even though authorities were n't confi rming yet whether their wide net had caught the terrorists responsible , and that made babe mad , the anger flared only for the briefest moment before it was tamped out by a delicious , itchy trill that thumped the top of his spine as he marveled at the sheer wreckage of it : a whole neighborhood smashed and tossed and smothered in the black-iron slathering of that liquid mass .