The Reluctant Warrior Read Online Free PDF Page A

ever happened to us.”
    Grabbing a handle on the raft Jed helped carry it to the water’s edge. Discovering something over the other side of this lake that no one had ever seen before did hold a certain appeal for him. But it would all be for nothing if they couldn’t make it back to civilization.
    They were about half a mile across the lake with the tiny outboard motor the only sound piercing the stillness of the Antarctic air when Jed first noticed it. Not much more than a ripple that gently disturbed the placid water, and for a moment he wondered if he had merely imagined it. That was until he spotted it again off the starboard side.
    He looked at Rex. “Did you see that?”
    “See what?”
    “Something was moving through the water beside us.”
    Rex glanced briefly over the side. “Nope, probably just the boats shadow.”
    “It was too big for that.”
    Rex leaned over for a longer look. “I don’t think anything could survive in an environment as hostile as what this lake dishes up,” he said eventually, satisfied that Jed had seen nothing more than the boats own shadow that up till now had frolicked playfully alongside the rubber vessel.
    “That’s what we thought about the fox and hare,” Jed pointed out.
    He had barely finished speaking before a long scaly back broke the surface of the water for a few seconds and then plunged back down into the inky black depths of the lake.
    “Well I jolly well saw that,” Rex spluttered, sitting bolt upright on his seat.
    Jonathon’s eyes danced nervously in the direction of the disturbance. “I hope it’s friendly, because if it’s not we don’t stand a chance in this little rubber thing.”
    An eerie silence descended on the three, and with the seconds ticking away the tension in the small vessel reached fever pitch.
    “Something’s coming up,” Jonathon said, as a large bubble burst noisily on the surface less than five feet away. For what seemed like an eternity the surface boiled like the contents of a witch’s cauldron, stopping only when a huge head burst uninvited through the foam. Rex rammed the tiller hard over as the tiny boat sped past. “Good grief,” he shouted, “what the dickens was that?”
    “Some type of prehistoric sea creature,” Jed guessed, surveying the spot where the animal had just dived and hoping against hope it wouldn’t resurface right beneath them.
    “What is it doing here,” Rex growled, “this is Antarctica, not some dreadful B grade movie.”
    The other two were too busy watching the water around the boat to answer. The problem being, if the creature decided to attack or come up beneath them then they wouldn’t stand a chance in their flimsy craft.
    “There it is again,” Rex yelled, hauling the boat over again. “What’s the crazy thing playing at?”
    “I think it might just be checking us out,” Jonathon said.
    Rex maintained a tight grip on the tiller and did his best to steer clear of the creature. “As long as that’s all it does.”
    Jed studied the animal as it kept pace with the craft. Huge eyes set well back on a large streamlined head, and a long body that must have measured at least twenty five feet did nothing to help him classify it.
    “Any ideas?” he asked Jonathon.
    “None whatsoever, I’ve never seen anything even remotely like it before.”
    “I still want to know what it’s doing in Antarctica.” Rex was still staring warily at the sea monster when the boat shuddered suddenly as if it had hit something. Then it shuddered again.
    “Fish,” Jonathon said excitedly, “a whole school of them.”
    The monster stopped its race with the boat, and as they pulled away the water around it came alive as it thrashed and bucked in a violent frenzy of feeding.
    “Fish,” Rex said in a daze. “Foxes, hares, sea monsters, and now fish, just what is going on here?”
    As Jed peeled off his outer jacket and tossed it into the bottom of the boat Rex stared at him in bewilderment. “Will