Chapter 100: Captured... or maybe not

When Sarah and Ian came out of their cabin they noticed that Roland's men were already in action: they were dragging numerous crates under the controls of their leader. Nick seemed to be in a nervous breakdown as he yelled at the hunter and Eddie tried in vain to mediate between the two. "What happens?" Sarah asked the photographer. Nick gritted his teeth. "Isn't it obvious? The bastard wants to go catch that dinosaur" "What? Did you go crazy by chance?" Ian exclaimed stepping forward. "You have seen with your own eyes that bullets do nothing to it!" "Exactly. For this we will resort to a trick. It may be invulnerable from the outside, but inside it is made of flesh like all of us" replied Roland showing the contents of a crate. Looking inside, the four saw kilos and kilos of frozen meat. Nick was the first to understand. "Do you want to put the narcotic in the food" "Exactly. After it has eaten it will go down like a stockfish. There will be no need to fire a single shot" Roland replied closing the box. "We are preparing several tons of it. We will leave them for that dinosaur in the clearing. Once it sleeps like a stone we will put it in there" The hunter pointed to a large structure made of iron bars. It was clearly a cage, but it was smaller in some places and taller in others. "It won't even be able to move in there. It was built to hold a Spinosaurus superior, but it's more than enough to fit that beast too. We will just have to bend the tail a little" Roland was beaming. "A perfect plan, don't you think? You can study it and do your thing as a scientist, and I will get my pay" "We had agreed for a Spinosaurus superior specimen!" Sarah exclaimed angrily. "Wrong. We had agreed on one specimen. We never specified what kind of dinosaur it was" Roland replied. Sarah was about to reply when Ian objected: "Where are the Neanderthals?" Only then did Sarah realize that Neytiri and Tsu'tey were nowhere to be seen. Nick wrinkled his nose. "Roland sent them away" "What!?" "I had to. You heard them, for them that big beast is some kind of divinity. They would have hindered us" Roland justified himself. "And then it was they who wanted to leave. They said that 'the Great King of the Forest doesn't want us to disturb him'. Tsk. I pretended to believe them and promised we'd be gone in two days... which is what we're going to do. Time to take the dinosaur and let's go" "We can't leave! We're here to find another dinosaur!" Sarah exclaimed furiously. "This is my expedition and..." "... And I have to guarantee your safety, which I am unable to do at the moment. Until we know how to hurt that dinosaur, then going into the forest is a huge risk" Roland said. "Try to think about it. What if there were others? What if they find us? What am I supposed to do? Shoot them and see the bullets bounce off them, like yesterday?" Sarah was silent. As furious as she was at Roland, she couldn't help but admit that he was right. "You have already obtained a sensational discovery. When that dinosaur is in a cage, you can study it as you wish. Dr. Hardy, your name is already written in the history books" Roland continued. "When everyone knows what you have discovered, you can be sure that you will receive enough funding to organize a second expedition to find everything you want, this time with weapons powerful enough to protect yourself from even such a living tank. In fact, I'll tell you more: as compensation for our sudden retreat, I'll give you all a share of the profits. This animal will make me a fortune, I can afford to give you a part. With that money you can organize even three expeditions" "You can keep your money as well. I don't intend to be bought by you!" Nick snapped grimly. From his gaze he seemed ready to tear the hunter to pieces. Roland laughed in his face in response. "I advise against speaking on behalf of others. And anyway, I don't see how this can help you. My men, my rules. I decide when we stay and when we leave" he said. "Now it's time for me to go get my trophy. You will remain on the ship, protected by some of my soldiers" "Are we prisoners, in practice?" Ian snapped, even more angry than Nick. "No, you are safe. Now please excuse me but I have to go. Dieter, escort them to their cabins" Roland yelled as he walked away without noticing them a glance. Some men came forward led by a guy with little beard and a hateful expression on his face. It was Roland's second-in-command, Dieter Stark. A horrible character to say the least. If Nick would have gladly beaten up Roland, he would undoubtedly have thrown Dieter into the river. Needless to say, the feeling was mutual. And in fact as soon as Dieter was in front of him I will go straight to Nick and he stared deeply into his eyes, grinning as if to want to laugh at him. He knew he was in a position of strength and was pleased with it. "Evaporates" Nick snapped bluntly. "And why on earth? Don't you want to see my face?". Dieter's voice was as hateful as his face. Nick snorted. "Are you looking for trouble?" "And I found you" The photographer abandoned all composure and threw himself at the hunter, who responded with a punch. A fight broke out between the two and Sarah had to rely on all her authority to stop them. When tempers finally calmed down Dieter 'kindly escorted' Sarah, Nick, Ian and Eddie to their cabins and locked them inside. ********** Roland took the meat to the forest soon after. He'd had to empty the holds to get enough food to attract such a beast, but he was sure more than a hundred kilos of free meat would be tempting any animal. His men had no difficulty in carrying the huge amount of food. The