Genesis Plague by Sam Best Read Free Book Online Page A

He guided us into one of the several
conference rooms surrounding the main hub of activity, then sat on the far side
of a round table topped with scattered papers and empty coffee cups. “Gather
around, please, gather around. We don’t have much time.”
    Cassidy, Flint, and I
filed into the room and took seats at the table. Mike stood in the doorway with
his arms crossed, looking bored.
    “The NOAA was kind
enough to loan us the use of their facility for a short time,” said Levino,
nodding toward the main room. “However, after your arrival, we will now be
based solely near the volcano, for obvious reasons.”
    The National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration’s Global Monitoring Division did the bulk of
their work from the Mauna Loa Observatory. They were primarily invested in
long-term studies of a few key elements, such as methane, hydrocarbons, and
aerosols, and on their impact and interactions with humans. It was the only
facility close enough to Mauna Loa for the university’s purposes, explained
Levino, and so he had to call in every favor owed to him in order to set up
shop at the volcano’s doorstep.
    “Why don’t we just go
there now?” I asked.
    “Because we need to get
a few things out of the way first,” Levino said. “I need to be very clear about
one thing, and I need you all to listen to me very carefully.”
    He looked around the
table.
    “The benefit to science
aside, this is about money. This is about continued funding for the programs at
the university that you have all been working on for years. What I am about to
tell you is private knowledge.” He paused for emphasis, then said, “The lab
will be shut down at the end of this term unless we can secure private
revenue.”
    “What do you mean, shut
down?” asked Flint. “ Permanently ?”
    “That is exactly what I
mean,” Levino said. “Palo Alto’s new lab has ten times the cash behind it, and
their equipment reflects the investment. Since they opened their doors two
years ago, our benefactors have been jumping ship left and right. We only have
one left, and he’s informed me he will cut his donations at the end of this
term.”
    “So why are we even
here?” asked Cassidy. “What’s the point?”
    “The point, my dear, is
that what we have discovered on Mauna Loa will be enough to swing the tide back
in our favor. If we can stake our claim before anyone else, we’ll get enough
funds to buy Palo Alto’s lab a hundred times over.”
    I leaned forward in my
chair. “What did you find, Roger?”
    He smiled. “ Life .”



 
     

     
     
     
    G etting Levino to say anything more about what they had
discovered near the volcano had proven impossible. He diverted our constant
questions and herded us back out to the parking lot, where we all climbed into
the Jeep for the ride to base camp, which, as Levino had explained, was a
temporary meeting place for any scientific expedition headed up Mauna Loa.
    The road leading away
from the observatory took us down a long, sloping hill. I rode in the back seat
of the Jeep behind my good friend Mike Pahalo, who hadn’t said a word since
Levino called him an asshole. Levino rode next to Mike and hummed to himself.
Flint and Cass were next to me in the back seat, bouncing along, staring at the
volcano ahead.
    Mauna Loa stretched up
before us to a blunted peak at an elevation of nearly fourteen thousand feet.
If Flint or even Cass were telling the story, they would have pointed out that
Mauna Loa was the largest active volcano on the planet. If you counted her
massive submarine flanks that descended below the surface to the ocean floor,
she stood more than a thousand feet taller than Mount Everest.
    Except that Mauna Loa
tended to spit fire every now and then, and Everest didn’t.
    “We had to set up camp
several hundred yards from the main trail leading up the mountain,” Levino said
over his shoulder. “The microquakes have been increasing in frequency and we
didn’t want to