“Really, though, what is in there?”
Valentina sighed.
“Mr. Green, none of what has happened in the last few days would have been anywhere near my first-year’s cryptonaturalist curriculum if I could have arranged ideal circumstances. Do you understand that?”
“Sure, I get that. Why?”
“Well, because this follows that pattern.”
They walked through woods clinging to late summer, wading through waist-high underbrush, skirting the grasping thorns and briars where they could.
“Concealment is worthy knowledge for a cryptonaturalist,” Valentina continued. “But obviously we would prefer circumstances less grim and a method less suspect.”
“Suspect?”
“I am mincing my words. Unethical is what I mean. The method we use today is frankly unethical. It’s a poor excuse, but we are in anemergency situation with no time to prepare something less distasteful.”
“Alright. So? What is in that bag?”
“Do you know what a mole cricket is?”
“No.”
“Fascinating insect. Herbivore. Incredible burrower. In the family Gryllotalpidae, in the order Orthoptera.”
“And that’s what’s in the pillowcase?”
“No, I was using an insect I thought you would know as a reference point.”
“Oh. Sorry.”
“Ignorance is not a sin, Mr. Green.”
“So, this thing is like a mole cricket?”
“Yes. But much larger. Rarer. Meaner. And venomous.”
“Jesus. You’re going to let a venomous cryptid attack the police?”
“No, it’s going to attack us.”
Green’s stomach did a somersault. He looked at the lump in the pillowcase. It seemed bigger than before.
“So, when you said unethical, you meant unethical to us?”
“No, unethical to put a living thing in a sack and frighten it into a defensive behavior. This is not how we conduct ourselves. I am doing it to save lives. It won’t do lasting harm to the cricket, but it is still ugly behavior for any kind of naturalist. I knew where one was and I couldn’t arrange another method by this afternoon.”
“What is that thing called?”
“Pennington’s Cricket. A tacky name given by an odious man, but hardly the fault of the animal.”
Two gunshots rang out ahead.
They sounded like firecrackers, so loud and close that Green was shocked they couldn’t see the source.
“We need to move,” Valentina said.
She held up the pillowcase in her right hand. Balled up her left fist, and plunged it into the bag. Her face was calm, but Green saw themoment when her shoulders tensed. She withdrew her arm. There were no visible marks. She handed the bag to Green.
