There is so much longing not to be built.

They look around at each other and for the first time realise the gravity of their mission.

They have been called.

The X-Ray Kid locks the three of them in a beam from his eyes and they rise up above The Singularity and gaze down into its blasted heart.

Every breath, the constant circling of blood inside this great black tower, feels like a pained eternity. Together they let go.

All of their muscles loosen.

All of their thoughts dissolve.

They enter The Singularity and they raze it to the ground.

Before them stands a new tower.

One that their destruction has wrought.

But this is a tower that rises down, into the earth.

The three heroes look at each other.

Who tricked who?

Next time: Origins Of The Anomaly!

*

A bomb went off on the second floor of the Europa that day, blowing a hole the size of a truck in the side of the building. I was trapped in the lift halfway between floors and had to force the doors and climb up and out. By this point I’m in a panic. Is it a set-up? Did The Boys just try to blow me to kingdom come? Was it something to do with me and Kathy? I make my way down a back stairwell. It’s chaos all around me. There are people with head wounds and covered in dust and with blood on their clothes. I can feel the building shaking. I picture this huge mouth, this huge fucking hell mouth opening up beneath our feet and swallowing the building whole. I’ve still got the briefcase with me with the unexploded bomb. I can’t leave it behind. It’s got my fingerprints and probably my fucking DNA all over it. Now I’m in fear for my life.

I get down to reception and the peelers are starting to arrive. I put my hand in my pocket and I’ve still got one of Patricia’s silk hankies from the other night in there. I hold it over my face like I’m wounded and I pretend to stagger outside. Somebody goes to put an arm around me but I tell them I’m alright, I’m alright, and all I can smell is Patricia’s perfume as I cut over to Brunswick Street, this heavenly woman smell, and now I’ve got a hard-on. I’ve just popped one. It’s like the whole city just spread its legs in front of me.

*

I’m supposed to meet Tommy back at The Tim’s Harbour where we set up the ruckus in the first place. But I’ve got this fucking bomb in my hands. I head back to my ma’s house in Jamaica Street instead. Nobody’s in. I run up the stair and I slide the briefcase under my bed. I’m not thinking straight. I turn on the news. Some fucking dissident organisation, some fucking unofficial Republican terror cell has claimed responsibility. The FSV. Okay, what the fuck. How do I play this?