The shadowy figure had found the trunk swiftly enough, jimmied the lock effortlessly, and immediately found the octagonal puzzle box. Raising it to eye level, the shadow smiled. A familiar model. Seconds, and it was sprung open.
Empty?
Hardly.
The intruder put a finger against the bottom of the puzzle box and pushed hard. The false bottom was dented, and the intruder impatiently tugged it out. There, gleaming, was the true prize.
The shadow swiftly snapped the box shut, tucked it away, and withdrew into the shadows of the attic to wait for the next intruder who would certainly be along shortly.
xXx
It was a few minutes until noon, and Peter walked along the sidewalk lost in his own thoughts. He glanced up to see Mary Jane strolling down the sidewalk towards him.
"Hey tiger," she said. "Long time no see."
"I've been hiding," he said with his most charming smile.
"Well don't," she said. "Come to lunch with me. My treat." She flashed him a dazzling smile.
"What about Harry?" Peter said.
"He has class," Mary Jane replied. "You aren't thinking of making me eat my lunch alone, are you?"
"You drop a dime you have twenty people at your table," Peter said with half a smile.
"Don't make me," she said with a mock stern look.
"So where do we eat?" Peter shrugged, his smile filling out.
Ten minutes later they were seated in the student union eating greasy unhealthy fattening food that managed to be edible. Peter inspected one of his limp fries.
"So how is Aunt May?" Mary Jane asked.
"Better," Peter said with a decisive nod. "I'm sending her to Florida for a week to, you know, RnR and stuff."
"Cool," she said. "So is your unseen attacker through with you now?"
"Damn, MJ, don't shift gears on me like that," Peter said, his eyes bugging out a little as he adjusted. She tried not to smile.
"I'm a woman," she said loftily. "It's what I do."
"No argument here," he muttered. "I know who was behind it all. You don't want to, trust me on that. I don't know," he said with a shrug. "If he makes another play for me, I'm going to get around it and go straight to the source and put a stop to this nonsense. But if he leaves me alone, I'll let it go." His eyes narrowed. "One last chance to leave me alone. Then I go to him and work this out personally."
They sat quietly eating for a couple minutes.
"I'm more worried about Harry at this point," Peter said, glancing around. "I feel like I'm losing him. Harry's the best friend I've got, MJ. I know I deserve the cold shoulder ten times over, because I'm so unreliable and secretive. Still, I was trying so hard before all this happened, and now it's just coming apart in my hands."
"Harry's just going through a tough time right now," Mary Jane said quietly, looking down at her french fries. "He's living at home. His father should have cloned instead of reproducing; Harry isn't his carbon copy, and that leads to a little tension." She shrugged. "Maybe Harry's jealous of you."
"Jealous? Of me?" Peter said, startled.
"Yes," Mary Jane said, looking directly into his eyes
Peter got a sinking feeling.
"Mary Jane Watson," he said, "I would never make a play for another man's woman. I'm serious."
"Honestly, Peter," she said quietly. "We're just dating. I'm kind of insulted that you could honestly believe I belong to anyone."
"I can't do this," Peter said. "Harry is my friend. I'm sorry, MJ. I gotta go. I'll see you around." He shook his head. "I'm sorry. Thanks for lunch." He got up and headed for the door.
"Somebody's rattled," Mary Jane said as she watched him go. She sighed a little sigh. "You need my help, Parker," she said simply. "And you are a dangerous creature…"
xXx
Aunt May hauled the front door open and peered at the man in the khaki uniform. "Yes?" she said.
"Animal Control, ma'am. The neighbors have reported bats flying out of your attic. I'm here to take a look for you." He smiled, charming.
"Ooh, well then," she said. "Come on in." She opened the screen door and the heavyset man walked in.
"Where's your attic, ma'am?" he said. He followed her up the stairs, then he hauled the attic open. He turned to her. "You might want to go downstairs, just in case I have to catch one of these critters." His smile was positively disarming.
"Alright," she said. "Holler if you need anything." She turned and worked her way down the stairs.
The big man climbed up into the attic, snapped on his flashlight, and played it around the attic. He smiled. "Bingo," he said. He walked over to the heavy bound trunk.
He stopped abruptly as he felt a gun barrel touch the back of his head.
