"Wait, what do you mean the funding sailed through committee? What about Senator Evans? He always draws it out for as many concessions as he can."
"Not this time. His office called, in fact. He wants to set up a lunch meeting this week with the Director to discuss 'supplementary funding opportunities.'"
"Supplementary... wait. Evans gets checks from the hunters, doesn't he?"
"Yeah. Ducks Unlimited, Sportsman's Alliance, Safari Club. Apparently a lot of them have been making calls. Especially since that video of the raptor head over the fireplace went out."
"Why are you cancelling my research? I still have funding."
"Everyone has funding. We still need to release something by the 30th, and the committee picked an iguanodon for variety. You'll just have to find a new dissertation topic."
Oh that's so sad. I was so rooting for Yutie.
There'd need to be a whole park for them to run around in to avoid that ending, alas.
This was really a fun read, and the zinger of Cajuns eating dino meat had me rolling. Great work!
Thank you! I have family from Louisiana, and they thought the Cajuns would have recipes pretty soon after the first ones were cloned.
I need more Cajuns in my fiction. 😁
"And them's good eatin'!"
Three months later...
"Wait, what do you mean the funding sailed through committee? What about Senator Evans? He always draws it out for as many concessions as he can."
"Not this time. His office called, in fact. He wants to set up a lunch meeting this week with the Director to discuss 'supplementary funding opportunities.'"
"Supplementary... wait. Evans gets checks from the hunters, doesn't he?"
"Yeah. Ducks Unlimited, Sportsman's Alliance, Safari Club. Apparently a lot of them have been making calls. Especially since that video of the raptor head over the fireplace went out."
"[Expletive deleted.]"
Seven months later:
"Why are you cancelling my research? I still have funding."
"Everyone has funding. We still need to release something by the 30th, and the committee picked an iguanodon for variety. You'll just have to find a new dissertation topic."
"[Deleted]"