Stones: Experiment (Stones #3) by Jacob Whaler Read Free Book Online

laboratory.
    “Clear,” Ryzaard says.
    The color drains from the glass, leaving it transparent. Lights flick on in each of the rooms fanning out from the central area.
    Kalani Maaki lies curled up on a table in his room, his fingers clinging to a wooden club with imbedded shark teeth like it’s a teddy bear. An ocean wave curls and breaks above his head on one of the bluescreens on his desk. Jerek Grey is sitting on the floor, eyes closed with his head propped up on a piece of equipment that looks like an oversized glass cube with veins of gold running through it. Elsa Bergman is stretched out on the floor of her office in a position suggesting she has slipped from her chair and fallen asleep. Diego Lopez is still in his chair with arms dropping straight at his side. His head is thrown back, mouth open.
    Other than Kalani’s streaming video of the Tongan beach and scrolling data on a few bluescreens, it all has the look of a science lab set in a wax museum. Nothing moves.
    “Transmit sound.” Ryzaard pauses.
    Jing-wei yawns.
    “And amplify.” A childish grin crawls across Ryzaard’s lips.
    Jing-wei shakes her head and looks down. “Not a good idea. They won’t like it.” Hands go up over her ears.
    “Everyone up. Let’s get started.” Ryzaard’s voice booms in the conference room, picking up volume as it passes through the glass barriers into each of the individual offices.
    Four heads jolt up.
    Kalani rolls and falls off the table, moving his club in time to avoid impaling his face on the shark teeth. Jerek’s body goes stiff and his arms flash out, sending the glass cube crashing into the wall. Elsa bolts upright and hits her head on the underside of a desk. Diego falls backward out of his chair.
    Jing-wei looks up. “Told you.”
    At the same instant, the sliding door opens and Alexa walks in wearing a bright red spring dress, something she might have pulled from her old high school wardrobe. She finds her usual place, to the right of Ryzaard, and drops into the chair with the usual plastic smile on her face.
    The glass wall opens, and Elsa stumbles into the central room, rubbing a red mark on her forehead.
    “A bit early to call a meeting, don’t you think?” Her hands find the back of a chair and pull it out. She flops into it and lays her head on the table, eyes closing shut.
    Jerek settles in between Alex and Elsa. He slams the glass cube on the table with an audible thud.
    A hard object brushes past Ryzaard’s shoulder.
    It’s Kalani with his club. Kalani mounts the table and crawls across it on all fours. On the other side, he slides headfirst into his seat, twists and comes up, like a breaching whale, eyes still closed.
    Diego staggers past Ryzaard and reaches out to his chair. Pulling it out from the table, he drops down, but misses it by a few inches and hits the floor.
    “Sorry.” He pulls himself up and slumps into a sitting position, dropping his head onto the edge of the table.
    “Good to see you all working so hard.” As Ryzaard talks, he reaches for the pack of black Djarums and extracts one with his lips.
    Diego lifts his head up and cracks open an eye. He stares at Ryzaard through dark eyebrows. “Please, no.” Then his voice lowers to a whisper. “Not those again. I need to breathe.”
    Ryzaard smiles, strikes a match on a leg of the table and brings it up to the cigarette protruding from his lips.
    “My apologies.” Ryzaard fills his lungs as relaxation spreads out through his muscles. His head drops back, and a line of gray smoke shoots up, disappearing in a vent in the ceiling. “You’ve done well, all of you. What you’ve accomplished in the last few months is nothing short of a miracle.”
    “When will we be able to sleep?” Kalani yawns, elbows on the table, his chin resting on the white palms of his hands. “I can’t function on no sleep.”
    “Lack of sleep is a simple problem. One for which science has a simple chemical solution.” Ryzaard’s eyes scan the