Times Square (prologue)
It was Officer Lorraine that noticed the bag first. It was plain grey, a larger-than-average duffle bag with no distinctive characteristics apart from a square label facing the bag itself, apparently unmarked.
After several minutes spent inquiring in the crowd whether the bag belonged to someone nearby, the policewoman finally bent down, intending to read the tag and send it on its way to the NYPD lost and found.
When she turned the label over, she called the bomb squad.
CALL THE FBI.
Three words written in black block letters on a square of white card, and Times Square was cleared of civilians within thirty minutes. A lone figure dressed in cumbersome orange rubber waddled towards the bag, slowing when he got within five feet, finally setting down his toolbox and dropping to one padded knee.
Nobody had actually opened the bag yet, so to be fair, it may not have been a bomb. But despite this fact – which, he admitted later, provided little comfort – his hand trembled as he reached for the zipper.
He’d just brushed it with his fingertips when the bag moved.
“FUCK!”
“What?! What’s going on? What’s happening? Is it a bomb?”
“There’s something in there,” he screeched, and scooted backwards several feet, keeping to one knee as best he could. He fumbled for his gun, drawing it with both hands. “There’s something moving in there.”
The zipper began to move all by itself, drawing itself open in one smooth movement. The bomb squad member clicked the safety off, keeping the gun raised.
Something emerged. It was pale and oddly patterned and long, and it took him a good few seconds to realize it was an arm. It was followed by a head, and another arm - this one a strange silvery colour, painted with the same dark symbols as its twin - and then a torso.
A man stood from the bag on shaking legs, shielding his face with both hands from the glare of the helicopter lights.
“Hands on your head! On your knees!”
The unidentified man obeyed.
“Don’t move!”
And the man began to cry, huge, panicking sobs that only come from feeling completely lost.