Cloud Invasion by Connie Suttle Read Free Book Online Page B

of us looked at what sixteen humans had become after surviving the drug.
    "The youngest one is the most dangerous, I think," Pete sighed. "As a human, he was nineteen. Here's his photograph, before and after."
    Auggie looked, shook his head and handed it to me. Rafe drew in a breath beside me. In one photograph, Kevin Riley smiled as his senior class photo was taken. In the other, the creature that formerly was Kevin Riley stood over the carcass of a disemboweled cow. His muzzle, if you could call it that, was bloody from eating the animal from the middle outward.
    Sharp, obsidian scales covered his body, while his eyes glowed golden as he fed. Claws on all six legs were evident, although he only employed the first two to feed himself.
    "I believe that's a carryover from his human existence, only using his front set of legs to hold his lunch," I handed the photograph to Rafe. I was more than done looking at it and the next one of him, which showed him holding the cow like most humans would hold a chicken leg.
    That's how large he'd become; that a cow-in proportion, anyway-could be eaten like a chicken leg.
    "He liked showers after eating, so we let the fire sprinklers clean him and the blood up at the same time," Pete muttered.
    "Cori, can you tell us what that is?" Auggie asked as Rafe passed the photograph to Nick and Maye.
    "I know you're familiar with the dinosaurs in Earth's history," I sighed.
    "That's no dinosaur I've ever seen," Pete protested.
    "It isn't, because you didn't grow up on a world a thousand light years from here," I said.

Chapter 4
    Corinne
    I was forced into a semi-private meeting with Auggie after our meeting with Pete ended. Only Auggie, Leo and Dr. Farrell were allowed into this meeting. The Program was about to be blown wide open, and I wished that Rafe could be beside me while I explained what I'd known for a while.
    "What did you mean when you mentioned a world a thousand light years from here?" Auggie began. I could tell his blood pressure was about to rise dramatically if he didn't get a quick answer.
    "It's what the Program-and Cloud Dust is all about," I said. "We didn't manufacture it here."
    I watched Richard Farrell's face as he turned it away from me. He suspected, he just didn't have enough evidence to make a conjecture. Good scientist that he was, he wasn't about to make a wild claim without substantiation.
    "Where, then? Russia?" Leo Shaw asked. He still wasn't getting it.
    "Oh, they have it too, just from separate incidents. I will say that they've taken its uses to the extreme, though."
    "Corinne, stop talking in circles and explain this. Now." Auggie thumped his fist on the table, making Richard jump.
    We'd been allowed into a private meeting room inside the underground facility, and I'd already taken care of the bugs planted there before saying anything.
    "The original drug, which looks like dust to anybody who doesn't know, by the way, came from extraterrestrials. We got it once-in 1947. The Russians got it twice, in 1969 and 1986."
    "Reported crashes," Richard mumbled while he stood and raked fingers through his hair.
    "How does it work, then? Why was it there? Do you have any ideas?" Auggie asked. I could see that he struggled with the information, just as the others did.
    "Have you ever wondered how someone from so far away might live long enough to reach Earth, if they didn't have a faster-than-light drive on their space ship?" I asked.
    "Not really," Leo shook his head. Auggie just stared-he was attempting to piece this puzzle together.
    "They had the drug," I hunched my shoulders. "It's called Cloud Dust because it looks like dust and it-and the spaceship-came from the clouds above us. I figure that when the pilot or pilots got to the end of their lives, they'd take the drug and have another life to live. The problem with all this, of course, is that it was engineered for their race. If another race gets it, interesting things happen."
    "Oh, my God," Auggie covered his face