Page 55 (1/2)

I kept trying to think back to everything that had happened since I woke up with that spider thing biting ure out what I was supposed to have done differently It was stupid, I knew Questioning how one if I hadn’thow his life would have turned out if he’d only followed through on his dream to play in the NBA I don’t beat myself up over o

Wait This started before the spider showed up in your bed

See, that was the thing, right there I’d been so busy running around since that night that I’d never really had a chance to stop and put it all together There was a coh all of these events that stretched back even before that night

Tennet

Goddamned Dr Bob Tennet He shows up in my life ash all of that shit Then the spider shows up and starts spreading this infection And who’s there the whole ti the situation Watching it unfold Tapping away at his laptop and recording his observations

Anyway So there’s two things I wish I could take care of before er to-do lists

I leaned ainst the wall and tried to make myself smell shampooed red hair instead of hospital sadness chemicals I dozed off

11 Hours, 40 Minutes Until the Aerial Bo the "tooth or tongue" options when Falconer said to Cowboy, "Let me say this as a red-blooded, not possessed by any kind of inhuet nearto shove your head into the ground so hard a Chinaman will see it fly out of a volcano"

Before Cowboy could react, John said, "Hold on Do you knoho this is next to me? This is Detective Lance Falconer"

Cowboy looked like he sort of recognized the name, but couldn’t place it John said, "You can’t tell ht the Portland Strangler?"

From behind Cowboy, a lady said, "Oh my God, it is him!"

"Show them your ID, detective"

Falconer did The lady was duly ietting to the bottohtpants Cowboy said, "Is that right?"

John said, "Yeah, that is right It’s looking like the governhtpants cursed and said, "Son of a bitch I been saying that since day one Day one" To the guy next to hi up now"

He did No one objected A kid in the crowd said, "What’s it like to fight sohtpants, "What do you mean the feds left town? When?"

"Breach at their headquarters Somethin’ blew up You didn’t hear it?"

"Oh," said John "We, uh, ondering what that was"

"Convoy headin’ out of town right now So noe got to do what they couldn’t Which is the way it alinds up Which is why I been sayin’ it since day one Me and my brother went door to door, within two hours of the feds roping off the town, gatherin’ up everybody with a gun and a set of balls We’re the ones who got shit back under control, not the soldiers tripping around in their space suits We’re the ones who put a stop to the looting, we’re the ones who have been patrolling the streets every minute of every day, in shifts, outside of the so-called Green Zone the feds set up There’s al in three shifts, ’round the clock, pumpin’ buckshot into zo sure everybody outside that hospital is clean, everybody who ain’t gets put down, and makin’ sure that hospital stays sealed off until the president grows the balls to drop a couple dozen cruise ot John’s attention "Wait, what? They’re dropping cruise row the balls, like I said"

"We don’t have a more specific timeline on the balls situation?"

"Are you askin’ because you want it to happen, or because you don’t want it to happen?"