BZRK: Apocalypse (BZRK 3)

The second was a report prepared with help from an agency in Washington. That agency sent its own pathologist to “assist.” This second pathologist focused on an exceedingly careful examination of the actress’s brain. Dr. Chen had never seen an autopsy that involved centimeter-by-centimeter microscopic investigation of the brain tissue.

It would have taken a much more obtuse man than Dr. Chen to fail to recognize that the agency pathologist was looking for something very specific.

Both pathologists signed off on a second, eyes-only report that dealt with this second, microscopic examination. The conclusion was that there was no evidence of nanotechnology present.

Dr. Chen was required to sign an official secrets document and was solemnly warned that he would go to a federal prison if he revealed the existence of this second report.

NINE

The Twins arrived back in New York with no more fanfare than Plath and Keats. It had been expensive, but crossing into the U.S. without a passport was possible. Not impossible. Not with enough ready cash.

They had been helped into their specially built shower, then slept for many hours until Jindal had them awakened as per their orders.

Cranky, but relieved to be home again where the environment had been shaped to their needs, they drank coffee, ate pastries, and sat in their tent-size bathrobe while Jindal gave them the rundown. This program and that business.

“We don’t care about the P and Ls,” Benjamin snarled after a few minutes of spreadsheets. “Do you think we give a damn about long-term profits? Have you found BZRK?”

Jindal licked his lips and rocked back on his heels. He always stood in their presence. “No, sir. Thrum’s lead took us up a dead alley. She’s beginning to suggest that she’s being played.”

“Played? Hannah Thrum?” Charles made a dubious face.

“She thinks, and sirs, I agree, maybe, that Sadie McLure and the McLure chief of security are laying a false trail to—”

“We’re being played by a teenager?” Charles was usually the calmer brother, but this insulted his intelligence.

Benjamin slapped the table with his palm. “If we can’t find them, we can still go after their allies. This chief of security. His whole department.”

Jindal started to smile, almost as if he thought it was a joke. Then his smile faded. “Sir?”

Benjamin glared at him. “Never mind. Not your sort of work. No. No, get Burnofsky in here.”

Jindal stiffened. He had kept Burnofsky at arm’s length, suspecting, suspecting very damned strongly that the genius had been compromised by BZRK.

“Are you sure you want—”

“Get him. And get out.”

Benjamin remained silent a while, judging his brother’s mood. Charles, he concluded, was frustrated, but not yet ready to accept that they were entering a new phase. Charles did not yet understand that they were losing. In fact may already have lost.

Charles still half believed the silly cult they’d financed, Nexus Humanus, was of some use. He still seemed to think that the work of their remaining twitchers—no great prodigies among them—was just marking time, doing damage control.

“You’re still trying to hide,” Benjamin said aloud at last. “Our whole life, you always wanted to find a way to hide what we are.”

“What we are?” Charles said a bit pompously. “What we are is two great men, who have—”

“We are freaks,” Benjamin said, but not angrily. “Everywhere except on the Doll Ship. They’ve taken that from us. BZRK, the intelligence people, the police, all of them, all the forces of the normal. They’ve destroyed the one, small place where we could be. Just … be.”

“We have this place, still,” Charles said.

“Our cage. Our gilded cage.”

“Yes,” Charles admitted. Then he heaved a sigh. “The tide has turned, has it not, brother?”

“Yes,” Benjamin said. He reached awkwardly across their body to pat his brother’s chest. It was as much physical affection as they could deploy. You could not hug a man who was attached to you. “The tide has turned. The governments have become aware. In secret we had a chance. But secrecy is impossible now. They will come for us, and they will take us. They’ll put us on display. They’ll call it a trial, but it will be a carnival freak show. And then they’ll put us in a cell until we die.”

The angled mirror that let them look in each other’s eye revealed that Charles was crying.

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