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

research had been primarily medicine, so she understood the need for animal-testing but...

Betty shuddered, closing the image, and scrolling down to the next file.

This one was an image of Princess Leia, in her white gown – the glowing hologram projected by R2-D2.

As Betty tapped the screen, the image spoke.

“Help me, Obi Wan Kenobi,” the recorded voice of Carrie Fisher said.  “You're my only hope.”

Betty smiled a little, puzzled.

The file opened, and a video started to play.

In place of Leia's hologram, up popped the image of Professor Hinkle himself.

Betty's smile faded, as the old man began to speak.

“Ms. Kathryn Rhodes.  I've chosen you to receive this message because you are the daughter of General Nathan Rhodes, and it has become dangerous for me to attempt to contact him directly.”

Betty's brows furrowed.  Hinkle's speech and manner were clearly much more cognizant than the man she'd met only a short while ago.

She paused the message briefly, checking the date, noting the file was created only shortly before Kate had received her first e-mails.

Betty recalled how Hinkle seemed to frown when Kate had handed her the drive.  And the first thing on the message was a summons to her father, the General?

She paused, indecisive, before hitting play again.

It took less than two minutes.

As she watched, Hinkle's measured tones made it all the worse – like Rod Serling's invocation into the Twilight Zone.

Betty let the video end, staring, blinking at the blank screen.

The implications of what she'd just seen demanded a thousand contradictory impulses, and she found herself simply sitting immobile.

Her first random thought was that Kate's tell-you-but-I'd-have-to-kill-you joke was no longer funny at all.

Behind her, there was another creak at the door.  Betty turned, expecting to see Maverick.

But the open doorway was empty.

Then she heard a skittering, and a shadow darted into the room.

Betty jumped as the little lizard, Otto, hopped up onto the bookshelf beside her.

Except, now, Betty knew he was a bit more than just a parrot-talking lizard.

Otto cocked his head and opened his mouth.

“Help me, Obi Wan Kenobi,” he said in Princess Leia's voice.  “You're my only hope.”

There was more skittering movement at the door and suddenly two more of the little lizards popped up on the bookshelf beside the first.

The sickle-claws on their toes tapped, and their arms spread like wings, armed with very sharp claws.

When they moved, Betty reached for the intercom, but all she managed was a scream before they were upon her.

Chapter 22

Betty's scream echoed over the intercom throughout the compound.

When they came upon her in the study, it was very obviously already too late.

Cameron and Shanna came running up to find Maverick bent over Betty's bloody, still form.  Kate was standing behind him, hovering at the door.

Hinkle turned a sober eye to his daughter, shaking his head.

Wide-eyed, Shanna knelt beside Maverick, who looked gut-punched, and she lay a consoling hand on his shoulder.  He blinked at her touch, moving aside to let her examine the wounds.

Shanna ran her finger along the cleanly torn throat.

A sickle-claw slash, from a claw no more than three inches long.

“Otto?” she whispered hesitantly.

But even as she said it, Shanna's eyes squeezed shut and she doubled over, letting out a yelp of sudden pain.  Her hand stole to her temple.  She tried to stand, but Cameron had to catch her as she wobbled and nearly fell.

Hinkle moved forward, concerned.  “Shanna...?”

The rest, however, was drowned out as just outside the building, there came a bellowing roar.

“Um, people?” Kate said, looking up at the security screen.  “We've got a problem here.”

Staggering, eyes tearing as she leaned on Cameron's shoulder, Shanna tapped the screen bringing up a wide view of the grounds outside.

“Oh no,” she breathed.  “Congo?”

The big gorilla was standing in the walkway just in front of the building, reared to his full height, beating his chest, roaring angrily.

And from the other end of the compound, the challenge was answered, by a deafening bellow.

Shanna tapped the screen, turning the camera view towards the front gate – which was wide open.

Standing in the walkway were two big carcharodonts.

Shanna was shaking her head.  “They can't get here from the valley.  We have a dozen safeguards.”

“Like an open gate?” Kate said, turning from the screens, looking outside to where Congo pounded the ground, not twenty-feet beyond those uncomfortably fragile-looking, transparent alloy doors.

The little group of humans peered like mice under a log as just outside their hovel, the big ape faced down the two advancing dragons.

Giganotosaurus carolinii was the largest theropod on record.  Of somewhat lighter build than T. rex, its more gracile, kite-like frame allowed a significantly greater body-length, with a skull that averaged over five-feet.

And, of course, Hinkle bred 'em big.  These two males probably both scaled near ten tons, with nearly seven-foot jaws.

Congo, mighty-muscled as he was, seemed outmatched.

Maverick unshouldered his rifle, looking unhappily at the diminutive firearm compared to the elephant-sized predators.  He nodded to Shanna.

“Hey, jungle-girl,” he said.  “Can't you do your rex-whisperer thing?”

Shanna shook her head.  “Not with carnosaurs.  They have more primitive brains.  Too reptilian.  No pair-bonding yet.  Not much room for empathy.”

Then her eyes narrowed as the beasts drew near.

“Oh no,” she whispered.

The carcharodonts' eyes were glowing green.

“They're infected,” Shanna whispered.  She turned back to the security monitor, switching screens over to the view of the three separate valleys.  She tapped again, zooming closer to the roaming animals.

The beasts were agitated, and the cameras struggled to focus.

Then the image snapped sharp and they could see the animals' eyes.

All of them – from the roaming ceratopsians, to the lumbering sauropods – their eyes reflected back that tell-tale emerald glow.

“The food-trough,” Shanna said, blinking with realization.  “It was dosed.”

With one arm still over Cameron's shoulder, she began dragging them back to the main entrance.  Muttering curses, Maverick followed, sliding the safety off his rifle and locking shells in place

“Uh, what exactly are we doing?” Cameron objected as Shanna hit the switch, sliding open the front doors, and now they could hear the cavernous growls, as Congo faced-off the two