Fatal Harvest Read Online Free PDF

afternoon.”
    “Don’t talk to them. Get them on the scene.”
    “Yes, sir.” Mack Harwood paused a moment. “I’d rather not wait for Technology to arrive, Mr. Grant. This place is the backside of nowhere. I think we need to look up Banyon today.”
    “Just get the data, Harwood. Do whatever you have to do.”
    Vince set down the receiver. He wished he hadn’t been forced to move his former secretary to Agrimax’s Wichita branch. Dawn had been good for him. Kept him feeling alive, vital, confident. He reached over and took a cruller from the silver tray.
     
    Seated in his pickup under a cottonwood tree, Matt rummaged in the glove compartment for something to eat.From the debris of torn road maps, ballpoint pens, a pocketknife and the vehicle owner’s manual, he rooted out an old Snickers bar and peeled back the wrapper. The candy had gone pale and crumbly, but he wolfed it down anyway. He knew he had to function. Had to keep going. Had to think.
    Not fifty feet away, the lights were on in Jim Banyon’s house. But who was inside? Hands shaking, Matt gripped the old black steering wheel as he swallowed the last of the chocolate.
    Okay, think, think. Think, Mattman!
    The two men who had taken him out of trig class said they were college recruiters. Princeton. They wanted to treat him to ice cream. Talk about their computer science program.
    So he had gotten into their car.
    “Stupid!” Matt slammed his hand on the steering column. Never get into a stranger’s car. His mom had taught him that. Josefina had echoed it a thousand times. He knew better!
    The men had driven him out to the sports complex on the edge of Artesia. That’s when they started asking him about Agrimax. About his term paper. About his e-mails to the company. They wanted to know where he got his information.
    “Why did I tell them?” he ground out, dropping his forehead onto the steering wheel. “Dumb! I am such an idiot!”
    By that time, he had figured out enough to get scared.
    They had slammed his head into the concrete wall, and he had passed out. A moment later he came to, crumpled on the ground, aware of blood trickling down the back of his neck. The Agrimax men leaned against their car, talking in low voices.
    That’s when Matt bolted.
    They ran after him. Shouting. Threatening to call the police, send him to prison, put him away forever. He wriggled under the park’s barbed-wire fence. Ran down thesidewalk and cut across the yards of several houses. Rounded a corner of the video store. Dashed down an alley. Found a culvert and hid. An hour. Two hours.
    Sweating, smelling like dank water, his head throbbing, he ran all the way to the high school just as the last class was letting out. He hid in a clump of bushes and scanned the area for the Agrimax men or their car. Nothing. In the distance near the main door, he saw Billy waiting for him. Checking out the girls. Calling greetings to classmates. Matt wanted to go to him, tell him everything. But what if the two men were watching? Then they would go after Billy, too.
    Matt made a dash for his pickup. He sped from the school parking lot, headed out of town. Drove to nearby Hope. Found a thicket of trees near Jim Banyon’s house. Cottonwoods, piñons, salt cedar. Not much cover, but he pulled his pickup as far into their midst as he could.
    It was beginning to grow dark, so he checked his cell phone. A message from Billy that Matt’s dad was worrying about him, searching for him.
    That didn’t sound right. His dad never cared where he was, did he? Were the Agrimax men holding Billy? Had they made him leave that message?
    Shaken, Matt decided to place a call. He pressed the button and listened to the rings on the other end. When Billy answered, Matt barely managed to squawk his own name.
    “Mattman, is that you?” Billy’s voice had a calming effect. Yeah, this was Billy. Life was normal somewhere out there. But not here…not in this pickup in the middle of a grove just outside