The chiropractor was really starting to fall in love with the SpyderCycle. It was just her size and what made it really cool was all the Spider contraptions that Dirty Bird had built for remained concealed so it basically looked like a normal black crotch rocket but was capable of so much more. The side compartments were 202
A Secret Spyder Verse stuffed to the gills with artificial intelligence that she hasn’t even learned to use yet. One thing she had deduced for sure. Dirty Bird sure liked to build his little robots and keep them small. Very small. Some of his contraptions were literally the size of itsy bitsy spiders. She had spent quite a while in the Spyder cave and perused his work quite a bit while under the careful watch of George of course. Eventually she would earn the trust of George to the point he would offer her a spare set of keys to his apartment.
The vapor like heat sizzled away from the freshly paved asphalt of the courts parking lot. Spyder Woman liked the cooling effect of her motorcycle helmet that prevented her hair from getting all sweaty. But what she liked most about the helmet? Being able to circle the courthouse incognito. It was hard to believe that everything had come to this. Her most punctual practice member sitting in that witness stand coerced to testify against his sister-in-law.
That dirty bird. The chiropractor couldn’t help but wonder if the writers before him, the writers of 1995 had included a schizophrenic villain known as “Dirty Bird” into their comic book writings.
How was their interactions supposed to go? Like Batman and the 203
A Secret Spyder Verse Joker? Would she be forced to put him in jail only to rekindle a friendship when he got back out? Did delusional Bob seem to keep forgetting that her role required her to spy on BOTH teams? The good guys and the bad guys? We’re the good guys really good guys or merely posing as good guys but with bad intentions?
A shiny black Mercury Sable Sedan pulled into the parking lot capturing Spyder woman’s attention. There was no sound emanating from the engine and the car seemed to ease on in like a Cadillac. The chiropractor couldn’t help but notice the Virginia plate.
The Demon Snatcher?
Spyder Woman purposely milled about her SpyderCycle in the direction the Mercury was parking and tried to catch glimpses of the driver. Nothing. Windows tinted darker than black licorice.
The Mercury parked and a black female got out of the driver’s seat and wrapped a black leather satchel around her shoulder. The first thing that caught the doctor’s attention were those bicep muscles.
It was clear as day that even though this woman was short and petite she had some serious definition. As soon as the Demon Snatcher momentarily turned around to shut the car door Spyder 204
A Secret Spyder Verse Woman could see those “Frisbee” sunglasses clear as day.
Okay, so maybe Blakey isn’t quite as delusional as I thought. This is getting interesting. She thought to herself.
Dirty Bird’s words reverberated in her mind.
·
The main objective of a really good spy is to not get caught.
The Demon Snatcher didn’t notice her yet so because she was the only one milling the lot she figured it best to drive away and check back in a few minutes before the Demon Snatcher would get suspicious of stalking. After all, if she really was a CIA operative she would be fully trained to be on the lookout for stalking. And that’s just what Spyder Woman did. She drove away.
Just a few streets down the chiropractor found a shady place to park but she didn’t take off her helmet. Instead she soon found herself fondling with the buttons on the side of the helmet as she replayed and zoomed in on the previous video it recorded of the Demon Snatcher entering the courthouse parking lot. This Spyder helmet was really pretty cool. The camera was a tiny pinhole camera mounted inside of the helmet so nobody would know they 205
A Secret Spyder Verse were secretly being recorded. She still had one very big problem though. Those Frisbee sunglasses. Those frisbee sunglasses really obscured literally all of the Demon Snatcher’s face. Dirty Bird was in the right by describing those dark lenses as “Frisbees”.
The doctor pushed on more buttons of the helmet until she almost freaked out when the entire inside of her helmet looked like a computer screen from a Transcendence movie. Not only was it virtually cool it had audio to go with it. She pushed on another button and the inside of her helmet immediately began talking to her.
“How can I help you today Spyder Woman?”
“I need a tutorial of all the things you can do.”
The word “tutorial” displayed on the screen. This motorcycle helmet was just like watching a VR movie.
“Say pan left.”
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“Pan left”
The chiropractor watched in awe as the computer screen panned to the left.
“Pan right”
The computer screen panned to the right.
