RIB

Part Fourteen

K scratched his head in thought. "There was a police report of a bug sighting near the Cloisters in Fort Tryon Park just before it was spotted up in Van Cortland Park, where we found its remains." He said. "I'd bet it laid its eggs there."

"You might be right about that" J said. "maybe we should get back there asap."

"You want to drive, or should I fly us there?" Astro asked.

"We're out of barf bags, so I think we'd better drive." K said.

"Shut up!" J answered back.

"Very well, you can meet me there." Astro said. "I'll start looking around and report back by radio."

"Good idea." J replied, relieved that he would be traveling at ground level.

The black Ford took off southbound on the Henry Hudson Parkway, while Astro took to the sky. He landed just south of the Metropolitan Museum of Art annex, and began to look around. The park was located in a rather hilly part of upper Manhattan Island, and had lots of walkways winding through rocky outcroppings and lots of trees. Astro noticed a few cave like openings here and there, perfect places for a giant roach to crawl into and lay her eggs. He spotted a policeman near the museum and walked over to him, and quickly flashed his MIB ID in the cop's face.
"Government top secret" he quickly said. "Have you seen anything unusual in the past hour?"

"Would a giant cockroach be considered unusual enough?" the patrolman replied. "It came out of the woods over there, and ran right by the museum grounds before disappearing. I think it was heading for the Bronx."

"Thanks." Astro said. "Er, I'm going to have to immunize you from roach virus." Astro quickly produced his neuralyzer and flashed the cop in the face with it. He turned and started toward the wooded area, in the direction where the policeman had pointed.

The passengers on the #1 train were escorted out of the tunnel by the Transit Police. Once on Broadway they were boarded onto uptown buses to complete their journeys. None of them except for Reno remembered a thing about the giant roach thanks to Astro's neuralyzer.

"So were were we going again?" Rene asked. She looked up at the ads posted in the bus, and noticed one by the Metropolitan Museum of Art for a special exhibit up at the Cloisters. The museum had special late hours all week for the attraction.

"Hey, let's go there!" she said pointing to the poster, completely forgetting the nightclub they had planned on going to. Reno figured that a quiet visit to the museum, and maybe a stroll though Fort Tryon Park afterwards, might be a bit more romantic than a loud nightclub, so he quickly agreed to the change of plans. "Sure, I think this bus goes right by the park" he replied.

K drove like a maniac, making the run from the Bronx to upper Manhattan in under ten minutes. He plowed into the park service entrance and parked the car just south of the museum. "Hey A, where are you?" K transmitted. "I'm In the wooded area just south of the museum. Look for a large stand of oak trees, next to a smaller stand of maples." Astro said.

The two MIB agents ran up the hill leading toward the area A had described. They got there just as Astro was walking out of a low cave in the side of the hill.

"There are lot's of these little openings in the outcroppings" Astro explained. "I figure a bug would look for a cave to lay her eggs."

"Sounds about right to me." K agreed. "Let's split up. We can inspect these hills more quickly if we do that."

They quickly divided the territory up between them, and started the search. Judging by the size of the park, it might take them most of the evening.

Reno and Rene got off the Broadway bus at Riverside drive and walked to the museum entrance. There was a small line of patrons waiting to get in A few members of the crowd were muttering something about a giant bug that had been spotted running from the park, and suggested that the reason for the museum having been closed for an hour had something to do with that. A policeman doing crowd control tried to squash the bug rumor, he explained there had been a brief power outage, which was why the subway had been out of order.

While they were waiting in line, Reno grabbed four hot dogs from a pushcart vendor and offered two of them and a Coke to his date. Rene accepted the fast food, and the two of them finished their makeshift dinner just as they finally reached the head of the line. Reno wiped some excess mustard from Rene's face, and then she took the napkin from him and returned the favor.

The three MIB agents had spend an hour searching through the caves, cracks and openings in the rocky outcroppings, but hadn't found a sign of the roach's nest. "I'm going to go up to get an aerial view in the infrared" A radioed to his companions. "Maybe I can spot her tracks."

"I wish you'd thought of that earlier." K said. "If my bugblatter beast biology is correct, we have about an hour left before those bastards hatch!"

Rene and Reno had made their way through the primary exhibit of the museum, and found themselves in a deserted part of the building. Reno put his arm around his date's waist and pulled her close, and she took his hand. They smiled at each other as they reached a rear exit to the building. "Want to take a walk?" Reno asked.

"Love to" Rene answered, and they started up the pathway towards the wooded area of the park. The walkway was lined with sodium vapor lights casting a yellow glow, which created strange shadows on the ground. A few owls hooted in the trees, and squirrels scampered away to hid from the night predator birds. They took the west fork in the walkway which slowly climbed up hill.

Astro flew upwards and started scanning the ground. J and K were on the east and south side of the rocky outcroppings, he flew toward the western edge. Carefully adjusting his vision into the infrared part of the spectrum he could make out the tracks the giant roach made on her exiting the park to head toward the Bronx. Looking to see where they came from, he traced them back to a small cavern on the south west side of the hill. Two people were walking arm in arm on the walkway towards that exact spot.

There was a park bench facing the Hudson River on the edge of the park. Reno and Rene sat on the bench and gazed into each other's eyes. They moved closer in an embrace and their lips met in a passionate kiss. Suddenly, there was an explosive noise from behind them as thousands of newly hatched giant cockroach like monsters ran out of a cavern about three hundred yards behind them.