On the TV he found cartoons and movies, music videos and game shows, repeat broadcasts and reruns, but there was nothing current, and no news. Many channels were just blank, or displayed brightly coloured test cards.
The military operation swiftly became one of disaster management and damage control, search and rescue.
Who gave you a gun?' 'The army.' 'Why?' 'That's what the army does, Simon.
Max?' he asked. 'Yeah?' '...What are you doing?' 'Shooting people.
For a moment, Simon's sympathetic nervous system forgot he was arachnophobic. The sight of those spindly legs rising, like an ink drawing popping out of paper into three-dimensional space, should have caused a surge of adrenaline, a yelp of panic, an...
Simon shook his head. 'I don't want to be a hero. I'd rather abandon the technology altogether, sit on a hill and speak to my neighbours by smoke-signal.
Something was wrong with the devices themselves. Digging deep into the internal structure of the circuit boards with powerful microscopes, Simon's team had discovered broken and incorrect connections, electronic dead-ends, short circuits, and nonsens...
The unfortunate 8075 hadn't survived his assault, splintering apart, fragments of its casing skittering across the bench. The battery within had split along its plane, revealing something as out-of-place as a missile in a bathtub.
His desire for this to be a joke was quickly replaced by a desire for whiskey.
He had no problem with flies or bugs or beetles, even creepy ones like earwigs and cockroaches...Six legs were fine, but eight were alien and unnatural. 'The same number of legs as four fully-grown serial killers!
Odessa sighed. 'When I said you were one of the smartest people in the company, I was referring solely to your technical abilities. Now get to work.
But the things in the batteries couldn't be spiders. It just wasn't possible. There had to be another explanation. But of what kind?
He reached the ground floor and flung the door open, fleeing into the street. He glanced back and saw that she wasn't following, so he slowed to a halt. His pulse raced. The entranceway was dark, the door swinging slowly closed. Movement to his left ...
...a fissure appeared. Splinters of plastic broke away around it, and the fissure widened, radiating further fractures. When the first leg broke out, Simon tried to shriek.
He realised he was in a chair. The world was white and blurry in half his vision, and it took him a few moments to realise a sheet of paper was stuck to his face.
Oh, man, she's gonna love you,' Max said. 'Physically. A lot.
