Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 43912 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 220(@200wpm)___ 176(@250wpm)___ 146(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 43912 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 220(@200wpm)___ 176(@250wpm)___ 146(@300wpm)
“Your internet is a bane.”
“Also out of the same time period as you are, technically, no?”
“Not at all. The internet wasn’t conceived of until 1983. It’s brand new, in the grand scheme of things. The desperate salaciousness of the average human, not to mention their appetite for gore and cruelty, that is ancient.”
The spider is waxing philosophical. I don’t have time for it. I need to make it very clear the shit these two, or three, or however many there are, are in. I’m back in cop mode now, and that makes me feel much more in control.
“Here’s what you’ve done,” I tell Justice. “You’ve abducted a New York City Detective from her property, you’ve left two million lumens of flashlights burning on the roof of a residential area, and you’ve taken my gun. Give it back.”
He doesn’t give it back. I’m sure he secreted it about his person, and I am equally sure that he’s not going to let me search him. I could try to search him without his consent, but I am certain that getting into the pockets of a four-armed man creature is going to be more difficult than it first appeared.
“You tried to shoot me, which, if you’d done so, would have meant we could have both fallen to our deaths. You might be a detective, but your common sense under pressure leaves a lot to be desired.”
“I’ll tell the chief we need more aerial combat training” I say, yes, sarcastically. “Ever occur to you that I was willing to die to ensure that I got a monster off the streets?”
The spider lets out a rasping dark laugh of derision. “So you brought back a hero. Every two seconds she’s going to be sacrificing herself for something else or this or that. I am going back to bed. Be quiet out here. I need my sleep.” He gives me a harsh look before smushing himself back into what really seems like a space that should be far too small for him.
“What’s his name?”
“Order.”
“Order, alright, okay. So these are the sorts of names people get when they join cults. Who is hatching you out and giving you these names?”
“I am not at liberty to say. My kind depends on staying secret. If it were to come to the attention of the general public… we would be destroyed. My brothers and sisters yet to be born would be wiped from existence. I will not allow that to happen. My life beyond this investigation must remain secret to you.”
Challenge accepted.
“Once the sun comes up, I must hide for the day,” Justice says. “But you can work during the daylight hours to apprehend my brother. He will likewise be hiding.”
“Where would your brother be hiding during the day, you think? And why is he killing people?”’
“Why not? He is tired of being a freak in the dark. He claims he is powerful, and he wants to show the world.”
“He could do that on any cell camera and dance-based social media site.”
“He prefers murder as a means of self-expression.”
“You understand that if I apprehend him — and I will be apprehending him, he will go through the human justice system. Your little secret will be out. One way or another, the existence of mothmen is going to become common knowledge.”
His jaw clenches and his eyes narrow. Night is swiftly becoming day, and in this ever brightening light, his eyes are starting to look a much more wholesome and far less intimidating brown.
“I am trying to help you save lives in the city. He will kill again in a matter of days, and another innocent will have lost their life for no good reason if we do not intervene. Work with me, detective.”
“I’m going to do what I can, but just so you know, this case has been taken by the FBI. They’re coming in a matter of days too. At that point it will officially be federal and out of my hands.”
“That cannot happen.”
Now I have two oversized, growly males telling me I have to fix this problem.
“I will come and see you tonight,” he says. “I know where to find you.”
“I might not be home.”
“I’ll find you,” he repeats. “Good night, detective.”
“Wait.”
He stops just before disappearing into the same crack in the containers the spider, Order, slipped into.
“My gun, please. If I lose it, I will be in deep shit, and you don’t need me filling out endless paperwork instead of looking for Rage.”
He pulls my gun out of a pocket in his pants and hands it back to me. “Be careful,” he says. “Rage has no respect for life or the law. He has become unstoppable, convinced only that he deserves his vengeance against the world that created and then rejected us.”
“I don’t think we rejected you. People are very understanding and respectful of a lot of things these days. Maybe you should try coming out of the shadows.”