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Execution Island

By Janice Boekhoff

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Introduction

In a world where genetic manipulation is the newest superpower, dinosaurs are brought back from extinction and released on the American population. After several gruesome fatalities, the military hunts down each specimen and transfers it to a sanctuary—the newly formed island of Costa Rica. Contained by an expanded Panama Canal to the south and the freshly dug Nicaraguan canal to the north, the dinosaurs flourish in the tropical climate.

However, the costs required to purchase the land, evacuate the residents to nearby countries, and construct the sanctuary leave the United States saddled with enormous debt. This cost, coupled with an overworked prison system leads to the signing of a new death penalty bill, dubbed by the media as Jurassic Judgment.
After four months of accelerated appeals, death row inmates are given a choice: immediate execution or ... exile to Extinction Island.

Wrongly convicted of her best friend’s murder, reptile expert Oakley Laveau is sent to the island and survives for three terrifying weeks among genetically modified dinosaurs and ruthless convicts. In that time, she’s discovered the truth behind her own genetic manipulation. But the truth hasn’t set her free because the man who helped create her is coming to claim her.


Chapter One

The faces of the dead swam before her, obscuring the dirty window of the one-room shack. Oakley Laveau pinched her eyes shut to banish them but without success. Her mother. Adler. Daric. Violet. So many that guilt threatened to eat Oakley away from the inside. But to protect herself and those she cared about, she would kill many more. If that made her some sort of assassin, so be it. She’d been created for that exact purpose.
The real question was, could she become more than what she was created to be?

The man fretting beside her would say so. Cane LeBlanc was nothing if not optimistic about human nature. But even the faith-filled pastor showed the strain of the last few hours in the tight lines of his face. Two of their own had been wounded.

In the corner, Neve Torres slipped in and out of consciousness while the only doctor on the island dug around in her back for a bullet.

Not just any bullet. A bullet issued by the FBI. One that was meant for Oakley.

“Why did she do it?” Oakley whispered to Cane. Neve had taken her place and now fought for her life.

“I wasn’t there.” He shook his head. “I’d guess she did it to protect you.”

Remorse poured through her veins like rivers of regret. Neve, a native Costa Rican and surrogate mother to all those who’d lived in the cave, was the kindest woman she had ever met. Just because Neve never intended to leave Extinction Island didn’t mean she deserved to carry around a prisoner’s biological tracker.

“Almost there,” Dr. Wells Anderson muttered under her breath.

If anyone could find the bullet, it would be Wells. She was a dedicated doctor with a passion for helping others. When Raptor asked her, she’d been brave enough to volunteer to come to the island with the FBI to assist in any way she could. Though originally tasked with replacing Oakley’s biological tracker, she’d implanted it in Neve instead, at Neve’s insistence.

Taye Turner, who had been staring out the other window, shot a glance over his shoulder. The dark skin on his face wrinkled in anguish, and he turned away again. It had been clear for a while that he was in love with Neve. What wasn’t clear was how she felt, or if she even realized it.

Oakley swallowed hard. This was all her fault for not immediately accepting the replacement tracker. For thinking that finding the woman who messed with her DNA ranked higher in priority. What if Neve didn’t make it?

To her right, Kaleo moaned, and she went to him. He lay on his stomach with bandages striping down his legs. Her heart ached as she sank down next to his unconscious form. Kaleo Palani had saved her on the first day she’d arrived and many more times since then. Had she gotten him help in time to give him the same chance at life? He had to pull through, but he’d lost so much blood. Life without him would be ...

No, she couldn’t think about that.

He’d passed out from the pain when Wells was stitching up the backs of his legs, and the doctor hadn’t had a chance to rub any painkiller into his wounds before Neve arrived in even more serious condition.
Oakley rummaged through one of the bags and found the tube of homeopathic cream—Neve’s special concoction of herbs. As gently as possible, she peeled back the tape from the bandages and smoothed a thin layer across Kaleo’s torn flesh. Red Grizzly had shredded the outer skin, but Wells said the underlying dermis was pretty much intact.

Oakley worked her jaw. She’d make that overgrown Utahraptor pay for this.

He stirred until she finished with the cream and replaced the bandages. Then, he fell completely unconscious again—his body’s way of dealing with the trauma and blood loss. Please let him heal.

“Got it.” Wells held a small object pinched between her first two fingers. So tiny and yet so destructive. Wells tossed the surprisingly intact bullet to the dirt floor of the shack, then pressed a cloth to the wound. “She’s not coughing up blood, so I don’t think the bullet hit her lungs. There’s not enough blood for it to have hit her liver or kidneys. Without an operating team, I can’t be positive, but chances are she’s going to make it.”

Oakley blew out a breath and put a shaky hand over her heart.

Taye dropped to his knees beside the cot, grasping Neve’s limp hand. She didn’t open her eyes.

“Thank you, God,” Cane said as he placed a hand on Wells’s shoulder. “Can I help clean up?”

“Sure.” She handed him a few bloody rags to wash out in a nearby bucket.

Oakley should help also, but she couldn’t move. Couldn’t function. They were only in this shack because of her. In her desire to find answers from her past, she’d led the director of Asperten International—Lumas Verret—straight to the cave hideout. Every self-centered step she made had put others in danger. Not just those in the cave. But her brother, Eric, too. Just before Adler Calais died, he’d whispered Eric’s name. He must have taken him on Lumas’s orders and brought him to the island. Lumas would use Eric to get to her. He wouldn’t stop until he forced her and Cane to deliver Penna, the woman who helped create the genetics program, and her daughter, Teagan. If Oakley ever got her hands on the director again, she’d show him the full wrath of her special ability that he prized so much.

