khan had been smoking opium as long as he could recall but when he turned up at mission control looking somewhat crazed and paranoid i wondered if the heat were closing in. 
'i need to talk with you sir.'
'khan, what a pleasant surprise, come in.'
i offered him the tea he enjoys and added the extra honey as i never keep sugar in mission control. he enjoyed oriental teas and i was able to brew him some white tea from the far east. he was wandering around the library glancing at my books in a frenzied way. 
khan always dressed in his traditional robes and sandals, kashmiri style looking like an exotic prince in trouble i persuaded him to sit with me as i poured him his tea.
'kahn, come on man, i've known you long enough to see something troubles you.'
'yes, indeed i am troubled sir and i beg your assistance.'
i was not only surprised at khans instance at calling me sir, a formality i found uncomfortable but the fact he felt he needed to plead for my help.
'khan. we are friends. you know i will always help you if it is in within my means so i think you should relax, enjoy your tea and start talking about the nature of your dilemma and when you finish i can offer my perspective.'
nervous smiles, twitch in the corner of his mouth and then i see something, the eyes. not only were they sunken back dramatically, his whole face looked so haggard and devoid of colour, almost grey. his exotic brown tone washed out completely by a sickly silver.
'six months ago i returned to peshawar thinking i would take the cure, my addiction was beginning to take it's toll and i had heard there were many treatments that were effective. the cultivators themselves require short term solutions to opiate addictions and i hoped i would benefit. in hindsight it seems stupid to think the source of my sickness may be the cure, a little homeopathic madness. there's a place there a certain restaurant it's quite famous for its kebabs and  is always filled from dawn to dusk, very difficult to get a seat so i found myself eating a meal next door where i met a scorpion vendor who i spoke with. he said to me, nasha pa nasha khatmege which in english translates as drugs are beaten by other drugs. off course i disagreed he had never travelled outside, he had little knowledge of the world but he was very convincing when he told me he had a cure for opiate addiction. i was weak, foolish and i listened to him, and i wanted to believe.
it was late, the restaurants were emptying out and we drunk a lot of tea and i was feeling withdrawals, my body beginning to crave. he knew certain places i could attain treatments, some varied in method and style but he said he had a cure that i should think about. he was very fatalistic and spoke of how it was fortune that brought me to him, you know how we are about things like this, it's seductive and i was seduced. 
he closed up his shop, it was tiny and i'm not really sure what it sold except for tea and sweet cake. he lit a candle and pulled out a large jar from the darkness. at first i thought it was filled with a black ink and then i noticed the ink moving around never retaining a surface tension, perhaps it was alive, i looked harder. giant cockroaches perhaps, but but on closer inspection it was scorpions.
He plucked one out by the tail, it was huge about 8", hetrometrus is the latin name he informed me. 
the vendor said that he normally dries them in sunlight but he would burn this one on coal. he threw it upon the white hot coals of his grill and we watched it wither and curl as an awful smoke rose and it's body curled and cracked. i have witnessed many strange things sir as i know you have. but this sir, was the strangest. watching it suffer, the preparation, it was quite insane. but in the prison of my addiction the prism of morality distorts and what was insane becomes quite acceptable given the circumstances. i was very sick.
after ten minites of burning the vendor removed the scorpion with a pair of tongs. it was a black lump with it's tail still retaining the shape but fused around the body, the vendor placed it on the bench and began opening it out. the smell was awfully thick and unpleasant. he cut away the tail and then ground it into a powder in a pestle and mortar, very methodically and with great care. i watched his preparation in silence as though in some strange religious ceremony.
the vendor placed the powder in a nacha, a pipe, in a mixture of tobacco and hashish. 
