Dillon Hunt And The Desert Oasis Resort by Chad Stewart (books suggested by bill gates txt) 📕

where we were dumping it into the underground water supply. He’s quite brilliant really.”

“So then how did you find out that John wasn’t who he said he was?”

Troy smirked and looked briefly to one of the cages.

He followed Troy’s gaze. “Tom Tom?” Dillon blurted, as the truth dawned on him. He saw the broken man in the cage slump a little more.

“It’s not like that,” Tom Tom replied weakly. “I didn’t … I never meant to … ” Tears streamed from the old man’s face. “He’s my friend.”

Dillon didn’t know what to think, and Troy seemed to be enjoying the drama as he grinned wickedly.

“After we found out who John really was we figured that it was only a matter of time before he discovered our secret and reported back to The Orion Group.” He paused for a moment in self-reflection. “You know, at first we didn’t know that Orion was even involved in this, but we made preparations anyway in order to deal with whoever it was once we took John into our care.”

“By creating these monsters?” Dillon interjected.

“Yes, and we made a few other provisions, but the Necrotoxic creatures were definitely top of our achievement. You can thank John for those.”

Dillon swallowed hard and even flinched a little at the mention of the Necrotoxic creatures.

“John’s gifts of manipulating chemical properties is most useful.”

“I assume you tortured him into telling you who sent him?” Derek accused.

“No no no, nothing that crude,” Troy replied calmly. “We have other ways of finding out the information we need. The neurogenic transmitters don’t just allow us to control the mind, but sift it as well. John’s knowledge of the science is extremely impressive.”

“Do you know why it’s called necrotoxin?” he continued. “Because it actually kills the creature and brings it back in a, shall we say, more formidable state. It makes changes to their genetic code and gives them features that aren’t natural to them, as you probably noticed with the large snake creature that had arms, or the coyotes that are larger than normal and possess acidic saliva. Before we do that, however, we make sure to implant the neurogenic transmitter first so they are perfectly under control.”

“But why did you put one of those neurogenic transmitters in Gwen?” Dillon asked, almost shouting as his anger started to surface.

Troy gave Dillon a dismissive wave as he walked over to where Gwen was. “It’s really quite simple,” he stated matter-of-factly. “It’s because you were starting to become an annoyance, and Orion kept a pretty close eye on you. We figured that if you somehow managed to find your way down here then we would have to put a contingency plan in place to deal with it. When we were notified that you were on your way through the information center, we snatched up your sister—after dealing with the two Orion agents that were watching your family—and put her in the tunnel and programmed her to alert us of your presence if you made it to the lab facility. It worked pretty well wouldn’t you say?” he stated as he patted Gwen on the head.

“Get your hands off her you jerk!” Jordan yelled through gritted teeth.

“Wouldn’t surveillance cameras be easier than using human pawns?” Dillon asked in disgust.

“Ah, but that’s the problem with working down here Dillon. You must have figured that out by now? Electronics don’t function the same close to these magnetic rocks now do they?”

“Then how are you able to keep the computers in the lab running?”

Troy laughed again. “Man! You are observant and nothing gets passed you, does it? The computers are hooked up to massive generators so we can use them, and even then we can only operate for so long until we have to shut them down. You might have noticed some blackout periods at the resort?”

Dillon thought back and remembered a few of the moments Troy was talking about.

“Those were times when our power here at Oasis Resort was taxed to the max and couldn’t be sustained because of all of this.” He held his arms open dramatically as if totally caught up in his own genius.

“That’s great and all,” Jordan interjected. “But why are you telling us all this?”

Troy turned his attention to Dillon. “So you can see what’s already being accomplished! We’re doing great things, Dillon. Things you could be a part of. John’s scientific genius is great, but we need someone who can spot problems and connections. Someone like you.”

“Well that’s not going to happen!” Dillon responded resolutely.

“I was afraid you would say that,” Troy replied as he nodded to Rob, the man who had thrown Jordan into the air a moment earlier. “I guess we will just have to dispose of you and your family. You know too much.” Rob smiled and started to approach the two brothers.

“What are you doing?” Derek asked insistently from his cell. “They’re just boys!”

