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Justin hung up the phone after speaking to Henry, and wasted no time in taking a flight to Klamath Falls, though the first one he could get was in the middle of the night. He was disturbed over what Henry had told him, and had the opinion there was little time to waste. If there were dinosaurs left alive anywhere, they would have to be taken care of, especially one as aggressive and deadly as the one Henry had encountered.
Oh, there’d been isolated cases of dinosaurs being found, trapped and, if necessary, exterminated in different parts of the world the previous three years, but they had become increasingly rare. So, it had come as an unpleasant surprise when Henry telephoned and gave him his story. The only thing making it not a full-scaled emergency was that Henry and Collins had killed the rogue dinosaur, so it wouldn’t hurt anyone else.
Justin took the first plane seat his billionaire boss, Jeff Smith, offered him. He had to speak with Henry, and he wanted to find the dead dinosaur’s remains so he could examine them; wanted to check out the dinosaur egg cave Henry had described.
The plane landed minutes before dawn, and when he disembarked, it was storming. His boss, who was now his brother-in-law, had a car waiting for him. Getting into it, Justin reflected over how far he’d come from the awkward, lonely young scientist he’d been when he first met Henry a decade before. Henry had called John Day’s and asked for a paleontologist to come out and look at the wall of fossils the earthquakes had uncovered in the park, and the strange tracks going down to the waters of Crater Lake...and the wild ride had begun.
Now there was a deceased wife, many departed and missed friends, a multitude of dead dinosaurs and an old existence behind him. The first time he’d met Henry and Ann felt like a lifetime ago, and in many ways, it was. These days, his life had finally resettled into a comfortable pattern, and he’d found contentment again in New York, heading a thinktank studying the dinosaur phenomenon. He had a new wife he adored, and his children were both mostly through the trauma of the dinosaur years. So how could the dinosaur nightmare be starting over again? No, no, it couldn’t be. Ironically, it was being revived in the very same park it had once begun in. He had to deal with this new problem before it escalated.
The long black car rolled up in front of Henry and Ann’s cabin as a wet dawn broke and filled the world with a gray light. Getting out of the vehicle, grabbing his luggage, he splashed through the rain, up onto the porch, and knocked loudly on the door. He hadn’t been there since they first started building their new homestead, when it was just a framework, so he was looking around at the cabin approvingly when Henry, disheveled and in a robe, opened the door for him.
“Justin! You didn’t waste any time getting here, did you, Son?” Henry stood aside and let him enter. When Justin was inside, and had dropped his suitcase to the carpet and taken off his jacket, Henry gave him a hug. “It’s good to see you.”
“Did I wake you? I’m so sorry.”
“Truth is, you didn’t. Chief Ranger Collins woke me up about fifteen minutes ago. I just got off the phone with him. He’s been updating me from the hospital on Ranger Williamson’s condition.”
“How’s the ranger doing?”
Henry’s expression became uncertain. “He’s not doing that well. Come on into the kitchen and I’ll tell you about it. We’ll have coffee and cherry strudel Ann made last night. You look like you could really use some coffee. I know, after that phone call, I need it myself. Help wake me up.”
Justin was appreciating the room around him. “So far, I love your new abode. This kitchen is Ann, all right. The color scheme, soothing blues and greens; and the oak cabinets are beautiful. Love the flowery wallpaper, too. It reminds me of your old kitchen.”
“Doesn’t it?” Henry smiled as he poured them cups of coffee. “She worked hard to make this house, inside at least, as close to our old one as possible. She says it makes her feel more at home; makes her happy. I have to agree with her. It felt like home as soon as we moved in.”
“She succeeded. It’s truly a lovely cabin, inside and out.
“Ann is still asleep, I suppose?” Justin sat down and accepted the cup Henry handed him.
“She is. It’s been a couple of difficult days for both of us. Me in the woods fighting the dinosaur, and Ann not knowing if I was alive or dead, because I couldn’t get through to her on my cell. Now, there’s the worry over Ranger Williamson’s deteriorating health. Though I don’t know how Ann can sleep through this racket.” Henry cocked his head in the direction of the squall beyond the windows.
