Open Up

"Dr. Urquhart?" Madden asked, holding his badge against the window pane. Urquhart stared back, unmoving. "I need to talk to you. Can you give me a couple minutes?"

Urquhart tried hard to focus. He was having trouble focusing. Nothing would hold together. Get out and go. Really now, focus. The Federal government had sent a well-known TV personality to spy on him. No, an illusion. It was only television. Flashes of light. Stand by, hold on... My mind, Emily, my mind isn't right. Worlds collide. Tlön, Uqbar, and the Third One. One of us has to do something.

Do something. Urquhart nodded, feeling it start the way it always did with the numbness in his fingers and toes, the sudden twitch in his eyeballs, the prickling and gooseflesh.... Something slipped, slid. Where am I? Here I am — no over there — over here. Swarming.

Watching closely, Madden saw his opening and made good on it.