Acknowledgments

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Susan Van Metre, my editor and friend, has worked to make this book into something better than I imagined it to be. It was also coedited by Maggie Lehrman, who has been a tremendous help to me on my Sisters Grimm series and continues to push me toward more interesting and meaningful stories. The unsung hero of these books, though, is Chad W. Beckerman and his inspired art direction. Everything cool about how these books look comes from him and his team. Ethen Beavers—thanks for turning my words into pictures that make kids, and the kid inside of me, so thrilled.

Jason Wells and his staff, including Laura Mihalick, deserve particular praise for spreading the word about NERDS to bookstores, teachers, librarians, and kids. Many thanks to Joe Deasy for reading and enjoying this stuff. And everyone at “the office” aka Starbucks: Marissa Mitchell, Leah Mathurin, Abdalla Ortega, and Sam Cates.

But the people that deserve the most thanks are my loving family, Alison and Finn. Aside from being my agent and co-owner of the Stonesong Press, Alison is my love. She gave me Finn, who gives me inspiration. If you like these stories, Alison and Finn are the reason. Thank you for every single day, and Finn, your little smile is my own personal bedtime story. Grow up strong and good and hopefully a little nerdy.

About the Author

Michael Buckley, a former member of NERDS, now spends his time writing. In addition to the top-secret file you are holding, Michael has written the New York Times bestselling Sisters Grimm series, which has been published in more than twenty languages. He has also created shows for Discovery Channel, Cartoon Network, Warner Bros., TLC, and Nickelodeon. He lives with his wife and their son, but if he told you where, he’d have to kill you.

This book was art directed and designed by Agent Chad W. Beckerman. The illustrations were created by Agent Ethen Beavers.

THE BOOK IS OVER!

THATS IT!

STOP TURNING PAGES!

ARGH!

WHAT DID I JUST SAY?

YOU CAN’T FOLLOW A

SIMPLE DIRECTION.

BUT SINCE YOU’RE HERE,

YOU MIGHT AS WELL TAKE

A LOOK AT THE NEXT

CASE FILE.

The Villain Virus

By Michael Buckley

Read NERDS: Book Four today!

Julio “Flinch” Escala was freaking out. Ten bombs had been planted beneath the streets of Paris, and they were set to go off at any minute. The destruction they would cause would be cataclysmic: hundreds of thousands of people would die and one of the world’s most beautiful cities would never be the same. It was his job to prevent it. But at that moment he was too busy with the freak-out mentioned above. He screamed and kicked and struggled and screamed some more. And then he did it again.

It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.

The NERDS had easily located Captain Kapow’s bombs, which had been stashed in the Paris catacombs, a series of intertwining mazes that turn the French city’s underground into Swiss cheese. All the team had to do was go into the tunnels, find the bombs, and deactivate them.

Easy, right? Well, it probably would have been easy if General Savage hadn’t put Flinch in charge.

The general must have thought that having the fastest and strongest member of NERDS in charge was a natural choice. But the fact was, Flinch wasn’t leadership material. He was hyperactive, and he had a hard time concentrating, especially when he was full of sugar, which was most of the time. When put on the spot, Flinch sorted through hundreds of plans all competing for center stage in his mind. It gave him a headache trying to untangle them. So he had done what came naturally—he plunged into the tunnels head-first all by himself . . . and was promptly surrounded by a gang of thugs. He fought most of them with ease, but one had clocked him in the back of the noggin, and then it was lights out, Flinch!

And then he woke up, and the freaking out began.

He wasn’t sure how long he had been out, but figured it hadn’t been long. After all, the bombs hadn’t exploded and he was still alive—though he had no idea how much time was left before they sent Paris, and him, sky high.

He felt a powerful tickle in his nose, and with a trumpeting release he let out one of the loudest sneezes of his life. There was a crackle in his ear as a com-link came to life, and soon he could hear a familiar voice inside his head.

“Agent Pufferfish to Agent Flinch, can you hear me? Please respond.”

“I’m here,” Flinch said.

“What are you doing?”

“Having a nervous breakdown!” he cried. “I’m in a tunnel, tied up, and surrounded by bombs!”

“Flinch!” Pufferfish said. “Stay calm. You can’t freak out. Take some deep breaths . . . OK, are you breathing?”

“I think so,” Flinch said.

“Good, now use your super strength to snap the ropes,” Pufferfish instructed.

Flinch tried and failed. The more he pulled, the more the ropes dug into his wrists, which meant he had an even bigger problem. His hyperactivity was channeled through a harness he wore that gave him superhuman strength and speed. If he couldn’t break the ropes, then the harness must be broken or missing, which meant for the time being he was just an ordinary—albeit very hyperactive—boy.

“No can do, Pufferfish,” he said. “My upgrades are offline.”

Suddenly, he heard the sounds of scratching through his com-link.

“What’s that?” he asked.

“It’s me!” Pufferfish cried. “I’m allergic to freaking out. You’ve only got fifteen minutes before Paris goes bye-bye.”

The two of them screamed and shrieked and freaked out until another voice came on the line. This one belonged to Agent Wheezer. From the sound of the wind, Flinch guessed she was soaring over the City of Lights, using her inhalers to propel herself through the sky. “This is Agent Wheezer, your eye in the sky. Captain Kapow is making his way toward the River Seine, where he has a getaway boat waiting for him. I’ll do what I can to slow him down, but I could really use a hyperactive strongman with super speed to help out.”

“I’m a little tied up at the moment,” Flinch whimpered as he pulled at the ropes again. He wished he could see what was bound around his hands. If only it wasn’t so dark. Wait! Hadn’t the scientists given him something special for just this kind of problem? Yes, the contact lenses! But how did they work? If only he had paid attention during the mission briefing, but there had been bear claws in the briefing room that weren’t going to eat themselves.