we smoked it together, in darkness and silence and then when it was finished he said, the western world will stop the opium trade eventually but it will be replaced by something much worse. the scorpion cult is ready, it grows, it is everywhere and now it is inside you. did you know, like heroin is used in medicine so is the scorpion, it is used in many western medicines, to combat aids, to treat cancers and tumours. the scorpion in ancient egypt was the symbol of magick. here it is the symbol of death. a certain type of death, the death that comes unsuspecting. if you watch a scorpion hunt it dances around it's prey, it draws the target into thinking the claws are the weapon and then when the target is focused upon the pincers it is stung with the tail. when you return to the west, you will see them panicking from pandemonium, their governments are weakened with fear of an enemy we sent, our pincers. the sting is coming my friend.
sir, i was half hearing his words, my eyes were betraying me so i cannot account for accuracy of what i heard him say, everything danced before me, there were auditory hallucinations and a surge of energy, it was beyond anything i've ever experienced. powerful and terrifying. words seemed to continue even now i hear them, there is no treatment from the scorpion only addiction. 
i left immediately, flew straight home, and to you sir, i know you have some experience in these things being an exterminator.'
'kahn, the scorpion cult are unknown to me, i am aware that there are a few bug cults on this planet but it's impossible to say how far and wide they reach but one thing is clear. this cult means to do us all harm.'
'yes, and i am very sick sir, very sick from withdrawal. i came here, risking my own life to warn people, to warn them all to what is coming.'
i watched him intently, his skin was beginning to crystallise, it was becoming darker, and breaking out into faint patterns. intuitively i knew that this was the end of the line for mr. kahn. 
i had the olmec blade at hand, it would be a simple swift movement to put him out of his misery and stop any transformation that was occurring but i'd still have to deal with the body.
in the warehouse where burroughs worked from and i was trained under his tutelage was an industrial freezer. as far as i knew it was empty but was in working order. 
it didn't take kahn much convincing to accompany me, he was aware time was running to a standstill and as we drove down in the truck he began blabbering. one of the headlights didn't work but we were lucky, using the back streets avoiding the heat i listened to  
kahn as he shivered and shook in a delirious fever. occasionally he would relay parts of the voices in his mind. 'they want me to detonate in a sports arena, in a shopping mall, they want me to become dust floating in the air, breathed into lungs, that is my mission sir and there is no way out for me. i am fighting the compulsion, what's happening? please help me, are we there, we must be close i can't breath' he pleaded before shutting down.
burroughs kept the main gate shut with a big old padlock and as i stuck the key in and turned it kahn's flesh started solidify, strange liquid poured from his mouth and his hands were changing structure. i carried him through and stuck him inside the freezer, it was indeed empty save for some vodka, i opened a bottle and poured it into his mouth hoping it would take the edge of whatever internal chemistry was occurring. there were two milk crates turned upside down. i sat upon one watching him on the other, his body was now completely black and i could see the lateral eyes widen across his face, he fell to the floor and his arms became thick pedepalps as pincers replaced his hands. i watched as legs burst from his torso and his human legs fused together and changed by stages into the tail. the thing was huge, and although we had only been in the ice room for a few minites it was beginning to freeze. i began to pump my three hearts, circulating my blue blood through my body, this would keep me from freezing and allow me a spectators seat at the transformation. 
kahn was gone now, any traces of him obliterated in the metamorphosis. 
the body twitched and then stopped. the black eyes fixed upon me were the last to freeze.

i shut the door sealing him inside and locked up. instead of going home i went to the beach and took off my clothes leaving them in a pile inside the truck. 
it wasn't particularly warm or cold but as soon as i walked into the water the boundaries of my human body shed and i swam in my natural form further out and deeper down, into the darkness. 
the threat of the scorpion cult was clear now, imminent. i was trained in infiltration, my mission was to save the humans. i was undercover in deep, running a business. an integrated member of society, i was blending in and doing my job. exterminator. but even the best spies need support and back up. 
instinct took over, my travelling speed was very fast, i would reach our command centre in a matter of hours. there would be no predators down here, even the sharks know to stay away. the cephalopod council would have received my light message a spectrum of deep reds and purples, they would meet me for a debrief and to update my orders.i required their instruction on the scorpion threat, for they would be a formidable foe.
i shut down my system, all energy rerouted to propulsion as i made my way deeper down.