by Roland Smith
FOR LITTLE NIK
cryp·to·zo·ol·o·gy (krip-ta-z-ä-l-j) noun The study of animals, such as the Sasquatch, the Yeti, the Loch Ness Monster, the Chupacabra, kraken, and others, whose existence has not yet been proven scientifically. There are thought to be more than two hundred cryptids in existence today.
– cryp·to·zo·o·log·i·cal (-z-a-´lä-ji-kal) adj.
– cryp·to·zo·ol·o·gist (-´ä-la-jist) noun
THE CRYPTID HUNTERS
Marty O’Hara: Wolfe’s nephew. Grace’s cousin (formerly thought to be her twin). Thirteen years old. Brown hair, gray eyes, a foot taller than Grace. Talented artist. Master chef. Scuba diver. Mountain climber. Skydiver. He has spent most of his life at the Omega Opportunity Preparatory School (OOPS) in Switzerland. His parents, Timothy and Sylvia (the most famous photographer/journalist team in the world), are missing after a terrible helicopter crash in the Amazon rain forest.
Grace Wolfe: Wolfe’s only daughter (although for most of her life she thought she was Timothy and Sylvia O’Hara’s daughter and Marty’s twin sister). Black hair, blue eyes the color of robin’s eggs like her mother Rose’s. Born at Lake Télé in the Congo. Thirteen years old. Small for her age, but a foot smarter than Marty. The best student to ever “grace” the halls of OOPS. Fluent in several languages. Habitual journal-writer (uses a Montblanc fountain pen and Moleskine notebooks). Lock-picker. Genius.
Luther Percival Smyth, IV: Marty’s best friend and former roommate at OOPS in Switzerland, where they managed to get into a tremendous amount of trouble. Coauthor/illustrator of Marty’s graphic novels. Sleeps like a vampire. Eats like a wolf. Gangly, with wild orange hair. His father (Luther Percival Smyth, III) and mother are billionaires and often forget they even have a son. Expert computer hacker and video gamer.
Dr. Travis Wolfe: Cryptozoologist. Veterinarian. Oceanographer. Cofounder and owner of eWolfe with Ted Bronson. Called Wolfe by his friends — and foes. Grace’s father. Marty’s uncle. Sylvia O’Hara’s older brother. Widower. Former son-in-law of Noah Blackwood. A giant of a man — just under seven feet tall. Unruly black hair, bushy black beard, brown eyes. Wears size-fifteen shoes. His right leg was bitten off by a Mokélé-mbembé as he tried to save his wife, Rose Blackwood, in the Congo. He now wears a high-tech prosthesis invented by Ted Bronson.
Dr. Ted Bronson (a.k.a. Theo Sonborn): Wolfe’s closest friend and partner at eWolfe. Eccentric genius. Inventor. Recluse. Rumored to have not left the Quonset hut on Cryptos Island (where he develops his marvelous gadgets) in more than three years.
Theo Sonborn (a.k.a. Dr. Ted Bronson): Has been with Wolfe since the beginning. Surly. Pugnacious. Obnoxious. Jack-of-all-trades, master of none.
Dr. Noah Blackwood: Wealthy. Powerful. Owner of several animal theme parks around the world, all called Noah’s Ark. Environmental television superstar — but he is not what he appears to be. He hunts and breeds endangered animals and cryptids, and displays them at his parks. In their prime he kills the animals, has them stuffed, and displays them in his private diorama. Father of Wolfe’s deceased wife, Rose. Grace’s grandfather.
Butch McCall: Noah Blackwood’s henchman. Dangerous. Tattooed. Tough. Expert field biologist. More comfortable in the woods than he is under a roof. Sworn enemy of Travis Wolfe, whom he despises for “stealing” Rose Blackwood away from him.
Yvonne Zloblinavech: Freelance marine mammal trainer aboard the Coelacanth. Spy for Noah Blackwood. Ambitious, desperate to work her way to the top in Noah Blackwood’s organization.
Dr. Laurel Lee: Wolfe’s cultural anthropologist. Birdlike. Athletic. Former circus aerialist. Taught Grace to walk on a high wire to help her focus and overcome her many fears. Laurel and Wolfe are sweet on each other.
