PARKCHESTER, BRONX

DETECTIVE MIRADI HAD been an NYPD officer for the better part of his life, and until today he’d thought that he had honestly seen everything. Murders, rapes, riots, robberies. The weird cases, the brutal ones. Ones with happy endings, and ones that just never found an ending at all.

And then the sky fell in and his city was facing an alien invasion from space.

Teach me to offer up a challenge like that. The forty-year veteran grumbled as he emptied his personal weapon into the big walking spider that was in the process of eating a squad car outside his precinct.

His six millimeter wasn’t having much effect, unfortunately, so he had to assume that the thing was better armored than your average punk in New York. That didn’t take a whole lot, however, so he was at a loss as to what he should be doing.

“Rick!”

Miradi glanced over, recognizing the man scrambling in his direction.

“Hey Paul, little busy now. Unless you’ve got something with better kick than a service pistol, of course,” he said dryly as he changed mags.

“Shotgun with slugs just piss these bastards off,” Paul Reerson yelled, his back to the car Rick was covering behind.

“Better than this. I don’t think that bastard has even noticed me!” Rick Miradi said in disgust.

“Trust me, Rick, I saw what these things can do. You don’t want them to notice you,” Paul told him between panting breaths. “They’ve got MilSpec lasers or something, I’ve never seen anything like it. Cut right through a SWAT van like butter, Rick. You get their attention, you’re a dead man.”

Miradi holstered his pistol. “So what? We watch them take apart the city, piece by piece?”

“Got word out. Some boys are out trying to clear cars off the expressway.”

“For what? There’s nobody driving now anyway.”

Paul rolled his eyes. “You need to turn on your radio, Rick. National Guard is trying to get into the city, but all the damn roadways are blocked. They’ve moving tanks in.”

“Tanks??” Rick gurgled, shocked. “Those things will do more damage than the giant spiders!”

“Jesus, Rick. Haven’t you heard? Someone already set off a nuke or something in Central Park, and they’ve been dropping heavy ordnance all across the city for the last hour! Pay attention!”

“I’ve been busy!”

He’d lost five men since the whole damn mess started, and sure as hell didn’t have time to worry about the rest of the city just then. His own were in trouble, and they came first.

He finally sighed, however, and shook his head. “What do they want us to do?”

“That’s just it. We don’t know. The Guard seems as confused as anyone, and they’re not having the best of luck with these things either,” John muttered. “Better than us, of course. Tanks can kill these things, but in a city those old tanks are sitting ducks for these things.”