"Leave the trunk, there's nothing there you want," came a soft voice from behind him. "Take me to your boss."
"You're dead," the man in khakis said simply. "I'll take you back to the boss and he'll kill you."
The shadow behind him chuckled. "Let me worry about that. I'll bring the trunk if it will make you feel better. Go distract the old woman. I'll put the trunk in your van and we can go."
"I have no words for how dead you are," the big man said, shaking his head. "D-E-D, dead."
"Let's go," said the shadow.
The big man clambered down the ladder and went down to the kitchen to where the old woman sat wringing her hands. The other figure came down the ladder behind him, balancing the trunk on one shoulder.
"Everything's fine, false alarm," the man in khakis said to the old woman as he stood blocking her view of the stairs and door. "Thanks for your time and cooperation." The other figure hefted the trunk out of the house, unseen.
"Oh, you're a nice young man," she said. "Do you want a cookie?"
"Uh, no thanks," he said, managing a smile. "Have a nice day." He turned and scooted out of the house. The trunk slid into the van, doors slammed behind it. Then the two got in the van and drove away.
xXx
The library was quiet. Peter was deeply enmeshed in calculus when the chair across the table from him scooted back and Harry Osborn sat down. Peter looked up, losing all the threads of calculation, numbers spilling everywhere.
"Hey, Peter," Harry said. He looked pale, smudges of sleeplessness under his eyes, a certain hollowness to him. "How you doing?"
"Harry, good to see you," Peter said.
"Yeah," Harry said. "Look, I just came to apologize. I've been a real butthead lately. It's just… I'm still a little shaken up over the car accident."
"I am so sorry about that," Peter said. "I wish there was something I could do to make up for it."
Harry watched him for a long moment. "You could let me beat your butt at racquetball. I've just gotten the go-ahead for physical activity, I thought maybe we could smack the ball around for old time's sake."
"I'd like that," Peter said. "Six?"
"Six," Harry nodded. He smiled. "See you there, hot stuff."
"You're on," Peter grinned. Harry got up and walked away, moving slowly. Peter sat and thought about it for a long moment, then dove back into calculus.
xXx
The big man shouldered his way into Fisk's board room. He walked up to the desk, glancing at the two thugs standing by the window looking over the city through the thin slits in the shades. The big man thudded the trunk down on the desk.
"Nothing in it," he said, shaking his head. "Nothing like the spider you're looking for." He made eye contact with Fisk.
"What?" Fisk asked, his brow clenching.
The delivery man's hand darted into his jacket, he yanked out a gun and snapped off two shots. Trank darts thudded into the necks of the two guards, and they tumbled gracelessly to the floor. The man's features blurred, he lost a foot of height and he became a woman with short dark hair, delicate features, and bright green eyes. She put the gun on the table.
"I'm impressed," Fisk rumbled. "Talk fast, for your own sake."
"I work for a classified weapons manufacturer," she said. "I've had Forrest Parker's file flagged for decades, so if anyone accessed it I would be notified. Your clumsy probes alerted me to your investigation. I checked you out, found Voorhees, found out you're looking for Peter Parker, and I realized who he really was. You gave his secret identity away to me. You can have me killed, but I know the secret to his powers and I would like nothing better than to turn him over to grovel at your heel." She smiled.
"You wouldn't want to keep him for your weapons testing?" Fisk murmured, his huge voice filling the room like a living thing. "You work for the government, do you not?"
"I don't work directly for the government, we have a special relationship. And no, I don't want Parker for myself. I know how he happened. I don't need him, you see. We have met before and… it would please me to see him cowed. I owe him some revenge, and helping you with your plan to own him seems a fitting way to get it."
"You may live," Fisk said with an indulgent wave of his hand. "Now tell me the secret of the spider ghost."
"Now now," she said with a glittering smile, "that would be telling."
Fisk smiled and nodded. The woman's eyes narrowed, then she threw herself to the side.
Too slow. A weight the size of a roll of quarters smacked firmly into the back of her head, pitching her forward. She landed on her hands and knees, groggy, then another blow knocked her unconscious; she sagged to the carpet. Ledge stepped out of the shadows behind her.
"Yes," Fisk rumbled, "that will be telling…"