9 THE POISON TIDE

CHAPTER 9 THE POISON TIDE Towering above the island was a tall, rugged mountain. Waterfalls cascaded from its ledges. Clumps of wildflowers rustled in the breeze. In places, the mountainside had crumbled, leaving behind sheer cliffs. A vulture emerged from a hollow in the cliffs. She stretched her wide wings and glided off to search for carcasses. Floating on the wind, she rose higher and higher, until she spotted something unusual. To the north, it looked like the ocean was gently shimmering in the sunlight. But the sky was full of clouds. That shimmering water could only mean one thing. "The poison tide is here!" screeched the vulture. Animals began hurrying to the northern slopes to see the poison tide for themselves. Reader, you and I might not have noticed that patch of gently shimmering water. But the animals noticed. After all, animals are incredibly sensitive to their environment. They can sense a storm long before it appears, and the poison tide was like an underwater storm, sweeping through the sea.

Below the northern slopes, Roz was still hard at work in the shallows. She had spent the whole night out there, trying to help every coastal creature get to safety. But she was running out of time. The robot plucked sea stars and sea urchins and sea snails from the water and dropped them into rock pools along the shore. Then she waded back into the shallows to search for more. Behind her, the crowd of island animals started shouting. "I can see the poison tide!" "Yes, there it is!"

"It's gotten so close!" The robot's computer brain contained thousands of different programs, and the most important were her Survival Instincts. When a wave of poison tide came rolling to shore, her Survival Instincts blared in her head, urging her to get out of the water. But then she heard something else. Frightened squeaks. In all the confusion, an otter pup had climbed onto a small rock that stood up from the shallows. Now the pup was frozen with fear as the wave of poison tide tumbled toward him. Roz charged over to the young otter as fast as she could go, but beneath the surface the seabed was covered in slick stones, and she kept sliding and stumbling and slipping! Nervous voices hollered down from the hills. "The poison tide is right there!" "Hurry up, Roz!" "Go, Mama! Go!" Just before the wave reached the otter, Roz grabbed him and leaped away with all her strength. They arced up from the shallows, over a rocky cove, and landed on the shore. The otter pup ran to his parents. Everyone was happy to see the otter family reunited. But their happiness didn't last long. Because when the crowd turned back to the ocean, they saw that the poison tide was spreading through the water and slowly

surrounding the island.