Goddammit, Letitia. When I asked her to get the file I was thinking more like, oh, I dunno, steal it? What the hell is it about Chu that rubs me the wrong way? It’s not the money, the politics, the showing off, or even the ridiculously bad idea of trying to put together a Wizard’s Council. He’s running for mayor, everybody likes him, he’s got a history of helping out the community. He feels too good to be true.

And that’s it. He’s too good to be true. Jesus, what is wrong with me? Am I looking at anybody who’s not a raging asshole looking to line their pockets with power as a threat? Sure, he’s a politician, but that doesn’t mean he’s a bad guy.

What’s done is done. Maybe I’m just being paranoid. If he hadn’t called me I’d have had to find out about the hit on me the hard way, and I’m really tired of surprises.

I walk past old Chevys, Fords, beat-up Toyotas, towards Vivian’s Fiat. The more I look at it the uglier it gets. A shiny beige turd of a car, all curves and rounded edges. I can’t wait to ditch the goddamn thing. I thumb the key fob to unlock the doors when I’m about halfway to the car.

The explosion lifts the Fiat like a rocket, blowing out all the windows in the cars and strip mall shops. The shockwave picks me up and throws me ten feet. I come down hard on the cement, but keep enough of my wits about me to roll. A couple of my tattoos trigger, absorbing the blast, cushioning my landing, diverting the shrapnel.

I pull myself to hands and knees. Bits of Vivian’s Fiat are raining down around what remains of it, flames crawling through its interior from the undercarriage.

“Oh, come on.” I’m not upset about the car per se. I mean, it’s a Fiat. But between this and the Cadillac I’m starting to wonder if it’s not me people are after but whatever I’m driving.

I pull my wits together and look around to see if anyone’s taking advantage of the situation. No one steps out of the laundromat with a gun to pop me while I’m down. Did they think a weak-ass car bomb was going to do it? The blast largely went up, not out, and it was mostly flash and sizzle. Anything decent would have left a crater and half the storefronts would be rubble. Fucking amateurs.