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produced a report stating that the videotape
    purported to have been taken (by means unknown) directly through
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    MICHAEL GRANT
    the president’s eye —the videotape that seemed to suggest that Presi-
    dent Morales had beaten her husband to death—was a clever fake.
    There was obviously no way for the images to be real. Presidents
    did not commit murder.
    Then again, they didn’t make a habit of committing suicide,
    either. But that undeniably happened.
    In a bit of historic irony, the authoritarian state of China discov-
    ered the truth, while the American democracy had thus far missed
    it.
    But there were other investigations under way. A joint committee
    of Congress. An independent blue-ribbon panel featuring a former
    secretary of defense, a former senator from Maine, and the chairman,
    a former president of the United States.
    Only one of them had thus far been compromised by busy little
    creatures laying wire.
    Minako McGrath, who had been kidnapped and taken aboard the
    Doll Ship , was one of the few to escape entirely. With the help of an
    ex-marine, former gunnery sergeant Silver, who’d been aboard that
    floating horror show, she made her way back from Hong Kong to
    Toguchi, Okinawa, one step ahead of the Hong Kong authorities.
    But she found some changes when she finally reached her home.
    Her Facebook and Twitter accounts were closed. Her Internet access—
    in fact her whole family’s Internet access—was blocked.
    Then her mother was called in to see the commander of the local
    base where Minako’s father—himself a U.S. marine—had been sta-
    tioned before he was sent to Afghanistan and killed. She was told
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    BZRK APOCALYPSE
    quite simply that if she could keep her daughter quiet, her family
    would be safe and her late husband’s official military service record
    would remain unblemished.
    There was no direct threat. Just that promise. Just the carrot. The
    stick was only implied. The general looked sick to his stomach going
    even that far, but marines obey orders, and it was clear that he was
    passing on an order that came from very high up the chain of com-
    mand.
    Having been saved by one marine, and honoring the memory of
    her father, upon hearing the ultimatum Minako nodded solemnly
    and raised a hand in salute.
    “Semper fi,” she said.
    A week later Minako’s mother, the police chief of their little town,
    was offered a civilian contract to work in security on the base, at a
    seven-hundred-dollar-a-month increase in pay.
    Minako got a Vespa motor scooter.
    And from that point on Minako discussed the Doll Ship only
    with her marines-supplied therapist, who duly shredded all records
    of her visits and prescribed Prozac.
    Despite the separate efforts of the Chinese and U.S. governments,
    Google searches for various conspiracies were up in the last month.
    Way, way up.
    Possible suspects included the Illuminati, the Church of Scientol-
    ogy, Anonymous, the Freemasons, the Roman Catholic Church, the
    Bilderberg Group, Iran, China, the CIA, the NSA, the DEA, MI5 and
    MI6, Mossad, Agência Brasileira de Inteligência, Direction Centrale
    41
    MICHAEL GRANT
    du Renseignement Intérieur, the Russian Federal Security Service,
    and, of course, space aliens.
    With far fewer searches: the Armstrong Fancy Gifts Corporation.
    And with only a handful of searches, most as a result of acciden-
    tal misspellings: BZRK.
    There was no change whatsoever in searches for “Lear.”
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    FIVE
    Plath. That was her name again. Plath, not Sadie.
    She’d been back in New York for just thirty-six hours, sleeping
    the first half of that.
    Plath was provided by the weather with a perfect disguise to move
    about the streets of New York. It was freezing and the faux-fur-lined
    hood of her coat along with superfluous glasses and her newly blonde
    hair made it very unlikely that anyone would recognize her.
    She had taken a cab to the Tulip. The Armstrong headquarters
    was not a place where she could take any, even