BooksBarbecue
Back The Nest
Chapters (82)
  1. Cover
  2. Copyright page
  3. Introduction by Will Errickson
  4. Acknowledgements
  5. TREMORS
  6. 1
  7. 2
  8. 3
  9. 4
  10. 5
  11. 6
  12. SUSPICIONS
  13. 1
  14. 2
  15. 3
  16. 4
  17. 5
  18. DREAD
  19. 1
  20. 2
  21. 3
  22. 4
  23. 5
  24. 6
  25. WITNESS
  26. 1
  27. 2
  28. 3
  29. ALERT
  30. 1
  31. 2
  32. 3
  33. 4
  34. 5
  35. ENCOUNTER
  36. 1
  37. 2
  38. 3
  39. 4
  40. 5
  41. 6
  42. HAVOC
  43. 1
  44. 2
  45. 3
  46. 4
  47. 5
  48. 6
  49. SEARCH
  50. 1
  51. 2
  52. 3
  53. 4
  54. 5
  55. CLASH
  56. 1
  57. 2
  58. 3
  59. 4
  60. 5
  61. 6
  62. 7
  63. COUNTERATTACK
  64. 1
  65. 2
  66. 3
  67. 4
  68. 5
  69. 6
  70. 7
  71. VICTORY
  72. 1
  73. 2
  74. 3
  75. 4
  76. 5
  77. 6
  78. 7
  79. 8
  80. 9
  81. EPILOGUE
  82. About the Author

Hubbard answered crisply, “Yes, Elias. Wanda and I have done some more work on the specimen. It’s no ordinary roach. We have got a mutation, without question. It’s not one of those horror-­movie inventions—these insects remain quite close to normal. The changes are well within the parameters of minor adaptive alterations, like the greater power in the leg and body muscles, the stronger mandibles and teeth. What really gives us concern is that these changes are coupled with a much more mature nervous system than anything we have ever seen in this or related species.”

The old man sat down heavily, and passed his hand over his forehead. “Everything you said has been going around in my head over and over, but I still can’t believe it.”

Hubbard understood the man’s difficulty in coming to grips with the extraordinary development. To impress him with the enormous number of biological “curiosities,” he added another textbook fact, “You know, Elias, there are some ants with so strong a bite that if you try to pull them away, the ant’s head will separate from its body before its teeth will let go!”

The old eyes widened. “Thunderation!”

Elizabeth gasped, “I never heard of that!”

The scientist said wryly, “African natives take advantage of it. When they’re wounded, they get an ant to bite them to hold the flesh together.”

With a sour smile, the old man said, “A living Band-­Aid, eh?”

Wanda Lindstrom concluded for Hubbard, “People simply don’t realize how inventive Nature has been through the millions of years of evolution.”

Elias Johnson turned puzzled eyes to the scientists. “Could these big bastards be what you call ‘communicating’ with the regular cockroaches we have around the village?”

The woman looked to Hubbard. “The Bra­tella germanica?”

Johnson grunted, “Huh?”

Hubbard said, “That’s the ordinary household cockroach. No, I don’t think so . . .”

Johnson told him, “People are complaining about cockroaches running around in broad daylight.”

Wanda Lindstrom frowned to Hubbard. “They might be sensing some of the new pheromones, Peter. They wouldn’t quite connect up, but it could make them abnormally restless.”

“Possibly . . .”

Elizabeth was impressed again by the immediate rapport between the two. There was a relationship that could not be denied.

Johnson said, “But the big buggers are out there in the woods! Miles away!”