Sasha slunk through the kitchen at ground level, and seeing Justin sitting there, the feline ran beneath the table and rubbed against his legs. Justin reached down and petted her. A clash of thunder frightened the cat, and she scurried into the next room, probably to hide under the sofa.
Outside, the storm was raging. Lightning illuminated the glass windowpanes, and there were thunderous explosions in the skies around the cabin.
“I was lucky this thunderstorm didn’t hit until after my plane landed,” Justin said, as he glanced at the sink window. The rain outside was a solid water-colored sheet, obscuring the world from the humans inside the house. “I just had to get here and talk to you. I know you told me over the phone what happened to you and the rangers in the woods, but now I need even more details. What the dinosaur who attacked you, exactly looked like. I want to hear more about your little dinosaur friend, too. How about you start at the beginning and tell me everything. Leave nothing out.”
Henry obliged, and recited, in painful detail, what had happened out in the park, beginning with the little dinosaur-at-the-window and ending with learning at the hospital the day before that the scratches Ranger Williamson had suffered were proving to be toxic.
As Henry described what he and the rangers had gone through out in the backwoods, Justin felt growing dismay. All he could think about was, now something would have to be done. What he’d believed was over, the dinosaur threat, wasn’t over at all. There could still be a large, vindictive dinosaur with incredible intelligence, that had lethal poison in its talons, running around on the earth. That was a development he hadn’t seen coming. Of all the dinosaurs he’d known in the last decade, none of them had had that nasty little extra. Nothing, other than a dinosaur that breathed fire, would be worse. So, the surviving dinosaurs were still evolving.
He had often wondered if Henry’s little window dinosaur was real, though. He’d never seen the little guy himself. When they’d been trapped in ranger headquarters fighting for their lives all those months, at times and especially after Laura had died, Justin had feared Henry had gone a little nuts, was seeing creatures who weren’t there. Imagine, a sentient small dinosaur with brains and acute human empathy. It had been kind of crazy. But he’d never said anything to that effect to Henry. He respected the man far too much. But now? Henry’s friendly little dinosaur came out of a self-imposed seclusion, made contact with one special human, Henry, and led him and the rangers to a cave of dinosaur eggs. It had also made them aware of the new big predator. Whoa! The little dinosaur’s feats seemed even more unbelievable. He must be a magical little dinosaur.
“So, you’re really going into the woods, searching for that killer dinosaur and checking out that cave?” Henry inquired, solemnly.
“I have to. It’s my job, after all.” His eyes found the window again. “But we’re not going until this storm is over. The weather’s too volatile to venture into the wild until it clears up. When I go, I might even keep an eye out for your little mysterious friend. Maybe I’ll finally get to meet it.”
Henry chuckled. “Good luck. I’ve learned when Oscar—that’s what I’ve decided to call him, by the way—doesn’t want to be found, he isn’t found. I had believed Oscar was dead for years. He wasn’t. He, and it appears his family, hid that well.
“But about the dinosaur who injured Williamson? I would have thought two magazines of large caliber bullets, as tough as the hide was, could kill a twelve-foot dinosaur, but to be truthful with you, I’m not totally positive it did. Collins swears we killed it. Even though Collins shot it multiple times after I blew out its eye, I won’t believe it’s dead until I see its corpse. There was something...something really strange about that dinosaur. I think it’s the smartest dinosaur I’ve ever come up against. Well, besides my little friend Oscar. But where Oscar is benevolent and helpful, if there is such a thing as evil, then that monster who attacked us is evil.”
“Evil? Henry, you must have had a truly awful experience to think a dinosaur could be evil. They’re only animals, and animals, as we’ve debated many times, are neither good nor evil.” And they had debated that topic often, over the dinosaur war years. Henry had this touch of magical belief which mystified Justin to no end. Science was Justin’s magic. There were no such things as unicorns, demons or evil dinosaurs.
“You didn’t see this dinosaur,” Henry said. “After I wounded it, it seemed to be unnaturally vengeful...it remembered what I did to it, and it wanted to pay me back. It wanted to hurt me like I hurt it. It remembered. That is not normal dinosaur behavior we’ve ever encountered. Most dinosaurs just attack willy-nilly, anything in their path they see as an enemy, an obstacle or food.”
