Spiderstalk

by D. Nathan Hilliard

  Adam considered this as he continued around the curve of the path and out of sight of the of the table area. Why was Antonio staying behind? And was the kid going to just stand there and watch Antonio read instead of following them? Or did he have a partner to take over the task for him?

  And what species did that partner belong to?

  Adam remembered Antonio saying the Spider People almost never brought their “large” spiders out into the world, but they had made a couple of exceptions for him lately and the thought unnerved him. The trees branching overhead and the underbrush along each side of the trail would make perfect camouflage for a large arachnid.

  And as he came to a footbridge over a small gully, he couldn’t help but imagine one of the black and yellow horrors hanging upside down beneath the planks…lying in wait. Even a monster as large as Grandma Lilah’s companion could conceal itself that way. The idea made his stomach turn. He tried to banish the image from his mind as he crossed the wooden span. Large spiders dropping from above were nightmarish enough without the thought of them suddenly erupting from below as well.

  “Mr. Sellars? Is something wrong?”

  Adam turned, a little too hurriedly for his liking, to see Olivia had paused in her work on the tablet and now watched him with borderline concern from the other end of the bridge. He realized he had stopped at the end of the planks, and his breathing had picked up a notch at the thought of one of those eight-legged horrors nearby…even a small “one or two footer” they supposed belonged to the kid.

  “I guess I gave myself a case of the willies,” he admitted. “Tell me again how the kid wouldn’t have his big spider along with him to follow us out here in the trees…and for that matter, why isn’t he following us himself?”

  “Ah.”

  Olivia nodded soberly. She gave the tablet a couple of quick taps then cast a glance around the trail herself before returning her emerald gaze back on him. Adam started to feel foolish but noted with relief she didn’t look contemptuous of his sudden case of nerves. If anything, he wondered if he could barely detect a trace of understanding in her composed features…or it might only be his imagination.

  Once again he found himself floundering in an effort to read her.

  “The youngster back at the bathrooms,” she replied with smooth assurance, “is likely low in actual rank among the Spider People, and is trying to prove his merit. He would have nowhere near the authority to make an exception for himself in regards to their laws on this matter. And his elders certainly wouldn’t make the exception for him. Besides, this park is full of people and it would be far too risky and serve nobody’s purpose to have a companion lurking around out here.”

  Adam remembered a certain hospital had been full of people too, but chose not to bring it up.

  “That makes sense,” he muttered, “but the kid doesn’t seem too concerned about keeping tabs on us at the moment. It just makes me wonder if he has a partner out here somewhere.”

  “Possibly,” Olivia answered with an elegant shrug, “but if he does it will be the two-legged variety. I assure you, what the boy is doing makes perfect sense even without a partner. So you shouldn’t concern yourself unduly.”

  Adam thought about that for a second.

  “Okay,” he sighed and held his hands up as if in surrender, “I’m going to tear up my man card right now and straight up admit I need you to explain all this to me…that is if I’m not taking away too much time from your work.”

  To his surprise, that prompted the tiniest of smiles from the dark haired beauty. Olivia tucked the tablet under her arm and walked across the bridge to join him.

  “Let’s spare your ‘man card,’ Mr. Sellars,” she answered with the tiniest hint of amusement. “If you are going to continue to be in the company of my uncle, you will undoubtedly need it. And fear not, I anticipated Uncle Antonio’s desire for a risk assessment and finished it on the way over here from the restaurant. So if you want, I am free to answer what questions of yours I’m allowed.”

  She gestured down the trail and they continued walking side by side.

  “So…uh…about the kid…” Adam tried to recover his line of thought and ignore the enormous distraction of having her walking beside him while they were alone in a park. This was the last thing he had expected. It took a real effort to force himself to stay on the subject. “You were going to explain why he’s happy to just hang out at the bathroom.”

  Olivia nodded and held up three fingers.

  “First,” she ticked off her fingers, “he already knows why we came to the park, and what we are doing back here. He probably already knows what we will find and where. Second, given a choice between following an untrained outsider and an unknown female or watching his enemy’s chief, not to mention a highly experienced raider of some renown, his decision is obvious. And third, all he really needs to do is keep an eye on our car since he knows we will be returning to it anyway. Remember, he is merely keeping tabs on us and being a visible reminder of his people’s presence.”

  “Okay, that all makes sense. Thanks for putting my mind at ease.”

  “You are welcome.”

  Her polite but formal answer reminded Adam that despite her sudden closeness, she remained depressingly distant. Still, the simple act of her walking beside him on a secluded trail was a heady experience, and it alarmed him how far he had fallen for the woman. A month ago he would have sworn he could never feel like this over anything. Now he was on top of the world just because she decided she felt comfortable enough to walk beside him in a park while discussing tactical matters.

  He also realized he was in danger of obviously indulging in the moment and fought to recall some of the questions he wanted to ask before she figured out what he was doing.

  A big one came to mind.

  “Okay, since you’re answering questions, something has been bothering me about these spiders,” he began. “I intended to ask Antonio about this, but since it would probably fall under his definition of ‘technical,’ I imagine he would punt it in your direction anyway.”

