Feeding Frenzy

The story opens with rival followers of Karl and Theodore arguing over how to prepare and eat an insect after its discovery. Remo stages an encounter with Bricker after drawing him into a conspiracy-film premise about CURE. Smith then sends Remo and Chiun to investigate PAPA under an FDA cover after the HELP crisis reaches the new President and Vice President. Broadcaster Race Branchwood adopts the on-air name Thrush Limburger. The operatives reach the California camp, where a burial area, factional gathering and reporters surround Theodore’s planned appearance; a pathologist describes wasting but cannot yet identify its cause.

Senator Clancy takes the podium before Theodore arrives and says he brought Pearl in the hope that the bugs may restore her faculties. Remo meets Nalini, who identifies herself as Pearl’s private nurse. Limburger plans to reveal what he knows about HELP, then disappears from his locked broadcast booth. Clancy announces a costly research and treatment bill financed by a value-added tax. Autopsy findings remain uncertain, and reporters accuse the missing Limburger without evidence; Remo challenges their turn from rumor to news.

An unseen woman calling herself the Eldress sends Theodore a rosewood box containing a spider. Theodore later collapses and says the Eldress did it; a Harvester reports seeing a woman, and Chiun finds the box. Parsons describes an enzyme that blocks nutrient absorption and explains wasting, while the separate deaths remain unresolved. After Remo dates Nalini, jumping spiders appear around him, sharpening his suspicion. Chiun recounts an attributed story about Master Sambari and the Spider Divas; Smith identifies the spider species but weighs Nalini’s possible connection against other explanations.

The Eldress directs Clancy to Washington to force the HELP bill forward and threatens to expose his confession. The Harvesters are then found dead in their tents; Parsons says their deaths are not HELP and warns that the cause is unknown. A jumping spider attacks him, and reporters learn that the camp’s “lobster salad” was thunderbug. Remo deliberately starts a fire that spreads through the dry camp and kills nearby spiders. Dr. Gregorian arrives offering paid assisted-death services. Smith considers whether the false crisis and promised cure could propel a candidate toward the presidency, while Chiun writes down another attributed account of the Spider Divas.

Remo and Chiun infiltrate Clancy’s compound. Nalini admits there is no HELP and confirms Clancy is her boss; she also says a female spider’s bite should kill Remo. After the bite, the narration calls him “Shiva the Destroyer,” and he kills Nalini. Pearl uses the finger signals and spiders, and Chiun calls her a Spider Diva. An unnamed man later arranges Pearl’s off-page killing through Gregorian, who is found dead after connecting himself to his medicide machine. Smith identifies Pearl as the Eldress and Nalini as her operative, then reports Clancy’s resignation, aides’ confessions and the bill’s death. Limburger claims credit for ending the scare.