“The chopper has reached minimum safe distance,” Harper replied in my ear. “You are good to go.”
Claire straightened. “I heard that. Minimum safe distance applies to a bomb, sweetie. We broke your bomb.” She smiled, and I knew it was a taunt. “It got vaporized into atoms, just to be sure. Stupid move, and we saw it coming. It’s not like you could beat us in a fair fight, yourself, so—” She shrugged. “It was predictable. I can’t believe you thought we’d fall for it.”
“Oh, but you did,” I said, and I giggled. “You did fall for it, you lecturing, bloviating, fatass evil overlord wannabe. You fell for it like it was an all-you-can-eat buffet table wheeled right into the middle of your jerk-off circle.” My skin felt hot, and suddenly the chains that had bound me so tight melted away under the heat of flame. “You’re a fucking moron, Claire.” I reached out and grabbed her by the neck, ripping her off her feet and pulling her over to look me straight in the eyes. “I didn’t need to sneak a bomb into the middle of your meeting. Because,” I chortled again, looking at the sea of horror in the eyes surrounding me, and my voice dropped low as I whispered to her, looking her in the eyes—
“I am the bomb.”
I exploded with the force of Aleksandr Gavrikov, and I watched Claire’s horrified expression melt as a wave of flame swept off my skin and consumed the world around me.
Chapter 48
I coughed and realized I was naked, lying in a hole in the earth. I reached out and felt the ground around me, smooth as glass under my fingertips. My eyes rolled right, then left, assessing the crater I was in. It was a few feet deep, and a cloud of smoke hung over me, turning the sky a grey darker than any thunder clouds I’d ever seen.
Things had gotten hazy after the explosion, which was not exactly a surprise. “Are you there, Aleksandr?” I asked.
Still here, he came back. And it was a very fine display of my abilities, I must say.
“Thank you,” I said, coughing. The air hung with an acrid smell. “I think we got ’em.”
“You got ’em,” came a voice from above me. I looked up to see Sovereign part the clouds as he came through, appearing out of the fog like a ship coming into view on a dark night. He still wore chains around his hands, and his body was shrouded with a little white dust that looked like he’d probably gone through the roof of my quarters in the Agency dorm. “I did a quick sweep once the explosion died down, and it’s …” He shook his head. “You killed ’em.”
“How far out did the explosion travel?” I asked, staring at him.
He kept his eyes off mine and, indeed, off me altogether. I realized again, rather sharply, that I was naked and scrambled against the glassy ground like I could find some sand to cover up with. That didn’t work, though. “Not too far,” he said, voice higher than usual as he stared out into the cloud. “A couple miles, maybe more.”
“Good,” I said, nodding as I struggled to cover myself with just my hands. “Uhm … could you maybe make yourself useful and find me some clothes?” I hated to ask, but I hated to be naked in front of him even more.
“Right. Sure,” he said and disappeared into the smoke without another word. He did glance back, though, and I caught him doing it. He looked a little embarrassed before he vanished into the haze.
I sighed and lay back down on the glassy ground. I suspected I could stand and walk, but I’d be exposing my naked ass in order to keep everything else covered and I really didn’t feel like I had the body of a swimsuit model, able to pull off a pose like that, so I just stayed hunkered down until he came back a few minutes later.
“Here you go,” he said, and tossed a cloth bundle to me before turning away to avert his eyes. “Found it on a clothesline a few miles from here.”
“Nice,” I said, and got to a crouch. It was a dress, a long one, not low-cut, thankfully, a size or two too large and meant for a woman much taller than me. I still put it on, slipping into it as quickly as I could. I stood, felt it billow in the shoulders and adjusted it as best I could. It still dragged against the glassed crater. “Thank you,” I said, a little grudgingly as I stood.
“No problem,” he said, and I heard the rattle of his chains as he turned back around. “I, uh … guess you didn’t need my help after all.”
I kept my eyes off of him as I started to climb my way out of the crater. I didn’t want to fly because—well, I was standing on a glassy, reflective surface and I had no underwear on beneath my dress. I’d heard of upskirt videos, and so I kept my legs very, very close together as I took small steps up to the lip of the crater.