***

The next morning, a familiar high-pitched whistle bleated through the thin walls of the shack. A transport ship was approaching the coast. Oakley went to the window, even though she’d never see through the miles of jungle.

When the bleating continued, her gaze searched out Cane’s. His expression was flat. She raised her eyebrows in question. Should they go meet the prisoner transport ship as he and Neve had always done?

She couldn’t do much right now to search for her brother. Her only lead to Eric’s whereabouts was the bunker owned by Asperten International. Her former boss, Ogden “Raptor” Greene, had access to portions of the bunker, but he’d disappeared after dropping Neve off. Until he returned, she had no chance of finding Eric.
Cane gave a slight shake of his head. He was probably right. It was too dangerous. Special Agent Glaser had probably figured out he’d shot the wrong person. He would still be looking for her.

But the memory of her first arrival on the island pressed into her mind like a hot branding iron. Cane had tried to rescue her from the Cazador gang; he’d just been a little too late. At the time, he’d known Kaleo would take care of her. But since Kaleo was here, any woman coming in on that ship would be at the mercy of the violent members of the gang. She shifted on her feet. Maybe there wasn’t a woman onboard this time.

But what if there was?

She gave a firm nod to disagree with him, and without waiting for a reply, grabbed a bow and arrow set from the corner. Cane would follow. He always had her back. On the way out, she smoothed a hand over Kaleo’s forehead. He mumbled something without waking.

Outside, her heart gave a little hiccup. Was her brother out here alone? Adler would have hidden him somewhere. The bunker was the best-case scenario. She shook her head to corral her focus. The jungle was no place to be caught unaware. She surveyed the foliage as both Kaleo and Cane had taught her. All was still. The sounds were normal. A far-off screech from a startled dinosaur. The twitter of birds. The undisturbed flow of the wind through the leaves. No threats at the moment.

Cane joined her, and they began walking in the direction of the coast.

Her feet took up a steady rhythm as her mind wandered again. If Adler’s whispered confession meant he had brought her brother to the island, it would have been for Lumas. Eric must be in that bunker.

Where was Raptor? Maybe they would run into him on the way. He’d said he needed to call some other FBI agents. But she’d scoffed. More FBI wasn’t likely to fix this mess.

Again, she reined her mind back to something she could control. The ship couldn’t wait. If they didn’t get there first, the Cazador gang would kidnap anyone who disembarked.

An hour later, they neared the landing pad where the prisoner transport ship would dock. The massive steel door had already been lowered to the concrete pad. Were they too late?

“Stay here,” Cane whispered. “You’re just my backup. If the guys from the gang see you, they’ll kill us both.”

She reluctantly nodded. The members of the gang thought she was dead, and it needed to stay that way.
Cane stepped out of the jungle with his bow in his hand and quiver on his back while she crouched behind a bush to watch. Someone wearing a pair of leather boots clomped down the gangplank, the same boot brand she’d been given upon her arrival. Jean-clad legs became visible, then a bright yellow sweatshirt—not the best color for blending into the jungle. A man in his midtwenties with russet-red hair and freckles stepped to the concrete. He had enough bulk to be substantial, but he couldn’t have been more than a few inches taller than her short stature.

No one else disembarked. So, no women were aboard. Time to go and leave this new guy for the gang. But that wouldn’t happen. There would be a snowball’s chance in the jungle before Cane would abandon someone out here. No matter who they were or what they’d done.

He spoke in a soothing and gentle voice. “I’m Cane. I can take you somewhere safe.”

Shuffling sounds came from the opposite end of the clearing. Members of the gang were on their way. They would steal all the newcomer’s supplies, then force him to their resort compound. If the new guy played by the rules, the compound could be a safe place. If not, he would suffer jungle justice, especially if Kaleo wasn’t there to stop it. But who knew what this guy had done. Maybe he deserved it.

“You have to come with me now,” Cane said.

The newcomer took a step backward toward the ship. Not the right move.

Cane eased in her direction as the leaves at the other end of the clearing rustled. Wyatt, the gang member who normally guarded the front door, came into view. His brown hair hung in greasy waves around his ears. He held a spear in one hand and a rifle slung across his thick chest. Ammunition was scarce on Extinction Island, so he wouldn’t likely use it, and he wouldn’t have to with five more gang members emerging from the trees.

The newcomer’s eyes had gone wide with fear and confusion. He’d frozen in place.

Get out of there, Cane. She couldn’t help him without exposing the fact she was alive.

Wyatt tensed his legs to run at Cane, but then a five-foot-tall dinosaur leaped from the jungle and landed in front of him. Its skin was a mottled gray-green color. When it turned its head, its jaw displayed several long, sharp teeth sticking out to the side, preventing the animal from closing its mouth.

Ice water pooled in her veins. Fangtooth. This was the dinosaur that had come with them on the boat from the research lab, the one that seemed a little too intuitive. She scanned the trees. It never traveled alone.

Wyatt didn’t seem concerned about this relatively small dinosaur. He thrust his spear at the creature’s stomach. Fangtooth dodged expertly as if it was familiar with Wyatt’s fighting style.

Cane slowly backpedaled in her direction. Even the newcomer headed her way, obviously determined to avoid the dinosaur fight.

Wyatt swiped his spear toward Fangtooth’s chest.

Another quick, evasive maneuver.

Then the real attack came. A huge dark blur topped with red—the Utahraptor they called Red Grizzly. It was twice as large as Fangtooth and almost as smart. It picked off one of the gang members at the rear of the group. A bewildered scream. A sickening crunch.

Cane reached her, and they took off into the cover of the trees. She glanced back to see the newcomer following. Great. What would they do with him now?

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