I make it to the Marquis, sort of, actually the Marquis plus 30,000 feet, without being spotted. Good so far, except that I'm on the 3,000th floor. I move a little to my left, more than a mile actually to make sure, I hope, that I'm too far off to create a detonation if I'm wrong, then plunge earthward, making sure not to hit sonic boom speed.
Good to go, good to go, until I get to a couple thousand feet, and the light starts ringing the stall warnings, telling me to pull up. I try just a little more, maybe they'll lose me lower down, but I'm too far, and I know it.
Not only are there people watching me, but the big drone is close by and it turns, accelerating toward me. Way too fast. No chance at that speed that it can stop in time to keep me in sight, my pilot senses trumping the light's supersenses. The bomb is in the drone.
I make a choice. Probably my last one. I burn with everything I've got straight toward it. A second only, maybe less, and I have it in my hands, smooth, nothing to hang on to. Super fingers crush into the carbon fiber, then I grab some final molecules and use every bit of their energy to hurl myself and death skyward faster than I have ever gone before.
A click comes from the drone, and I focus my thoughts one last time on the face of Kiana Perez.
Chapter 31
August 23, 2012 (Associated Press) The eight month saga of the Mysterious Flying Man ended last night in the blinding blast of a nuclear bomb high in the skies above Los Angeles, his last sacrifice saving the lives of millions of Angelenos.
In a statement released this morning, Special Agent Rona Flaherty of the Federal Bureau of Investigation confirmed that the weapon was purchased from Russian sources by a domestic terror cell intent on destroying both Los Angeles and the MFM, the same cell that was responsible for the nerve gas attack on the Rose Bowl New Year's day which was thwarted by the MFM.
One member of the cell is in FBI custody, two committed suicide by jumping from the 32nd floor of a Las Vegas condominium tower, and one died in Long Beach from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to avoid arrest.
The FBI believes that it was the final two members of the cell who were killed in the firefight last night with LAPD officers at Los Angeles International Airport after attempting to go through security with passports the FBI had placed on the no fly list.
FBI Special Agent Jim Dempsey was killed in Long Beach by the terrorists, and an unnamed agent was taken hostage, but is now safe. The investigation remains ongoing.
The FBI denies that it was working in concert with the MFM, Agent Flaherty reminding reporters that every entity fighting the same terrorist cell would logically end up in the same vicinity.
The body of the MFM was taken from it's landing site near downtown to the Los Angeles County Coroner's office, where it was reportedly identified by ESPN commentator Celeste Nortin and FBI special agents responsible for investigating the Rose Bowl attack. Nortin was driven from the building in a government vehicle. Inquiries to ESPN have been returned with a message that Nortin is unavailable for comment at this time.
Witnesses put the landing zone on the campus of the University of Southern California, and numerous photographs have appeared on social media, including more than one video of the MFM falling to earth.
County Coroner T. Bruce Shelby told reporters that the body has only scattered minor burns, and that his office has been unable to remove any tissue or conduct an autopsy. The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology is flying a team to Los Angeles today to take over those efforts.
Federal Aviation Authorities issued a statement indicating that Los Angeles International Airport radar determined the explosion occurred approximately 175,000 feet above the city.
Mayor Arturo Hernandez, interviewed on Good Morning LA, assured Angelenos that surface radiation exposure was minimal, and gave the location of several temporary centers the City had established where concerned citizens could be tested. He also noted that some electromagnetic pulse had reached the ground, but that no essential services were disrupted.
The President of the United States expressed his gratitude to the MFM and the FBI, and his sorrow for the loss of both the MFM and federal agents. He will be attending the memorial service for the Mysterious Flying Man scheduled for Sunday at the Rose Bowl.
August 24, 2013 (Associated Press) Military Police and Federal Bureau of Investigation agents today conducted a raid at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, arresting Colonel Steven O'Connor in connection with the terror attack on Los Angeles.
FBI Special Agent Rona Flaherty told reporters that Colonel O'Connor was suspected of bringing the nuclear weapon into the United States and of using an unmanned aerial vehicle under his command to kill the Mysterious Flying Man.
He is being held at an undisclosed location, charged with treason.
Agent Flaherty confirmed that the two terrorists who died in Las Vegas jumped from Colonel O'Connor's residence, where they had apparently been hiding.
Sources told the Associated Press that O'Connor yelled that he had "saved America" to the assembled crowd of military personnel as he was taken away by federal officers.
August 25, 2012 (Associated Press) Scotty Hammels, the only surviving member of the nuclear terror cell, was transferred to a military prison today from Federal Bureau of Investigation custody at the request of the Marine Corps. Hammels, a Marine deserter, is facing a Court Marshall and possible firing squad if convicted.
August 26, 2012 (Associated Press) Led by the president of the United States, the governor of California, and the mayor of Los Angeles, more than 100,000 mourners filled the Rose Bowl today to pay their final respects to the Mysterious Flying Man.
The president urged all Americans to follow the MFM's example of sacrifice and devotion to community and nation.
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. The governments of China, North Korea, Iran, Columbia and 14 other countries issued a joint statement denouncing the actions of the MFM as destabilizing to world peace and national sovereignty.
