Lost: The Novels Read online

  Oscar shrugged. “I don’t know,” he said, sounding a little impatient. “It’s just what they call the place, I guess, okay?”

  “Here we go,” Tammy sang out, unlocking the door and standing back to usher them through.

  Faith followed Oscar inside and looked around. The lab evidently had been an optometrist’s office in the not-too-distant past. There were still several glass display cases here and there and a few eye charts on the walls.

  Banishing a twinge of disappointment, Faith reminded herself that as Tammy had said, appearances weren’t important. Besides, environmental groups rarely had the funding for large, fancy facilities the way a company like Q Corp did. That was just the way of the world.

  Spotting several large glass tanks lined up on a counter at the back of the room, she smiled. “Hey,” she said. “Do you have snakes in there?”

  “Yeah.” Tammy smiled. “Want to see? We have specimens of most of the major venomous Australian species.”

  “Great!” Her nerves forgotten, Faith hurried over and peered into the first of the tanks.

  Oscar joined her. “Cool-looking snake,” he commented. “What is it?”

  “That’s a Tropidechis carinatus, better known as a Rough-scaled Snake,” Faith told him, identifying the three-foot-long snake easily by its distinctive scales. “They don’t usually produce that much venom but, unlike most snakes, they’re pretty bad-tempered. More likely to fight—and bite—than flee.”

  “Right-o.” Tammy pointed to the next tank in the line, which contained a much larger snake. “Did you see this little guy?”

  Faith moved over to look. “Hey, is that a Mulga?”

  As Tammy nodded, Oscar also looked into the second tank. “What’s a Mulga?” he asked. “Is it poisonous, too?”

  “It’s a Mulga Snake, also known as a King Brown Snake, even though it’s more closely related to black snakes than the browns,” Faith told him. “Its venom isn’t quite as toxic as some, but it has the largest output of any snake in Australia.”

  “Does that mean it’s more dangerous than the first snake there?” he asked.

  Faith was pleasantly surprised by his questions. Back home, he’d never showed much interest in the details of her work. Maybe seeing the snakes up close and personal had piqued his curiosity, or maybe he was just trying to make up for their earlier argument about Arreglo. Either way, she was more than happy to talk to him about her favorite subject.

  “It’s hard to say,” she said. “The Mulga can become aggressive, too, but like I said, the Rough-scaled Snake is more known for attacking people. I don’t know the fatality statistics offhand.” She shrugged. “With modern antivenins, most snakebites aren’t lethal anymore, anyway.”

  They moved on down the line, looking at several other snakes—a taipan, an Eastern Brown Snake, a Death Adder. Faith was thrilled by the chance to see them all up close and in one place. So what if the lab was a little shabbier than the ones back home at the university? This was why she’d agreed to this trip. For the first time since getting off the plane, she was one hundred percent glad she’d come.

  Tammy seemed to be enjoying Faith’s enthusiasm. “Oscar said you were a snake person,” she commented. “I can see he was right. How did you get interested in something like that?”

  Faith glanced at her shyly. “Well, I’ve always loved all sorts of animals, and especially reptiles and amphibians,” she said. “My older sister got me started early—she used to love telling people how she sneaked a frog into my crib when I was just a baby.” She smiled at the memory. “I guess she thought I needed a pet.”

  “Ah, so it’s a family trait.” Tammy smiled. “Is your sister a biologist, too, then?”

  “No.” Faith felt the familiar hollow ache in her heart that always came when she talked about Gayle. “She—um, she was a music teacher and a singer. But she died a few years ago. Cancer. She’s the one who sort of inspired my research at the university—once I heard about the stuff people are doing with snake venoms, trying to find a cure for cancer, I knew it was for me. I just think it’s amazing that snake venom—something that most people think of as horrible and deadly and wrong—could actually hold the key to, you know, ending that kind of pain. Once I have my degree, I want to get involved in that kind of research full-time.”

  Her last few words trailed off bashfully into silence. She wasn’t used to talking so much about herself, especially to a virtual stranger. But Tammy seemed very interested in what she’d said.

