Read Online Chupacabra by Roland Smith - Free Book Online Page B

Washington?”
    “Just for the summer,” Dylan answered. “She’s an Egyptologist.”
    “So she’s not really your mommy she’s your —”
    “My mummy.” Dylan finished the old joke and gave him an eye roll.
    Luther grinned. “I guess you get that a lot.”
    “Only when I tell someone what she does for a living. There’s a good chance you won’t even meet her. She’s putting together an exhibit at the university. That’s why Theo, I mean Ted, loaned me the pickup. She’s been spending her nights in the exhibit hall. I didn’t have a way to get around.”
    “Can I drive?” Luther asked.
    “No!” Marty said.
    “Just asking.”
    Dylan laughed. “What’s the plan?”
    “We don’t have a plan,” Marty admitted. “We thought we’d just go to the Ark and see if we could spot Grace and maybe get a chance to talk to her.”
    “And maybe get those hatchlings back,” Luther added.
    “Fat chance,” Marty said.
    “And Noah Blackwood is going to be on the lookout for you?” Dylan asked.
    “Yeah, and his thug Butch McCall.”
    “Don’t forget that snake Yvonne.”
    “The animal trainer,” Dylan said.
    “She’s worse than Butch,” Luther said.
    “Nobody’s worse than Butch McCall,” Marty said. “He tried to throw me overboard, and he murdered a guy aboard the Coelacanth .”
    Dylan pointed at the graphic novel. “I read about that. I thought you were kidding.”
    “It’s no joke,” Marty said. “These guys play for keeps. You may not want to get involved with this. We just need a ride to the Ark. Do you have a cell phone?”
    “Of course.”
    “Good. We’ll just give you a call when we’re ready to be picked up.”
    Dylan shook his head. “No way. You need me. I’m the only one of us that Noah Blackwood and the others don’t know on sight. I’m going with you.”
    Marty looked at Luther.
    “It’d be nice to have one more person — to call the undertaker if things don’t work out at the Ark,” Luther joked grimly. “And he’s right about Blackwood not knowing him.”
    Marty turned back to Dylan. “Are you sure?”
    “Positive,” Dylan said.
    Marty nodded. “When we get there, we should enter the gate separately.”
    “Why?” Luther asked.
    Marty looked at Luther’s shaved head. “Because we’d be humiliated to be seen anywhere with you.”
    “Feeling’s mutual,” Luther said.
    Marty smiled. He and Luther had been throwing smack talk at each other since they were in first grade at Omega Opportunity Preparatory School in Switzerland (OOPS for short).
    “Seriously,” Marty said. “If we go in together and they recognize one of us, we’ll all get busted. We can stay in touch by cell phone. Providing your phones work after getting dunked in Puget Sound.”
    “Mine was in the truck,” Dylan said.
    “Mine’s in the bathroom next to the blow-dryer blasting it,” Luther said. “I’ve dropped it in the toilet half a dozen times. The blow-dryer always revives it.” He looked at Marty. “You don’t have a cell phone.”
    “But I have the Gizmo, which works like a smartphone.”
    “The Gizmo is real?” Dylan said.
    “It’s all real,” Luther said. “And the Gizmo isn’t a smart-phone, it’s a genius phone. Show him, Marty.”
    Marty didn’t have to be asked twice. He pulled PD out of his pocket so he could get to the Gizmo. He handed PD to Luther. She growled.
    “I don’t think she likes me.”
    “She doesn’t recognize you. You look like one of the walking dead.”
    “I told you the disguise was good.”
    Marty and Dylan each gave Luther a heavy-duty eye roll.
    “What?”
    They ignored him. Marty fished out the Gizmo and turned it on. It was a little bigger than a standard smartphone and hadthe same functions: phone, camera, video, email, texting, web browsing, etc. But there were a couple of other functions that made it very different. The first was its tracking capabilities. Everyone officially connected with eWolfe wore a color-coded tracking