Page 42 - Contrast2013

immediate use. A sparrow, which must have been nesting on
the roof out of his line of sight before, now emerged; apparently
deciding it would risk a sting for a midnight snack.
Adrian took to the sky and engaged in a series of evasive
maneuvers, all the while drawing closer to his goal. Flying on
insect wings was a completely different experience than flying
on bird wings. Instead of feeling the strain all over his body, it
built up only in his back, a sensation not unlike pushing one’s
self on the lateral pull-down machine at the gym. He also did not
feel obliged to fly in straight lines. The rapidly buzzing wings let
him hover and zoom in any direction, like a helicopter.
Just as the bird began its decent, Adrian cut off sharply to
the right. He then soared down toward the grass at an angle, only
to shoot off to the left and double back over his previous path.
The sparrow, not quite so nimble, was forced to make several
sudden – and, he was sure, painful - changes of direction in order
to avoid two near collisions. By the time it had righted itself and
begun making up the distance, the fleeing hornet had reached the
nearest ground floor window. Goddammit! Adrian thought as he
landed. The President’s quarters were on the THIRD floor.
No time to fly now, the sparrow’s greater wingspan had al-
most brought it to the window. In an instant, the assassin shifted
again, this time into a Dicopomorpha echmepterygis, a wingless
wasp 0.139 mm in size. With seconds to spare, the infinitesimal
insect squeezed into the space between the window and the sill,
leaving the bird pecking furiously behind him.
No window in a residential building is completely airtight.
There is always a small space left between the sill and the win-
dow, even when it is shut. Too small for most insects, but for his
new parasitic wasp shape, it was like a subway tunnel.
Emerging on the other side, Adrian made yet another instant
shift. He intended to spend as little time in the form of the crea-
ture lowest on the food chain as possible. Now in the form of a
hornet again, he once more made use of the infrared vision. This

Contrast | 42