Wrong answer. My wife lost it. Julie extended her fingers and ridge-handed him in the throat. The Hunter opened his mouth, but all that came out was a long wheezing noise. Julie stepped back as he reached for her, but you don’t go very far without much oxygen. He doubled over, clutching his neck as his face turned red. He’d gone full-on purple by the time he laid down on the floor and concentrated on not passing out.

He was still breathing, just not well. “Wow…” I said. “What’s that little tiny fragile bone in the neck called?”

“The hyoid. Don’t worry. I pulled it. He’ll be fine, but the next person that brings up my parents won’t be.” Her accent tended to get a little stronger when she was under stress but trying to hide it. Julie looked around the room, seemingly calm. “Anybody else want to accuse me of witchcraft? Because we can get that nonsense out of the way real fast.” The Hunter from China was quiet as Julie stared him down. “Good.”

The big Pole boomed out his pirate-captain laugh. “I think our friend here needs some fresh air.” He grabbed the downed Hunter by the ankle and dragged him effortlessly toward the door. “And maybe also a medic.”

Dominance established. “As I was saying before I was interrupted, I’ve got a theory…” Julie checked to make sure nobody else was going to say anything. Nobody was that stupid. “I think the spider, the ice ghoul, and these armored things were all caused by the same phenomenon. One of our men found the video the victim in Nevada had been watching before he’d been killed. It was called Terrorrantula.”

“I love that one!” The Australian leader proclaimed. “It was mostly sheilas running around with their clothes off, but there was a giant spider in it. Not a very convincing one, but I see where you’re going.”

“Giant spider shows up in Nevada to somebody that probably had giant spider on the mind. Hugo kills the spider, and then monsters from his past appear in his room. My husband saw a specific type of ghoul, and even though he wasn’t familiar with it, Agent Franks seemed to be. Four events, three of which we know the victims had some knowledge of the thing that manifested. We don’t know what killed the other victims at the first attack site, but I’m betting whatever it was came from one of those people’s imagination or memories.”