Chapter 32
Thought it was going to hurt, holding an exploding nuclear bomb in my hands, instead somehow it only hurled. I hurled that is, spinning like a top out of control straight up and way too fast, lost my lunch. I can live with that, I suppose, no one there to see my lack of manliness.
I righted myself hundreds of miles into space, naked, traveling well past escape velocity, no molecules ahead for thousands, maybe millions, of light years. My first thought was that I would rather have exploded. The light, always the comedian, started laughing at me.
Then I noticed something unusual. I wasn't there, or I was, but I wasn't, or something. I held my hand up, it between the earth and me, and the view changed not one bit. I looked at the rest of me, carefully, and concluded that I was, in fact, invisible.
And, suddenly, I knew to think, to think about going home. If I'd really thought about it, I'd have smacked my ruby slippers together a couple times too. No flash of light, no nothing, and I was standing in my place, still invisible.
I grabbed the light, squeezed him down, and Simon Packer was standing naked in the middle of his living room. The light assured me we could do it again, so I grabbed some Simon clothes, phone, and my weapon, then grabbed the light, and said, "Alive."
No flash of light, no feeling of anything, just a disappearing act and I became invisible once again. Way too excited by all this, it took me a minute to calm down, worked on my breathing, then imagined the Marquis.
The lobby was probably not the best place to appear naked, but invisible and naked worked. Someone bumped into me before I saw them, otherwise, a decent entrance and a quick run to the men's room to change, dodging folks who had no idea I was there.
Simon Packer went upstairs to the 27th floor of the Marquis and busted down the door of an old familiar suite. She was sitting there, gagged, taped to the chair, the TV on so she could watch her death approach, now showing the remnants of a giant white cloud. I untied her, and we called Flaherty to come get us, then locked together in a hug.
Before the night was over, the FBI had figured out the big picture, including what happened in Las Vegas, all of us standing around a temporary command post RV outside the hotel, drinking coffee, relaxed in a way I have probably never been relaxed in my life.
The last terrorists, Hassan and Naziri, not realizing their passports were compromised, had walked casually into the Air Canada line at LAX late afternoon hoping to fly away before the bomb went off, and were rolled just as casually away in body bags a half hour later. Two civilians wounded, but only two assholes dead.
Superdumbass that I am, I could have saved Perez before going after the bomb, but she's woman enough to admit I made a logical assumption, and in the end did it the more heroic way anyway.
The three of us (Flaherty, Perez, me) know that the two Ali boys did not jump to their deaths, given the glass from the sliding door burst into the condo, not out from it, and both women are smart enough to know who did what.
Flaherty, of course, thinks the MFM is dead and said he should be forgiven for protecting someone he cared about. Perez hasn't said a word directly, but she's said one thing to me, and something else to my dad that make me believe all I would get from her is a lecture on being human if I asked that question.
The thing she said to me was, "yes." I didn't have a ring to give her when I heard that word, the two of us standing under an FBI tent, me behind her, arms wrapped around, watching the sun come up at the time, but we took care of that together yesterday.
How the Fog Bastards worked it out they have not explained, but they must have been waiting for an opportunity and took it. Where they got the body from they have also kept secret, but I am assured if the feds ever manage to extract the DNA, they will find it normal human and not at all resembling mine.
Kiana Perez, Celeste Nortin, and Simon Packer stood together in the LA County Coroner's morgue, identifying my remains, perhaps the most awkward 10 minutes of my life, none of us saying a word. The two women IDed the face, then Perez actually pulled back the sheet to ID the salami. Celeste nodded at that too.
Kiana and I test drove the new salami a couple hours later, which worked the same, except that being invisible makes sex especially complicated.
This morning she dragged me to the Rose Bowl for my memorial service, then we went and showed off her new ring to my parents and sister, no FBI team tagging along.
My revery is disturbed by a noise back in the apartment, I wander back in from my balcony, knowing what it means. A smiling, gorgeous Kiana Perez is walking toward me, ready for an adventure.
She's leaving next week for a month at the FBI Academy, then she'll be back to join Flaherty's west coast counter-terrorism team. I am keeping my old life, thank you very much, except that she thinks we need to dump both our apartments and find something new together.
I don't bother getting naked, just hold the light in my hand and give her the old standard,
By the Power of Greyskull
. No light fills the room as I simply disappear. Kiana swears that Fog Dude did not ask her advice, but I kinda think they're both lying about that. Otherwise, how would my powers have changed so much, and why would she be the only person in the world that can still see him?
I'm clearly not as strong as I was, and can't manage hypersonic flight, but I am assured that the cool new things don't stop with what I know, there's more to learn. And, it turns out, I have time, except I don't think Fog Dude actually knows for sure how long. He's sure that I am not going to celebrate my 50th wedding anniversary, but I think he's guessing all around, my new powers untested.
Kiana leans against me and I pick her up, future Special Agent Perez suddenly as invisible as me. I tickle a few molecules into lifting us skyward and out into the night.
There's a lot to consider. Wedding. Kids. Life. Celeste is writing a book. I still haven't dealt with the Guerrero, and Juarez doesn't get a pass just because I'm dead. North Korea thinks it can go back to building nukes and Syria's still a mess.
But nothing there that I can't handle. I'm alive. And I can fly.
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