  “Oh, but that’s such a coincidence!” the Australian woman exclaimed. “Didn’t Oscar tell you?”

  Faith glanced at Oscar, who looked blank. “Tell me what?” she asked.

  “That’s one of our primary areas of research here,” Tammy said. “The IAL is at the forefront of such things—cancer research, snake venoms, the lot.”

  “Oh yeah, that’s right.” Oscar shrugged and grinned sheepishly. “I guess I forgot.”

  “Really?” Faith looked from one to the other, surprised. “That’s so cool! So what kinds of experiments are you guys running right now? Do you stick with local species, or do you import venom from other countries? Have you looked into the—”

  Tammy laughed, raising both hands as if to ward off the questions. “Wait, wait!” she cried. “I’m a PR specialist, not a scientist, so I don’t know all the technical ins and outs of the project. Sorry. But I’ll see that you get a chance to sit down with the people doing the research—we should be able to set something up once we’ve finally figured out a way to deal with the Arreglo crisis…”

  “Oh, okay. That sounds good.” Faith couldn’t help feeling vaguely guilty all of a sudden at the mention of Dr. Arreglo’s name. It was one thing to defend him to hotheaded Oscar, who sometimes seemed to disapprove of everyone and everything besides himself. But knowing that someone like Tammy was working so hard against Arreglo as well made her feel bad for even thinking about wanting to reconcile with her adviser.

  “We’re back!” The lab door burst open and several people spilled in. “Did you miss us?”

  It was Mo, sporting a black eye and a cocky grin. Z-Man, Junior, and Rune were right behind him.

  “Mo!” Oscar hurried forward to trade high fives. “Dude, check you out! Police brutality at its finest!”

  “I guess.” Mo laughed. “Man, the elbows were flying so fast I don’t know who got me. Mighta been this bastard here, actually.” He hooked a thumb toward Junior, who grinned sheepishly.

  Tammy had also left the snake tanks to greet the newcomers. “Did you have any problems at the police station?” she asked.

  “Nope, Z-Man talked us out with no trouble at all,” Rune replied.

  Faith found that hard to believe. She’d barely heard Z-Man speak ten words in the time she’d known him so far. But he nodded serenely as Tammy thanked him for his good work.

  At that point Junior began mumbling eagerly about something she couldn’t quite follow. Oscar broke in with a question, and then there was a burst of chatter as all of them started talking about the press conference, the protest, and everything else that had happened.

  Meanwhile Faith stayed where she was, standing forgotten by the snake tanks. The brief moment of comfort had passed and she was on the outside again, feeling alone and uncomfortable.

  11

  BREATHE. FAITH FOUGHT BACK the uncomfortable feeling of panic, forcing herself to put one foot in front of the other as she moved farther into the jungle. She’d finally grown frustrated with her own fearful feelings and decided to force herself to explore a little deeper. How else was she ever going to catch another glimpse of the Paradise Parrot, if that was really what she’d seen earlier?

  Her heart thumped loudly with every step, but so far there was no sign of anything out of the ordinary. It was just a sunny, steamy, perfectly normal day in the jungle. Birds cried out overhead, broad tropical leaves waved lazily in the slight breeze, insects buzzed around here and there—there was absolutely nothing t
o be scared of…

  “Aaaaaah!”

  The terrified scream, coming from somewhere in the forest nearby, evoked a startled yelp. Immediately forgetting her own fears, Faith leaped into motion, rushing toward the source of the shout. Whoever had cried out sounded terrified and desperate. In the back of her mind, it occurred to her that she could be racing right toward whatever had made those terrifying noises, but she couldn’t stop. She had to help if she could.

  She burst into a large, rocky clearing ringed by trees and, on one side, a bamboo grove. George was standing frozen in place beside a tumbledown pile of large, mossy boulders. He was gripping a banged-up piece of luggage which, judging by the dirt on its sides, he’d just yanked out from under one of the rocks.

  “George?” Faith said uncertainly. “Was that you yelling just now?”

  He didn’t move a muscle as he answered through clenched teeth. “Don’t make any sudden moves,” he hissed. “Or it might strike.”

