There's a brief explosion of pain, a bit like biting on an exposed nerve, and it's all over.

After that there was a brief and brilliant explosion of light; then nothing.

There was a brief explosion on the screen, and then further raking fire from the waiting Hive.

There was a second brief explosion of bubbles, and then those, too, disappeared, leaving behind black water.

I threw myself to one side, and heard a brief explosion of gunfire.

From the background came a brief explosion of angry Delphine chatter.

John appears sheepish and possibly shocked by his brief explosion of violent rage.

He laughed, a brief explosion of sound in the quiet room.

He witnessed a brief explosion on the underside of the satellite as it passed overhead.

They are the brief explosions of action that will "buckle" the fates and identities into new shapes by the novel's end.