7oct26

This is the face of a mancub who blames me specifically for the drop in temperature and the loss of the sun.

I have sympathy: it’s dark and rainy, and so is my mood.

THE RUMOURS that emerged sounded like the opening of a thriller. A young woman working in a Siberian research lab supposedly breaks a test tube containing a lethal plague pathogen. She is dead within 48 hours. Authorities race to contain the situation. The questions outnumber the answers, breeding suggestions of conspiracy. The fears may prove unfounded: there may not have been a leak at Russia’s Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute. But the world can be forgiven for its panicked interest.

Not least because that is pretty much how Annie Jacobsen’s BIOLOGICAL WAR: A SCENARIO begins.

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This is my porn now.

STATUS: it’s an offline day – work and housework during day, out tonight
READING: RED SHEET, James Ellroy (UK) (US+).

I said, “Have you ever had a hotfoot, Reggie?” Reggie laughed. His sidemen laughed. They went say what? in sync. I poured the bottle of scotch on his shoes. I flicked my lighter and dropped it on his feet. His shoes and socks immolated. His trouser cuffs torched. He screeched. I smelled scorched flesh. He flailed for a water glass. I tossed it out of reach. His trumpet man snatched at a belt piece. I caught his hand and pinned it flat to the table. I grabbed a steak knife and stabbed through flesh and tabletop. The blade severed bones and went in half hilt deep.

LISTENING: KINETIC VOID, various artists (“maximalist ambient”)

MISSION CONTROL: I can be contacted via the Cheng Caplan Company or Inkwell Management. Link in masthead to join my free newsletter.