Tasìa scuttled down the wall. With a full body length of empty space left to go, she pushed off of the bricks, twisted around, and, just before she met the ground, Tasìa set her legs in position to swing off in a full burst dash so as not to waste any time.

By Tasìa's estimation, she had two minutes before the driver either called back to report to Ferenzi, or he returned to the Cadillac and told his boss someone was taking potshots at their lookout.

How was Ferenzi going to respond?

Would he play out his plans as he originally conceived them or perhaps he would get spooked and make haste for a tactical retreat?

She doubted the latter possibility even given Ferenzi's instinct for caution. He was still a mafioso who didn't scare easily, after all.

In her planning, Tasìa gave herself one minute to get into position and then another minute to spike the Cadillac's gas tank. Just the next property down the street, Tasìa eyed the boat dealership of whom's lot the Cadillac was parked on. Her plan was to scurry up behind a row of boats and use them as cover as she approached Ferenzi.

Tasìa prepared as she neared the corner of the building; if she bent down in a lobster crawl, Ferenzi, who from time to time checked his six, would not be able to see her with his view blocked by the bend of the field of grass between the lot and the sidewalk where the ground curved into the concrete walkway.

The thrill she felt being in her natural element of cloak and dagger style subterfuge was suddenly cut short by a chill that ran down her spine as she began to recall something. It was something she had chosen to dismiss as irrelevant to the execution of her plans at the time it occurred. Now, however, her deep intuitions encroached upon her mind the importance of the matter.

Just a few minutes before, when she pulled her gun up into the bent-up wires of the fan, the lookout had been momentarily distracted by something that he had seen over on the very same street she now hustled down.

Where is that something now, she wondered, as she heard the slightest of rustling noises sweeping in from behind her.

Tasìa leaped up in the air with a twist of her upper torso facing backward and her knees bent forward so she could grab her gun out from where it was holstered in the inside of her boot.

Tasìa caught sight of the giant wolf spider, now just a few yards away from her. The vile thing was in the midst of a strident bullrush dash. She thought of the Infernal Madre.

This one, unlike those freakish things, moved untamed like a completely feral monstrosity set loose. This spider was covered in a coarse matte of unnatural ochreous green fibers; it was also twice the size of Egilona's pets.

Tasìa held on to the grip of the semi-auto pistol, readying it to be pulled out of the holster once she maneuvered her body around so she could take a clean mid-air shot.

With her body steadily balanced after a slight adjustment, and just as she reached the momentum shift of her arched jump apex, Tasìa was well-positioned for a shot at the spider's body mass.

When she pulled on the gun for the final execution of the maneuver, the gauze roll and outer layer of rubber bands that she neglected to remove due to time constraints got caught on the holster snaps.

Tasìa tugged once more, but this motion threw her out of alignment. Her upper torso jerked in a compensating twist, facing up towards the glare of the lamp lights above her. By the time the final tug succeeded, Tasìa landed on the concrete and busted her ass on impact. The wine bottle broke with a sharp clank and her pistol skidded across the walkway before it stopped several yards away.

The sound and motion of the pistol bouncing along the concrete surface got the giant wolf spider's attention. The beast spat out a thickly yellow venom that covered the pistol. Tasìa gasped in alarm as she watched her favorite .32 semi-auto pistol dissolve away into a sulfurous smelt, almost instantly.

"Well, shit on me," Tasìa cursed under her breath.

She grabbed the stiletto into her right hand and then used the same forearm to pull herself up, only to lose her balance as she felt something gripping her arm tightly. She fell in a tangle of her own pair of legs that scrambled in utter futility against one another.

On an emotional level, Tasìa was dealing with something she had never experienced before:

so this is what being a clumsy oaf must feel like, Tasìa assessed.

Finally, she eyed the source of her current predicament. Her right arm was stuck on the concrete walkway with a thick net of webbing tightly binding it down.

Tasìa yelled a taunt at the wolf spider as quietly as she could muster though Ferenzi was still a good one hundred yards away from her with a thick, brick building between the two of them.

"Venom and webbing? You feral abomination son of a bitch. Your infernal creator couldn't just choose one or the other!"

As she cursed it, she dodged another web shot aimed at her feet. Though her arm was stuck, she could still use it to lever her position in her better favor, Tasìa concluded. She would be better prepared for the next attack.

Tasìa watched the beast to gauge when she needed to make her move. She had a good notion of how its instincts would guide it on its hunt. With its thick matte of fibrous hairs sweeping back, the wolf spider suddenly tensed up as it held its position.

Tasìa pulled her entire body upward with a kick-off from her legs. She now stood upside down with all her weight on the one arm held stuck in place as the spider pounced where her lower torso had been just a moment before.

