Chupacabra by Roland Smith Read Free Book Online Page B

their cabin aboard the Coelacanth were Rose’s last two Moleskine journals. On the trip back from New Zealand, Marty had read all but these last two. He’d discovered virtually no useful information about Rose and Noah Blackwood. He thought about leaving these last two behind, then thought better of it. If he didn’t get time to read them ashore, maybe he could pass them on to Grace. He slipped them into his pack.
    He and Luther were just about to leave when a boy with dark hair stepped into their cabin.
    “Are you Marty and Luther?”
    “Yeah. I’m Marty.”
    “I’m Luther.”
    “I see that,” the boy said, staring at Luther’s hair. “My name’s Dylan Hickock. I guess we’re going to be bunking with each other for the next couple of days. I’ve been looking for you. Did you know the ship’s about ready to cast off?”
    “Now that you mention it, yeah,” Marty said, noticing the vibrations and loud rumbling of the engines. “We better hurry. Cap doesn’t care who’s on board or who isn’t. When it’s time to go, it’s time to go.”
    A small yapping black dog the size of a squirrel ran into the cabin between Dylan’s legs, making him jump. “What’s that?” he blurted out.
    “Teacup poodle,” Marty said. “PD. Short for Pocket Dog.”
    A second later a gray parrot flew in, screeching. Dylan covered his ears.
    “That’s Congo,” Marty said.
    “You’re kind of jumpy for someone who’s seen Bigfoot,” Luther quipped.
    “You heard about that,” Dylan said.
    “Not in any detail, but Marty had a Bigfoot encounter, too. Of course, it really wasn’t Sasquatch, it was a chimp.”
    “Shut up, Luther,” Marty said.
    Luther grinned. “Are we going to take these two with us?”
    Congo had landed on his perch and started to loudly crack sunflower seeds. PD had stopped yapping and was running circles around Marty’s feet.
    “They’re too much trouble together. I’ll take PD.” He held his baggy cargo pocket open. “Snake!”
    PD jumped into the pocket and disappeared.
    “Hence the name,” Dylan said.
    “Yeah.” Marty said. “She’s terrified of snakes. Saying snake works every time.”
    The three boys hurried out of the cabin and ran across the deck, reaching the gangway just as it was being winched up.
    “Jump!” Luther yelled.
    They leaped the four-foot gap. Marty and Dylan made it with several feet to spare. Luther stumbled and plunged into the cold waters of Puget Sound.
    “Can he swim?” Dylan shouted.
    “Not very well.”
    Dylan ran back toward the gangway and dove off the dock and into the water like a cormorant. By the time Marty reached the edge and looked over, Dylan had the sputtering Luther in a headlock and was towing him toward a ladder attached to one of the pilings. Marty helped them onto the dock.
    “I can’t believe we fell!” Luther said. He looked at Marty. “And I can’t believe you didn’t, as clumsy as you are.”
    Marty was a natural athlete and didn’t have a clumsy bone in his body, which Luther was well aware of. Luther also knew that Dylan had jumped in after him, but Dylan didn’t correct him — it would have been bad form to do so. In fact, his cold bluish lips were grinning. You either loved Luther or hated him. There was no in-between. Luckily, Dylan seemed to like him.
    “We need to go to the Ark,” Luther said through chattering teeth, pouring salt water out of his backpack. “Where’s the car?”
    “In the lot,” Dylan said. “Maybe we should stop by the condo and get dried out first.”
    “I’m fine,” Luther said, wringing out the bottom edge of his T-shirt, “but if you need to, I guess that would be okay.”
    Marty gave Luther a humongous eyeball roll.
    “What?” Luther said.
    They followed Dylan to the parking lot, where he unlocked a battered crew cab truck with a cracked windshield and a missing hubcap.
    “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Luther said. “Ted …” He looked at Marty. “I mean Theo Sonborn drives