Introduction
First Iteration
Second Iteration

Third Iteration
Fourth Iteration
Fifth Iteration

Sixth Iteration
Seventh Iteration

“The InGen Incident”

The first two-thirds of the introduction is a factual account of developments in the modern science of biotechnology or genetic engineering. Crichton sounds a warning. He argues that the current research, with its wide implications for human life, is in the hands of private corporations, unregulated by the government. He calls the commercialization of molecular biology “the most stunning ethical event in the history of science.” He then uses this factual account to introduce his fictional company, International Genetic Technologies, Inc. This company was responsible for what became known as the “InGen incident,” which took place in 1989 on a remote island off the west coast of Costa Rica. What happened on that island is the subject of the account that follows.

Prologue: The Bite of the Raptor

Bobbie Carter, a physician who is working temporarily at a clinic in the village of Bahia Anasco, on the west coast of Costa Rica. A helicopter flies in with a badly injured man. He has been injured during construction of a new resort on one of the offshore islands. The man carrying him say he was injured in a construction accident, but from the nature of his injuries, Bobby thinks he was mauled by an animal. The young man mutters that he was bitten by a raptor. Bobbie’s paramedic assistant, Manuel, explains that the man means Hupia, which are said to be night ghosts, vampires who kidnapped small children. The man dies. That night, Bobbie looks up raptor in the Spanish dictionary, finding that it means “ravisher” or “abductor.” Looking up the same word in an English dictionary, she finds that it means “bird of prey.”