  “That sounds like my uncle,” she observed dryly. “What is your question?”

  “Well,” Adam frowned, “even though I’m an engineer, I was also pretty good in biology. So I’ve been working on recalling everything I was taught about chitin and exoskeletons, and if what I remember is correct those spiders should be physically impossible. Up until now, the largest spider was some South American tarantula that eats birds…”

  “The Goliath tarantula,” she supplied.

  “Right. And it is considered the upper range of how big a spider can get because of the tensile strength of chitin as opposed to its weight.”

  “Correct.” Olivia glanced up at him. “I’m impressed, Mr. Sellars. You really have been putting some thought into this and zeroed in on one of the main things separating this species of spider from its brethren.”

  “Their exoskeletons,” he concluded.

  “Exactly.”

  “The chitin they are composed of must be vastly different in structure,” he mused, “if it is still even chitin at all.”

  “There is very little true chitin involved,” she answered, “and the composition is indeed very different.”

  Adam started to get the strangest feeling she was enjoying this, then remembered technology and science were probably her forte…along with chess, medicine, scenario analysis, threat analysis, and God only knew what else.

  “Oookaaayyy,” he mused aloud, “I can’t imagine they would be metallic, or make much use of metals in their shells since I’ve never heard of a biological process working that way. Besides, spiders shed their skins when they grow so it would have to be something which would allow for that.”

  “True.”

  His brow furrowed, Adam considered the problem.

  “Perhaps some kind of organic polymer?” he ventured. “Although it would have to possess a strength to weight ratio better than any I’ve ever heard of.” />
  “Very good,” Olivia’s voice contained a definite note of approval. “In truth it is a compound utilizing just such an organic polymer. Would you care to speculate as to what the other element of the compound is?”

  “A compound?” He rubbed his chin as he walked. “My initial reaction would be to say it could be a lot of things, but I’m starting to get the feeling that isn’t true. I’m also guessing from your question, that the other element is what really makes this stuff special.”

  “Perhaps.” Her face revealed nothing.

  Adam pondered the riddle as the pair walked down the trail together. As an engineer he had an extensive knowledge of construction materials, but this was biology. He tried to call up anything he could remember about the long proteins in spider silk but got nothing, although the thought of the beast somehow using its own silk in its exoskeleton was interesting. After a moment’s consideration though, he discarded the idea.

  Silk required spinnerets, and the exoskeleton was grown.

  “Okay,” he mused aloud, “unless they live in an area featuring an abundance of some rare mineral, then it would have to be something they could synthesize from the common elements found in their type of food everywhere.”

  Olivia said nothing…merely walking along beside him and following his words.

  “I want to say some form of long protein, like in their silk, but I can’t see how it would work. And again, we would be talking weight to strength ratios I haven’t seen in biology before.”

  “Very true,” his companion agreed. “And the answer is much more interesting than that. Would you like a hint?”

  “Sure,” Adam agreed. “I’m a little out of my field here so I don’t mind a nudge in the right direction.”

  Instead of saying anything, Olivia pulled her tablet out from under her arm and started tapping and gesturing. After a few seconds, she stopped and offered Adam the device.

  “This is a section of their exoskeleton under an electron microscope,” she informed him as he took the tablet and looked at the screen. “The magnification and scale is there on the left corner of the picture.”

  Adam nodded and fixed his attention on the screen.

  The picture had that strangely grainy quality he seemed to find in all electron microscope images, and it was in black and white. It featured a thick mat of black lines cross hatched against a gray background. He studied the image for a second, glanced over at the scale, then returned his attention to the strange cross hatching with a surprised expression.

  “The threads in this ‘matting’ are only a nanometer thick? What in the world?”

  Olivia said nothing, merely tilting her head and waiting.

  He studied the image more closely, trying to make sense of it. It had to be the threads, he realized. They were the key. Something nagged at him about the threads…something from his engineering materials classes of all things. He stared at the black filaments, willing his mind to make the connection.

  Then his jaw dropped when he realized what he could be looking at.

  “Oh my God,” he breathed in soft wonder. “Are those things what I think they are? Are those…carbon nanotubes?”

  He glanced up to see Olivia favoring him with a distinctly approving look.

  “One wall thick,” she confirmed, “and extremely long.”

  Adam’s mind reeled as he stared first at the woman, then back at the picture. The implications of what he looked at started to hit home and he desperately tried to calculate the capabilities of the material depicted on the screen.

  Even without knowing the strength of the organic polymer, it was obvious the nanotubes were the crucial component here. Without the aid of a calculator, or the specifications of the polymer, he knew his estimates were going to be the grossest of rough guesses. But the numbers he came up with still staggered him.

  “Holy crap,” he whispered aloud. “Their exoskeletons must pose no barrier to their growth at all. Hell…the bigger they are, their armor just gets stronger. Weight would hardly even be a factor.”

  “Correct. And their silk is over fifty percent nanotubes as well.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Yes.”