“Hmm,” Justin murmured, “this dinosaur really had you spooked?”
“It, and what it might mean if there are more like it.”
“You said you had photos and samples to show me?”
Henry rose from his chair, and when he sat down again, he gave Justin a bag of white shells and handed over his cell phone. Justin clicked through the photos and then sent them to his own phone, so he’d have his own copies. “So, this is the little guy who helped us back in the day and summoned you so he could warn you about the new dinosaur; the little guy you call Oscar?” My, my. So the little dinosaur did exist.
“That’s him. I’m surprised he sat still long enough to let me photograph him. He’s a nervous little critter. Always on the move.”
Justin studied Oscar’s pictures. “Remarkable. You’re right, he’s not like any other dinosaur we’ve seen. And I can’t say he looks like any other dinosaur in history, or the last generation, because he doesn’t, or none that I’m familiar with. You’re right, he’s kind of cute. It’s the eyes. They’re almost hypnotic. They are so human.” Justin picked up the white egg fragments in the bag, touching them gently through the plastic. “I’ll send these on ahead of me to New York and have a complete analysis done. I’ll let you know what is learned, if anything.
“It’s a shame you didn’t get any photos of the big one who attacked you.”
“No, I was too busy trying to stay alive. That killer dinosaur was a handful.”
Ann, also in a robe, had padded into the kitchen with a drowsy expression on her face. Seeing Justin, she rushed over and gave him a hug. “It’s so good to see you. Henry said you were coming, but we didn’t expect you so soon. You must have gotten on a plane the minute you and Henry got off the phone yesterday.”
“I did fairly soon after. I had some things to take care of first at the lab. Then I had to pack.”
As she glumly regarded the downpour outside the windows, Ann got herself a cup of coffee and sat down beside Henry. The thunder and lightning had faded away and only the rain remained. “You didn’t fly through this mess, did you?”
“Right ahead of it.” Justin was pleased to see Ann. He always was, though it brought back bittersweet memories of his late wife Laura, their life together, and how she’d died. It didn’t matter. Henry and Ann were family, and he loved them. They’d been through so much together.
“How’s Phoebe and Timothy?” she wanted to know.
“Your grandchildren are doing great. They both send their love. Timothy was hard to get to kindergarten the first day, he cried, but he is settling in. He even has a new friend, Jacob. Phoebe likes her classes and all her teachers. She now says she’s going to be a scientist like me. You know her, she enjoys learning.”
“I thought she was going to be an artist!” Ann seemed happy to be discussing the children. With the construction, they hadn’t been out to see the kids for months. Ann obviously missed them.
“Oh, she still wants to be an artist, but now she wants to be a scientist and an artist. She says, why can’t she be both, and I told her, why not?” His attention, though, was still on Henry. He could tell the man was very troubled about something. Well, and after what he’d seen in the woods, why shouldn’t he be?
“Well, I imagine she can be both.”
“She can. Oh, and she has a boyfriend,” he confided with a little shrug. “He’s in her class, impossibly shy, but a real brain, she says. He wears thick glasses, speaks with a slight stutter, but he can debate better than anyone on her debate team. Name of Alfonso.”
“Alfonso, really?” Now Ann smiled.
“Yep. It’s innocent. Because of their age, they’re just friends now. They study together. Talk all the time on the phone like magpies. They’re cute. He’s a nice kid. His father works for me, in fact, and I know the family well. So, don’t worry about her, I’m watching them closely.
“While I’m thinking about it, you and Henry are invited for Thanksgiving next month. Delores is going to be giving a huge dinner for her family and mine. Scott, Sherman, Dylan, and some of the rangers in the park will also be invited. Whoever can make it out to New York. My boss said he would send out a plane for all of you. So, free transportation. And you and Henry are welcome to stay with us for as long as you like. Now that your house is done. You know our guest room is always ready for you.”
“Unless something else comes up, we’ll be there for Thanksgiving, and maybe we’ll stay for a week or so after, if it’s okay with you and Delores. I miss the kids so much, and it’ll be good to spend time with them.” Ann looked at Henry. “Right?”
“Right,” Henry replied. “We can do that, honey. We can stay as long as Justin and Delores can put up with us.”