Aiming for my soft meats like a true hunter. Sorry though, it makes you utterly predictable.

With its head hanging low, right in front of her, Tasìa finally had an advantage she could exploit.

Can't afford to lose any more precious time to this vile thing!

In the next instance, Tasìa, with a swift and graceful arch of her free arm, switched the stiletto into her left hand. With which, she sliced through the spider's oddly chthonic brain cap. On the next thrust, the blade went so deep into the incision she had made that the edge came out through the other side of its mandible encroached mouth.

With all eight of its legs pumping stiffly and twitching in disarray, the spider finally collapsed. Its soft abdomen spread out flat on the ground.

Tasìa cut the web away from the walkway where the sticky material bounded her against the rough and painful concrete of the pavement.

She flipped herself back around and landed her bruised ass on the pavement, once again.

"Ow, ow, ow" Tasìa muttered as she also grimaced at the next thought that occurred to her. The spider had cost her twenty seconds of her allotted time already.

The wine bottle had broken into several thick and sharply edged shards. It was unsalvageable. As for the contents, there were none left in the intact bottom to even clean the oozing spider remains off of her left hand. The spill had also made an ugly mess of her shirt.

Tasìa, ever practical though, shook her head and she cast that concern aside.

There was nothing she could do about all of these factors weighing against her plans, but to press on, improvise, and . . .?

The jar of baking soda solution was still intact. Smiling with glee, Tasìa now had an idea. She emptied the contents of the jar onto the pavement.

With her left hand, still covered as it was in nasty spider viscera, Tasìa lifted a mandible to force the giant wolf spider's mouth open. She found inside it a pair of tubes, one on each end of its upper lip, both covered in a set of thin, scaly plates that formed oddly positioned fangs.

Tasìa propped one of the fanged tubes out using a broken shard from the glass bottle. She placed the edge of the olive jar so it would catch the venom. With her thumb, Tasìa discovered the bulging gland along its upper jaw that held the fang tube in its place. She squeezed it with her thumb and the meat of her index finger pressed on the gland, held tightly. This caused it to successfully drain from out of the fang several ounces of venom.

Tasìa repeated the process with the fang on the other side of the wolf spider's mouth.

With the task completed, Tasìa made a calculation.

Thirteen ounces of venom, it should be enough, plenty even to fuck his shit up, she surmised, intent on carrying out her plan, still.

Tasìa then frowned as she began to put the lid back on the jar.

That acidic venom will just burn right through the lid if it's not carried correctly.

Tasìa looked to her side to retrieve the bottom of the wine bottle. The glass was intact around the circular bottom for a good two inches before breaking off. As luck would have it, Tasìa discovered, when twisted around the lip of the olive jar, the bottle bottom was a solid fit.

Feeling the soreness throughout her body caused by the fight, Tasìa stood back up and she popped the cramps out of her lower spine.

As she did this, Tasìa glanced at the bare and smoking remains of her favorite little gun. With a crack in her voice, she gave the dearly departed weapon a short eulogy.

"Off to Heaven now, my blesséd, blesséd boy," Tasìa whispered as she placed her hands back down on the pavement.

The giant wolf spider had cost her an entire minute and ten seconds of allotted time. Without any further adieu, Tasìa was now on her way. With her torso bent low, she began to scuttle in a lobster crawl down the street. Thirty feet from Sal's Cadillac, she poked her head up.

She could see Sal's upper torso. His arms crossed together as he patiently waited for the driver to complete his assignment.

Tasìa made a new plan. She would throw the bottle of venom at the back wheel tire facing her direction. She started to ready her throwing arm when Sal turned his head.

She ducked but not before noticing his gaze turned to something in the sky coming from behind him. Now Tasìa heard the sound as well. Warbirds.

Sal began yelling at the driver.

"Guille! Get your ass back over here! We've gotta split, now!"

She looked in the sky to find them. No luck, but the hover fans and open-air propellers grew distinct and sharp in the noise they made.

Tasìa peeked up again. Sal's arms were motioning for the driver to return. He was entirely distracted and turned away from her. She pitched the jar. It smashed on the asphalt beside the back tire and splattered.

Soon, smoke rose up and she could hear the rubber of the tire sizzle.

Mission accomplished, she positioned to crawl back up the street from whence she came when the sky lit up with tracer rounds aimed at the Hijos Lux brownstone compound. The buildings shined in a hazy hellscape shimmer. Rockets soon blasted away that illusion. More than a dozen of them drove into the sides of the buildings. Enormous booms shook the entire block.

As she scooted up the street towards the complex, Tasìa could only think of Alex. She had no idea where he and the Wise One parted off to together, be it nearby or far away.

Now, it seemed most crucial for her to find out.