Rise of the Elgen by Richard Paul Evans Read Free Book Online Page B

electric rodents.”
    “Why would they do that?” Taylor asked.
    “It was probably just an accident at first,” Ostin replied. “I mean, we test everything on rats, right? Drugs, cosmetics, shampoo. Makes sense they were testing rats in the MEI. Voila, electric rats.”
    “Whoa,” I said.
    “Yeah, but what are they good for?” Taylor asked.
    “That was my next question,” Ostin said. “So I scanned the Internet for any other stories about fiery or electric rats. I came up with mentions in Saint Barths, the Cook Islands, and Anguilla.” He looked at me, grinning. “Sound familiar?”
    “No,” I said.
    “Remember what we read earlier? That’s where the Elgen have built their Starxource plants.”
    It took me a moment to make the connection. “You mean their power plants are rat powered?”
    Ostin was so excited he almost jumped up from his chair. “Exactly!”
    “Why rats?” Taylor asked.
    “Why not!” Ostin exclaimed. “They’re perfect! The problem with most of our current energy sources is what?”
    “They’re expensive,” Taylor said, turning to me. “My dad’s always complaining about how much it costs when I leave lights on.”
    “Yes, but more importantly, they’re exhaustible. They’re limited. You can’t make more oil, unless you can wait around a few hundred million years. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. The big search is for renewable energy, and the Elgen found it. Actually, they made it. Rats are super-renewable. They’re practically breeding machines! Think about it. Rats are mature at five weeks, their gestation period is just three weeks, and the average litter is eight to ten babies. If you started with just two rats and they had an average of ten offspring every three weeks, then they had babies, and so on, in one year you could have . . .” He did the math in his head. “Holy rodent. Under ideal circumstances and lacking natural predators, like in a laboratory, you could breed billions of rats in one year.”
    “That’s crazy,” McKenna said.
    “And if each one of those rats could generate even a tenth the electricity that one of us does . . . ,” I said.
    “You could power entire cities,” Ostin said. “Enough rats, you could power the entire world.”
    I shook my head. “They’re making rat power. The Elgen are making rat power. That’s why they’re afraid of them escaping. If they breed, anyone could use them.”
    “They could also be like those killer bees that escaped from South America,” McKenna said.
    “You mean the band?” Wade asked.
    “What band?” McKenna said.
    “The Killer Bees.”
    McKenna shook her head. “I’m not talking about some stupid band.”
    “She means Africanized bees,” Ostin said. “In the fifties some scientists took African bees to Brazil to create a better honeybee, but the African bees escaped and starting breeding with local—”
    “Good job, Ostin,” I said, cutting him off. “You did it.”
    “Thanks,” he said proudly. “It’s amazing, they’re creating these power plants and no one knows how they’re doing it, but the answer is right in front of them. Apparently the Elgen have a sense of humor after all.”
    “What do you mean?” I asked.
    “The name of their plants . . . Starxource. It makes their power plants sound like they run off thermonuclear fusion, since that’s where stars get their energy from.” He turned around and looked at me. “But ‘star’ is just ‘rats’ spelled backward.”

R at power. In a bizarre way it made sense. Like my mother was fond of saying, “whatever works.” The ramifications of this discovery made sense as well. If the world became dependent on Elgen energy, the Elgen would control the world.
    “Man, all this thinking has made me hungry,” Ostin said. “Where’s the pizza?” I was glad to see he had his appetite back. He looked at the clock on the wall. “What’s taking them so long?”
    “They’re probably kissing,” Wade said, still bitter about