After questioning her father, Ted, and following up on the leads, John and Dave quickly establish that the abductor is a supernatural entity that can present itself in different forms, even to people in the same room.
John, Dave and Amy find and trap a small insect-like creature that can disguise itself as any living or inanimate object, inserting retroactive memories of its new form so that it doesn't arouse suspicion.
Still experiencing lingering effects from the Soy Sauce, Dave and John are now able to see through the illusions, revealing that all documents on the "kids" are, in fact, blank and that "Maggie" is actually a giant larva literally feeding on Loretta Knoll, who does not experience a thing.
Marconi theorizes that the smaller creatures creating false memories are worker drones that allow the larvae to feed on the "parent" hosts before they hatch into the Queens, one of which is already living under the pond where the first "child" was found.
Dave and John help NON take it through a portal into a parallel universe and witness as the larva hatches into a towering infernal monstrosity that changes the idyllic world into a hellish dystopia: retroactively, so that it has always been that way.
Ted sends his family to Marconi, while he and his military group join John, Dave and Amy to blow up the pond mine shaft, believing it to be the nest of BATMANTIS??
On arriving at the site, Dave and John see that the pond is actually an orifice of the giant creature, but are unable to prevent a group of divers from rescuing ten more "children" from it and reuniting them with their biker "parents".
John Valeri of Criminal Element gave the book a positive review, saying that it "transcends the gags, the gore, the gadgets, and the gratuity... to tell a story of survival that, despite its many absurdities, is one we’re all living.
"[1] Maddie Crum of The Washington Post gave a semi-positive review, noting that "the brisk story is too often stalled by crass bits" and that issues such as class anxiety are brought up, but remain unexplored.