Free Gargantua by K. Robert Andreassi Page A

gorgeous smile.
    “We’re even,” she said, “okay?”
    Jack returned the smile but did not sit back down. “Okay.” He took a final sip of the coffee, then placed a couple of dollars on the bar. “I’m gonna go look for Brandon.”
    “Good luck,” Alyson said.
    “Thanks.”
    As Jack approached the door, Hale walked in. “Jack, there you are. I’ve received satellite shots of the ocean floor. Thought you might like to take a look.”
    Jack blinked in surprise. “Uh, sure.” He vaguely remembered a conversation the previous night over the third (or was it fourth?) beer. They were sitting in Rik’s Bar and Grill, Hale still determined to continue their investigation. He had mentioned that his Institute had a satellite and he could get photos of the ocean floor.
    “I thought your Institute was in Melbourne,” Jack said as they walked toward Hale’s bungalow. “How the hell did they get the photos to you so fast?”
    Hale grinned. “What is it you yanks call it? The information superhighway? Magic of e-mail, mate—got ’em five minutes after they took ’em. Admittedly, the resolution’s not as good in a JPEG file as it is in a proper print, but we’ll have those by morning, and these’ll do for now.”
    “Great,” Jack said. I can always talk to Brandon later.

    According to Paul Bateman, the big rock between the main beach and the small beach on Malau was called “Elephant Rock.” Paul had told Brandon and Jack this over lunch, and also mentioned that it was a great place to gather up slow-moving sea life.
    That’s what brought Brandon to the rock that morning.
    Brandon saw a few mud crabs and mollusks. Perfect. He grabbed them and dropped them in the small bucket he’d picked up at one of the small stands on the outskirts of the beach.
    He spent the better part of the morning gathering up various invertebrate sea life until he felt he had enough. Then he headed back toward the jungle. Just gotta hope that the little guy’s still there.
    Mom had always said that the world was always brighter after a good night’s sleep. Once he got older, Brandon realized that she only said that to convince him to go to bed at eight o’clock, but today he saw that she was right. He woke up bright and early, determined to befriend the small creature he’d met the day before. Dad doesn’t want to take me along on things, he wants to yell at me—well, fine. Let him. I’ve got a new friend.
    Finding the lagoon again proved pretty easy—the jungle was small enough that Brandon was amazed it even had a lagoon, to be honest.
    He sat himself down on the wet bank at the edge of the lagoon and waited.
    After a few minutes, he shifted in the sand, wondering if his hunch was wrong.
    Just as he was about to give up and head back to the hotel, the water started to ripple. Muttering “Shazam,” with a smile, he watched as the salamander-thingie poked its head out of the water. It looked at Brandon with those big eyes, then climbed out of the water and stood on its hind legs again.
    This is so cool, Brandon thought. He was practically nose to nose with the little guy, and this time it didn’t run away—it just stared back at him.
    “I bet you haven’t had breakfast,” Brandon said. He pulled the mollusks and mud crabs out of the bucket and laid them out on the edge of the lagoon like it was a buffet table.
    It stared down at the fish like it had no idea what they were. Then it fixed its gaze back on Brandon.
    When he was six, Brandon had wanted a dog more than anything else in the world. He begged and pleaded with Mom and Dad until finally they gave in at Christmas and got him a puppy. Brandon had named him Casey, and he loved the dog more than anything in the world. Dad had built a dog run in the back of the house in San Diego, and Brandon would spend hours there with Casey.
    It broke his heart a year and a half later when Brandon went out to find a hole in the dog run’s fence and no sign of Casey. They spent