The Shark Rider Read Online Free PDF

thing?”
    Before Ms. Sanchez could answer, Hammer, the club-wielding attack shrimp, came out of his burrow. The creature stood up on his middle legs and rotated his freaky half-blue, half-pink eyeballs around. The stomatopod then crawled to the tank’s bubble-wrapped front wall and struck with such ferocity that Tristan leapt backwards, thinking the glass would shatter. Before disappearing back into his sandy burrow, Hammer took a moment to also smack the miniature fighting dummy over the head.
    â€œThere’s your answer. I don’t think Hammer likes us watching him eat, and besides, he has a serious anger management issue. It’s why he’s here. The residents of the reef where he lives were sick of him destroying the neighborhood and attacking other creatures. They asked if we could do something. It was sort of an undersea intervention. We sent a team in to work with his neighbors and lure him out of his burrow. Theyconvinced Hammer to come here for help. We need to figure out why he’s so mad and find other ways for him to deal with his anger. But so far, the only thing that’s happened is that he’s destroyed three of those fighting dummies and cracked two aquariums. We’re hoping he’ll take a shine to someone soon and open up about his problems.”
    â€œHey,” Tristan said. “Maybe Hugh can help. He’s pretty good with the communication thing.”
    â€œMaybe,” Ms. Sanchez replied. “I really don’t want to lose any more tanks.” She moved on to another aquarium nearby. It was larger than the first and half-filled with rubble, some corals, and a cluster of sea anemones that resembled flat, multicolored flowers.
    Tristan peered into the tank. He didn’t see anything all that unusual. He recognized a cute, two-inch-long pufferfish. It was brown with white, crisscrossing lines, had a skinny little snout, and had a barely-there tail. There was also a tiny, bright yellow, coin-shaped fish and a few skinny ones with stripes like he’d seen in the stream earlier.
    â€œSee the fish in the corner with the big black eyes? The silvery one with the pinkish-red, horizontal stripes?”
    â€œYeah, that one.” Tristan pointed to a fish about three inches long.
    â€œThat’s a juvenile squirrelfish. They’re nocturnal. They hide in the reef during the day and then come out at night to hunt. That’s why they’ve got those big eyes—for night vision.”
    â€œBut it’s daytime, and it’s out swimming around.”
    Ms. Sanchez nodded. “Exactly. That’s the problem. Sandy here is afraid of the dark. We’ve been putting a nightlight in the tank after dark with some food to entice her out. We’re trying to get her to feed regularly at night and then wean her off the light.”
    They moved on to the condo complex of aquariums that was Old Jack’s home—the camp’s resident elderly octopus. Like last year, there was a collection of pickle jars, some rocks, seaweed, and a variety of plastic play toys in the tanks. A Rubik’s Cube sat in one aquarium. It looked dingy. It was covered with a thin film of algae, as if it hadn’t been played with in a long time.
    â€œIs he still in there?” Tristan asked, thinking that Hugh would be really bummed if Old Jack had died.
    â€œOh, he’s in there. But he’s been coming out of his hiding spots less and less often, and he’s moving more slowly. We’re not sure how much time Old Jack has left.”
    After searching unsuccessfully for the elderly octopus, they moved on. Ms. Sanchez showed Tristan a spiny lobster whose long front spines had been torn off by a careless diver. The lobster had been fitted with prosthetic spines and was walking tentatively around the tank feeling things, like a blind person using a cane for the first time.
    Ms. Sanchez looked at her watch. “Look at the time. You’d better get over