hard part was doing it in silence. Roland certainly did not want to alarm the animal: if he had noticed them they would have had no chance. They piled the meat in the clearing where they had found the dinosaur earlier. Roland knew predators were typically territorial, so it was likely he hadn't strayed too far. Once the pile of meat was deposited in plain sight, Roland's men sprinkled it with narcotic and a substance that accentuated the smell. After that they all hid. Roland and his faithful friend and trusted hunting companion, Ajay Sidhu, climbed a tree to get a better view. Roland had made sure they were downwind, so that they could not be identified by the animal's nose. From that moment on, there was nothing to do but wait. Roland was used to this. They remained motionless staring at the pile of meat for a while. Every now and then some small dromeosaurs came and ate some meat, but it was enough to throw a stone to chase it away. They didn't have to wait too long. After just an hour, a short time by hunting standards, the giant dinosaur arrived. Roland found the ability to be surprised again at the sight of the majestic creature. He was truly a legendary animal. He wondered what name the scientists would give him. One thing was certain: he, Roland Tembo, would be remembered as the first to capture such a colossus. What Roland did not know, however, was that he would not have captured anything: it was Sobek who had decided to let himself be taken. He had obviously kept an eye on the humans all the time thanks to [Ambush] and had guessed what they had in mind. It was not difficult for him to imagine that there was a sleeping pill in the flesh. The cage that the hunters had brought with them was large enough to contain him, so it was obvious that they wanted to capture him: hardly he would find any poison in the flesh. 'Curious, it looks like the t-rex cage in Jurassic Park 2, only much bigger...' Sobek mused thinking about the cage he would have to spend the next few days in. He began to greedily eat the meat offered to him. With his overdeveloped taste he could notice that it tasted sweet from the sleeping pill, but he didn't mind. After a few bites, he pretended to stagger and then dropped to the ground like a boiled fish. In fact, the truth was that it wasn't possible to drug him. If [Reinforced skin] defended him from the outside, [Rapid digestion] protected him from the inside. The gastric juices in his stomach consumed the sleeping pill too quickly for it to take effect. Therefore, the only choice he had was to pretend to be asleep... "As expected! Quick, bring the cage. We don't know when it will wake up!" Roland yelled as soon as he saw the animal on the ground. He jumped off the tree and approached the creature hitting it in the sensitive points. It didn't move, but its breathing was irregular: the narcotic wouldn't last very long. In a short time a truck carrying the cage arrived in the clearing. "Hurry! If it wakes up we are all screwed!" Roland ordered while holding the animal at gunpoint. If it woke up he wouldn't have thought twice about escaping: against such a beast it was impossible to fight. Putting the almost fifteen-ton dinosaur in the cage was a huge undertaking, but luckily the truck was equipped with a crane. With a little effort they managed to drag him into the cage and lock him inside. "It's done!" Ajay exclaimed triumphantly, patting Roland on the shoulder. But the hunter knew it wasn't yet time to cheer. "Let's get it to the ship now! I want it to be in the hold when it wakes up. If it gets upset now it could overturn the truck, and at that point it will be almost impossible to retrieve it without opening the cage!" Under Roland's command, the truck sped off towards the ship. Unbeknownst to everyone, Sobek was laughing under his breath. ********* It was now late afternoon when Roland finally showed up to Sarah, Ian, Nick and Eddie. The four had preferred to be all together in the same cabin, clearly not trusting the hunter's men. "I have come to inform you that we have taken it" he informed them. "It's in the hold now. Go and do what you want with it" Nick looked like he was going to jump at Roland's throat, but common sense stopped him. He knew that if the hunter lost his temper, all four of them would be in danger and he didn't want to burden his friends. Sarah was also quite frowning, giving Roland one of the looks she normally reserved for Ian. Eddie was no exception. In the end, it was professor Malcolm who took the initiative. "Yeah, I really think we'll go" he said. "Will your men escort us again?" "Of course not" the hunter shook his head. "They were protecting you from trying to do anything dangerous, like interfering with my hunt. Now that the hunt is over, I have no reason to be 'escorted'. You can go wherever you want without being accountable to anyone" "How nice" Nick grumbled, walking with the others towards the hold. "Oh, one little thing, 'World first'." Roland yelled behind him. "Don't think you can open the cage. There are guards guarding the animal and that gadget is designed to open only with a password that only I know. So don't make any unnecessary efforts" "Bastard..." Nick hissed, gritting his teeth as the hunter laughed behind him. "Ignore him, just ignore him" Ian told him grabbing him by the arm and dragging him away. The four sped into the hold. Even though Roland had claimed to have captured the animal, they wanted to see it with their own eyes. When they arrived, the irrefutable evidence was before their eyes. The huge body of the dinosaur lay supine in the middle of the hold, surrounded by iron bars that prevented any movement.