Code Name Flood. Laura Martin

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СКАЧАТЬ five eggs the size of footballs, and the silver plaque on the side let me know that these were apparently ankylosaurus eggs.

      “Those are really cool,” Chaz said from behind me, making me jump. “They have this fused armour built into their skin. Makes them nearly impossible to tranquilise. Real sweethearts, though, so you almost never have to. We used to have a male named Bubba who would let the little kids climb all over him like he was a jungle gym. He would do just about anything for a cookie.”

      “I’m not sure if this is impressive or disgusting,” Shawn admitted as he turned in a slow circle.

      We passed through the enormous hatchery and walked up a massive set of glass stairs. I looked back and calculated roughly one hundred incubators, each with at least three or four eggs inside.

      Chaz punched a code into a large glass door. It buzzed and clicked open, and the smell that wafted through was enough to make me gag. Shawn and Todd immediately covered their noses with their hands. Chaz didn’t seem to notice.

      We walked into the massive room of dinosaurs we’d caught a glimpse of earlier. With the soaring ceilings and gigantic windows, it was hard to believe we were really underwater. Row after row of oversized glass and iron stalls stretched as far as I could see, each one containing a different breed of dinosaur. We followed Chaz up a ramp that led to a walkway over the top of the cages. We had to manoeuver around teenagers in dirty overalls who were busy wheeling wheelbarrows full of a coarse grain, obviously on their way to fill the enormous feed troughs below. A few of them shot us interested looks, but everyone else seemed much too busy to care about us.

      I looked down into the first stall. A small family of triceratops was inside, the female bellowing at three tiny greenish adolescents who head-butted one another and rolled around the floor of the cage. My heart lurched when I saw a small girl in among them, a wheelbarrow and pitchfork in hand as she worked at clearing out a mound of dinosaur poop almost as tall as she was.

      Chaz waved down. “Hey, Joyce! How are the three musketeers doing today?” Joyce set down her pitchfork as the three young dinosaurs raced around her in an impromptu game of tag.

      “Driving their poor mother crazy. I think we’ll move them to their own pen tomorrow.”

      Suddenly Shawn was gripping my shoulder. “Did you see what was outside those windows?” he whispered.

      “What?” I asked, turning to look out the floor-to-ceiling windows that wrapped around the entire enclosure. Outside, swimming in graceful arcs, were plesiosaurs. These had longer necks and smaller heads than Pretty Boy. Their bodies moved smoothly in the water, propelled by four muscular fins. They periodically opened their mouths in soundless calls, giving me a good view of their gleaming rows of teeth. I gulped, and hoped the glass was thicker than it looked.

      Chaz turned back to us. “Oh, you spotted our audience. The elasmosaurs like the light the lab gives off. Did you know that some people believe that that particular breed was never actually extinct?” she asked, jerking her head at the long-necked plesiosaurs. “Before the pandemic hit, people claimed that there was a small family of them located in some lake in Scotland. The locals called them Loch Ness monsters or something. Can you believe it? Dr Schwartz said it’s really unlikely, but I would love to travel there someday to see for myself.”

      Todd craned his head back, taking in the enormity of the space. “What I want to know is how you got all these dinosaurs down here. I know you didn’t squeeze them into that tiny glass elevator.”

      Chaz laughed. She had a low chuckling laugh, and I thought that, under different circumstances, like ones where she wasn’t holding us prisoner, I might actually like her.

      “We have gigantic freight elevators at entrances A and G,” she explained. Before she could go on, the crackle of a loudspeaker reverberated around the room. Everyone froze, looking up as though expecting the voice of God. However, it wasn’t the voice of God that came through the speaker. It was Schwartz. And he sounded furious.

      “Chastity McGuire! Report to the conference room immediately!”

      Chaz froze as everyone’s eyes turned to stare at us. It looked like our tour was over.

      

      “Your real name is Chastity?” Todd asked, his familiar smirk back in place.

      “My name is Chaz,” she snipped as she hustled us off the walkway. “If anyone but Dr Schwartz called me Chastity, they’d get a black eye. Consider yourself warned.”

      We reached another glass door and Chaz punched some numbers in quickly. It buzzed open and she pushed us inside. This room had lower ceilings and seemed to be some kind of office space. She hurried us down hallway after hallway until we finally reached conference room B. Inside was a fuming Schwartz.

      “Did they enjoy your nice little tour of our top-secret facility, Chaz? You are officially demoted from your position as my assistant. I need someone who can follow a simple order when it’s given.”

      Chaz’s face flushed red, but she set her mouth in a stubborn line and didn’t reply. She had guts. I liked her more for it.

      “Relax, Dr Schwartz,” said a large man I hadn’t noticed before. His clothes had the pressed appearance of authority. His pale blue eyes were stern, but the wrinkles around his mouth and eyes betrayed that his face was more accustomed to smiling than frowning. “I’m sure Chaz didn’t mean to be disrespectful. I actually think it might be a good thing to give our guests a glimpse of the importance of our work.”

      “Sir,” Dr Schwartz said stiffly, “you saw the girl’s map. Our safety here might be compromised.”

      “And if it is?” the man replied with a carefree shrug. “We are not without protection. Before you jump to the grimmest scenario, let’s at least hear the girl’s story. And for heaven’s sake, untie them. They’re only children.”

      Todd snorted. I had to agree. I hadn’t felt like a child in a long time. Regardless, Chaz stepped forward to untie us. She looked relieved and gave us an apologetic smile as she deftly unwound the rope.

      “Take a seat, please,” the man said. “I am Dr Bartholomew Boznic, head paleontologist here at the Lincoln Lab, but everyone calls me Boz.” He was perched at a long glossy metal table set against another one of those floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out on the lake, complete with frolicking plesiosaurs. Their huge bodies slid past the glass, and some even pushed off it to launch themselves in the opposite direction.

      “We didn’t tell anyone about your lab,” I said as I took a seat across from Boz. “I had no idea what was in the middle of this lake when I got the map.”

      “That’s good to hear.” He smiled. “I’d hate to think that the Noah’s stealth bombers were winging their way here to destroy my life’s work as we speak.”

      “The Noah doesn’t have stealth bombers,” Shawn protested, but then he paused, taking in Boz’s serious face and raised eyebrows. Deflated, he sank into the seat beside me. “Of course the Noah has stealth bombers,” he said flatly, “why am I even surprised?” I rolled my eyes. Even after watching Todd’s entire village get captured, and everything that Ivan СКАЧАТЬ