(Page 4)
“Doris, Coffee–black,” Alan announced to the desk clerk who nodded and poured him a cup.
He was tired from working all day. He’d been recognized by nine people in the last week alone with no good end in sight.
He was tired of being envied. Yes he’d seen the animals, but he’d seen the death and destruction too. If those people could only know what it was like to be there, to be running for your life from something as cunning and intelligent as you, they would think twice.
“Alan,” called a voice from down the hall.
"Billy! Hey! How are you?”
“I’m doing well, how are you doing?”
“Oh, just tired, Billy. You never realize how much having seen something no one else has seen can have an effect on people until it happens to you.”
“I know I’ve had more girlfriends now than I did before,” Billy laughed.
Alan drank his coffee and smiled lightly. It was good to see Billy again.
“So what have you been up to Billy?” Alan asked.
“The usual: college, chicks...women,” he said laughing.
“Still digging?”
“Not so much anymore, though I hope to start up again after the trip.”
“Where to?”
“I thought you knew?”
Alan put the coffee cup down and looked at Billy strangely.
“What do you mean–“
“Aren’t you going on it too?”
Alan’s face contorted and his heart sank. Billy couldn’t have been invited along. Alan wondered what skills Billy had that would make him a candidate.
“Why did they contact you?”
“You see, Sarah Harding was asked to go but she couldn’t fly out of Kenya in time. Doing a documentary. Besides, Ian wouldn’t let her. So she requested I be sent in her place. I took a course with her and she knew me through you. She knew that I could study the behavior using the methods she taught me. And besides, we aren’t even going to land on the island.”
“I still don’t want you to go,” Alan blurted out at Billy, stubbornly.
“Alan don’t worry. We’ll be fine.”
“I don’t approve of this at all. I can get you removed from this. Remember last time!”
“Of course I do, Alan. I still have some scars. But we aren’t even going to be near them. We’ll be safe in the helicopter.”
“I still don’t–“ Alan trailed off. He looked passed Billy and out the windows where a white bearded man walked in with an entourage of people dressed in white scrubs.
“Mr. Hammond?”