“You should have thought of that before you got them into this,” Troy snapped back.

“Wait Troy, that wasn’t part of the deal!” Tara exclaimed. “You said you just wanted to capture the kids.”

“Sorry Tara, but things just got more complicated,” replied Troy. “We now have to clean up this mess,” he stated. “Try to make it quick Rob. I can’t stand to see people suffer. We’ll take care of Derek and the others after.”

“With pleasure,” Rob responded.

Dillon’s heart pounded in his chest. He knew now that his life was about to be cut short. And the worst thing was that he got his sister and brother mixed up in this as well, and now they were about to pay the ultimate price because of him.

“How are you going to explain the disappearances of three kids?” Derek insisted, trying to talk reason into the madman. “Don’t do this!” he yelled.

“Oh … we’ll think of something,” said Troy as he dismissed Derek’s plea. “We always do.”

Rob strolled over and stood before the boys. He reached down, going for Dillon’s neck, but before he could get close enough Jordan shot his hand up and grabbed the man’s wrist. Rob smiled. Then his smile turned into a look of confusion as he found that he couldn’t move his hand toward Dillon anymore. He looked at Jordan who stared back, a mischievous grin on his face. Jordan held up his other hand revealing a small syringe with the label on it that read: Centrigenix. Before Rob could react Jordan grabbed him by the shirt and threw him across the room. Rob slammed into the other guy who, a moment earlier, helped bring Dillon and Jordan into the room from the lab. The man slammed the back of his head into the wall and the crack from the blow reverberated through the room. Both he and Rob slumped to the ground in a heap.

Tara grabbed Gwen and pulled her aside as Rob flew through the air like a rag doll. They both stumbled and fell to the ground. Troy dived out of the way of the human projectile.

“Whoa!” was all that Dillon could say as he looked at his brother’s handy-work.

Jordan smiled at him. “This stuff works pretty good! Quick, go grab Gwen,” he yelled as he headed to the cages. Dillon nodded and ran as fast as he could toward the fray of bodies, hoping he would get there before they got back to their senses.

“Stop them!” Troy yelled as he stumbled toward one of the nearby desks.

Dillon leaped over top of Rob and the other guy and grabbed Gwen by the hand. Her eyes were still glowing yellow. Tara still held onto Gwen’s other arm as she tried to get up. Dillon quickly slipped his pack off and swung it as hard as he could. He heard a loud crack as the bag landed squarely on the woman’s face. She jolted backward and hit the floor, writhing in pain and holding her nose.

Jordan got to Derek’s cage, grabbed the lock, and pulled it off as though it was made of cheap plastic instead of steel. Derek looked at him in amazement, but before he could say anything Jordan was off to the next cage tearing the lock free.

Troy reached for something in one of the desks. It was a small tablet. He started sliding his finger across the screen and hitting buttons as he went. Jordan finished breaking the last lock off the cages and turned to see where Dillon was. As he did so, he heard the ugly howl of coyotes, and a loud hissing sound. He smiled as he saw creatures coming into the room from the hallway to the left. There were three coyote-type creatures, that large snake-thing they had encountered in the information center, and a few of those spider beasts.

“Let’s do this!” Jordan screamed.

Dillon pulled Gwen up and tried to get her away from the sprawled-out people they were in the midst of. Rob was beginning to stir, but the other guy looked as though he was out cold. Dillon managed to get Gwen over to where the others were. Thankfully she didn’t resist or appear as if she was going to put up a fight; she just stared blankly with those yellow eyes.

The people working at the stations were equally disinterested in the events that were transpiring around them. They just sat at their terminals and continued to work. It was both comical and eerie all at the same time!

“Make sure nothing happens to Gwen,” Dillon shouted to his brother as he grabbed something out of the side of his backpack and started off, running for Troy as fast as he could.

“What are you doing you numbskull!” Jordan cried after him.

Dillon ducked as one of the coyotes lunged for him, narrowly missing him as he ran for Troy. Troy looked up just in time to see Dillon charging. He tried to move out of the way but couldn’t get clear. Dillon leaped upon him and plunged the Necrotoxin into Troys side. Troy screamed in pain and