MICHAEL CRICHTON

“Let’s say I buy this image,” Travis said, frowning. “I still don’t see why youshould take the next expedition in.”Ross said, “What did the other team find?”“The other team?” Travis asked innocently.“You gave that tape to another salvage team to confirm my recovery,” Rosssaid.Travis glanced at his watch. “They haven’t pulled any-thing out yet.” And he added, “We all know you’re fast with the database.”Ross smiled. “That’s why you need me to take the expedition in,” she said. “Iknow the database, because I generated the database. And if you intend to sendanother team in right away, before this gorilla thing is solved, the only hope youhave is for the team leader to be fast onsite with the data. This time, you need aconsole hotdogger in the field. Or the next expedition will end up like the last one.Because you still don’t know what happened to the last expedition.”Travis sat behind his desk, and stared at her for a long time. She recognizedhis hesitation as a sign that he was weakening.“And I want to go outside,” Ross said.“To an outside expert?”“Yes. Somebody on our grant list.”“Risky,” Travis said. “I hate to involve outside people at this point. You knowthe consortium is breathing down our necks. You up the leak averages.”‘‘It’s important,’’ Ross insisted.Travis sighed. “Okay, if you think it’s important.” He sighed again. “Just don’tdelay your’team.”Ross was already packing up her hard copy.Alone, Travis frowned, turning over his decision in his mind. Even if they ranthe next Congo expedition slambam, in and out in less than fifteen days, theirfixed costs would still exceed three hundred thousand dollars. The Board was22