REBEL

I am standing in the back of the truck, holding myself up, watching the highway slip past. License plates, road signs, the faces of dead agents slide through the back of my head like the tickertape below a news program. I'm in soldier mode. Shell shock.

When I turn around, I find them all looking at me in silence. A kind of weird, reverent quiet. It's creepy.

"Did I leave a piece of my face on the side of the building?" I ask.

Anna laughs. The others smile and look down, but a few still watch me sideways. I can't imagine what they saw out there. Me in the sky like a damn angel. Then the bang. A thousand broken windows, like confetti. And then, impossibly, freedom. Finally, me standing here with my game face on, like it's nothing.

"So, who's driving this thing, anyway?" I ask Anna.

"A friend. I'll introduce you when we--"

Her cell phone beeps. She sits up straight.

• "It's REBEL!" she says...