Firestorm by David Klass

Author:David Klass
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Published: 2011-11-14T05:00:00+00:00

35

Saw this once before. Reilly in her bedroom on Central Park West. Except this time girl is not turning into Gorm. Mailbox seems to be tapering to hourglass. It’s impossible for me to tell if Eko is really transforming, or if it’s just my perception of her that’s changing.

Legs seem to be lengthening. Hips curving. Ample, perky breasts nearly squirm out of blue silk robe. Luxurious jet black hair. A surpassingly lovely face, strong yet delicate, sexy but refined. Lips now red and soft as rose petals. Dancing, provocative black eyes.

Forget about beauty pageants on TV. Forget about the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. Eko seems far and away the most beautiful woman I’ve ever set eyes on.

“You see?” she whispers. “Now, good night, Jack. Sleep well.” She extends her hand for a goodbye shake.

Something tells me I won’t sleep well after this. “Wait a minute,” I whisper back. “You may be right. What I have to do is so crucially important I can’t afford to take any chances. We have to make sure I don’t have any weaknesses or vulnerabilities that could be exploited.”

Eko smiles. “No, Jack,” she says. “If you changed your mind now, I would think you were only interested in me because of my shape-shift, and you’re so much deeper than that. So as you said, let’s just be friends.”

She nods toward the door. I don’t go. Instead, I glance down at her futon. “I thought you were sent here to help me,” I remind her, a note of pleading in my voice. “That the fate of the world was at stake. That no one could deny the beacon of hope.”

“Only in this area,” she responds with a smile. “Sorry, beacon …”

Has she rejected me? Are we still flirting? I try to think of something playful to say …

Suddenly her smile vanishes. “What was that?”

“I didn’t hear anything.”

She stands very still. Senses on full alert. “That.”

I hear a distant thudding. It stops. “Just the wind. Probably blew something over outside. But if you’re scared, I think I should stay and comfort you—”

“They’re coming!” Not joking anymore. Hourglass transforming quickly back into mailbox.

“Are you sure?”

Before Eko can answer, her bedroom door flies open and a seven-foot-tall man steps in and points a gun at me. Eko dives at my knees, knocking me out of the way of the laser beam. A section of her bedroom wall ignites.

He re-aims quickly, before I can stand up. I dodge around on floor like a roach, desperately crawling for my life.

The tall man’s focus is entirely on me. Trying to get the shot that will take me out. So he loses track of Eko.

Big mistake.

She flies through the air and kicks his head off. Literally. Right leg strikes with the full weight of her body behind it. Ball of her foot explodes into his chin. For a moment I think she has decapitated him.

Then I see that it’s not a head. He’s part man, part machine. Head is still attached to body by cables.

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