Besant - The Pterodactyls Egg

For

Sam, the boy who wanted a dinosaur story

and

John, for inspiring me every day.

Contents

S am kept his head down and walked straight to the sandpit. He hated playing in the sandpit with the babies. But he couldnt play anywhere else in the park. The bigger and older kids took the best spots, the best slides and the best swings. They pushed and shoved anyone who got in the way.

So Sam sadly sat in the sandpit and half-heartedly built castles. At least the sandpit had been filled with new sand just that morning. He dug and dug and dug when suddenly his plastic shovel hit something hard. Sam peered at the object through his glasses, which were as thick as glass bottle bottoms.

Was it a rock? Sam cleared the sand from around it and dug it out. It wasnt a rock, but it was shaped like an egg and slightly rough and felt leathery. Curious, Sam shook it. There was no sound. Sam suddenly had a thought. He had seen an egg exactly like this one on TV a few evenings ago. The egg he had seen was a fossil, a dinosaurs egg! Sam gasped. He had found a dinosaurs egg.

He looked around quickly to make sure no one was watching. He slipped the egg into his t-shirt, picked up his plastic shovel and swiftly walked back to his apartment block.

He didnt stop to pet the street dogs like he usually did or say hello to the old watchman or even to admire his neighbours Jupiter X100 mountain bike. If his mother had been watching, this last thing would have surprised her. Ever since Sams friend Arjun had received the bike for his birthday, Sam had spent many hours gazing longingly at it.

But Sam was too excited with his find to stop for anything. He rushed home and, after making sure he had scraped the sand off his shoes, he snuck into the living room.

Sam, is that you? his mother called from the kitchen.

Sam groaned. His mother had the ears of a bat. He suddenly pictured his mother as a bat and laughed.

Sam! his mother called again.

Its me, Mom, Sam yelled back before hurrying to his room.

Sams mother sighed when she heard the door shut loudly. He had missed lunch.

Sam rushed to his desk and gently took the egg out from underneath his t-shirt. Grains of sand still clung to it and he wiped them away with a towel from the laundry basket. Sam placed the egg gingerly on his desk and grabbed a book from his shelf: All You Need to Know About Dinosaurs by Professor Zao Zatziki.

Sam rifled through the pages urgently, silently apologizing to the book for his haste. He glanced over at the egg; he vaguely remembered seeing something similar in the book. He found it on page forty-seven.

Torvosaurus Egg

The Torvosaurus was a massive bipedal dinosaur. It grew up to 36 feet in height, but laid eggs that were about 6 inches in diameter. The eggs are spherical.

Sam eyed the egg on the table doubtfully. It didnt exactly match the picture of the torvosaurus egg in the book.

But it has been buried for so long, Sam reasoned with himself. Maybe thats why it doesnt look the same.

He put the book aside and reached for another book on dinosaurs. Sam was the sort of boy who had more than one book on dinosaurs. In fact, he had read this one so many times that its spine was broken.

He settled down to read it when his mother knocked on the door.

Sam, she said. Come and eat your lunch.

Not hungry, Sam replied loudly, running his finger down the index.

He had just found torvosaurus when his mothers reply came, Come to lunch right now or there will be no reading hour tonight.

Sam frowned. His mother was so bossy! But he knew her well enough to know that she would carry out her threat if he didnt eat.

So he did what any sensible nine-year-old would do: he opened the door, marched to the table, gulped down his lunch in a record two minutes his stopwatch was running and then rushed back to his room.

D r POX sharpened a pencil and tested its point. Satisfied, she laid it next to the fifteen other pencils that she had sharpened in the last fifteen minutes. She had just picked up the sixteenth pencil when there was a knock at the door.

Enter, she said, sitting up straight in her chair and laying the sixteenth unsharpened pencil at a perfect right angle to the others.

A thin, nervous man in grey uniform rushed into the room.

Dr POX frowned. She didnt like haste of any kind. Clearly the boy had not been under her command for very long.

Attention, Private! Dr POX barked.

Yes sir, the man said sharply, saluting her. Err maam. Then, seeing her face tighten, he said, I mean sir.

Dr POX will do, she said with a very mild trace of anger in her voice. There was much she was going to have to teach this boy. Report.

The private gulped. They had played rock-paper-scissors in the security centre as soon as the interrogation was over. He had been cut once and smashed twice, and so here he was in the dragons den, preparing to give her the bad news.

We ahh we the private stammered.

Look here, boy, Dr POX said, calmly picking up a sharpened pencil and feeling its point. I expect nothing more than a cows intelligence from you. However, if you insist on it, I could treat you the way I would treat a single-celled amoeba.

The privates eyes bulged and his throat worked furiously. She was pointing the pencil at him quite casually, but it was now or never. If he didnt blurt out his message, he would be skewered.

We dont know where he sent it, he blurted out. He refused to tell us.

He refused to tell us? Dr POX mimicked. Then she shook her head, sighing sadly. Why do I have to do all the work around here? Isnt it enough that I have to run this facility, monitor the research and take care of you imbeciles? Do I have to do the interrogation myself too?

The privates throat went dry.

Get out, Dr POX hissed.

His heart flipped, relieved that he had escaped with nothing more than sarcasm thrown at him.

He backed away and was turning to the door when she said, I will deal with you later.

The private ran out of the office and shut the door behind him. He realized with deep embarrassment that he had peed in his pants.

Six hours later, Dr POX sat down at her desk to continue sharpening the sixteenth pencil. She was satisfied and angry at the same time. She knew the chain of events, she knew what her next step was going to be, but she was furious that the disaster had happened in the first place.

Dr POX and her associates had spent billions of dollars on their research. They had spent several more on misdirecting the government about their true purpose and buying the land for their research facility right from under the noses of the tribes who had once called it home.

Dr POX snorted. Home. She was working on what would be the greatest revolution in the history of mankind. She was going to put the likes of Copernicus, Newton and Darwin to shame, and all these people could think about was their home.

Sighing, she put the pencil next to the rest. She had a long night ahead of her with calls to make and e-mails to send. They had to find the truck within the next twenty-four hours. Her research, no, her life depended on it. It depended on a single egg; an egg that had found its way out of her hands due to human greed.