“Stay as long as you want,” Justin said. “You know we always love having you.”
After more catch-up, cordial conversation about the grandchildren, the new cabin, how Scott and Sherman and the baby were doing, and what else Justin had been up to recently, Justin thought it was time to ask what he’d really come to ask.
“Ann, I guess Henry’s mentioned Chief Ranger Collins called me earlier and has asked me to return with him to where he and Henry think they killed that dinosaur, make sure it is dead by finding its body. I need its remains for research. I’m also going to explore that cave where they discovered the eggs.”
She glanced at Henry, and they took each other’s hands. She nodded. “No, Henry hadn’t told me. Yet. But I’d already figured that out on my own.”
Ann was smiling, and Justin realized she knew what he was going to request before he asked it. “And,” she paused, “you want Henry to go with you, right?”
“You’re a mind reader,” he remarked. “It’s a lot to ask, I know. Him being retired and all. It’s not his problem anymore. The park, or anything in it. The thing is, if that dinosaur isn’t dead, or if there are any more of them in the park, I’d feel much safer with Henry in our expedition. Henry at my back. Chief Ranger Collins is a good man but–”
Ann finished the sentence for him. “You trust Henry’s instincts more than Collins.”
“He’s a better shot, too.”
Ann seemed resigned when she responded, “I knew the minute Henry came home yesterday from the hospital and told me everything that had happened in the park, he’d most likely be going back. It’s in his blood now. Dinosaur hunting. Protecting the innocent. That, and he doesn’t want anything to happen to you. Our grandchildren have suffered enough and there’s no way he’s going to let them lose their father, too.”
Justin was relieved. “It’s all right if he comes with us?”
“No, it’s not okay with me, to have my husband chasing monsters again, too damn dangerous. But I know him, and I’d bet he wants to go. Once a hero, always a hero. I’ve never tried to tell him what to do, and I’m not about to start now. So ultimately, it’s up to Henry.” Ann’s demeanor was reserved, yet she smiled at Henry as if giving her blessing.
Justin met Henry’s gaze and waited for the answer he expected would come.
“If you want me to accompany you, Justin, have your back, I will.”
Justin grinned. “I was hoping you’d say that. I told Collins we’d be ready to go whenever he was. He’s getting a team of his rangers together to hunt for that dinosaur’s dead body or, if it isn’t dead, the wounded creature. He’s bringing bigger weapons this time. In case.”
“You won’t be going until after this weather passes, though, right?” Ann had wrapped her arms around herself, but her eyes were on her husband. There was the beginning of apprehension in them. Justin felt guilty for putting Ann through what his request would put her through, but he also knew having Henry with him would increase his odds of finding what they were looking for, and returning alive.
“Of course,” Justin assured her. “And now, since Ranger Williamson’s condition is so serious, according to Collins, we won’t be going until Collins finds out if Williamson is going to make it. He won’t leave until he knows.”
Ann turned to Henry. “I thought you got Ranger Williamson help in time? What is it? What’s wrong? How ill is he?”
Justin could tell how difficult it was for Henry to talk about the ranger.
“Sorry, Ann. I only got the last report on Williamson right before Justin arrived. You were sleeping, so I didn’t want to wake you. Apparently, the dinosaur who mauled him had poisoned claws, laced with an unknown venom they have no idea how to combat or treat,” Henry explained, “and the infection has spread. They moved him to intensive care this morning. That was the phone call that woke me up at five-thirty.”
“Oh, no.” Ann once more concentrated on the rain outside. It had resumed its fierceness and was pounding against the glass. The world had grown darker. “I’ll say prayers for him.”
The three lingered at the table, drank coffee, had breakfast made by Henry and Ann, talked more about Henry’s hair-raising adventure in the woods, what they’d do when they would return to search for the injured or dead beast, and waited for Henry’s phone to ring.
*****
THE STORM PASSED, AND the sun came out. The cat wandered back into the kitchen, wanted to be fed, and then, after pestering Henry and Ann for attention, wanted to be let outside. Sasha was nothing if not predictable.
When the cell phone did ring about two hours later, the news was the worst they could have expected.
“What’s happened?” Justin pressed Henry, seeing the stricken frown, the sadness, on his friend’s face as the phone call proceeded and ended.