It didn’t take long for Spyder Woman to figure out all the contraptions on her own. She used her voice commands to go through the system until she found what she was looking for.
“Freeze image”
The image of the Spyder Tracker froze on the screen. It was a black miniature RC car fully equipped with a wireless camera. On the top of it was a black tube like magnet filled with itsy bitsy glow in the dark plastic spiders. Evidently Dirty Bird was very meticulous about not leaving digital foot prints. His tracking equipment was very old school for sure.
207
A Secret Spyder Verse A car crept by every now and then as the doctor watched the 3
minute tutorial on how to use the Spyder Tracker as it did not involve GPS technology that would leave digital footprints for the authorities to follow. It was really quite inventive. Nothing more than tiny motors, a timer, a Mercury switch, and oh yes, plastic tiny glow in the dark spiders that were to spit out from the magnetic tube one by one which would subsequently leave a glow in the dark spidery spoor trail to later follow.
The chiropractor fired up the SpyderCycle and made her way back within an earshot of the courthouse parking lot. She didn’t want to get too close knowing most likely the parking lot would be encompassed with overhead security cameras for sure.
“Initiate Spyder Tracker.”
The doctor felt a slight jolt underneath her butt when a sliding compartment opened up and the little RC car plopped to the ground. This was going to be cool. Very cool. She could do all of her work hands free all while hiding behind a motorcycle helmet and watching EVERYTHING.
“Forward”
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A Secret Spyder Verse The little RC car carrying the black magnetic tube moved forward.
“Left”
The RC car turned slightly to the left.
“Forward”
Spyder Woman verbally steered the Spyder Tracker towards Carmen’s car but was careful not to approach the vehicle from the front as the odds were good there could be a dash cam. In under a minute the little RC was under the bumper of the black Mercury.
“Initiate Spyder Tracker”
A small mechanical arm sprouted like an electric antenna and the magnetic tube eased it’s way up under the bumper. Within seconds the doctor could hear a slight “thunk” sound from inside of her helmet realizing the magnetic tube had lodged itself under the bumper.
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“Backward”
The RC car started to roll backwards away from the car.
Nothing like steering a radio controlled car from inside a motorcycle helmet the doctor thought to herself. She had seen quite a lot of robotic gadgets in her college years but definitely none quite like this. At this point she was becoming quite curious about Carmen’s true identity if that really was her real name. If she truly was CIA then most likely it was only a monicker she went by. Dirty Bird had convinced her that this particular CIA agent was no good and was destroying families. Aside from Carmen’s dirty work destroying the upbringing of all his nieces and nephews Dirty Bird had convinced her that there was indeed a John Deere hometown native crowd that wanted answers as well.
What a mean crooked thing to do! Create faux affairs to divert a mentally unstable individual. Just to give him something to do. Who does that?
Spyder Woman purposely navigated the RC car on her opposite side facing the parking lot so nobody could see her while she surreptitiously leaned over and stuffed the RC car back into the 210
A Secret Spyder Verse SpyderCycle’s compartment. She really hoped that she hadn’t done all this work for nothing only to find out that Dirty Bird’s homemade Spyder Tracker would go on the fritz and there would be no trail of glow in the dark spiders to follow. She’d also have to worry about some of them being picked up by little kids as play toys which would eliminate some of the trail.
The chiropractor fired up the crotch rocket and kicked up the kickstand realizing she had better get out of Dodge before court would let out and people might be curious about a ninja warrior circling the lot too many times. She knew most likely the Demon Snatcher would be staying at a nearby hotel until all this court drama was over. As a doctor she knew the risk she was taking by spying on a CIA agent but she pacified it in the name of truth seeking. The town wanted answers. The town wanted answers to a very complicated question.
Just who was responsible for creating Bob’s social disorder? Who really started it with creating the little “Bubble Boy”?
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A Secret Spyder Verse CHAPTER 22
By the time I got back to my apartment I felt like a washed up dog. I wanted answers just like anybody else did but I hated being in the crossfire. My mind struggled to focus on one particular thought and I was having serious doubts of second guessing myself about Spyder Woman and her role as a spy.
