Dinosaur Hunter Diaries #046: The Rag & Bone Man
Turok: Dinosaur Hunter #11
Turok goes undercover.
Because it’s been a while since we’ve had a dinosaur attack for a cold open, a couple of schmucks break into Chun Lee Fat’s textiles store, supposedly a front for his shady business… but what they’ve really walked into is feeding time for the guard dog bionisaur.
This doesn’t just save him the cost of feeding the thing, it also makes for a good snuff film to threaten his continental rivals with… and even make a bit of dosh on the side from folks eager to see a real-life ‘dragon’.
Back in Utah, Turok learns about the bionisaur from the now-deceased mercenary Bile captured; the crime boss has found a way to make it loyal to him. Bile’s seen too much bloodshed to want to pursue this further, but lends Turok his truck for his journey of vengeance.
Onward to San Francisco! His long road trip is a chance for Turok to reflect on the new world he’s found himself in — the wonders of maps and automotive transport gives him greater speed and freedom than he had in his time before the Lost Land… but there’s so little of his people to be found. He makes contact with whoever he can, hoping to make an ‘in’ that’ll get him close to Chun Lee Fat.
Turok stops by a bar in San Fernando and gets acquainted with a Blackfoot, Lyle Jakes, pretending to be a trader of skins and bones. He shacks up with him and his fellow labourers while working on the next step of his plan, moving into the city to undercut Fat’s operations and gain his attention.
The city proves overwhelming for Turok, but he persists.
If you want to be obnoxiously pedantic, you could argue Turok’s already been exposed to cities before when he and X-O Manowar went dino-hunting in the New York sewers… but that’s a different kettle of fish from having to integrate under false business pretences. Also, that’s assuming the X-O Manowar crossovers are actually important to continuity.
He soon makes a name for his disguised self in the folk medicine business, selling any old animal remains and claiming it’s prime-grade fertility drugs. News quickly slips to Chun Lee Fat, who dispatches a band of hired goons to put the squeeze on his operation; they may be tough, but Turok’s able to send them packing with just a buffalo femur as his weapon.
He must be hitting close to home if Fat is out for blood, so he moves in, able to track down Fat’s business by the smell of bionisaur. The intrusion does not go unnoticed, though the crime boss is eager to watch Turok on his hidden cameras. His bionisaur warned him about this guy, and he’s eager to see if he lives up to his reputation.
An issue light on action, but a fun exploration of Turok finally exploring the modern world on his lonesome, and seeing for the first time the fate of his fellow natives.
