He moved slowly, unsteady, as if really seeing the destroyed store for the first time. He looked past me and saw the pile of limbs and organs that had recently been a person. “It’s happening again.”

“What are you—” Then I realized that he was unarmed, or at least with nothing that I could see. Because of the military cut of his clothing, I’d assumed he was a Hunter, but why come here without a weapon? Was he a local who’d just blundered in? But he didn’t seem shocked or disgusted to see the body, just disappointed. “Who are you?”

“Z?” I turned to see Trip coming through the doorway from the garage. “Who’re you talking to?”

I turned back around and the young man was gone.

Running for the entrance, I stepped in the puddle of oil, slipped, and nearly went down, but I skidded along and made it to the door. I stepped outside, looked both ways. He was gone. Ten feet into the parking lot and I could see around the police car, and…

Nothing.

“You okay?” Trip asked as he followed me outside.

“I was just talking to a guy. He was right here. Asian kid, about this tall.” I held one hand out at shoulder height. I turned back around, but the cold desert was empty. “I thought he was one of the other Hunters.” Nervous, Trip took his night vision monocular out and used that to scan the parking lot. I looked behind the tow truck but the stranger was gone. “Weird.”

“If we had a normal job, I’d laugh it off and say you imagined it, but…”

“Flexible minds,” I repeated MHI’s unofficial motto as I rubbed my face with one glove. I could’ve sworn I’d been having a conversation with a real person. Maybe Lacoco had hit me harder yesterday than I’d thought. “Hell if I know.” Trip looked like he was eager to show me something. “What’ve you got?”

Trip held up a DVD case. “You love B-movies. Seen this one?”

“Terrorantula? Nope.” The cover shot was a girl in a bikini being menaced by a bad CGI spider. I flipped it over and read the back. “Shocking tale, special effects masterpiece…a mutant spider terrorizes a camp for wayward girls. Rated R for horror, violence, language, and nudity. Terror. Tarantula. Terrorantula. I’ll have to add it to my Netflix queue.”

“The DVD was still in the machine. I think this was our victim’s entertainment last night. You seeing what I’m seeing?”

I looked at the picture again. “No way…” It did have an uncanny resemblance to the dead thing next to the trailer, though the real one was scarier.

“That’s what I said. Coincidence?”