Perhaps I had trusted her too soon? Would she be the type to put me in jail and then try to be my friend again once I got out? Would she really be spying on both teams?
After I put together a strong coffee I placed the piece of packaging tape on my scanner and scanned what I hoped would contain my biological sister’s finger prints from her cellphone. I downloaded the image onto my laptop and immediately started zooming in.
Nothing. Not so much as a single print. Damn. I was right. Debra must have talked Spyder Woman into switching out the phones to 212
A Secret Spyder Verse strengthen her case. I couldn’t help but be curious how she intended to win her prosecution against a police wife.
Good luck with that Debra. You think this attempted murder is the only crime my sister-in-law has gotten away with? Haven’t you read other police reports involving her? Has the alphabet people been investigating the wrong Stettler for all these years?
I slammed shut my laptop and pointed my middle finger up in the sky just as I always do. The satellite has been on me for years now.
I’ll never forget the day I picked up a basketball and headed out to my car. The peek-a-boos immediately carved out the basketball hoops at the park I prefer to shoot hoops. It was like they knew exactly where I was going ahead of time. And it doesn’t stop there.
If I run out of water they’ll remove water from the closest store. I try to buy a salad at an MTO? They digitally remove it from the menu. But the peek-a-boos favorite thing they like to control? The traffic lights. That’s right. Every motorists in town knows that when pulling up along side of Big Bad Bob that traffic light is gonna stay red for an awfully long time. In fact, the peek-a-boos had so much control it wasn’t hard for them to create majorly long traffic jams simply by changing the time on the traffic lights where the side streets would stay green long after the side street traffic had depleted. There was never anything wrong with the sensors 213
A Secret Spyder Verse but I was always the one to spot the giggly officer sitting on his black and white from a mile away.
Over the years I had noticed that the peek-a-boos had become sharp people. When it came to federal crime like stealing my mail they would use previous convicted felons or juveniles to do their dirty work. I had already caught them twice but failed to video record it.
I threw the piece of packaging tape in the garbage as it was no longer any use to me. I could tell Debra had no intentions of giving up on her case until all of the truth came out but I don’t think she completely realizes you need monsters to fight monsters. I was definitely sure of one thing. Monsters would never be afraid of an itsy bitsy spider.
My mind ruminated about the time it took me nearly a month to cash out a 2020 Superbowl wager winnings via mail. I was convinced there was some really bad salt at that casino assisting with the meddling of my incoming mail. The brown minivan that pulled into the driveway the day my winnings were to arrive just as the mail man was delivering. The man in the knitted cap looked familiar. He not only looked familiar but looked up to no good. Did 214
A Secret Spyder Verse he have a criminal record? Another brown nosed convicted felon trying to get on the cops good side. Another wanna be?
I walked out to my mailbox and sure enough there was another envelope from the courts. They wanted me back again tomorrow.
Would Debra drag this case out forever? Doesn’t she know she’ll lose? I thought to myself.
I had to eventually realize that even though there would always be eerie vibes between me and the police there would always be that one officer that would eventually ask too many questions concerning the police reports I had filed. The more they got curious the better chances they had at unearthing the dirty cop with decades of experience in the force that would lead them right to the gambling ring involving deaths of curious people. Those officers that poked too far into the cases that closed too quickly ALWAYS got relocated to another township. The fact of the matter was this. The man with the horns just simply didn’t like officers that got too curious about my police reports. And the one that followed me to the dog show? They found a way to make her disappear as well.
215
A Secret Spyder Verse I took the envelope from the courts and placed it on top of the others. I was about to call it a night when I heard the faint sound of a crotch rocket getting fired up from up the street. I recognized the sound.
Was Spyder Woman trying to peek on me? I sprang to the front door and heard the Spydercyle zoom away and could barely make out the tail light. I looked down and noticed the manila envelope pinched in between the storm screen. It looked to thin to contain cash or maybe some additional hush money like I was hoping for. I picked up the parcel so I could draw it closer towards the light in the kitchen.
I couldn’t help but notice the writing in black magic marker. I recognized Spyder Woman’s handwriting immediately.
The Demon Snatcher
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A Secret Spyder Verse An eye for an eye. A tooth for a tooth. Was someone profiling the Demon Snatcher?