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Tyler sifted a small handful of pellets into the tank. The fish quickly swam up to grab the meal, blissfully unaware of the fact that they were doomed to die at the same hand that fed them.

“You know, I can only feed them these pellets every now and then,” he commented. “I have to make sure they eat the snails. These are more like vitamin supplements than actual meals.”

He followed that up by dropping several snails into the tank. He had to source these snails carefully, ensuring that they were wild caught from areas rich in the plankton that consumed the bacteria that ultimately provided the tetrodotoxin used to poison his victims.

“It’s an involved process,” he explained. “And very expensive. I’ve had to set up an investment account to earn the money needed to purchase these fish and ensure they’re properly fed. See, the fish themselves don’t have the venom. It’s the bacteria. The bacteria in the water where they live produce it as a defense mechanism. Or they used to anyway. Nowadays, so many creatures have evolved with immunity to the venom that it’s basically useless to the bacteria. Then again, they’re bacteria, so they’re everywhere. It’s not like they’re going to go extinct.”

He picked up the fish net and looked through the fish, which were now busily eating the snails. “Anyway, plankton eat the bacteria, and snails eat the plankton. Then the puffer fish eat the snails, and the toxin accumulates in their bodies, specifically the liver. That’s the organ I extract the toxin from.”

He dipped his net and pulled out a fish. It quickly sucked in air, ballooning to several times its size, not realizing that it wasn’t a predator’s mouth it was caught in but a tool used by a creature unfathomably more intelligent than it was.

“I have to process it,” he continued to explain. “Tetrodotoxin is commonly known. Hell, anyone who watches Animal Planet knows what it is now. Not to mention that so many people get sick from it that it’ll show up on a tox screen as bright as meth will. So I tweak it a bit. It won’t last forever, of course. I’m not a fool. My freedom will come to an end eventually. But I’ll get you first. I’ll get a lot of you. I’ll slake my thirst for revenge in full before the Miracle Agent and her Wonder Dog get me.”

He turned to Gina Torres and smiled. The poor woman was shaking with terror. Her caked-on makeup ran in ugly rivulets down her cheeks, and her eyes were swollen and puffy with irritation from the makeup that had run into her sclera. God, it looked so ugly. It was a shame because she really was a pretty girl.

Oh well. She wouldn’t be pretty for much longer.

“You know why I’m doing this, right?” he asked.

Gina sobbed and shook her head. That was the most she could do with the duct tape over her mouth.

“No? Well, it doesn’t matter. I know. That’s what counts.”

He set the net on the counter and carefully positioned his knife. With a quick thrust, he killed the fish he had chosen. Behind him, Gina released a muffled scream.

“Oh, don’t worry,” he assured her. “The knife isn’t for you.” He grinned. “You get a far more painful death than that.”

She sobbed again, and Tyler’s grin widened until his cheeks hurt.

God, this felt good! Maybe he’d kidnap all his victims from now on. He thought he enjoyed it when they didn’t know what was going to happen to them, but there was something delicious in their fear.

“West had it right all along,” he chuckled.

He turned his attention back to his work. It wouldn’t take long for him to extract the poison and alter it according to his needs.

Then he would make damned sure Gina received a full dose, vegan bullshit diet or not.