Chapter 10: Out of the Frying Pan

The laser robot arm sizzled and exploded, burning half of Wells's face down to the bone. He screamed, holding his stump aloft. His chest had been blown open, too, and they could see his insides. He fell back, making funny noises.

Reddington laughed loudly. "I knew it! I knew it! You did it—uh." He seemed to think better of what might have been a compliment.

"Whoa," Zim said. "That was cool."

"Shut up, Beavis," Fitz said. "Ressler and Keen should be there any minute now."

Reddington moved around to the other side of the gambling table. Wells writhed on the floor. Not only had the blast been strong enough to remove so much of him, the heat had been so intense that it had cauterized the wounds it created. Wells now tried to breathe through a mostly destroyed throat.

"I should have known that Hitler Cuntface Rockwell business was just too much. You were too evil. I can't believe I bought into that. By the way. Rockwell. Is that a reference to Norman Rockwell?"

Wells stared hatred at Reddington.

"Never mind. I withdraw the question." Reddington picked up his drink off the table and sipped at it. "I wonder how many Blacklisters you killed tonight." He wandered off to examine the faces of the dead, sipping Scotch the whole way.

Zim looked over the table. He still had no idea who the fuck this guy was.

"My core," Wells murmured.

"What?"

With his good hand he pointed to his own chest. "My core. It's damaged." He gasped for air. "It's nuclear."

"Cool," Zim said.

"That's not cool, Zim," Brandon said in his ear.

Wells laughed, and he gagged up chunks of his insides. "Never mind. It's fine."

Zim wasn't paying attention.

Reddington rushed back. "Are you listening? We need to get out of here."

"Obviously," Zim said. "So what?"

Reddington went to a knee and grabbed Wells by what was left of his shirt. "How much time do we have?"

Wells shrugged, and his eyes rolled up. He died without another word.

Reddington dropped the corpse. Just then Keen and Ressler burst into the room. "We heard the transmission," Ressler said. "What do we know about the nuclear core?"

"That it's very close to exploding," Brandon said. "And the blast radius will include several populated areas."

Reddington's head went sideways. He bit his lip. Zim was getting used to these mannerisms.

"We have to get that thing out of there," Fitz said. "A lot of innocent people are going to die. Hell, Brandon and I will be in the blast radius, too."

"So we're all doomed?" Keen asked.

Silence from Brandon and Fitz. Keen and Ressler exchanged glances. Reddington's head nodded and shook as if he tried to figure out a complicated math problem in his head.

Zim picked his nose.

"Sorry for the radio silence, guys," Brandon said. "We tried to figure this one out. We're fairly sure that we're fucked."

"Zim!" Reddington said. "Stop that! Do you have any idea what's going on?"

"Yeah," Zim said. He flicked his booger off to the side. As usual he had no idea what was going on.

"We're going to die soon. Very soon. And there's nothing we can do about that."

Fuck. Sometimes it felt like Bruni was writing his story, and he hated that thought so much. "Wait, so we're going to die? How?"

Reddington slapped his forehead.

TO BE CONTINUED!