PREDATOR ISLAND (Sea Lab Book 2)

CHAPTER 23

Jake couldn't believe what he was hearing from this complete stranger. This guy waltzed up and asked for a cut of the treasure, and he had only known them for what? Maybe five minutes? The audacity. The nerve. Actually, the more he thought about it, he kind of admired the guy's moxie...this Dr. Hugh Graham.

Jake turned at Savannah's spunky reply.

"Absolutely not," she said. "You think you can wander up and leverage your way into an equal share of our find? Just like that. You must have slipped and hit your head on a rock. "

"Oh really? I beg to differ." Dr. Graham pressed the lid back into place on the can of sardines and dropped them into a pocket inside his vest. "The way I see it you haven't found anything yet."

Sarah snarled her nose, her gaze had followed the sardines.

Jake shook his head. The can wasn't resealable. Graham had forced the tin lid into a closed but precarious position with the metal clasping together. Jake imagined the juice leaking into the man's vest. In his disheveled state, the wildlife biologist didn't seem to care. In the heat, he'd better eat the raw fish by the end of the day or sooner, before it spoiled. And he agreed with Sarah, it was gross.

"Come on," Graham continued his sales pitch, "I'm lonely. And bored. And once again, I've figured out how to survive."

"So no one wants to go check out the second ranger station?" Sarah said. "Really? Is it not even an option?"

"Why should we?" Rachel replied. "According to Dr. Graham, it's a carbon copy of what we saw earlier. I don't know about any of you, but I have no desire to see another scene of mangled and decomposing gore."

"Smart lady," Graham said.

"If he's telling the truth," Sarah replied. "We don't know who he is, or if his name is really..."

"Dr. Hugh Graham."

"Right. He could be lying. He might not even be a doctor?"

"Go check it out for yourself, if you like. Maybe if you see that I'm telling the truth about the second station, then you might believe the rest of my story?"

Jake pulled Sarah aside. "Look, I understand your suspicions. We don't know the guy and he suddenly wants to go treasure hunting with us. But I think we can conclude that anyone who didn't evacuate the island after the initial attacks, except the doctor, is dead. The more we look at this, I doubt there's any type of pathogen or biological hazard to worry about. I think we can keep our sample kits in our backpacks."

"You may be right, but still..."

"But what? We over played the biological hazard to give us a reason to be here. I wanted to believe the goods that Dylan was selling. You can blame me." Sarah started to interject. "But, we're here. They're going to do their story, and we have something to do."

"A treasure hunt?"

"It's a noble cause," Tony said. He'd been eavesdropping.

"Besides that," Jake continued, "we could see what kind of predator we're dealing with, and maybe put it down. Invasive and aggressive species can reek havoc on ecosystems."

"Are you crazy?" Rachel said. "I'm not hunting a wild animal with claws and teeth."

"Our job is to right the wrongs of nature."

"We're marine biologists," Sarah replied. "Our job is the ocean."

"We're surrounded by the ocean," Jake said.

"On an island."

Dylan walked over with a sparkle in his eyes and a broad grin. He wanted to tip the scales. "Jake's right. If we have the opportunity, we can put that thing out of its misery, whatever it is. And since we've figured out the first clue, we can—."