As the fire department began to douse the ruins, heavy arcs of water cutting through the smoke like white blades, Marcus arrived with a fleet of black SUVs. Doors opened in synchronized precision. Men in dark coats stepped out without urgency, as if the scene had already been accounted for in some earlier briefing. The perimeter was secured almost instantly.
The "administrative irregularity" was over.
No one called it an explosion. Not officially. Not here.
Reid stood a few feet from the wreckage of his car, his hand still resting on the charred metal as if it could explain something back to him if he held on long enough. The heat had warped the frame into something unrecognizable. He didn't move away. He just stared at it like it had betrayed him personally.
