Liopleurodon King of the Carnivores Read online

  “Jesus, this thing is a monster. I think that we’ve found a frozen sea animal,” Nathan says. He pulled out his walkie-talkie. Nathan presses a small button on the right side of the small device and speaks into it, “Nathan to base, come in base.”

  A voice on the other end says, “Hello, Nathan, did you get any footage of bears?”

  “A little, but they saw us. Look, I didn’t call to talk about the bears, I think I found something else.”

  “Well, what is it?” the voice asks.

  “I think that I found a frozen sea monster,” Nathan says.

  “Wait, did you just say sea monster?” the voice asks.

  “Yes, I swear, I’m not joking,” Nathan takes a look at the monster’s color pattern. “It is black on top, white underneath, and it has red stripes coming down the back. It must be at least seventy feet long.”

  “Okay, I’ll send someone in to check it out. Give me your coordinates.”

  Nathan begins to read the location, unaware that he has discovered the frozen female Liopleurodon.

  Chapter 5

  Internet

  About an hour after the speech ended, Luke and Will return to Luke’s apartment. His apartment is small, with little furniture, and what he does have is old and getting rickety. In the corner of the main room, stands a small TV, its two antennas sticking out to make a “V” shape. On the coffee table is an old laptop, plugged in to charge.

  “I see you haven’t changed much since I was last here,” Will comments.

  “There’s not much to change,” Luke states.

  “True,” Will responds as he goes to find himself a beer.

  Luke sits on the couch. He rubs his exhausted eyes. How could I have screwed this up so badly? What was I thinking? Poor Kelsey, she probably hates me, Luke thinks as he leans back and looks up before opening his eyes. Luke sees the dull, brown ceiling, and the dark grey walls that surround him. Being a disrespected paleontologist doesn’t pay very well and his parents rarely loan money to him.

  Will reenters the room with two beers in his grasp, and gestures for Luke to take one. “Sorry, I try not to drink.” Luke says glumly.

  “Your loss,” Will says as leaves the room again to sit and drink. Luke sighs; the only reason why he even has any beer in his refrigerator is for when Will comes over.

  Ben’s words keep replaying in Luke’s head. “Not a single scientist will believe you.”

  Is he right? Am I the only scientist who thinks that the Liopleurodon was that large? I wonder what people think about me and my theories. Luke reaches over and grabs his laptop. He lifts the screen up, and smiles as he sees his desktop: a Liopleurodon attacking a plesiosaur known as Cryptoclidus. It reminds him of how much raw power Liopleurodon really had.

  Luke double clicks on the AOL icon. After a few seconds, the internet comes up. But as Luke prepares to type something into the search engine, his mouse turns into an hourglass, and the Not Responding sign comes up. “Come on already,” Luke says as the hourglass finally becomes an arrow again. In the search engine, he types in Luke Jones, Ph.D.

  A few moments later, he has his results. Luke is surprised to see so many. He clicks on the first link which reads:

  Luke Jones- Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

  The Wikipedia page opens up. Where it normally shows a picture of the subject, it says No Picture Available. Luke ignores it and begins reading what is at the top of the page:

  Luke Jones is a paleontologist who graduated from the University of Montana in 1997. Jones created controversy when he proposed that the ancient sea reptile, Liopleurodon was eighty feet long, and weighed one hundred and fifty tons.

  Luke is awe-struck by what the page says. They know an awful lot about me. It’s almost scary. I wonder what else this says.

  Luke scrolls down to a section entitled Reputation:

  Five years ago, Jones published his theories and began giving lectures, but many scientists were highly critical, suggesting his theories were without scientific basis.

  He feels something boiling inside of his stomach. He cannot believe what he is reading. Without scientific basis? I know that I don’t have many people who agree with me… but this is absurd! I’ve never been so disrespected in my life. He continues reading:

  Shortly after Jones’s announcement, a colleague,

  Ben Ross, reportedly said:

  “Every scientist knows that what Jones says about the pliosaur Liopleurodon is inaccurate. He increased its size greatly, to the point where many consider it a mythical creature. Luke Jones is a complete embarrassment to the scientific community.”

