BZRK

wasn’t having it. He stepped back into the rain, letting it beat on his bare head and shoulders.
    “He’s sitting there in that place, just babbling, just, just . . .”
    “What does he say? When he’s babbling?”
    “Nano nano nano. I know, it sounds kind of funny, doesn’t it?”
    “No. It doesn’t, Noah. What else does he say?”
    Noah shook his head. “Something about a bug man.”
    And there, at last, that tightening of Nijinsky’s impassive eyes, that twitch of his upper lip. And the warm compassion flowing from Nijinsky was, just for a moment, a cold front.
    Noah had not missed that split second of something dark. Sadness? No, although maybe that was part of it.
    Fury. That was it. Fury. But quickly extinguished.
    “Anything else?” Nijinsky asked. And now he wasn’t bothering with the mask. He knew that Noah had seen some little bit of truth in his eyes. The bullshit was over. Truth was on its way.
    “Yeah,” Noah said. “This word. He started screaming it. Just screaming it like a . . . like a . . .” He couldn’t talk for a moment. Too much. Too fast. He pressed his back against the wall, partly shielded from the worst of the downpour.
    “Berserk,” Nijinsky said quietly.
    Noah’s heart froze. His eyes snapped up. “What the hell does it mean? What is it? And how did you know?”
    Nijinsky sighed. “What is it? It’s an organization. I’m part of it. And so was Alex.”
    He waited and watched as Noah digested this. And as the truth dawned on Noah. “Are you here to . . .” He couldn’t finish the question. It seemed absurd, and if he asked it, it would be embarrassing.
    “Your brother had a very special skill. A very rare skill. Sometimes it runs in families. If you have this skill, then we may want to talk further. If not, then we will part ways and you’ll hear nothing more from us.”
    Noah blinked water out of his eyes. “What the hell?” When Nijinsky didn’t answer, Noah said, “Bug Man. Is that a real person? I mean, is he the person who did this to Alex?”
    “The Bug Man is real.”
    “How do I . . . I mean, how do I find out if, you know, I have this thing you’re talking about?”
    Nijinsky drew a business card from his inner coat pocket and handed it to Noah. It was a rather odd set of handwritten instructions. Noah quickly shielded it from the rain with the arc of his body.
    Nijinsky turned to walk away but then stopped at a distance and called back to Noah. “Tell me something, Noah. Which is more important: freedom or happiness?”
    What was this, a game? But Nijinsky wasn’t smiling.
    “You can’t be happy unless you’re free,” Noah said.
    The American nodded. “Skip school tomorrow.”

ARTIFACT
    To: C and B Armstrong
    From: S Lebowski
    Division: AmericaStrong, a division of Armstrong Fancy
    Gifts Corporation
    Status: EYES ONLY ENCRYPT Read and safe-delete
    Gentlemen: You have requested occasional updates on subject Burnofsky’s state of mind. We have been able to penetrate security on his computer files. The following is an extract from a video diary. Despite the fact that Burnofsky appears to be addressing someone, there is no evidence that anyone other than Burnofsky himself has viewed these files.
    We assess their condition to be secure.
    We make no judgments of subject Burnofsky’s mental condition at this time, but note that he is a heavy drinker and opium addict.
    The following is a transcript. The video itself is also available.
    ENTRY FOLLOWS:
    Let me tell you about the nano. Down there, down in the nano, you see marvels, man. You think you see glory in a sunset or the shape of a tree? No, man, the genius, the creation, the architecture, the fucking complexity, the edges and the patterns and the horrors – oh yeah, because there are horrors – are down there in the meat.
    You want to see God the Creator, the supreme artist? Gaze into the nano. You’ll see your God, and he will scare the shit out of you.
    God isn’t in big things measured in miles, he’s down there. Down there in a flea’s antennae like a hairy tree trunk twitching for blood, and a macrophage slithering along like a shell-less snail come to eat you up, and the cells you see splitting beneath your feet, and landscapes of seething bacteria, and yeah, right there, you want to see God up close and personal?
    Come with me into the nano, and I’ll show you what happens when you empty a sac full of staph germs, the hard stuff, the boosted MRSA, the necrotizing