Henry’s voice was angry when he answered. “That was Chief Collins. I hate to say it, can’t believe I’m saying it, but Ranger Williamson didn’t make it. He died about ten minutes ago.”
Ann’s hands went to her face in a gesture of grief. “Oh no. He was so young, and had his whole life in front of him. I can’t believe the dinosaurs have taken another young man, another ranger, when we all thought the dinosaur threats were over. How can this be happening again?” Tears began to trickle from her eyes and down her cheeks.
“I wondered the same thing when that bad-tempered dinosaur attacked us. I couldn’t believe it, either.” Henry was rubbing his eyes, and Justin thought he saw tears in them, too. Henry had really liked Ranger Williamson. They all had. “The nightmare continues.”
“What else did Collins say?” Justin rose from his chair, walked to the window, and had his back to them. He’d known Ranger Williamson well himself, and because they’d been closer in age, they’d had more in common than some others when they’d been fighting the dinosaur wars from the headquarters’ fort in the final year. He felt the loss as much as Henry and Ann. But then he, as so many other people, had lost so many to the dinosaurs, that the grief felt way too familiar. With each atrocity experienced, a person grew a little number. Justin was pretty numb.
“There’s going to be a service for Ranger Williamson very soon, and then Collins will organize the search party,” Henry let him know what the plans were. The three of them exchanged miserable looks, and Justin could feel the sorrow around them over their friend’s death.
“So, Justin, you’ll be here for a while,” Ann broke the silence, stating the obvious. She got up from the chair and picked up his suitcase. “After I get dressed, I’d better finish the final preparations to have the guest room ready. Sheets and blankets on the bed, and all. Fresh towels in the bathroom. I’ll have to rustle up a pillow from somewhere. I think I have an extra one in the hallway closet. Give me about thirty minutes, and the room will be ready. In the meantime, I’ll take your suitcase to the room for you. I’m sure there are still some things you want to discuss with Henry.”
Ann left the room, and Justin resumed examining the egg shells in the plastic bag while grilling Henry further on the attack and happenings in the park.
After a while Henry excused himself. “If you’re all right here alone for a while, Justin, I’m going to get dressed. I won’t be long. I have the feeling that Collins and a couple of the other rangers will be stopping by here before they head back to Crater Lake. I offered them coffee and sympathy.”
“It’ll be good to see all of them,” was all Justin voiced.
When Henry had exited the kitchen, Justin got on his cell phone and took care of some business he’d left unfinished back at the lab. Since the demise of the dinosaurs, his team had been busy categorizing the various types and species of dinosaurs that had terrorized the earth until the virus had destroyed them. It’d been their main task, along with studying the prehistoric creatures and making sure they’d be ready, with better defenses and weapons, if the scourge ever came again. And, he fretted, as he was speaking with one of the senior paleontologists on his team, Stanley Louison, that time might have come.
When Louison questioned what he’d found out so far, Justin summarized what Henry and Chief Collins had divulged. Louison was shocked, but not surprised, a destructive dinosaur might still be wandering in the wilderness. After all, there’d been so many of them in the world, it only made sense that even years after their second extinction, humanity would have missed one or two somewhere. But, as Justin, Louison thought it was ironic the dinosaur had been found in Crater Lake National Park. The very park where the dinosaur wars had begun, so long ago.
After the phone call, Justin glanced up to see Henry in the kitchen doorway with a jacket on, truck keys in his hand. “Want to go for a ride, kiddo? I’m driving.”
Justin came to his feet. “Sure. Where to? Why?”
“Ranger Collins just telephoned me again. Change of plans. They’re not coming here for coffee. He’s seeing to the arrangements for Williamson’s funeral and service. Williamson’s fiancée is a complete wreck, so he and some of the other rangers are helping her. I’m going to assist in whatever way I can, even if it’s only emotional support. I told Ann I’m leaving, and why.
“Collins and I are going to be strategizing on what comes after the funeral. He’d like you to attend, too. No disrespect to the good man we lost, but Collins fears, as I do, that time is of the essence...especially if that malicious creature we shot hasn’t really expired. If it is still out there, he’s afraid it’ll hurt or kill someone else. I think Collins, because of Ranger Williamson’s death, wants to be a hundred percent sure. Later today, when we’re finished at the funeral parlor, there’s a meeting at park headquarters and he wants both of us there.”
