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

Gravel, not yet settled into the road’s tar, spit up at his car, making a kind of castanet rhythm to his jiggling thoughts.

Luckiest of all right now was that Elias had that professor son-­in-­law, able to snap fingers and send two expert biologists to Yarkie so fast. Right now, nobody would know which way to turn without them.

Not that he knew yet what to do, really. Amos Tarbell let out another sour belch. Sure learned a lot about “The Strange Universe of Insects,” as one of those TV shows might put it. It was a whole different universe, at that. There was an unreal, outer-­space feeling to the entire scene on Yarkie now. “Invasion of Space Ships”—hell, that wouldn’t hold a candle to what was really, actually, in damn true fact happening! “Invasion of Cockroaches!” “The Crawling Killers!” It would sound giddy-­pated if it wasn’t so swear-­on-­the-­Bible true!

The police car came up higher where the trees were thin, and the sheriff could see out to the ocean and the dump again. Homer’s craft was almost at the dump spit now—but far out to sea behind it there was another boat. Tarbell stopped the car to look through his binoculars. The Sunday School picnic! The wind was coming at the old Tub dangerously. She seemed to be wallowing. Reed might be right about the minister. Any savvy sailor would have turned back, would have come along the north shore with the northeast wind, to head back down to the village harbor. But the Tub was plainly aiming to come around the east side. George Kinray seemed to be headed for the South Beach pier, probably. That would take expert handling today, especially when they were by Dickens Rocks. That was a cruel finger of huge, sharp-­cut boulders that had poked holes in the ribs of many an unwary craft in just such a no’-­theaster.

Well, the older boys on board the Tub were first-­rate seamen, and the boat was well out. He guessed she’d be okay if they kept the wind from blowing her closer to shore.

But the sheriff reached for his radio. Wouldn’t do any harm to have the Coast Guard on Chatham keep an eye out for the Tub in case of trouble.