Venom: A Thriller in Paradise (The Thriller in Paradise Series Book 3) Read Online Free Page A

jocular banter is, it’s time to get serious. What’s for lunch?”
    “Hah. You’re taking us to the Sheraton.”
    “Us?”
    “Of course. Orli is joining us. She’s almost four months old now.”
    “Oh. Of course— ready for sushi.”
    They approached the beach, and Sy jumped overboard to fasten the bow line to the buoy The rest of them followed and lugged their equipment up the beach to Jack’s van: South Kona Divers was painted in international orange on the side.
    “What do you want to do with this?” Jack asked, holding up Plato’s bucket.
    Chazz took the bucket. “I guess we’ll either have to find a place to let him go or a way to send him back to Kauai. He might be happy in one of the tanks at the Center. Let’s just take him with us for now.”
    The beach was deserted now at the height of the day. The town, a few hundred feet to the north, was asleep. Even the traffic up on the highway seemed to have stopped moving. The four of them sat in the van, feet dangling out, and drank cold juice from the cooler. Around the bend to the south they could faintly catch the distant roar of the lava when the breeze was right. Otherwise only the insects, and a few crabs that scuttled on the sand, disturbed the silence.
    “What’re you going to do with all this stuff?” Jack asked, tossing his empty can into the big plastic trash container in back, beside the rack of empty air tanks.
    Chazz shrugged. “I wanted to see the volcano myself, up close, under water. That’s a primeval environment down there, where the lava meets the water. Life may have started near deep underwater vents a little like that. There’s the right combination of heat and organic chemicals. I got some water samples and some plant and animal life too. Mostly I’m interested in the little guys, the single-celled organisms who might show some genetic effects. It’s more a hobby than anything else, really.”
    “Anything useful come of it?” Jack started to stand up, ready to go. Sy snorted a quick barking laugh at the question.
    “Sy is laughing because he believes science, if it’s pure science, has no useful applications, at least not right away.” Chazz was smiling. “But frankly, we find some interesting effects in enzyme and protein production with the slight genetic changes we’re looking for here.”
    “What kind of effects?” Jack swung open the driver’s door and climbed in. The others found their seats, and he started up the dusty dirt road to the highway. Looking back, Chazz could see the boat, rising and falling gently on the swells.
    “You worry about your boat at all?” he asked.
    “Naw. There’s a guy lives in the first house down there keeps an eye on it for me when I leave it there. What kind of effects?”
    “Sometimes we find something useful.” They all laughed at that. The van turned north onto the highway.
    “Yeah…?” Jack urged.
    “And sometimes we find something harmful, a new toxin, a formerly harmless critter turned venomous, a poison. The changes are accidents, and the results unpredictable. That’s what I like about it.”
    A siren started up and Jack pulled over. The sound died slowly behind them and Jack rolled down his window. They heard a door slam, and a heavyset sheriff’s deputy appeared at Jack’s window. His sunglasses reflected Jack’s distorted face back at Chazz and Patria.
    “Jack Wellburn?” the deputy asked.
    “That’s right.”
    He nodded. “Good. One of your passengers named Koenig?”
    “Two of them, actually.”
    “Good.” He leaned a little into the window to get a better look at Chazz. “Dr. Koenig? I’m Locey. Deputy Sheriff. We got a telex from a Lieutenant Takamura, Kauai County PD. He’s asked us to put you on a state plane back to Kauai ASAP. Would you mind coming with me?”
    Patria put her hand on his arm. “No! We have to get Orli.”
    “Sorry, ma’am. There’s a panic on.”
    “Don’t worry. Cobb wouldn’t do this if it weren’t important.