"Anthony Wall - The Eden Mission (2)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wall Anthony)

going to be fooled. A minute passed, and Mendoza remained motionless. Osuna
leaned over him.

Like lightning, Mendoza's hand snaked to his boot. A knife flashed. He stabbed
once, twice, three times. Osuna reeled backwards, blood welling between the
fingers he held to his chest. Mendoza seized the revolver. He kicked Osuna,
rolling him to the river's edge. As he entered the water, close to death,
Miguel Osuna's last thoughts were of his family.

Mercifully he did not feel the razor teeth of the seething piranhas that would
soon reduce him to a skeleton.

Aboard Sea Shepherd the days slipped smoothly by, like the ocean. The
youngsters had settled down to a regular routine: sleep, food, lessons,
emergency drills, experiments in the ship's laboratories--and always some fun.
Friendships deepened, but Darren remained the outsider.

Gary and Susan still talked about the time they had seen him leaving the radio
room, and they hadn't forgotten the ticking off from Leslie Curtis. But
neither of them mentioned the incident to anybody else. Since then Curtis had
gone out of his way to be pleasant. He even apologised for speaking sharply,
explaining that he had been busy and harassed. Darren too seemed to be making
an effort. It was quite a surprise when he greeted Gary with a mumbled "Hello"
on deck.

Although puzzled by the radio room affair, Gary thought little of it. Not so
Susan. She wasn't one to bear a grudge, and had accepted Curtis's apology; but
however hard she tried, she just could not bring herself to like the man. She
didn't trust him either. His switched-on smile and strained good humour made
her wince.

Now the students were crowding eagerly into Sea Shepherd's main laboratory.
9mid-sentence

They goggled ... weird and multicoloured specimens in tanks, underwater
viewing windows, microscopes, purring machines, boffins wearing long white
coats.

Ben beckoned Yves and Vanessa, who appeared more interested in each other than
in what he was saying. "Take a look at this." He lifted the lid of a huge
tank. All the youngsters pressed forward. "We caught that yesterday,"
Bellingham added. "Anyone tell me what it is?"

Norman's answer was blotted out by a loud exclamation from the naturalist.
"Don't touch!" He grabbed Yves' wrist. "If that thing stings you, you'll be
hopping up and down for a week. More than one swimmer has been stung to death
by a Portuguese man-of-war."

They all stared at the foot-long, bright-blue body with its yards of
tentacles. "The blue bit is a gas-filled float," Bellingham told them, "and