Mr. and Mrs. Hickock: Caretakers on Cryptos. Wild “Bill” Hickock remains on the island; Melanie Hickock (Ph.D. in Egyptology) is currently staying in a condo on Lake Washington with their son, Dylan, while she curates an Egyptian exhibit at the University of Washington.
Dylan Hickock: Sixteen years old. Caretakers’ son. Just got his driver’s license. He’s new to the Cryptos Island crew, but not new to cryptids.
Dr. Strand: Noah Blackwood’s chief genetic scientist. As pale as an eggshell, with a prominent nose and thick black-framed glasses.
Henrico: Noah Blackwood’s personal taxidermist. Lives beneath the central Seattle Ark, has not seen the light of day in many years, and has no complaints about it.
Mitch Merton (a.k.a Mitch the Snitch): Former head maintenance chief on Cryptos; was Noah Blackwood’s spy on the island. Current assistant to Henrico the taxidermist — a job for which he is ill-suited.
Bo: Female bonobo chimpanzee; orphaned and adopted by Wolfe years ago in the Congo when Wolfe and Rose were searching for Mokélé- mbembé. Especially fond of Luther’s orange hair.
PD: Short for Pocket Dog; black-haired teacup poodle. Best friends with Bo. Jumps into a pocket upon hearing the word snake.
Congo: African gray parrot who belonged to Rose, Grace’s mother, when she was in central Africa. Grace brought him back to Cryptos Island after their adventure with Mokélé-mbembé; he also accompanied her aboard the Coelacanth on the quest to capture a giant squid in the South Pacific.
CHUPACABRA
Chupacabra is a Spanish name meaning “goat sucker.” A beast of legend, its actual existence has yet to be verified, although sightings have been reported in the West Indies, South and Central America, and the southern parts of North America. The chupacabra’s size is estimated at four to five feet in length. Its fur has been described as brown to black in color, and its head large, with huge fiery-orange eyes that appear to “glow” in the dark. Sharp fangs are said to protrude from its powerful jaws. Spikes, or hard knobby ridges, run from its head to the end of its spine. Accounts of a tail are inconsistent.
The chupacabra’s hind legs are powerfully muscled. The front legs are thinner in comparison, and tipped with three-clawed toes, sometimes reported to be red in color.
An opportunistic predator by all accounts, the chupacabra hunts primarily at night, feeding on anything it can catch and kill. As its name indicates, it has a particular taste for goats. Its victims generally exhibit two or three puncture wounds in the neck, made by either the fangs or the claws, and from which the chupacabra can drain the blood on which it feeds.
CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE
DEDICATION
CRYPTOZOOLOGY DEFINITION
THE CRYPTID HUNTERS
CHUPACABRA DEFINITION
THE CRYPTID HUNTERS SAGA SO FAR …
PROLOGUE: NINE’S MIND
PART ONE – SQUIDARIUM
A VIEW FROM A ROOF
NOAH’S ARK
DUH DU JOUR
THE SIXTH MOLESKINE
DYLAN
BAIT
THE GIZMO
LUNCH
PART TWO – THE ARK
A ZOO BY ANY OTHER NAME
BENEATH
AROUND THE WORLD
CONSTRICTION
WATCHERS
CRASH
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
NIGHT SHIFT
PASSAGES
HIDE-AND-SEEK
THE CUBE
NO MORE MISTAKES
CH-9
BELOW
HAMPERED
CONTAINMENT
PART THREE – CHUPACABRA
THE GEEKENSTEIN MONSTER
DUCTWORK
HUNT
LADDERS, DOORS, AND LAUNDRY
SMOKE AND MIRRORS
THE MOTHMAN
LIAR, LIAR, PANTS ON FIRE
HOOT AND HOLLER
REBOOT
CARD TRICKS
DECK DITCHING
BUTCHERY
NIGHT HAND
PANDA-MONIUM
CRYPTOS ISLAND
MR. ZWILLING
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
COPYRIGHT
THE CRYPTID HUNTERS SAGA SO FAR …
* * *
Fraternal twins Marty and Grace O’Hara are attending the Omega Opportunity Preparatory School (OOPS) in Switzerland when they receive shocking and tragic news: Their parents’ helicopter has crashed somewhere in the Amazon rain forest of Brazil and they are missing. Two days later, their headmaster tells them they are leaving OOPS to live with a man named Travis Wolfe, who claims to be their mother’s older brother.
