a defensive mechanism similar to a porcupine's." That would undoubtedly make the second asset even more dangerous.

"Dr. Wu?" Henry released the spine and surveyed the group before issuing his instructions.

"Proceed as planned. Nothing changes. Just stay away from the back of its neck. Implant the tracker in its back instead." They got to work. After selecting a section of her back, they applied a local anesthetic, cut through her hide with surgical tools, and embedded the tracker in her flesh. But her hide was thick and her muscles dense. Both cutting her open and stitching the wound shut left them drenched in sweat.

"Jesus, am I cutting through a steel plate?"

"This is harder to stitch than the leather boots my grandfather wore for ten years! I need my grandmother here!"

"With muscle this dense… won't the tracker be crushed?"

"Yes, which is why it will need to be replaced periodically. There's no reason to be surprised. By nature's standards, this kind of muscle density is the price of survival. Wild animals aren't like us. Greater size and greater mass are advantages worth pursuing." As they spoke, the tracker was secured in place. The signal connected and the data appeared on their monitors. The researchers withdrew in an orderly fashion, leaving the still-"unconscious" dinosaur inside her new enclosure.

In truth, there was little about the place that was actually new. Five years earlier, the enclosure had served as the Mosasaurus's indoor holding facility. Its enormous pool and deep-water section remained, although both were now covered in moss. There was not much room to move around on land, but the water was spacious. The genetics company had once planned to convert the facility into a Deinosuchus habitat, though the proposal had never moved forward.

So when Asset finally "woke," her old enclosure was gone and she found herself in a new habitat. She rose and wandered around, gazing up at the skylight far overhead like the mouth of a well, then at the towering concrete walls. Finally, she turned toward the enormous pool behind her. She almost grinned. Could there possibly be a more perfect place to train? At last, she could push her body as hard as she pleased.

"ROAR!" With a thunderous bellow, she charged headlong into the wall. The impact shook the entire structure. Debris rained down, and the recoil forced her several steps backward. She immediately charged again, this time with even greater force. Each collision was harder than the last. Each blow carried more power. Ha! No creature could spend nearly seven years in captivity without going a little mad. At last, she had somewhere to expend all the energy trapped inside her body. The harder the enclosure, the better.

The larger the pool, the more perfect it was. For the first time in ages, she could experience what it felt like to exhaust herself completely. Asset hurled herself at the walls with tooth and claw, carving deep gouges into the concrete. Between the roaring, scratching, and violent impacts, she looked exactly like a trapped wild animal consumed by the desire to escape. The researchers watching her found the sight reassuring. They were not afraid of an animal that went berserk after being confined.

They were afraid of one that did not. Madness meant the animal still possessed its wild nature. Calmness meant it had lost its soul.

"We should probably repair the old sector. I have a feeling this enclosure won't hold for long."

"The walls are six feet thick and reinforced with steel plates. It can't break through them."

"I certainly hope not." After that, Asset happily "played" inside her new enclosure. Her keepers dropped food through the skylight, and every meal landed in the water. To eat, Asset had no choice but to retrieve it. Fortunately, the pool included a shallow section, and she could easily hook the food with her tail. Her ability to swim therefore remained a secret. Since the humans had no idea she could swim, they were terrified that she might drown and were forced to accelerate reconstruction of the old sector.

By day, she battered the walls with every part of her body, occasionally snapping a claw in the process. By night, once the cameras had been switched off, she slipped into the pool and gradually ventured deeper. Six months passed this way. At seven years old, Asset entered a second major growth phase. According to the humans, it would last approximately three years. Once it ended, she would officially reach adolescence. Provided nothing went wrong with her genes, she would become an enormous monster.

Another year passed before the electric fences were finally restored. Asset left the Mosasaurus's former enclosure and returned to the expanded old sector. The "asset" returned to the old sector. The humans, meanwhile, stood inside the enclosure she had occupied. When they looked up, they saw walls riddled with holes and claw marks. Some were faintly stained with blood. In other places, the concrete had been stripped away until the steel reinforcement beneath lay exposed.

And in several places, even the steel bore marks. They took out their equipment and measured the damage to the structure. Then they calculated the cost of rebuilding it, filling page after page with itemized expenses.

"This dinosaur rammed the walls every day. Was it insane? My God, can you believe this? Look here—and here. The steel plates are badly warped and worn. If you'd kept it here another year, it might have dug its way through the entire enclosure."

"Oh my God. Are those bite marks? Was it sharpening its teeth on the edge of the pool?"

"Over here, everyone! Look what I found. All these holes were made by its claws. See this one? Part of the claw is still lodged inside. It split apart." The humans stared silently at the broken claw. After a long while, someone finally voiced the question on everyone's mind.

"What kind of monster is this? Is it really a dinosaur?" At that very moment, Asset—who was indeed far more than an ordinary dinosaur—was waiting for a storm. A year and a half without basking in the sun or feeling rain on her hide had left her deeply uncomfortable. Perhaps captivity really had driven her mad. She had once despised nature's relentless abuse, yet now she found herself missing it. With that strange thought in mind, she stepped almost reverently into the downpour when the rain finally arrived.

She stood beneath a tree and waited for the storm and lightning to cleanse her. Yes. She needed them. She needed them to hammer her body—and help cure one lingering affliction.

"BOOM!" Lightning came straight down, passing through the tree and then through her body. The current tore through her muscles and bones, destroying layer after layer of tissue before triggering the creation of new cells and stronger immunity. At that moment, the power her body had spent years accumulating began to seep from her bones, surge through her cells, and stir within the very strands of her DNA. She had taken every necessary step toward becoming stronger.

Now her body rewarded her with everything she had been waiting for.

"RAAAH!" A deep, resonant cry burst from her throat, unlike any sound she had ever heard herself make. At the same moment, the tracking device buried in her back was completely destroyed by the lightning strike.