“What?”
“Not everything is comparable to the Nazis,” Manny said.
“Lightning war,” Steph said to Melanie. “Blitzkrieg. Fast, overwhelming attacks as a military doctrine.”
“Yeah. I guess. They hatch and grow in this crazy accelerated fashion, and they die more quickly too.”
She looked at Manny and Steph, but they didn’t seem to get it. “I’m explaining it wrong. I’m talking about some of the spiders being feeders and some of them as breeders, but that’s the wrong way to think of it. It’s about timing. These ones, the ones we’re seeing out in the wild, they’re the colonizers.” She leaned over, putting her hands flat on the table. “They’re like pioneers, clearing the land.”
Steph squinted at her. “Clearing the land? For what?”
Melanie felt sick. She didn’t want to say it. “For the rest of them. Think of it as an advance team. These spiders, the ones we’re seeing, they’re just the first wave.”
Steph put her elbows on her knees and let her head sink. “You’re saying this is just the beginning?”
“It’s part of their evolutionary advantage. They come out with a first wave and clear out any potential predators. They’re designed to breed quickly and feed on anything that gets in their way, but the price of that fast growth is that they burn out. That’s what we’re seeing now. The first wave has hatched and cleared out space to set the table for the next stage.”
“So, what’s next?” Steph asked.
“More,” Melanie said. “Worse. The next ones are the real ones. Those will be the ones that are in it for the long haul.”
“How long?” Manny said. “How long until they come back?”
“Again—I can’t stress this enough—I’m working by feel here. I’ve never seen spiders like this, and I don’t have a lot of data. But looking at the egg sacs, looking at the variations in the spiders?” She stopped. “I’m not completely confident—”
“Melanie,” Steph said. “Just give me a number. How long?”
“Two weeks,” Melanie said. “Three if we’re lucky.”
Soot Lake, Minnesota
Every fifteen minutes or so, Annie would stick her foot into the lake. With the sun out, it was hot enough that she wanted to swim, but in April, in northern Minnesota, no matter how warm the air was, the water was barely different from ice. She sighed and went back to coloring. It was better to be out here, on the dock, than inside her stepdad’s cabin. All her mom and Rich wanted to do was sit around the radio and read the news on their stupid tablets.
She waved her hand around her head. The black flies weren’t bad yet, but there were already mosquitoes. Their whine was a constant part of cottage life. She whisked her hand back and forth a couple of times before she realized the buzzing wasn’t the sound of mosquitoes. It was a motor. She jumped to her feet. She could see her daddy at the helm of a boat. He was coming to get her. Coming to tell them it was safe to go home.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Writing a book is a solitary endeavor, but getting a book out into the world requires a great deal of help.
Emily Bestler at Emily Bestler Books / Atria Books is a terrific editor, smart as hell, and a joy to work with. And while most writers are lucky if they have even one editor like Emily in their whole career, I’m about as lucky as it gets, because I also got to work with the magnificent Anne Collins at Penguin Random House Canada and, in the UK, with the excellent Marcus Gipps at Gollancz, an imprint of the Orion Publishing Group.
Bill Clegg at the Clegg Agency is my literary agent extraordinaire. I can’t thank you enough. I’ll keep trying, though.
Erin Conroy at William Morris Endeavor Entertainment. Crushing it, as always.
At Emily Bestler Books / Atria Books, thanks to: David Brown, Judith Curr, Suzanne Donahue, Lara Jones, Amy Li, Albert Tang, and Jin Yu. At Penguin Random House Canada, thanks to: Randy Chan, Josh Glover, Jessica Scott, and Matthew Sibiga. At Gollancz, thanks to: Sophie Calder, Craig Leyenaar, Jennifer McMenemy, Gillian Redfearn, and Mark Stay.
At the Clegg Agency, thanks to: Jillian Buckley, Chris Clemans, Henry Rabinowitz, Simon Toop, and Drew Zagami. Also thank you to Anna Jarota and Dominika Bojanowska at the Anna Jarota Agency, Mònica Martín, Inés Planells, and Txell Torrent at MB Agencia Literaria, and Anna Webber at United Agents.
You guys didn’t actually do anything, but thanks to Mike Haaf, Alex Hagen, Ken Rassnick, and Ken Subin. Shawn Goodman, you actually did help, so thanks to you as well.
And, of course, thank you to my brother and his family, my wife’s family, the friends who are family by choice, and to my wife and daughters. But no thanks to my dogs. You two are not super helpful.