Michael R. Linaker - Scorpion: Second Generation (Nel, Feb. 1982)
Nightmare black and hideously armed they came scuttling and swarming from underground. Ever hungry, ever vicious, they hunted down their prey, clawing, biting, stinging.
The scorpions have returned, this time grown huge, irradiated, mutant. Their claws could strip the living flesh of man or woman down to the white bone. Could snap and strip the bone into tortured fragments. Gouging, tearing, blinding, they held their bloodied victims while they pumped spurts of venom into the agonised body.
The scorpions have returned, and the stench of death seeped out over the countryside. Cornwall, fourteen months after the events described in the previous book.
The pesky ones that got away have been busy breeding and now an army of 4ft super scorpions are closing in on the popular holiday resort of Port Pendall. It being the hottest summer on record as usual, the place is even more packed with tourists than ever.
P.C. Trevor Parkinson is investigating a series of recent crimes. There's been a break-in at the butchers, the bolts plucked from the heavy door to the cold storage room and chunks of frozen meat ripped apart: Young Gillian Bampton hasn't been seen since she took Timmy the terrier for a walk: livestock has been stolen from Needham Farm.
Trevor drives over to the farm where he's met by old flame Linda dressed in a too-tight t-shirt and tiny shorts. She married his best friend, Jim, but now she's wondering whether she made the right choice. Seeing as he's not going to be back for hours, Linda decides to pick up where she left off with Trevor and they get down to business.
All this, before we hit chapter 4. ...
*************
By Chapter eight, the souped-up scorpions are getting well full of themselves. The girl they dragged off in the opening chapter has evidently been picked clean by now and next on the menu are Eddie and Jock, two thugs who've just battered old Harry Butlin and ran off with the daily takings from his mobile snack bar. Then Terri - stark naked, of course - and lover Don are stung, sliced and diced - not necessarily in that order - at home.
Parkinson has a hunch that all the recent events are connected and DI Sam Braddock likes a cop who runs on intuition and gut instinct so he temporarily promotes him to plain clothes, meaning Trevor can now wear his sports jacket to work. Also on the case is Miles Ranleigh, entomologist, who's just been tipped off about the situation. Evidently he's the Clifford Davenport of the piece, having been instrumental in putting down the previous scorpion uprising at Long Point in Kent.
So far, Linaker has ticked all the right boxes, but then comes the incident at The Guillemot, a traditional Cornish pub, populated by cider fiends, "grizzled elders" who "would have snorted with contempt if anyone had tried to introduce beer in ring-pull cans." The pub is devoid of jukebox and Space Invaders, and if you want something to eat go piss off to a restaurant. All well and good, but when the latest victim crashes blooded and mutilated through the glass doors, landlord Barney Daley rings an ambulance. Call me a purist but whats with the Florence Nightingale act without first checking the guy's credentials? He could be an outsider or a poofy flash Londoner or anything, for crying out loud! The author redeems himself when the mangled stranger turns black in hospital and there's more gruesome death when two blokes decide to explore a disused tin mine ....
God, but this is so
The Crabs!
*************
Up until now, the scorpions have restricted themselves to a few clandestine creepy crawls, taking out the occasional human but generally keeping a low profile. All that changes when the circus comes to Pendall Green and they embark on a killing spree which is way up there with the killer crabs attacking the Isle of Dogs and the Buckland Whites rampaging through Wembley Stadium. The scorp corps mutilate crowd, performers, animals and all. As you'd expect, there is a high mortality rate amongst young couples enjoying a crafty leg-over in the bushes, but it doesn't do to be a hot-dog vendor or a girl in a sequined costume either. At least artiste Olga Petrova effortlessly dissects one of the creatures with some nifty swordplay, and a couple of its colleagues are burnt or dealt a fatal bullet between the eyes. Other than that, it's a complete walkover for the pincered miscreants.
Things are going slightly better with Miles Ranleigh. Investigating the tin mine, he bumps into Jill Ansty, a girl who'd spoken to the students before they descended the mine shaft and is now concerned for their safety. Miles tells this complete stranger everything he suspects because he instinctively knows he can rely on her not to blabbermouth and cause a panic. She invites him back to her place and it seems they are about to get to know each other a lot better when the phone rings and Ranleigh is informed of the Pendall Green massacre. They rush over to get a good bog at the carnage, and, as luck has it, one of the dead scorpions is oozing pus and giving an overall impression of something very diseased indeed. So, just like the crabs, some kind of cancer is killing the species - but how many more people will die before these genetic abnormalities are wiped out?
*************
SPOILER: covers part 2 - End!Part two,
Generation and for three of our friends it's the end of the road before we've even had a chance to hide behind the sofa. The disease that's killing the scorpions isn't cancer, its radiation-induced gangrene, and, yes, its contagious.
Ranleigh and Miles are now an item so the big nail-biter is, once they've been good for a sex interlude will they meet the fate of everybody else who gets their end away? Ranleigh leads Braddock and his men down the mine where they discover the scorpions nest. In the ensuing combat there are casualties on both sides but the humans - armed with flame-throwers and rifles get the better of it and only thirty of the stingers survive to drag themselves onto the moors. Seeing as they're half dead already, they shouldn't be so difficult to pick off ....
Enter the usual, greedy, corpulent businessmen who get all shirty over Braddock's insisting on the resort remaining off limits to the public during the money season. Fortunately for us, one of their number, Amberly, takes matters into his own hands and hires a gang of bikes to wipe out the big bugs!
Meet Talon and his crew.
" ... they were all dressed alike in the uniform of the young. Denims in various stages of disintegration. Leather jackets. Sweat shirts. Leather boots. Male and female alike sported long, unkempt hair. They were, Amberly decided instantly,
a bunch of useless layabouts"
Amberly buys their services for a less than competitive £2000.
Obviously, Talon, Chopper, Bike, Junie and the rest versus the monster arachnida is a highlight, but Linaker serves up
another big set piece before we finally learn the outcome.
Truly, an entertaining and very gory read.