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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

The girl looked at the great insect with growing curiosity. Had this bug bitten her? It looked so nice, not at all anything to be afraid of. She lifted it higher, closer to her eyes to see it better.

“Kim!” It was her father, angry-­sounding. His voice startled her and the bug dropped out of her grasp.

“I found something, Daddy! Come and see!”

Reed Brockshaw grabbed his daughter in his arms. “Are you all right?”

Kim pointed at the leaves. “Look at the shells there!” But before her father could turn his eyes, the girl saw the glinting surfaces vanish. She pouted. “They’re down in the leaves!” She didn’t want her father to think she hadn’t told the truth. “Cock-­a-­roaches! Look at my finger!” She lifted her incontrovertible evidence. “It even bit me. See the blood?”

The man started away with the girl against his chest. “We’ll put something on that. Does it hurt, honey?”

“No.” Her father smelled of sun and tanning lotion, and love, and she hugged him hard.

To his wife, Reed Brockshaw said, “Kim stuck her finger on a thorn. Put a Band-­Aid on it . . .”

Kim spoke indignantly. “It wasn’t any thorn! A cock-­a-­roach as big as a house bit me!”

“Oh, you,” her brother said predictably, “always making things up!”

4

FOUR

Captain Elias Johnson was on the sheriff’s official phone, finishing his call to his son-­in-law in Cambridge. The circle of men was waiting respectfully. At the ancient, worn oak desk sat Amos Tarbell, sheriff of Yarkie Island. He was a self-­contained man of forty-­two, of medium height, but with the stocky strength of a man who had sailed freighters around the world. His face was like his body, strong and solid. His eyes were sharp with looking into distances and into people. Few on Yarkie fooled with Amos Tarbell.