  Faith blinked, not sure what he was talking about. She felt a flash of fear as she scanned the trees around them, wondering if the monster could be lurking there waiting to leap out and pounce on them both. But aside from the gentle flapping of foliage in the breeze and the constant but nearly imperceptible sway of the tall, pliable bamboo stalks, there was no sign of movement anywhere.

  It was only when she glanced back at George that she finally realized what was wrong with him. When she did, she wasn’t sure whether to roll her eyes or laugh out loud. Clinging to the side of the suitcase, its tongue flicking in and out, was a slender, one-and-a-half-foot-long yellowish green snake. That was all. And yet he was clearly so scared that he couldn’t move a muscle even to put down the bag and move away.

  Faith took a step forward, smiling and making her voice as reassuring as possible as she spoke. “It’s okay, George,” she said. “That’s just a baby tree python—the scientific name is Morelia viridis.”

  “P-python?” George repeated. “Those are pretty dangerous, right?”

  “Not at all,” Faith replied soothingly. “Trust me, it’s not going to hurt you. It’s nonvenomous and probably more scared of you than you are of it.”

  That seemed to be both the right and wrong thing to say. George finally jerked into motion, tossing the suitcase halfway across the clearing. When it hit the ground its clasp gave way and it burst open, sending clothes and toiletries flying in all directions.

  “Pardon me, missy, but for your information I wasn’t scared,” he spat out, wheeling to glare at Faith. “And I don’t appreciate you saying so. You don’t have to be some kind of sissy coward to be cautious around a strange snake.”

  “Yes, I know. I—I’m sorry,” she stammered, realizing he must have taken her comment as some kind of grave insult to his manhood. “I was just trying to—”

  He hardly seemed to hear her. His face was red with anger as he jabbed one finger toward her. “And I really don’t appreciate the superior attitude, either. Not everybody thinks like you, you know. That doesn’t make you queen of the jungle or whatever the hell you think you are.”

  Faith took a step backward, startled and a little frightened by the fury in his eyes. “But I don’t—”

  “You know, people like you make me sick,” he cried, still jabbing his finger at her. “You spend all your time figuring out ways to make things harder for the rest of us, and for what? You want progress to stop just to save a few stupid creatures that no one likes anyway!”

  Stooping, he grabbed a stout tree branch off the ground and glared at her. Faith froze, not knowing how to react. While she would have had no trouble facing down an angry snake in striking position, she had absolutely no experience dealing with people in a similar mood.

  But instead of coming toward her, he whirled around and stomped toward the fallen suitcase.

  “Okay, where’d you go, you slimy little sonofabitch?” he muttered. He whacked the stick soundly against his free hand, then used it to poke at the suitcase, flipping it over. “Go ahead, I dare ya to show your ugly little head again. Then you’ll see just how important an opposable thumb really is…”

  Fortunately the snake had long since disappeared. Faith stared blankly at George for another moment as he stomped around the clearing with his weapon, then finally gathered her wits enough to turn and walk away, leaving him still ranting furiously at the absent snake.

  She wandered aimlessly through the jungle for a few minutes, her earlier fears temporarily forgotten. She was shaken by the idea that some people could go from nice to nasty over something so minor. Especially when she was only trying to help…

  Maybe I should have seen it coming, Faith told herself, thinking of the fate of that innocent spider. And it wasn’t as if she was exactly a genius when it came to judging people’s true characters—recent events had proven that well enough.

  She shook her head, grimacing at the painful memories that immediately flashed through her mind. Actions, not words, as Gayle would say…

  12

  “ACTION, NOW! TELL THEM no, now!” Oscar shouted at the top of his lungs.

  Beside him, Faith swallowed a sigh. So far, their picketing duty outside Q Corp’s Sydney headquarters was turning out to be tedious and a little embarrassing. There were no more than two dozen protesters marching along the sidewalk outside the impressive-looking glass-and-steel building, including their little group, and only two bored-looking police officers stood nearby keeping an eye on things.

  “How much longer do we have to stay here?” she whispered to Oscar when he paused for breath.

