The Old Man moved in as close as he dared and looked at the device. The heat being given off this close to the pump was overwhelming. He couldn’t stay there for long. He had no protective gear on, no gloves or eye protection. He saw that the device was tie-wrapped to a nearby stanchion, held in place against the outside of the seal package. It would be easy enough to cut the nylon tie wrap and remove the device. But how stupid was it to use a plastic tie wrap! The damn thing could melt and the bomb would fall to the floor. Maybe it was meant to detonate sooner rather than later. It didn’t really matter. It needed to be removed. It was then he realized he didn’t have a knife. Shit! He stepped back from the device and moved over to Hector.
“Hector!” he shouted. “Do you have a knife?”
“What?”
“Knife! I need a knife!” he shouted again.
Without looking down, Hector removed his left hand from his weapon, reached down to his pants and pulled out a small pocket knife with what looked like a three-inch blade. He handed it to the Old Man and put his hand back to his rifle, still watching the back entrance for the perp.
The Old Man took the knife and moved quickly back to the seal package. Sweat was literally pouring off his forehead and into his eyes, stinging them. His shirt was soaked and sticking to his body. Even his hands were sweating, and he needed to be careful not to let the knife slip.
When he got back to the device, he glanced down at the timer again and froze as a sudden chill raced through his body. It wasn’t counting down anymore! It read gibberish, as if it’s brain was scrambled from the heat. He didn’t know if it was going to go off in a minute or an hour. He needed to get it out of there now! Being careful seemed irrelevant now. He opened the knife, cradled the device in one hand, and cut the tie wrap holding it in place. It didn’t come free. Something else must be securing it. He needed to back away for a moment so the skin on his face didn’t burn, but he could only go so far because he was holding onto the device with one hand. With his free hand he wiped the sweat around his face, providing some relief. He took a deep breath and moved back in, tilting his head so he could see around it he saw a second tie wrap hidden behind the C-4 itself. He quickly cut that one, too, and the device came loose in his hand. He immediately pulled away from the pump, his skin already red and showing the signs of first degree burns.
He looked at the timer display again. It appeared to be changing but still reading gibberish. He hoped that meant it was still counting and that only the display itself was malfunctioning, but knew that he couldn’t count on that.
Holding the device as carefully as he could, he shouted at Hector to get his attention. Hector looked over at the device the Old Man was carrying, gave the barest of nods, and motioned to him to follow as he led the way back out of the labyrinth to the stairwell, and out of this man-made hellhole.
Still unsure who they might find on their way back, the two moved up the stairs with Hector taking the lead. As they approached the last flight of stairs before the top landing, Hector paused.
“What are we stopping for? We’ve got to get this out of here!” the Old Man shouted at him.
Hector gave him a look that conveyed he didn’t need to be told the flapping obvious! He moved up the last set of stairs to the main floor, when something caught his eye over toward the airlock. He turned and saw Hays and Henderson standing there. From their relaxed posture he assumed the shots they’d heard were two slugs lodged in the perp’s chest, or perhaps his head. Right now all he knew was that they needed to get the bomb out of containment.
As it turned out, Hays had encountered the perp trying to flee up the back stairwell and shot him twice. The guy fell backward down the stairs and came to rest with his neck in an unnatural position, his eyes looking out with a dead stare. Hays opted to leave him there for the time being and get out of containment. The radiation wasn’t going to do any further damage to the terrorist.
The four of them exited containment the same way they’d come in, one door at a time, with the Old Man carefully carrying the explosive device.
Outside the airlock, Hays called Pak to take over the bomb. Pak was an expert in ordnance, so the job of disarming the device fell to him. He looked at it before he took it from the Old Man. He wanted to make sure there were no hidden booby traps that would be triggered for whatever reason. Seeing none, he reached out and gently took the bomb.
“What’s with the timer?” Pak asked. “Was it doing this the whole time?”
“It was reading numbers when I got there. It looked like it was set to detonate at 0700. But then this…” the Old Man pointed to the constantly changing gibberish.
Without looking up, Pak said to Hays, “Get the boys out of here. Get them out now!”
Hays looked at Hector, who said, “This way!”
“Wait!” shouted the Old Man. Looking at Hays, he asked, “Can we assume he only brought one device with him? What if he had more? Could he carry that much?”
Hays furrowed his brow. “It’s possible he could have taken two in, but doubtful that he could have carried more. They’re too big and bulky. Besides, he wasn’t in there that long.” Then almost as an afterthought, he said, “Did any of you see a backpack?”
They each looked at one another and shook their heads.
Hays said, “He would’ve had to carry them in there in something. If you guys didn’t see a backpack where you were, that tells me there’s probably a second device and the guy left the backpack at the other location. Two separate targets.
“I’ve got to go back in,” the Old Man said.
“You can’t,” Pak said. “This thing is unstable and may go off at any time. If there’s another one in there it’s probably in a similar or worse condition. If you go back in, you may not get back out. I’ll go!”
“You don’t know where you’re going or what you’re looking for. I can move fast now because we know the bad guy is down. I need to be the one, and we’re wasting time discussing it! Hector, get everyone out of here.”
Without waiting for anyone to respond, argue, or even agree, the Old Man ran back and disappeared inside the emergency airlock.
CHAPTER 62
Everyone except Pak and Hays took off to head elsewhere in the plant, putting distance and heavy machinery between them and the one bomb they knew of.
Pak set the bomb down carefully and gave Hays a brief, questioning look, as if asking him why he stayed.
Hays said with a grim smile, “I thought you might need some help. What’s the plan?”
Pak was studying the device. “I don’t want to try to disarm this thing right here. It looks pretty unstable. Touching something even with this low-tech timer might set it off. Best thing to do is find a spot where it can’t do much damage and let it blow itself to smithereens.”
“On the way in here, I noticed a door at the bottom of the steps. Some kind of room, down below, a level or two. It looked out of the way.”
Pak didn’t say anything. He was focused on watching the bomb, trying to figure out what to do, and more importantly, how long he had to do it. He finally picked it up and said, “Lead the way.”
The two of them moved quickly back the way they’d come, down the stairs to the ground level with the main transformer bank, found the door unlocked and went inside. It was a small room with what looked like an old boiler in it. It wasn’t running and didn’t look like it had in quite some time. Hays quickly checked out the room, going behind the boiler. Nothing in there looked currently operational or highly technical.