Travis Wolfe, a giant of a man, with unruly black hair and a shaggy beard, lives on a volcanic island called Cryptos off the coast of Washington State. He and his genius business partner, Ted Bronson, own a very profitable tech company called eWolfe, headquartered on the mysterious island. But Wolfe’s real interest is cryptozoology. He spends almost every dime he makes searching the world for mythical animals called cryptids. Now, though, much of that money is going toward finding Marty and Grace’s parents in the Amazon.
A few days into Marty and Grace’s stay on the island, a woman shows up, unannounced and uninvited, paddling a kayak. Her name is Laurel Lee. She’s a cultural anthropologist recently returned from the Congo, where she was living with a tribe of pygmies near Lake Télé. While in the Congo, she met an old friend of Wolfe’s from his time there, Masalito. Just before she left, Masalito gave her a large, dried-out egg, claiming that it belonged to a dinosaur called Mokélé-mbembé. The egg is one of three. The other two eggs had hatched. Masalito told her that the male had died recently and the female was ill. When Laurel got back to the U.S., she took the egg to a genetics lab owned by the famous wildlife conservationist Dr. Noah Blackwood to have it tested. Noah Blackwood’s people stole the egg from her. Laurel managed to steal it back, but not without consequences. In a matter of hours, she lost her job at the university, all of her money was taken from her bank account, and her credit cards were canceled. The powerful Noah Blackwood is after her. She’s on the run.
Travis Wolfe and Noah Blackwood have been archenemies for years. Noah is rich, famous, and respected, but he is not who he appears to be. His television show, Wildlife First, and his animal parks around the world are fronts to make money and hide his real purpose, which is to collect rare species for his Arks and “harvest” — that is, stuff — them in their prime.
Wolfe springs into action. They have to get to the Congo to save the last dinosaur on earth before Noah Blackwood and his henchman, Butch McCall, get their hands on it. Wolfe decides to send Marty and Grace back to OOPS. The Congo is too dangerous for kids. His plan is to have his pilot take Marty and Grace to Switzerland after he and Laurel are dropped off in the Congo.
Things do not go according to plan. As they are carrying out a supply drop over Lake Télé from Wolfe’s converted bomber, Marty and Grace have an accident caused by a chimp, a bunch of bananas, and a teacup poodle. The twins reach Lake Télé clinging to a parachute, days before Wolfe and Laurel can get there.
Alone in the treacherous jungle, with Butch McCall stalking them, Marty and Grace take up residence in a gigantic tree house built by Wolfe fourteen years earlier. While there, Marty and Grace discover that they are not twins after all, but cousins. Travis Wolfe, their guardian, was married to Rose Blackwood — Noah’s daughter. To get away from her controlling father, Rose eloped with Wolfe and they hid out in the Congo. Grace was born there; she is their daughter. And Noah Blackwood is Grace’s grandfather. But Rose, her mother, is dead, killed by Mokélé-mbembé, which bit off Wolfe’s leg in the struggle.
Marty and Grace find the Mokélé-mbembé nest. The last living dinosaur, the sickly female, has died, but she has left behind two eggs. The cousins take the eggs and escape by hijacking Noah Blackwood’s helicopter, leaving Butch and Noah behind to make their way out of the jungle on foot.
Back on Cryptos Island, Wolfe decides it’s best to leave the country for a while. He knows that Noah is going to come after not only the eggs but also his granddaughter. Marty’s best friend from OOPS, Luther Percival Smyth IV, joins them. Aboard Wolfe’s research ship, the Coelacanth, they head to New Zealand to catch a giant squid for Northwest Zoo and Aquarium, the rival to Blackwood’s Seattle Ark.
Butch McCall manages to get aboard the Coelacanth disguised as a researcher, with two co-conspirators to help him: Yvonne Zloblinavech and Mitch Merton.
The Mokélé-mbembé eggs hatch on the ship, producing two voracious and gassy baby dinosaurs.
Noah Blackwood catches up to them off the coast of New Zealand aboard his own research ship, manned with mercenaries and pirates. While Marty and Ted are in the deep on Ted’s submersible, trying to catch a giant squid, Noah Blackwood attacks the Coelacanth with his hired pirates. The Coelacanth crew fends off the assault with sonic cannons, but the pirate attack is a feint. While they are fighting on the surface, Noah sends in scuba divers to place explosive charges inside the Coelacanth.
