It had been their first joint project. Wu and Sorkin, the dream team together on a seemingly intractable problem. When the fossil seller had approached InGen with what several paleontologists attested to be a hundred pounds of "genuine late Cretaceous North American troodon" material, the extraction and sequencing team got to work right away. InGen's acquisitions division would later be reprimanded and instructed to more carefully scrutinize the credentials of attesting paleontologists. Ultimately, however, InGen had been left with two choices: throw away a year and a half of expensive lab and supercomputer work or try and create a viable chimera of three or so somewhat related theropods.
Despite Dr. Sorkin's distaste she had listened and grudgingly admitted it was possible, if not a particularly good idea, to start with a base of stenonychosarus and add the other fragments with glue made of African and Amazonian parrot DNA. When the first batch of 24 chicks hatched with no still-births or deformities Dr Wu had been very pleased with himself. They also had striking and very marketable plumage for the booming business of official Jurassic Park "True Life"™ dinosaur stuffed animals. Then other parrot traits started to emerge. The mimicking was a bit worrying from the start but then it got worse.
Dr. Wu eyed the VHS cassette. It was practically covered in TOP SECRET stickers and had been transported in a locked hardcase. He pushed it into the slot on the machine and pressed play. Research footage showed 24 half grown troodons milling around while divided into three equal cliques based on plumage color: The SM (Scarlet Macaw), BY (Blue-Yellow Macaw), and AG (African Grey) groups. However, they all as one turned to the airlock on some inaudible cue. The inner door opened and three zookeepers entered with a large cooler for the direct contact feeding procedure. The cliques broke apart as the troodons approached the zookeepers before reforming into the latest pecking order.
Dr. Wu listened closely to the flock of excited troodons as they waited their turn. Many of the vocalizations were screeches and chirps common with other small-to-medium sized theropods. Increasingly though, and what got this video tape classified, there were the other vocalizations.
"Have food? Give?"
"Want want want want want giiiiive?"
"My meat food. Tasty."
"Open coo-er open open open."
The top of the pecking order and their most troublesome subject, AG-5 "Ginny", approached the trio of zookeepers in her newest "winsome" pose with her light grey feathers fluffed, arms tucked, and head tilted. "I would rike some meat, preeeease?" She ended her vocalization with a frightening attempt at a smile.
Wu took off his glasses, pressed both hands hard against his face and groaned loudly. Sorkin silently patted him on the back while keeping her eyes on the video and biting her lip with worry.