“I’m with you.”
Justin retrieved his coat, put it on, and the men walked out into the gloomy day just as the rain stopped.
*****
IT WAS STRANGE, JUSTIN mused, once more being in the park at ranger headquarters. It looked about the same, except there was no longer a tall wooden stockade fence surrounding it. The grounds had been landscaped with fresh grass, flowers and sidewalks. He refused to look at the place Laura had been stolen from the earth and flown into the sky to her death. There were many places he couldn’t bear to let his eyes linger on. Those were the places where friends of his had been mauled or had died fighting the dinosaurs, when the creatures had broken in during the last fierce battles. But in other ways, being at headquarters, it was a reunion, and it was good to see the men and women rangers he’d once lived with and fought alongside of. They were happy to see him again, too.
The inside of headquarters had been transformed, as well. The divided living spaces dotted with piles of clothes and cots, had been replaced with the rangers’ desks, computers and framed family pictures. They’d repainted the walls a cool green. Yet, everywhere he went, there were ghosts hiding in the corners or the hallways. No one else could see them, but he could. Too many memories.
He, Henry and Chief Ranger Collins sat in the office that had once belonged to Henry, and strategized what they would do if they found the dinosaur deceased, what they’d do if they couldn’t find it, and what, heaven forbid, they’d do it they found it alive. Justin asked Collins about his take on what he’d uncovered in the cave. They deliberated over what the dinosaur eggs and the live dinosaur’s existence might mean to the dinosaur saga going forward.
They ended up sitting around, reminiscing over stories of Ranger Williamson and his life and career in the Forest Service, remembering the dead ranger, and then remembering all the other rangers who had served and died fighting dinosaurs. Collins brought out a bottle of aged whiskey, and they drank to Williamson and all the other rangers whom they had worked with, cared for and lost.
“I know you haven’t been back in the park long, but have you seen Oscar at all? At the window, I mean?” Henry queried of Chief Ranger Collins before they left.
“No, I haven’t. Not a glimpse.”
That answer must have made Henry uncomfortable, because he frowned.
On the return trip to Henry’s cabin, Justin asked, “You’re worried about that little dinosaur friend of yours, aren’t you?”
Henry’s attention didn’t wander far from the road. “I am. I hope that one-eyed dinosaur didn’t get him.”
“I hope it’s okay as well. I’d love to actually meet it someday, in the flesh.” Justin meant what he said. “Have a chance to study the little fellow.”
“I know. What you really want, is to see if Oscar is real, and not just a figment of my imagination.” Henry twisted the truck’s wheel to avoid a small deer in the road. The doe bounded off into the undergrowth.
“I’ll admit, I have wondered about that at times. But I can’t any longer, not since I saw those photos you took of it. Now I know it’s real. I’d merely like to meet it. Imagine, an empathically intelligent dinosaur with an affinity towards humans! A brand new mutant branch of the species. That’s what I can’t believe. If we could catch it, what we could learn.”
“Catch it? I wouldn’t do that to Oscar. He has as much right to be free as we do. He’s no threat to mankind. In fact, he and his family seem to want to live alongside of us. Want to be our friends.”
“Well, you’re right, that isn’t like any other dinosaur we’ve ever come across.”
“And I have the feeling, Justin, you’ll be meeting Oscar soon.”
*****
THE FUNERAL, TWO DAYS later, was a forlorn affair. Ranger Williamson’s parents, a brother, two sisters, and his fiancée were there. There were tears, and Justin could see Henry was greatly affected by the young ranger’s death.
“I thought three years ago when we left headquarters,” Henry confided in him, “the dinosaurs had killed their last ranger. I was wrong.”
The next morning, Justin and Henry returned to the park to join up with Chief Ranger Collins and the three other rangers, Ranger Gillian, Cutters and the new man, Ranger Richard Finch, who he’d decided would join the search party.
And they wouldn’t come back until they knew the dinosaur who’d killed Williamson was dead. If it wasn’t dead, they’d hunt it down and slay it. They owed Williamson that much.