A great love dawned over the Angel. Yes. This was something she’d always wanted. Something to love.

She rocked happily and cooed to her baby. She took her knife and cut her forearm and held it to her child’s mouth. As it eagerly sucked at her blood she fervently thanked her lord for his gift while all around her beings howled and clashed, fought and coupled frenziedly through the black night under the green, grinning moon.

They were back in the command room in Baikonur. If Michelle never saw another propaganda poster, walls with grey-green peeling paint, or crummy fluorescent lights again, it would be too soon.

“We need to keep this simple,” Billy Ray said. Michelle thought she could have led the mission, but she knew Billy Ray was the better choice. Also, he’d keep trying to take charge anyway, and it was easier to just give it to him.

“I agree,” Michelle said with a nod. “No one extra along. No one to slow us down. Light and fast. Surgical.”

Billy Ray smiled at her. She cocked her head at him and frowned. He never smiled at her. “So let’s break it down,” he said. He extended his index finger. “One, obviously, we need Bruckner. But we need a truck for him—or any kind of transport like that—but none with computers or anything that relies on electronics. We should be able to find something in this Soviet-era shithole.”

He sneered at Bruckner. “Think you can handle finding the right kind of vehicle, toots?”

“If you think I’m going into that place, you’re even more insane than that little slit,” Bruckner replied.

Michelle knocked him off his chair with a hard, fast, softball-sized bubble. “Color me indifferent to what you want or don’t want. You’re taking us into Talas, and none of us care about your feelings about that.” Another bubble formed in her hand, but Billy Ray grabbed her arm. She let it pop.

“You’re getting a truck. You’re going into Talas,” Billy Ray snarled. “Or I’ll let Hoodoo Mama have some fun with you.

“Now where was I? Secondly,” he continued. “Obviously, Michelle and I are going. We’re the strongest ones here. We should be able to protect Mollie, Bruckner, and Black.”

“Why the fuck would you need Black?” Joey asked. There was a baffled expression on her face.

“He’s the only one who’s actually been in the hospital. He knows what Horrorshow looks like, and he can help guide us once we’re inside.”

“He’s not going to go back in there,” Joey interjected.

Billy Ray’s mouth set into a grim line. “I don’t really give a shit what that candy-ass does or doesn’t want.”

Michelle stared up at the ceiling. Someone had sprayed grey insulation in the rafters. It’s so bad in Talas, she thought. What if what we do doesn’t make any difference? What if I can’t make a difference. I’m the Amazing Bubbles. I’m supposed to make things different. It felt like a lie. But since she’d killed Aero, her life was going to feel like a lie anyway. Whatever was left of it.