  Luke exits the Wikipedia page. He feels as if he is going to throw up. Ben said that about me? How? I was always mad at him… but this? That jerk deserves to burn in hell! Who does he think he is? I know that he didn’t agree with me, but to ruin my reputation as a scientist like that. And what he did tonight… I can’t believe that we were ever friends!

  Before he can continue with his mental tirade, Will comes into the room again, giving Luke a strange look. At first Luke is embarrassed, and then he realizes that Will has something to say: “You just got a call from the Navy. They have already paid for tickets on American Airlines to fly out to California. They said that they want us to identify something that they’ve found.”

  “Did they give you any details?” Luke asks.

  “No, but the entire group is going. They said to begin packing our bags immediately…”

  Chapter 6

  Navy Base

  Luke and Will exit the California airport and head into the parking lot where they see their escort: a camouflaged Hummer S.U.V. Standing outside of the front doors are a driver and a guard with an M-16 in his grasp.

  “Luke Jones and Will Harris, I assume?” the driver asks.

  “Yes,” Luke says.

  “How was your flight?”

  “Actually, pretty good for coach,” Luke says

  “Speak for yourself; I had to sit next to a big fat guy!” Will exclaims.

  “The others are already in the truck,” the driver says ignoring Will.

  The guard opens the right side door, and motions for the men to go in. They do as they are told, and take a seat in the second of the three rows. In the front row are two seats, one for the driver and one for the guard. In the second row are two more seats, Luke slides in to the one on the left, Will taking the one on the right. And in the third row are three more seats. On the far left, Kelsey sits, staring out the window. On the right is Ben, reading a book that he brought about the evolution of whales. And in the middle is Shawn, who is silent, deep in thought.

  Luke buckles his seat belt and sighs. He turns and looks at his former partners, saying, “Hey, guys.”

  “Hi,” Shawn says, the only one to say anything. Ben ignores his rival, and Kelsey is still too mad at Luke to even look at him.

  “Kelsey, I just want you to know, that I am so sorry for what happened last night. I know that it was your night and I ruined it, but…”

  “Its fine, Luke, just drop it!” she insists.

  Luke nods as he turns around and leans back in his chair.

  …

  After about an hour and a half drive, the S.U.V. finally stops, and the group is let out of their cramped seats. The Naval base is right on the coast, facing the Pacific Ocean. Enormous ships sail in and out of the base, and men in white uniforms are everywhere. Luke gets out and stretches his back. The driver immediately leads them through a door. They walk up to an elevator, pressing the “up” button. After a few moments, the elevator opens, and the team follows the driver inside. The driver presses the button that takes them to level three. After a short walk, the group finally reaches their destination.

  In front of a closed door stands Captain Ryan Hawkins, who immediately introduces himself. “Hello, my name is Ryan Hawkins, captain of the USS Jupiter, and at seven hundred and sixty three feet long, it’s one of the largest ships in the Navy. I saw your speech about Ice
Age mammals last night in Texas, and I decided that I need your help to identify an animal that was discovered in the Arctic yesterday.”

  “We’ll see what we can do,” Shawn says.

  “That’s all that I ask,” Hawkins says as he swipes his key-card into the slot, opening the sliding door. He leads the group into the enormous room.

  Hanging from a colossal winch is the frozen sea monster, still in a state of suspended animation. The thermostat is set to below freezing to make sure that the ice doesn’t thaw. Luke shivers as he sees his own breath, but he doesn’t care. He remembers back to his childhood, when he saw the monstrous creature frozen within the glacier. His father laughed at what Luke had said, but finally, after thirty years, he knows that he was right.

  This is the most amazing thing that he’s ever seen.

