Final Epidemic by Earl Merkel Read Free Book Online

It had been Carly’s grand plan that brought them here, to the Florida Gulf Coast, in the first place.
    “You said there’d be guys. Lots of guys.”
    The tone was not quite accusatory, not quite a question. It belonged to Jayne Lynn Soratelli, “J. L.” to her close friends, “J. L.-bait” to the more literal-minded of her male classmates. Having just turned sixteen, J. L. was ready to prove her sophistication was at least the equal of her older friend’s. Even without opening her eyes, Katie knew J. L. was propped up on her elbows, as if impatiently scanning the beach for likely prospects.
    It was largely an act, and all three of the girls knew it. Of the trio, only Carly would be bold enough to initiate contact with the random passing male; she was also the only one of them who might take such an encounter to its logical conclusion.
    Still, Carly had missed her only chance so far. When they pulled up outside the beachfront hotel late the night before, she had popped inside to see if there was a vacant room. Through the large glass lobby doors, Katie and J. L. had watched Carly lean over the counter, close to a skinny boy who was working the night desk. They saw Carly smile and pass her hand a little too casually through her blond mane. The clerk had nodded back at her, and the pair had talked for a moment before Carly had motioned her friends inside and unsheathed her Amex card. But the fates had intervened; it was close to three a.m., and even Carly was too bushed for more than the cursory flirtation. Worse, at close range theboy’s appeal was somewhat muted by the rheumy cough of a bad summer cold.
    Welcome to Florida, Katie thought to herself, remembering. This morning, when they had entered the lobby to walk to the beach, to her relief the desk was staffed by a large woman in a denim shirtdress.
    “Oh, give it a chance,” Carly was saying, listless in the morning heat, to J. L. “Most of the guys here don’t even wake up before sundown.”
    “So why are we up at noon?” J. L.’s voice was now frankly challenging, as if she sensed an inconsistency that boded worse revelations. “Fourteen hours on the road! God, I’m still beat.” Katie felt a sandy foot kick against her extended ankle. “Hey, Kates—you alive?”
    “It’s still better than hanging around at home,” Katie said, eyes still closed. She hoped she sounded more enthusiastic than she felt.
    “It’s better than hanging around at your summer house, too,” Carly said. “Sorry, Katie, but I hate that place.”
    “We used to have fun there,” J. L. objected. “All of us.”
    “We were kids,” Carly said, with less energy than Katie had become accustomed to when Carly was on the subject. “Now it’s like going to kiddie summer camp. I have had my fill of hiking in the piney woods, thank you very much. I want to have some fun, and this is the place.” There was a pause, and Katie could sense Carly working up her trademark wicked grin. “Come on. We’re hot. We’re three killer babes on vacation.”
    Still on her back, Katie raised her clenched fist in salute.
    “Killer babes, on the beach,” she said. “Get on board with it, J. L.”
    “Well,” said J. L., “if I get caught, my folks will kill me. ”
    “Look—nobody’s going to get caught.” Carly’s voice was exasperated. “What’re they going to do anyway? Call the cottage? There’s no phone—right, Katie? So they’d have to call my cellular number, and then they’ll get my voice mail andleave a message. You just block the number when you call back, that’s all. I’ve done this before, dammit. It’s foolproof. ”
    Katie knew better, just as she had known better in the first place than to sneak away on what Carly described as “a little road trip.” The parents of all three girls had agreed—albeit reluctantly, in the case of Katie’s and J. L.’s—to what was described to them as an extended weekend sleepover at the rural Virginia summer cabin