Out of the Night by Robin T. Popp Read Free Book Online Page A

heights. All four limbs end in sharp three-toed claws, and there is a single row of fins running down its back.
     
    Flipping through the pages of the book, Lanie stopped at random to read.
     
    … the chupas become almost stonelike in the light of the sun. At first, I thought they were dead, but it's more as if they are hibernating through the daylight hours…
     
    The statue in the cage
, she realized.
     
    …
I was able to tranquilize the baby long enough to examine it more fully. The fangs are hollow and when the chupa bites down, it secretes a venom into the prey's bloodstream, much as a snake would. Until I run more tests, I can only guess that this venom-type secretion acts as an anticoagulant
…
    … I doubled-checked Juan's injury and it is fully healed. It's amazing. I had no idea the chupa venom would have such restorative powers for humans. I injected myself last night with a small dose collected from the baby chupa when I felt the onset of fever and sinus related to the common cold. This morning, I have never felt better. If the young chupa's venom can do this, what powers does the adult chupa's venom have?…
     
    Lanie turned to the last entry.
     
    …
tomorrow I will try to obtain a sample from the adult. I believe the safest time will be right before sunrise, when the chupa is weakest, before the sun turns it to stone
.
     
    Her father must have tried to collect the specimen as he'd planned, but miscalculated the adult's strength before sunrise. When Uncle Charles called to tell her of her father's death, he'd told her that her father had been killed by a wild animal. In the Amazon jungle, such an event was not unusual. Now, though, she couldn't help but think the "wild animal" that had attacked and killed her father and the other man was actually the chupacabra.
    If she was right, they would have the same puncture wounds on their necks as Mac had. Lanie knew it was time to do what she'd originally come to do. She needed to see her father's body.
    Putting down the book, she walked out of the room to where Lieutenant Davis stood guard.
    "Everything all right, ma'am?"
    "I'd like to see my father's body. Can you take me to it?"
    The young man relayed her request to the man in charge, and Lanie saw him nod once as he listened on the earpiece. He glanced at her and then quickly looked away, causing Lanie to wonder if something was wrong.
    "Is there a problem?" she asked as soon as it was obvious that he was through listening.
    "Yes, ma'am. You see, we searched the entire facility and only found nine bodies. The five men at the front and the four back in the lab. They've all been identified; your father wasn't one of them."
    Feeling they'd had a miscommunication, she tried to explain. "No, I know he wasn't one of those men. My father and another man were killed a couple of days ago. That's why I came down here—to identify his body. It's probably in the back or something."
    "Yes, ma'am. We were briefed on the circumstances of Dr. Weber's and Commander Burton's deaths and their bodies apparently
were
in the back, but they're not there now."
    Lanie's confusion grew. "I don't understand."
    "We found two body bags in the back. The ID tags were still attached, identifying them as containing the bodies of Dr. Weber and Commander Burton, but the bags are empty. They look like they've been torn open."
    "Maybe their bodies were moved to a new location?"
    He gave her a sympathetic look. "No, ma'am. We searched everywhere. I'm afraid your father's body isn't on the grounds."
    She felt as if she'd been hit. "It doesn't make sense. A body doesn't just disappear."
    "That's the hell of it, ma'am. It's like they just walked off."
    His words sent a chill over her. The statue in the cage, the chupacabra, the wounds on the dead men's necks, their bodies drained of blood—the handprint. All those images flashed through her mind in a split second, leaving her with the horrifying thought that maybe her father's body had done