  As the scientists admire the frozen monster, Captain Hawkins breaks the silence by asking, “How many of you know who Nathan Noodie is?”

  “The Wild Life documentary guy? Why?” Will asks, not taking his eyes off of the frozen giant.

  “Noodie was making a documentary about polar bears in the Arctic when he came across this creature. He contacted his producers, who didn’t know what to do with it, so they contacted us. At first we thought it was fake, but then we found out by ultrasound that if was a living being. We are keeping the creature frozen in a state of suspended animation.”

  “Suspended animation?” Ben asks. “Wait, this thing is still alive?”

  “It could be,” Hawkins responds. “We were hoping that you could identify it.”

  The entire group immediately looks to Luke, who is confused. “You’re the sea monster expert,” Will says.

  Luke nods as he walks closer to the monster. Seeing the short neck and four flippers, he says, “Well, it is obviously a pliosaur, but it’s hard to tell what type. You see the problem is that several types of pliosaurs look fairly similar. In fact, sometimes the only way to tell what species it is by their skull structure.”

  “Is that so?” Hawkins asks as he pulls out a folder, reaches inside of it, and pulls out a black paper. He hands it to Luke and says, “This is an x-ray of the skull that we took.”

  Luke looks at the x-ray, and recognizes it immediately. It is a skull that he has seen hundreds of times before. “By any chance, did you measure the length of the body?”

  “Let me check,” Hawkins says as he pulls out another sheet of paper. “Eighty feet from snout to tail.”

  Luke could barely hold his breath. It can’t be, but all of the evidence says it is. There is no way that they are going to believe me.

  “Well?” Kelsey asks, growing impatient.

  Luke swallows hard as he says, “You guys aren’t going to believe me, but I believe this is a Liopleurodon.” Everybody begins to moan. “Guys, listen, I’m not just saying that because its eighty feet long. I have been studying Liopleurodon thoroughly for the past five years; I know what its skull looks like. I am positive, that is a Liopleurodon.”

  “Okay,” Ben says, “Say it is a Liopleurodon, but just how did it become frozen?”

  “At the end of the Jurassic, there were climate changes,” Luke responds. “This probably killed off several different species of the Liopleurodon’s prey, forcing it north. Of course, the ice caps hadn’t formed yet, but icebergs had appeared, so, say a Liopleurodon ventures too close to one, and a chunk of ice breaks off…”

  “Then the Liopleurodon is frozen alive,” Shawn says, finishing Luke’s sentence for him.

  “Exactly!” Luke exclaims.

  Ben nods, “That makes sense.”

  Will begins to laugh. He gives Luke a quick hug, and looks at the Liopleurodon’s jaws. “That’s a good Liopleurodon! That’s a good boy!” As everyone stares at Will, he begins to think. As a scientist who studies large theropods, he knows that most species, including Tyrannosaurus and Giganotosaurus, have females as the dominant gender. Does the same thing apply to pliosaurs? “Say, Luke, is this a boy or a girl Liopleurodon?”

  Luke smiles and answers, “At this size, it is definitely a female.”

  Will smiles as he turns back to the Liopleurodon and says, “What a big girl!”

  “Control your friend, we’re not done yet,” Hawkins says, getting everyone’s attention. “Okay, so we know what type of animal it is. But now the question is what do we do with it?”

  “I say kill it,” Luke says. “It’s too dangerous to be left alive.”

  Kelsey turns to him and asks, “Really? Of all people, I thought that you would want to keep it alive.”

  “I’ve been studying Liopleurodon all my life. I know what it’s capable of. This is a monster that ate fish the size of the blue whale on a regular basis.”

  “Can’t we just keep it in captivity?” Will asks.

  “We can’t keep a great white alive in captivity, what makes you think we can keep this monster?” Ben asks. “I’m with Luke, kill it before it can cause any harm.”

  Shawn steps up and says, “What’s wrong with you people? How can you be so inhumane? I say let the creature go.”

