MICHAEL CRICHTON

Ross was under intense pressure. With the airplane circling eight miles fromthe chaff cloud, she had to make a decision quickly. But she had just been dealta devastating— and wholly unexpected—setback.The Euro-Japanese consortium had been ahead of them from the very start,by approximately eighteen hours and twenty minutes. On the ground in Nairobi,Munro had worked out a plan with Ross which would erase that difference andput the ERTS expedition on-site forty hours ahead of the consortium team. Thisplan—which for obvious reasons she had not told Elliot—called for them toparachute onto the barren southern slopes of Mount Mukenko.From Mukenko, Munro estimated it was thirty-six hours to the ruined city; Rossexpected to jump at two o’clock that afternoon. Depending on cloud cover overMukenko and the specific drop zone, they might reach the city as early as noonon June 19.The plan was extremely hazardous. They would be jumping untrainedpersonnel into a wilderness area, more than three days’ walk from the nearestlarge town. If anyone suffered a serious injury, the chances of survival wereslight. There was also a question about the equipment: at altitudes of 8,000—10,000 feet on the volcanic slopes, air resistance was reduced, and the Crosslinpackets might not provide enough protection.Initially Ross had rejected Munro’s plan as too risky, but he convinced her itwas feasible. He pointed out that the parafoils were equipped with automatedaltimeter-release devices; that the upper volcanic scree was as yielding as asandy beach; that the Crosslin containers could be over-packed; and that hecould carry Amy down himself.Ross had double-checked outcome probabilities from the Houston computer,and the results were unequivocal. The probability of a successful jump was.7980, meaning there was one chance in five that someone would be badly hurt.However, given a successful jump, the probability of expedition success was.9934, making it virtually certain they would beat the consortium to the site.No alternate plan scored so high. She had looked at the data and said, “Iguess we jump.”“I think we do,” Munro had said.The jump solved many problems, for the geopolitical updates wereincreasingly unfavorable. The Kigani were now in full rebellion; the pygmies wereunstable; the Zaire army had sent armored units into the eastern border area toput down the Kigani—and African field armies were notoriously trigger-happy. Byjumping onto Mukenko, they expected to bypass all these hazards.114