PER-I-LOUS,, jp-jw/hp

Chapter 4

Harry and the raptors slept through the night. Alan, Ian and Ellie took shifts standing watch and monitoring the cameras. The rex had moved back to the lake so that was no longer an immediate threat.

With the most dangerous threat of the rex alleviated they started their trek back across the island to the Visitors Centre.

Ellie had begun her campaign of setting boundaries between the pack and their young alpha by ordering Harry to sit in the jeep. She promised they wouldn't drive too fast and would take regular breaks.

It helped that, although the raptors were not fond of the jeep, they didn't seem to object to Harry using it.

Still, a trip that would ideally take an hour took three.

They had started early and it was now eleven o'clock as they arrived at the human habitats. A lot had changed.

Harry grunted loudly, gaining the raptors attention. "Easy. We hunt tonight." He said firmly as he saw them watch a young stegosaurus being herded away from the area by an adult.

The ground was shaking slightly as multiple herbivores started to evacuate at the arrival of the two predators.

Ian chuckled as he saw Jelly's longing look at the departing buffet.

They moved cautiously through the buildings. Ian had a headset on that was connected to Lex and Tim on the mainland. Lex was diligently checking the cameras in the building to make sure they weren't going to get surprised.

Scar and Jelly were clearly confused by the cautious nature of the humans, but remained silent and alert.

They took the most direct route they could to the Control Room. Once there they locked the doors.

Harry had to try and keep the raptors calm whilst Ian and Ellie logged into the systems.

"Lex, Tim, you are now on the big screen. Can you see us?" Ian asked as a large monitor flickered to life, the siblings were clearly sitting at a desk, Tim slightly behind his big sister.

"I can see you Ian." Lex nodded as she typed away.

"Hi Harry." Tim waved with a smile.

"Hey Tim."

The raptors were surprised by the interaction between human and image. They cautiously moved to the large monitor and began sniffing and tapping it.

"Tim, say hi to Scar and Jelly for me."

The raptors were clearly familiar with their designations as they looked at Harry.

"Hi Scar, Hi Jelly." Tim giggled. "Where are they? I can't see them."

The sound of their names coming from the image had the raptors sniffing more intently.

"They are trying to figure out how you are in the monitor." Harry smiled.

"We should see if we can find a camcorder around here." Alan suggested as he joined Harry. "If we can set it up so they can see us on a screen and in real life at the same time, it might help them understand."

"It might also be useful to try and determine their equivalent mental human age." Ian added from where he was seated on a desk chair just behind Ellie who was working on the computers.

"Muldoon claimed they were extremely intelligent." Alan nodded.

"Lex, are you in?" Ellie asked suddenly.

"I'm in Ellie." The teen hacker confirmed. "I can control a lot but you will need to manually set any passwords. The system won't let me do it over a remote link."