After seeing the mutated Prescott, the boys sit in the dorm room. Jurgen thinks that Prescott is too much for them to handle. He wants to contact the police, but Mengistu says that the police will not believe them. Jurgen concludes that in horror movies, whenever there is a lab full of monsters or aliens, “[i]t has to end in fire, everything and everybody is burned up” (170). Mengistu insists that this outcome is unlikely and that they have a moral obligation to help Prescott.

The narrator adds that although Mengistu is wise, he cannot predict that the problem of Prescott will be resolved shortly. The narrator adds that Spike would like to point out that this scene is an example of a plot device called foreshadowing. Spike also suggests making this a point of discussion in a book club and compares it to the dialogue of the three witches at the beginning of Macbeth.

Handy tells Spike everything he knows, and Spike, Harper, and Benny leave Handy and Jill frozen in mid-dance. When the two awaken, they will not remember the encounter. Back in the Explorer, Spike says that though he is 1,800 years old, he will never forget this night. Meanwhile, Benny is surprised to realize how quickly Harper is replacing Jill in his affections. He hopes that this is a sign of his maturing taste in women.

Spike assures Benny that he will always be there to support him, just as he was for Clerkenwell. He stayed with Clerkenwell for 70 years, and he only left because Clerkenwell knew that he would die soon and wanted to make sure that Benny would be protected. Benny asks Spike what this arrangement will look like. Spike answers that although he can stay in his box, he would prefer a small room in the house and a bed of his own. He does not need much space, nor does he need a bathroom because craggles use every molecule of what they eat and produce no waste. Benny promises to give Spike his own room. Excited, Spike asks if they can go to movies, bowling, or golfing. Benny agrees. Finally, they pull up to a gated community, where they plan to confront an evil attorney.

They pull up to the guardhouse, where Spike speaks with the guard and uses Handy’s information to gain entry, claiming that he is attending the party of an attorney named Oliver Lambert. The guard waves them through. They drive up to Lambert’s house, where Spike gives a valet the keys and a $2,000 tip to share with the other valets. They enter the house and corner Lambert in a back room, away from the festivities. Benny demands to know why Lambert ruined his life. Lambert pretends not to know who Benny is and then admits that if he had seen a photo of Benny and realized how inconsequential he was, he would have convinced the others not to waste their resources on him. He accuses Benny of being a “walking-talking ideology” (187), but with so little charisma that it does not matter.

Spike then demands to know who the other conspirators are. Lambert insults Spike, who grabs the lawyer by the throat and lifts him into the air. Finally, Lambert answers. When he stops talking, Spike says that Lambert can live but must suffer humiliation. He speaks in a hypnotic voice, ordering Lambert to strip naked and walk back out to his party. Confused, Lambert does as he is told. As he walks out, Benny, Spike, and Harper sneak away. Outside, the valets meet them with the Explorer and a fanfare worthy of royalty. As they drive away, they can hear the crowd reacting to Lambert’s appearance.

In a flashback chapter, Benny and his friends decide to help Prescott. The following night, they again walk through the Hanging Ground grove, but this time, they bring supplies. Mengistu has a large can of insecticide, while Jurgen stole a chef’s knife from the kitchen, and Benny bought candy bars in the hopes of appeasing Prescott’s hunger. Jurgen is touched by Benny’s sweetness, but Mengistu wonders how he has survived this long.

They find the doors of the lab torn off their hinges and realize that Prescott has escaped. Then, they see four men and Mrs. Baneberry-Smith in the grove. Mrs. Baneberry-Smith is dressed in tight, black clothes. The four men are dressed in body armor and are carrying shotguns. The boys follow, hiding in dense bushes.

Suddenly, something drops down from the trees onto the gunmen. It is twice the size of Prescott, with more limbs, but they know that it is him. The men scream and fire their weapons. Mrs. Baneberry-Smith yells at them not to kill it, but the gunmen keep firing. Prescott the bugboy grabs one man and tears him into pieces. The three remaining men shoot until the creature drops dead at their feet.

