Which just happened to be the trigger word for the bomb he'd planted directly beneath the picture window. ​  

     KA-BLOOM!  

​     It dissolved, the picture window did. It disintegrated into a hundred thousand small fragments, making a sound like raining coins. A sharp breeze suddenly blew into the office from outside. Adam ran from where the breeze came from, and as he did he said, "Beam me up, Claudia. There are no signs of intelligent life here." 

​     At that moment, every door that led into the office opened, through which flooded Victor's army. Adam had just killed their juicy paycheck. They were pissed. Another fifty appeared outside, just beyond the now shattered window. They aimed their weapons at Adam's approaching figure.  

​     "Apeshit," Adam said. 

     And this time just about half the buildings in the compound went up, a deafening explosion that seemed to suck away all the air until only fire remained. The floor beneath Adam's feet came apart even as he ran. Two things: (1) He'd planted bombs under each of the doors leading into the office, just in case he had to fight off an attack and, (2) he'd planted more bombs just beyond the picture window in case anyone wanted to attack from there, which, in fact, they did.  And Adam had to move extra cautiously, although rapidly, because he could no longer see his feet the air was suddenly so filled with dust and smoke.  

     "Claudia, where are you, darling?" he asked. "I don't know if I'm..." 

     "You're already outside, Adam. I am right above you." 

​     "Hit me."

​     "You know it." 

     The grapple grazed the top of Adam's skull, as it was designed to do. He grabbed it and, as he did, its tendrils wrapped around his grip, binding him to a cord that led to the Stargod. It lifted him up out of the smoke and chaos and into the Stargod's belly. Once inside, Claudia ungrappled him, then pulled away the walls and floors so that Adam could rise into the cockpit right up to his spot at the console. 

     "Good work as always," Adam said.  

     "We're not out of the woods, yet." 

     "And why's..."

     "Missile. I'm taking over, Adam. Hold tight."   

​     "But I'm..." 

​     Suddenly, The Stargod took off like a rocket, headed due north. A missile was right on their ass. Another one appeared, and this one swirled around the Stargod like an angry insect. Added to all that, Adam saw a missile coming right at him like it wanted to play chicken with the Stargod. Within seconds, it would hit him head on.  

     "And here I gave them a chance to live," Adam said. "Well, that's gratitude..."  

     The Stargod twisted to go straight up. The missile that had been coming right at him smacked into the one that was chasing him so that they both exploded in midair as they collided, and the force of that sent the Stargod spinning even higher in the sky.                                                                                                                              As for that third missile...                                                                                               It was Adam who fired the laser, not Claudia. No thinking. He just aimed and pulled the trigger.​ 

​     The laser hit the missile right in the nose. It, too, exploded into hundreds of thousands of micro particles. 

     "Well, that does it then," Adam said. "Here I...Anyway..." The next word came out of his mouth clearly and with great articulation.

​     "Bullshit."

​                                                   CONTINUE​     

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