Kingdom of Monsters by John Schneider (latest novels to read .TXT) 📕

chomping, eight-inch rodent-teeth, snarling through the bars to the cage.

Betty jerked back with a screech.

The rabbit latched onto one of the bars and began whipping its head back and forth like a bulldog, scarring the metal.

“Jesus,” Maverick muttered, shouldering his rifle uncomfortably.  Cameron zoomed-in his camera.

Then the entire enclosure abruptly came alive as the rabbit's mad-screeching roused the other animals.  The caterwauling howls rose in pitch.

“My God,” Kate exclaimed, holding her ears.

“They become highly aggressive,” Hinkle said, raising his voice to be heard over the ruckus.  “The effect is rather like rabies, except that it seems consistent in birds, reptiles, fish or insects.”

Betty looked back at the cute two-hundred-pound bunny tearing savagely at its cage.  There was little doubt what those chomping jaws would do if it could but free itself.

Around them, the other cages actually began to shake as their frenzied occupants attacked the bars locking them inside.

“Perhaps we'd best leave them be,” Hinkle said.  “This batch is due to be euthanized.”

As Hinkle led them back into the main lab, there was a beep and Shanna's voice sounded over the intercom.

“Daddy?  I'm going to be a bit longer out here than I thought.”

“Malfunction in the equipment?” Hinkle spoke aloud.

“I'm not sure yet,” Shanna replied.

“I'm going to take our guests over to the dining area,” Hinkle said.  “I'm sure everyone is hungry.”

“I'm sure,” Shanna replied tiredly.  “By the way, Miss Rhodes, I just got word they're sending a ship to collect you.  So you might as well relax.”

Shanna clicked the intercom off.

“You know,” Maverick said, “maybe we should try and fly the hell out of here.”

Cameron shook his head.  “I'd rather get arrested than shot down.”

Betty raised a confirming hand.  “I'm afraid I have to second that.”

“Relax,” Kate cajoled, as they followed Hinkle out of the lab, across the grounds to the living quarters.  The accommodations were equally space-age, although rather spartan, with a simple rec-room, a small gym, and a TV.

“By the way,” Hinkle said, as if with an afterthought, “I downloaded some more detailed files, to peruse at your convenience.”  He handed Kate back her thumb-drive.

Kate blinked, looking down at the device, and then handed it to Betty.

It seemed for a moment that Hinkle frowned as she did so.

Betty took the drive, and nodded, pulling her laptop out of her bag, and plugged-in the drive.

“Do you have a place I can sit down?” Betty asked.

After a slight hesitation, Hinkle opened his door to a modestly compact but well-stocked library.

“This is my study,” Hinkle said.  “You should have sufficient privacy in here.” He pointed to the intercom on the desk.  “Just push this button when you're done.”

He turned to the others.  “This way to the dining room.”

The motion-detected cameras followed them as they went.

Once the screens were all focused on the small entourage at the other end of the hall, there was scuttling movement as Otto emerged from where he'd been hiding in a corner.

His head bobbing, he peered into Hinkle's study, where Betty bent over her laptop.

Chapter 20

The cafeteria was adjoined with a modest dining room, and with obvious ritual, Hinkle began prepping the kitchen.  The very model of etiquette, he offered libation.  Maverick accepted a pint of heavy draft, while Kate took a glass of chilled white wine.

Cameron asked for a restroom, but as he ducked out into the hall, he instead headed back outside.

Across the yard, Shanna was still struggling with the automation.  She stood in front of an open control box mounted on a pole, outside the series of utility buildings built at the edge of the waterfall.

The feed-carts looked like the log-ride at Disneyland – rail-tracks leading down through the segregated canyons – a traveling food-trough.

Cameron turned up the light on his camera as he approached, waving his hand.

“Hey there,” he ventured, zeroing the lens in for a close-up.

Shanna turned, her face unhappy and frustrated.  She held up her hand against the light.

“Would you please not do that?” she asked.

Cameron lowered his camera.

“Sorry,” he said.

He was struck again by her sheer beauty – the absolute symmetry of her form and movements.

“Well?” she said.  “Can I help you?”

She had what Maverick called 'bright-eyes'.  As he put it, “The sort you see on post-grad college-chicks studying psychology, or some shit.”

And she stared right through you, too, just like a shrink.  Cameron actually found himself blushing.

“I'm sorry,” he said.  “I mean, I wanted to...”

But then the assembly-line food-trough suddenly kicked alive.  Shanna turned to the screen which was flashing 'reset-complete'.

Shanna tapped the screen, bringing up a menu.

“What's wrong with it?” Cameron asked.

“Well,” Shanna said icily, as she tapped through screens, “it seems that right about the time you people arrived...” Shanna cast him an arch eye,  “... apparently the feed-operations ran without receiving a command from me.”

She peered onto the screen.

“Right here,” she said.  “The code and the voice command are mine, but I was with you people on the beach.  I didn't do it.”

Cameron shrugged.  “Computers have glitches.”

Shanna shook her head.  “We don't have glitches.”

She shook her head.

“I can't figure out why this load ran.  And I can't find what was on it.  It's like the record was deleted except for the fact that the rail-computer logged the trip, and the troughs have been dumped.”

“So what does that mean?” Cameron asked.  “The critters get overfed?  If they're anything like my dog, they won't complain about that.”

As if in answer, there was a hooting cry from somewhere down in the valley.

Cameron had done his time on Mr. Wilson's farm with Maverick, but he lived in town, where wildlife was generally restricted to deer and raccoon, which were mostly quiet critters.

Whatever made this low howl was no raccoon.

Cameron tapped down a few unruly hairs on the back of his neck.

Shanna caught the movement and smiled a bit.

“Don't worry,” she said.  “No dinosaur is going to eat you.  Not up here.  They don't like the hills.”

“What about your gorilla friend?”

“He's around,” Shanna allowed.  With a sigh, she shut down her computer screen, turning to eye him directly.