The Tower

"Holy shit," one of the agents yelled. He pointed to the pantry, where the door had been blown clear off the hinges. Three large metal drums sat dangerously near the flaming wall. GASOLINE was stenciled across them in red letters.

"Move 'em out," Jade yelled. "If they blow, they'll compromise the crime scene. Move 'em. Now!"

The agents ran forward and grabbed the barrels. They gasped for breath as they rolled them quickly out through the flaming kitchen.

"And tell the fire department it's a Class B," Jade shouted after them.

He stepped forward and stared at the body, the flames singeing the collar of his shirt and curling the ends of the bandage he held across his face. The body seemed grotesquely casual, as if it had just finished eating breakfast. The flesh crackled beneath the flames.

Jade crouched and picked up a twisted piece of metal as Travers stumbled in.

She buried her face in her sleeve. "Jade, let's go. Get out of here."

Behind her, several firemen sprinted in with extinguishers. Clouds of smoke and Halon filled the air. One of the men doused the burning body with foam. There was no need for hoses.

Jade raised the piece of metal, looking at the flap of duct tape dangling from it. "Basic microwave bomb. Open jug of gas, roll of aluminum foil, tape the door shut. Douse the kitchen and body, set the timer, and boom."

"Looks like our boy went out with a bang," Travers said.

Jade followed Travers outside, his eyes troubled. The front yard was clogged with agents, cops, and firemen. People sprinted back and forth, screaming into radios. The first few media vans had pulled up, and the reporters were putting the finishing touches on their makeup while their crews readied the cameras. Three ambulances pulled into the driveway, sirens screaming.

Jade approached Fredericks, seizing him by the shoulders. "Get men throughout the house immediately to see what they can turn up. And I want the corpse to the lab to check dentals immediately."

Fredericks pushed Jade's hands roughly aside. "Relax, Marlow. We have the body."

"We have a body."

"If that's not Atlasia, you wanna tell me exactly how he slipped through the blast? Because I didn't see many gaps in our coverage here."

Jade glanced over at the gasoline barrels at the edge of the woods. The agents had thrown them well clear of the burning house. "We don't know that he didn't-" He noticed that the red lettering across one of the barrels was smeared. His stomach lurched as he remembered the red he'd seen on Allander's cuff-red that looked more like paint than blood.

The cluster of agents watched Jade as he took a few steps toward the barrels. "They're decoys," he said.

"What the hell are you talking about, Marlow?" Fredericks said. "We've got the body."

"The barrels are decoys."

"No, sir," one of the younger agents said. "We rolled them out. He filled them only halfway, to leave room for the vapors and everything."

"They're not full of gasoline," Jade said.

"What do you mean? What else would be in there?"

"It doesn't matter, Marlow," Fredericks said. "We have the body."

Jade pulled his Sig Sauer from the back of his jeans and aimed it at a gasoline barrel. A female reporter screamed and three of the agents nearby leaped for cover, diving across the hood of a car. Jade fired and the bullet entered the barrel with a ping, sending a stream of liquid shooting into the air. He shot the barrel beside it and another fountain of water sprang up. When he shot the third barrel, there was nothing, just a dark hole.

Jade glared at Fredericks. "There's your fuckin' body," he said.

Jade turned and looked across the front yard. There were over thirty vehicles parked haphazardly from the street to the driveway, and dozens of people were running around. He watched helplessly as an ambulance and two fire trucks backed out of the driveway and drove away. In the confusion, Allander had probably crept from the gasoline barrel and hidden in one of the vehicles. He would be long gone by now.