  “As long as it takes,” he said, switching his anti-Q sign from one hand to the other and wiping the sweat from his brow. “Until they listen to us. We can’t give up.”

  Just then Junior wandered over, clutching a small boom box under one beefy arm. “Check it out,” he said, for once his soft, quick words clear enough for Faith to understand. “I found a station playing the traitor’s speech.”

  Faith didn’t even have to ask who he meant. She had heard the others refer to Arreglo by insulting names so many times already on this trip that she was almost getting used to it. Almost.

  “I don’t want to hear what that sellout has to say,” Oscar declared.

  But the others were already gathering around Junior. “Know thy enemy, my boy,” Mo said, holding up one finger for emphasis. “If we don’t listen to what he has to say, how can we combat it?”

  Junior set the radio on the sidewalk, sat down on the curb beside it, and turned up the volume. The others joined him, and Faith perched on the curb at one end beside Rune, relieved to have an excuse to stop walking around with her sign for a few minutes. Only Oscar remained standing, looking stubborn and irritated. But Faith could tell he was listening, too, as he hovered nearby.

  “…and I regret to say that the purpose of this conference has been overshadowed by my recent decision regarding the Vibora Basin project,” Dr. Arreglo’s clear, lightly accented voice poured out of the radio, just a little scratchy thanks to the cheap speakers. “Some people are criticizing me for compromising with Q Corp, and I do understand their concerns. But of those people I ask this: Is it better to take an offer to meet halfway, or hold out for a hundred-percent solution that’s ninety-nine percent unlikely to happen? To me, the answer was clear. Q Corp would find a way to make this plant happen with or without me. So I decided to put aside my old distaste for this company, with their admittedly poor environmental record, and do what I could to help turn that record around, at least a little bit. After all, one can’t have an influence if one isn’t willing to engage.”

  Faith caught herself nodding slightly, realizing that what Arreglo was saying made sense. It reminded her of one of Gayle’s favorite sayings: Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. She glanced around at the others to see if they were thinking the same way, but she couldn’t read their faces.

  Meanwhile Arreglo was still talking. “…and pledged that a portion of the Vibora Basin rain
forest will be set aside as protected land. And with the money Q Corp has promised to commit to maintaining this refuge, we can rest assured that it will be truly protected, with no danger of poachers or the other usual threats. And that, I think we can all agree, is a positive thing.”

  “Sellout,” Oscar muttered loudly as the station cut away to a commercial.

  “Yeah.” Junior turned down the volume. “Sounds like a buncha excuses to me.”

  “Some folks’ll say anything to save their own nether regions,” Mo added, nodding sagely.

  “The bastard!” Rune added hotly.

  Oscar clenched his sign handle with both fists. “You know, I wonder how many people will even listen to this stupid speech, or anything else he has to say from now on,” he commented acidly. “After that mess of a press conference yesterday, I wonder if he’ll even live through this visit to Australia.” He grinned and glanced around at the others, clearly pleased with his own comment.

  Faith was horrified. Hadn’t they heard what Arreglo had just said? Hadn’t his explanation changed their minds about him at all? It had certainly made her start to think again, to wonder if maybe she’d been looking at things the wrong way all along…

  “How can you say that?” she blurted out. “It almost sounds like you’d be happy if something terrible happened to him.”

  “And you sound like an apologist for the corporate pigs,” Oscar countered. “I mean, just think about all the millions of lives that could be saved if Arreglo’s happened to end right now. Without his support and all the good publicity he’s bringing them, I’m betting these jerks”—he paused just long enough to gesture at the edifice behind them— “might rethink their plans for the Vibora Basin.”

  “Fat chance,” Rune muttered. “The only thing they think about is money.”

  Oscar ignored her. He was in full-on rant mode by now, his face red and his eyes bright with righteous indignation. “Millions of lives,” he told Faith. “Think about that. Birds. Fish. Monkeys. Your precious snakes. All of them. Q Corp could build their stupid plant anywhere. But none of those creatures have a choice about where to live. It’s the Vibora Basin or oblivion for them.”