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Back The Nest Save as PDF
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

He guided Elizabeth gently while Bonnie covered them both with her tank. In the kitchen, Hubbard cleansed the woman’s bites, then left Bonnie with Elizabeth and went back into the laboratory for his grim, necessary task. With dry-­ice flowing, he killed every escaped roach he could see. At Wanda Lindstrom’s body, he iced to death every brown-­black insect that was violating the woman. His face was a mask of primitive malevolence.

When nothing more moved near Wanda Lindstrom, he knelt to roll the body over. As he suspected there were still roaches at work, eating at her back, masticating her flesh. With his jaws biting until his teeth hurt, Hubbard ragingly sprayed the dry ice to murder them all. Finally, every insect was belly up, legs stiff wires in death. Wanda Lindstrom’s enemies were frozen and gone.

Peter Hubbard searched the room thoroughly for any other possible loose insects. He saw none he hadn’t killed. He found gripper’s tape in a carton and strongly sealed the lids of every remaining specimen jar—the bloody pariahs would not repeat their escape. As he worked grimly on, he thought he should have been a theologian rather than a biologist. Maybe then he would understand how Nature, or God, or Whatever could create this blind vicious hunger to so wretchedly destroy a woman like Wanda Lindstrom.

Looking down, above the torn body, the dry-­ice tank hanging from his weary hand, the scientist cried for her, for all of them.

3

THREE

There would be grief later on at the memorial services for Wanda Lindstrom held in Cambridge, but nothing then would match the outpouring of sorrow of the Yarkie men returning from High Ridge that night after the laboratory debacle. With the help of new rain, the second flare-­up of fire in the woods had been controlled without too much difficulty. Now the men shared the bitterness of fellow soldiers beside a fallen comrade.

This woman, so different from all of them, had come to aid Yarkie, and she had helped generously, without the reserve that might have been expected. She had not needed to trek to the kettle hole searching for the roaches with them. She had not needed to work so arduously in the lab. She had not needed to respond so immediately to Hubbard’s summons in the first place. Far from being cold or distant, she had stood with them shoulder to shoulder. And from what they learned now, she had just sacrificed her life to save Peter Hubbard’s. The Yarkie men gave Wanda Lindstrom their highest accolade—she was “topnotch crew.”