e front of the car, got a firm grip on the
strongest part of the frame, and powered upward.
Remembering what Gary had said about possible watchers who might set off any
explosives, Mandi nonetheless kept her speed barely subsonic to avoid damage to
nearby buildings.
Almost exactly twelve seconds into Mandi's upward dash, Mohammed Jamal's
dying efforts succeeded. In a split-second, nearly eighteen hundred pounds of
plastique converted to energy, essentially vaporizing much of the Crown Victoria
and shredding the rest of it.
Even for someone like Mandi, it was a bit much. While the blast couldn't
destroy her, it hit her like a huge fist, knocking her spinning for several
miles before she could clear her head enough to regain control of herself.
She had no idea where she was until she looked around and saw the cloud of
smoke from the explosion hovering above downtown Atlanta. Distance made the
smoke cloud appear no bigger than the head of a thumbtack, and Mandi began to
realize just how powerful the explosion had been as she guesstimated that it had
thrown her five or six miles.
Flying back toward downtown, Mandi realized with a mental sigh that there
was no way that she'd be able to remain a mysterious semi-myth after today.
Someone might even have had the presence of mind to take her picture while
she was in the hotel's drive-through. Damn. It would probably be a shot of her
reaching under the car for the pvc tube. Wouldn't a close-up of her butt look
great on the six o'clock news?
Glancing around as she landed in the stairwell alcove where she'd left her
mundane clothes, she saw that some of the nearby buildings were missing some of
their windows.
Any damage would have been from debris, thought Mandi. The blast had
occurred almost two miles up, so the shockwave wouldn't have done it.
Retrieving a cell phone from her purse, Mandi tapped in an Atlanta number
given to her for the mission.
A woman answered with, "Zero-eight-two-six."
"Angel here."
"Go, Angel."
"Do you have anything else for me?"
"Not a thing. John says 'good job' and you're on standby."
"Thank you."
The woman said, "You're welcome. Enjoy your stay in Atlanta," then she
disconnected.
With water from a small puddle near the entrance, Mandi managed to clean
most of the explosion's residue from her arms and legs. Using her makeup mirror,
she cleaned her face and applie