“If he watched Jaws the night before and got eaten by a shark while surfing in the shark-infested ocean, that would be a plausible coincidence. But Terror-friggin’-antula in middle of Nowhere, Nevada, which isn’t exactly known for giant spiders? What are the odds of that?”

“We’ll have to ask Lee. Dude dreads giant spiders. I bet he knows right off the top of his head, but odds? Astronomical?”

“Trip, I know it offends your tender Baptist sensibilities when I use profanity, but what the fuck is going on here?”

Trip pointed to the north. “Choppers inbound. We can always ask the MCB.”

The Monster Control Bureau arrived a few minutes later, blasting in with two Blackhawks and a single Apache helicopter and doing their whole usual dramatic entrance, slide down the ropes and yell at everyone bit. I warned Lindemann and his men about what to expect, so we were prepared to go peacefully. The MCB response wasn’t nearly as ham-fisted as I was used to, and the responding agents didn’t even make us lay face down in the snow while screaming commands at us. I suspect that was because Agent Archer was the first one down the rope and he recognized me right away. Lindemann started to explain what had gone down, but things got really complicated when several Nevada Highway Patrol cars came in, sirens blaring, and the Feds started fighting with the locals, who were really pissed off and anxious to find their man in distress.

The MCB kept the cops away from the giant spider, but they allowed me to at least tell the cops that we’d airlifted their buddy out. However, they did it with an agent standing in my shadow to make sure I didn’t say anything about any monsters. Monsters? That’s crazy talk! Things began to calm down when the responders got word that Holly had radioed their dispatch and reported that they were on the way to the hospital.

After that, the scene became a circus. Several bullet bikes were stopped at the south roadblock, ridden by Hunters who’d snagged the fastest thing they could in Vegas. Paranormal Tactical arrived next in several SUVs with tinted windows, having broken a lot of speed limits to get here. From a distance, I witnessed Armstrong arguing with Agent Archer when the MCB wouldn’t let them through the barricade. Earl’s group that had come in the jet arrived from the opposite direction, riding in two borrowed pickups. They got stuck at the roadblock on that end. I sent Trip and Edward to meet them. Trip snuck the DVD with him, and Edward still had his kidnapped chicken.

I had somebody else I wanted to speak with first.