In the present, Benny, Spike, and Harper leave Lambert’s house and head for the home of his superior, F. Upton Theron. In the car, Benny recalls the chair that Spike smashed and asks about it. Spike insists that it was an uncomfortable chair that would have hurt Benny’s spine. Benny retorts that they can be buddies, but Spike is not allowed to “nanny” him. He agrees to allow Spike to protect him from outside forces, but not from himself. Spike reluctantly agrees.

Then, Benny asks about the money that Spike gave the valets. Spike explains that craggles always have as much money as they need to fulfill their mission. They pull into a gas station. Benny gets out at the gas pump, but three men carrying weapons approach him and demand the car. Spike emerges from the car and orders Benny to get into the backseat with Harper.

In a flashback, Benny, Jurgen, and Mengistu hide in the bushes and watch as two of the gunmen put the pieces of Prescott into a body bag. Mrs. Baneberry-Smith stands with the third gunman, Kimball. The men work for the Internal Security Agency. Mrs. Baneberry-Smith is angry that they killed Prescott rather than capturing him alive to be taken to Area 51. Kimball asks her what really happened in Asia, knowing that she was not bitten by a normal spider. For a moment, Benny feels pity for the young woman she must have been then.

She describes the experience of being bitten and injected “with a fluid that’s a data-storage medium […] contain[ing] the entire history and all the knowledge of an alien race whose civilization [the Regulus civilization] is thousands of years more advanced” (211). The data downloaded to her brain was physically and emotionally excruciating. The creature that bit her was the last survivor of an alien’s vessel crash. Now, she uses that knowledge to experiment on the boys of elite families, turning them into “sock puppets” to be used as she sees fit (213). Kimball asks her to share more of her knowledge with the rest of their team so that they might prepare for more arrivals from the Regulus civilization, but she refuses.

Finally, they leave with Prescott’s remains in tow. The boys wait for a moment in case someone turns back. Benny also fears that Prescott will reveal that he is not yet dead, as monsters often do in movies. Eventually, they agree that he is dead and decide to run.

In the present, Harper holds Benny’s hand and is startled by how right it feels. She reflects on her efforts to become “smoother and bluer” (217), a state of being that ensures a stable and happy life. She sees that Benny is likewise on the smooth-and-blue path, although he seems unaware of it. She wants to help him on this path, partly out of kindness and partly because she realizes that she is falling in love with him.

From the backseat, she watches Spike fight the three car-jackers. She says that it is a shame that Spike does not date, as he would be perfect for her friend Chrissy. Benny thought that she’d asked Spike about dating earlier because she was interested in Spike herself. Harper laughs, saying that Spike is not her type, but Benny is. Then, she kisses his cheek. As Spike continues his fight, Harper wonders why he does not simply sideline the car-jackers. Finally, he knocks the three men unconscious, finishes filling the gas tank, and gets back into the car, announcing that he is hungry.

As they eat at a diner, Spike explains that he is allowed to use violence but is not allowed to kill. If he had merely sidelined the three men, they would have found someone else to attack when they came out of the trance. This way, Spike has put them out of commission for at least a week. He wishes that he could do more to stop them, but his duty lies with Benny.

They discuss their next target, F. Upton Theron, a billionaire with a house like a fortress. Spike assures them that he can handle this new challenge. In 1,800 years, Spike has protected 29 people like Benny, and only two have died horrific deaths. He adds that the two he lost were kind, but they were not wise enough to listen to him. He explains, “Niceness plus free will minus wisdom equals sudden and horrific death” (230). He knows that Benny will survive because Benny is both wise and nice and will therefore listen to Spike’s advice.

In a flashback, Benny, Jurgen, and Mengistu return to their dorm, careful not to be seen. Jurgen and Mengistu have a plan to escape if they need to. They do not share that plan with Benny, but they promise to do so later if it becomes necessary. The boys sit together all night, afraid to sleep. In the morning, the teachers announce that the headmaster is dead, having apparently fallen down the stairs while sleepwalking and breaking his neck.