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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

“Decidedly not! They differ in many ways. Just to start with, they apparently have the ability to attack and kill an animal like a dog or a rabbit. These cockroaches not only have bigger mouths than would be normal relative to their size, but their jaw muscles are absolutely enormous. You may not know it, but your ordinary household roach has much more efficient muscles than we humans do, relatively speaking.” Hubbard put his fingers to his own jaw just below his ears. “Typically, the household cockroach shows no significant protrusion here. But on our specimens there are decided muscle bulges. This means the mandibles and the mouth are hooked to extremely powerful muscles, so that they can inflict the kind of damage we have seen on the dog and the rabbit.”

The man turned to Stephen Scott, who was still eyeing him skeptically. “Mr. Scott, I wish these were just the garden variety water bug you mention. Their size alone tells a different story. The common water bug doesn’t grow to more than about two inches. Only in the tropics do we find any cockroaches approaching four-­five inches, like our specimens. Some have wing spreads of over five inches . . .”

Elizabeth asked with a little gasp, “You mean cockroaches can fly, Peter?”

He nodded. “When they want to. Actually, in biological terms, roaches are the most primitive form of winged insects.”

Elizabeth whispered to Bonnie, “I never knew that!”

Bonnie mumbled, “I’m learning a lot of things I’d rather not know!”

Wanda Lindstrom rose. Eyes shifted expectantly to the woman as she leaned forward with her hands pressed flat on the kitchen table. She projected a sense of authority that made her seem taller than she was and, for the first time at least, put her feminine attractiveness in the shadow. It came to Elizabeth, admiringly, that the person addressing them with her sober words was not “a beautiful blond female . . .”or “. . . attractive.” She was a renowned biologist, a person of accomplishment and service, with a brilliant future. Elizabeth understood a new meaning in women’s lib. When Peter Hubbard spoke, everyone listened to him as a scientist not a man. When Wanda Lindstrom spoke, she should be heard as a scientist in exactly the same way, not as a woman.