  Everyone glares at Shawn. “What are you, crazy?” Will asks.

  “Look, I study mass extinctions. If that taught me anything, it’s how important life is. Say the Liopleurodon kills someone here, another person there. There are already too many of us as there is! This animal is the last of its kind, let it go.”

  Kelsey stares at her boyfriend as if she is seeing him for the first time. She doesn’t like what she is hearing.

  Luke sighs as he says, “That is the worst idea… in the history of bad ideas.”

  Will laughs as Hawkins says, “Okay, I’ll make sure that the Liopleurodon is taken care of. Thank you all for your time.”

  Chapter 7

  Released

  Shawn Ryan has been trying to fall asleep in his bed for over an hour, but something is keeping him awake. He cannot stop thinking about the Liopleurodon. How could they kill it? Nature wants to bring back its deadliest creation and Luke and those Navy jerks only want to destroy it. They probably will kill it tomorrow. I have to do something… and fast!

  But while Shawn continues to think about it, he realizes that he has no chance of freeing the Liopleurodon. After all, it is in a Navy base, and what chance did he have of breaking in and stealing a giant frozen predator? He has decided to stay in California to see if there is anything that he could do to save the Liopleurodon. Suddenly, Shawn begins to hear banging outside. Stupid kids. Shawn walks over to his hotel door. As the children outside continue to make noise, Shawn hits his door as loud as he can, a warning to the kids to quiet down.

  But instead of quieting down, the children throw a rock at Shawn’s hotel door, trying to annoy him. Shawn mutters some unkind words under his breath as he thinks, Kids these days. Those twerps will probably grow up to be a bunch of gangbangers. Wait a second… gang members, that’s it! I can pay some gang to find a way into the Naval base and bring the Liopleurodon to me so I can release it into the wild! The hard part will be finding them!

  …

  Shawn takes a taxi to Compton, in search of a bar. It is east of Los Angeles, and is the location of a lot gang action. It is where drugs and guns are sold, and where gang activity takes place.

  While the bartender has two men ejected after a bar fight, Shawn enters. He walks up to the bar tender and orders a beer. The bartender nods and puts a mug under the tap, and asks, “I don’t think I’ve seen you before, do you come here much?”

  Shawn shakes his head as he says, “No, I come from Texas.”

  The bartender nods. “Texas, huh? What brings you to LA?”

  “There’s something important that I have to do,” Shawn says as the bartender hands him his beer. Shawn pays him, and then decides to try and find someone who looks like he can help. After a few moments, he sees three men who are laughing and seem to be having a good time in a booth. Shawn decides to ask them.

  “Evening, gentlemen,” Shawn says as he
takes a seat.

  The three men stop laughing as they see that they have an uninvited guest. “Who the hell are you?” the man in the middle asks.

  “My name’s Shawn Ryan and I need your help doing something.”

  “Help?” the man on the right asks as he raises his right arm and rests it on the table, revealing that it is covered in tattoos. “What could you need our help to do?”

  “Look, I am willing to pay you all a lot of money to do just one job.”

  “How much money?” the man in the middle asks.

  “Ten thousand dollars… each,” Shawn says.

  “That’s a lot of money, what’s the job?” the man on the right asks.

  Shawn smiles as he explains, “I need you to sneak into the Naval base on the coast. On the third floor, there is a room that holds a frozen creature. I need you to bring it to me, and help me release it into the wild.”

  “Why?” the man on the left asks, speaking for the first time.

  “Why?” Shawn repeats the man’s question, “Because this animal is the last of its kind, and the Navy plans to kill it.”

  The men think it over, and eventually the one in the middle says, “That’s a big job for just ten thousand. If you raise the price up to twenty thousand each you have yourself a deal.”

  “There are other people that I can ask. Ten thousand… take it or leave it.”

  The man in the middle smiles. He obviously likes the confidence that Shawn has. “I’m in.”

  “Same here,” the man on the right says as the man on the left nods.