Marty and Ted manage to lure a giant squid into the Coelacanth’s Moon Pool, but before they can congratulate themselves on their historic catch, they discover the explosives. As they frantically try to disarm them, there is a standoff up on deck.
Butch, Yvonne, and Noah’s mercenaries have bagged the Mokélé-mbembé hatchlings, and are holding Grace and Laurel at gunpoint. Noah lands his chopper on the Coelacanth’s helipad. Butch threatens to shoot Laurel if Wolfe and his men don’t lay down their arms. To break the impasse and protect her father and friends, Grace agrees to go willingly with her grandfather.
Marty and Ted manage to find and disarm all of the bombs. The Cryptos crew heads back to Seattle with the first giant squid ever to be captured alive. But they are dejected. They’ve lost Grace. They’ve lost the dinosaur hatchlings. And Marty’s parents are still missing….
* * *
From the darkness of his wooden den the chupacabra sensed everything…. The whir of fans. The click of the flickering lights. The drip … drip … drip of water. The hiss of doors opening. The grating sound of human voices before the doors hissed closed again. The sharp scent of his own urine in the corners of his cage. The scratching of rabbits and rodents against cold steel. The bleating of a kid goat. His belly churning with hunger….
The kid goat bleated again. It had been several sleeps since the last one.
The night before, the woman with the box had made him go to sleep. At least he thought it was her. It only happened when she was nearby with the box she held.
“Sleep!” she had shouted.
A sharp, piercing pain in his head, then the darkness.
When he woke there was something wrapped around his chest and back. He tried to scratch it off with his razorlike claws, but his claws could not reach it. He tried to bite it off, but his long, sharp fangs were not long enough to pierce it. He had tried to rub it off on the bars of his cage, but that had made the chafing and constriction worse. Finally, he had given up and simply accepted the discomfort, crawling into his dark den, his head toward the opening, watching, listening, scenting the air.
The man with the white coat and shining mirror eyes opened the door down the hallway. The chupacabra moved farther back into his den, his powerful hind legs pressed into the corner. He was not afraid of the man, but he was fearful of the things that happened to him when the man was near.
“Hungry?” the man said.
The chupacabra did not move. He stared at the man’s hand from the darkness. The hand was wrapped in cloth as bright as the man’s coat. He had tasted the man’s blood and wanted more, but he stayed where he was … still, silent, waiting.
“I have something that will get you out of that box,” the man said.
The man disappeared from the chupacabra’s view. His feet clicked on the concrete floor. The kid goat started bleating louder. Steel doors rattled. The bleating got closer with every door rattle. Closer.
Closer. Closer.
The chupacabra knew what was coming. He felt liquid dripping from his jaw. His belly rattled like the doors. But he stayed where he was. Watching. Waiting.
The final door opened. The kid goat jumped into his cage, prodded by the man with a long stick through the steel mesh.
The kid goat pranced back and forth in front of his den, bleating, bleating, bleating. The chupacabra could smell its fear.
“Dinnertime,” the man said.
The chupacabra wanted the frightened creature, but he didn’t move. He wanted the man more. He had been studying this man for days. Watching him. Listening. Trying to lure him closer.
“Suit yourself,” the man said. “Eat or don’t eat. I don’t care.”
The door hissed open. The man stepped through. The door hissed closed. But the man did not go away. He watched through the small window in the door.
The chupacabra waited. He watched the man. He watched the kid goat pacing back and forth.
The door hissed open again. The man re-entered the room. The kid goat bleated.
“Are you okay?” the man asked. “Are you alive?”
The chupacabra didn’t move.
The man stepped closer and squatted down to peer into the den, inches from the wire mesh.
This is what the chupacabra had been waiting for. He launched himself from the den and hit the steel mesh.
Bang!
The man screamed and fell backward. His shining eyes flew off his face and clattered on the concrete floor.
The man breathed through his mouth. Big, deep breaths.
The chupacabra tried to reach him through the mesh with his claws, but the man pulled his feet away and curled into a ball.
The kid goat bleated. It stood in the corner, shivering.
The chupacabra jumped on the kid goat, sunk his long fangs into its neck, shook it once, and began to feed.
As he lapped up the warm, salty blood, he looked at the man curled up next to the wall. He could smell the man’s fear. It somehow made the blood taste better.