  Adam considered the ramifications of that and the engineering part of his brain started doing cartwheels of pure glee at the potential capabilities of such a web line. Once again he did a rough mental calculation of the material’s capabilities and goggled at the result. It would be the strongest strand in the world, with nothing else even coming close.

  And it already existed.

  “This is…” Adam groped for words, “…unbelievable.”

  “Really?” Antonio’s voice cut through the quiet of the park trail, “What is unbelievable, Adam?”

  Adam barely stopped himself from jumping, and turned to see the Chieftain leaning against a tree about thirty feet back up the trail. Antonio was stubbing his cigar out against the sole of his shoe, and giving them both an appraising look. Adam realized he had been so engrossed with both Olivia and the composition of the spider’s exoskeletons he hadn’t even been paying attention to his surroundings.

  He also wondered if his barely repressed start at the man’s appearance looked as guilty as it felt.

  “Mr. Sellars,” Olivia reported, apparently unperturbed by her uncle’s sudden appearance, “has come to a couple of realizations about the nature of our adversary’s companions. Given his encounter with them last night, and his education, it shouldn’t come as a surprise.”

  “Realizations?” Antonio cocked an eyebrow at him.

  “I figured out their exoskeletons must be pretty different is all.”

  “Ah,” the Chief nodded and gave his niece a dark look, “and of course Olivia had to show off the nanotubes, I imagine.”

  “Sir, he’s an engineer,” the woman replied. “Having seen the spiders in the hallway, he would have eventually done the math.”

  “The number of organic molecules capable of accounting for that kind of weight/strength ratio is pretty limited,” Adam offered in her defense. In truth he still struggled to grasp the implications of what he had learned in the past few minutes, and as soon as he could get to his laptop he intended to do some real calculating.

  “Mmhmm,” Antonio folded his arms. “And did we also manage to fit in a certain threat analysis during our little scientific conference.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “That was quick.”

  “I anticipated the request, sir. I had considered most of the factors before we came out here. Would you like a scenario by scenario breakdown involving different combinations of the three of us with individual risk assessments? Or would you prefer a more abbreviated version. I can also provide graphs.” She tapped her tablet meaningfully.

  The Chief stared at his assistant with a look of mild disbelief, only to have his gaze returned with the classic look of a secretary patiently waiting for instructions.

  “Olivia,” Antonio finally sighed while giving Adam a ‘See What I Put Up With?’ look, “let’s pretend we’re in the middle of a public park while searching for something, and settle for summing it up in one sentence for me while we continue our walk.”

  He gestured down the trail and the three resumed their trek…Adam in the lead with Antonio and his niece right behind.

  “Very well, sir. At this moment, Hallisboro is quite probably the safest place on the planet for Adam Sellars. The same is most likely true for you and I as well, since the people who pose the gravest threat to us are instead showing an interesting amount of effort in insuring our safety. I have to conclude the danger here is currently minimal…at least until Wednesday night.”

  “I’m inclined to agree,” Antonio nodded. “I’m surprised at how well this is turning out, and almost fear there is another shoe out there waiting to drop.”

  “I can only account for the factors I’m aware of, sir. But right now, this is my assessment.”

  “I like that assessment,” Adam interjected as he l
ed the way down the trail. “As a matter of fact, I want to state for the record I’m a big fan of that assessment.”

  “I suppose that’s understandable,” Antonio laughed. “It’s just that too much good news always makes me nervous. I like my silver clouds to have dark linings so I’ll have a clue where the next problem is coming from. It’s always better to…Adam? Are you okay?”

  Adam had stopped where the trail opened up into a small clearing and stared in shock at the scene before him.

  A small crowd of people milled about the little meadow. Some were pointing and making appreciative remarks while others were taking pictures. The object of all their attention hung between two large trees at the edge of the meadow, right next to a slat bench.

  It was an enormous spider…fashioned from branches and vines.

  Somebody had taken twigs, branches, vines, and even grass, to weave and sculpt a spider even bigger than the titan he had seen in the hotel hallway the night before. Expertly crafted, it hung on a web of vines that showed as much skill in its creation as the main piece of the sculpture itself.

  And it was a sculpture.

  Whoever had crafted the spider had a genius for working with the materials at hand. It hung there in its web, displaying all the patient menace of the living creature it represented. The branches for each leg must have been carefully selected and then tied together, giving it the correct posture despite the variances in the limbs. The thing almost seemed to breathe, and Adam half expected the gnarled, bark covered legs to move any second.

  Over all it repulsed him. Yet at the same time he couldn’t tear his gaze away from the thing. Something about it bothered him in a way that wouldn’t let go…something on the edge of his mind.

  “Oh my God, Uncle…” Olivia breathed in almost reverential tones behind him. “It’s like the dolls Great Grandma used to make. Only this is…is…magnificent! I always wondered if this were an art our people used to employ. It must have been. It must have been and the Spider People have preserved it!”

  “I would say you are right,” Antonio murmured beside her. “But don’t forget yourself, my dear. Get some pictures, but let’s not call undue attention to ourselves.”