Read Online Extinction Evolution (The Extinction Cycle Book 4) by Nicholas Sansbury Smith - Free Book Online

to him. She had reservations too, but there wasn’t much they could do about that until the rockets were launched, and for now all they could do was continue forward with the production of the antibodies.
    Ellis gave her a sidelong glance. “Besides the fact we haven’t run months of trials and tests?”
    Kate felt her features crunch into a frown. “Yes, besides that.”
    Ellis was silent for a moment. He stared down at his desk, then back at his scope. “I’m sorry, Kate.”
    “Sorry for what?”
    Ellis gestured for her to come closer. “For not telling you about this earlier.”
    Kate took in a breath, mentally preparing herself for the worst. She pressed her visor against the scope and blinked.
    “This is a tissue sample from a Variant in the Florida Keys. A Marine unit extracted it after their team came under attack about four days ago. Wood brought it with him yesterday.”
    “And you didn’t tell me?”
    “I haven’t had time,” Ellis said defensively. “I’m sorry.”
    “It’s okay,” Kate replied. “Now tell me everything.”
    “These Variants were different.”
    “Different how?”
    Ellis raised a hand. “Before you yell at me, just know I wanted to study them so I could give you better info—”
    “Ellis!”
    He lowered his hand and let out a deep sigh. “These Variants had gills.”
    “Gills?”
    “And that’s not all. The Marines claim the Variants set a trap. The Variants in Key West left an injured woman in a street for the Marines to find.”
    “Setting a trap requires a level of intelligence far beyond any of the Variants we have studied, Ellis. The report has to be wrong.”
    “I don’t think so. I read it over thoroughly, and everything they described indicates the Variants planted that woman there like a piece of bait to lure a fish.”
    Kate shook her head. “I don’t...” She stopped herself short of saying she didn’t believe the report. There was documentation from military units across the country about Variants that seemed to display higher levels of intelligence. Some even seemed to lead battles or hunting parties. But planting a trap?
    “There’s more,” Ellis said. He leaned over to his computer and keyed in his password. When the monitor activated, he moused over to a file. “This was taken five days ago at a Navy installation in Antarctica.”
    A video of a dark room appeared on screen. Banks of lights flipped on, and the inside of a morgue came into focus. The camera panned from gurney to gurney, each with white sheets draped over corpses.
    Ellis punched a key and fast-forwarded through the beginning. He stopped when the cameraman approached one of the bodies. A second soldier, wearing a parka and white breathing mask, came into view and stepped up to the table. He slowly pulled back the white sheet to expose the slitted eyes of a dead Variant. But instead of a bald skull and veiny, pale cheeks, the creature had a head crested with fluffy white hair and a beard surrounding its bulging lips.
    The soldier continued pulling the sheet down to the naked creature’s waist. Its chest and torso were covered with a layer of the smooth white fur.
    “What the hell?” Kate whispered.
    Ellis fast-forwarded further. Each of the bodies was the same. All of them covered in shiny fur.
    “Pretty remarkable evolution, isn’t it?” Ellis said.
    “That’s not evolution. That’s some kind of twisted metamorphosis. First the gills, now the fur. The Variants are adapting to their environments.”
    “I haven’t even shown you the craziest part yet,” Ellis said. “Check this out. This came in from a Special Forces team in Syria.” He moused over to another video and clicked play. The feed of a desert came on screen. Rolling sand dunes stretched across the horizon. The images bobbed for several seconds as the soldiers drove a brown SUV up and down the mounds. The vehicle came to a stop on top of a dune overlooking a valley of rock formations. The driver jumped out