Chapter Ten #2
“It would do serious damage to the gauges and equipment, but it’d only be deadly if someone were inside. The biggest impact from it would be our inability to control the system, but it’s shut down now.”
“What about the economizer?” Eli gestured to a large box-shaped unit that was located between two large silos.
“I doubt it’d be there. We have a clear view of it from the plant. It’s impossible to hide anything on it, and to get inside, you need tools to open it. We would’ve spotted anyone messing around with it.”
“And the precipitator?” Olivia asked.
“No solvent runs through it. No amines and no hydrogen sulfide. In the great scheme of things, it’d cause minimal impact, and it’d be easy to replace.”
“Okay.” Eli gave a quick nod. “We’ll take the compressor.”
“We’ll check out the scrubbers,” Trujillo said, taking the extra radio from Johnson and handing it to Liv, who was standing closer to him.
Lenek frowned, clearly unhappy with the decision, but Eli didn’t blame him.
The FBI agents took off with Johnson while Eli and Olivia headed in the opposite direction.
As they reached the compressor—a tube encircled by a metal coil, resting on a four-legged steel frame—Liv removed a mini flashlight from her blazer pocket.
“I’ll check under it.” Moving the handbag that she wore cross-body from her hip to the front and dropping the respirator, Liv got down onto her back and slid beneath the steel frame that had about eight inches of clearance from the ground.
“Search around the compressor, just in case. The bomb could’ve been planted after their last check of the equipment. ”
Not only that but the coil wrapped around the large metal tube offered plenty of hiding spots, where a quick, careless search might have missed something.
Taking out his cell phone and activating the flashlight, he got to work.
Eli circled the hefty piece of machinery, the beam from his phone dancing across the surface of pristine metal, with each shadow a potential place to conceal a device.
The air hung thick with the scent of mechanical oil and the pressure of the ticking clock.
“I’ve got nothing,” he said.
Liv climbed out. “Same.” She keyed the radio. “It’s not here at the compressor.”
“So far, we’ve found nothing either,” Trujillo said.
Carrying his respirator, Eli came up beside Liv. “Johnson, are you sure about the economizer?” he asked over the radio. “How long would it take to get inside it? What does it even do?”
“I don’t know how long. Maybe a minute or two. You’ve got to remove eight screws. And the economizer, well, it’s the main heat exchanger.”
Before Johnson could even finish explaining, Eli took off running toward it. A piece of equipment that managed the transfer of heat as the gas streamed through would perfectly amplify the blast overpressure of a bomb, ensuring a chain reaction.
At the economizer, one big rectangular box, he slipped a hand in his back pocket and pulled out his kit that had lock-picking tools and his EOD Leatherman.
He set down the respirator and whipped open the multi-tool.
It had everything—pliers, a gripper, hard wire cutter, blasting cap crimper, serrated blade, double-toothed wood saw, even both a flathead and Phillips screwdriver in two different sizes.
The Leatherman was a combat engineer’s best friend.
Liv ran up beside him. “Where’s your knife?”
“Right boot,” he said, already at work.
“Trujillo is coming to help.” She tugged his pants leg up, grabbed it from the sheath, and began loosening the screws alongside him.
The equipment was new. The screws, not tightened by age and dust, moved easily.
Agent Trujillo bolted over. He checked his pockets for something to use. Fished out a penny and assisted.
Working quickly as a team, they got the panel off faster than Eli expected. He and Liv both shined their flashlights inside and locked around.
“Do you see anything?” she asked.
Just then, he spotted it.
“There.” Eli pointed to a display with blinking red digits, but they were covered by wires. He slipped the screwdriver under the pair of red and blue wires that were twisted together. “Four minutes forty-two seconds.”
She keyed the radio again. “We found it. Hidden in the heat exchanger.”
Eli looked at her. “Olivia, you need to get out of here.”
“No way. I’m not leaving you. We stick together.”
“You’ve got to go,” he demanded, trying to ignore the churning in his gut and the rolling tension in his shoulders that made his blood run cold at the prospect of Liv being hurt or in danger again. This was already too much. “You helped me find the bomb. Now leave.”
“I brought you in on this assignment,” she said. “My assignment. I won’t leave you to handle this by yourself. We stay together. I know you can do it.”
The pressure was too much. Having her life and that of their unborn child literally in his hands. He could tolerate a lot, but not that. Not being responsible for their deaths. “I can’t focus with you here, worrying about making a mistake that could get you killed.”
“You won’t.” She gripped his arms. “You never slip up and won’t now. The guys called you stone-cold for a reason.”
Not because he was heartless. No matter what the mission, he always had steady hands and an unshakeable demeanor in any high-stress situation, but this one tested his limits. Pushed him too far.
Johnson and Lenek hurried over to them. “We didn’t find anything else,” the plant manager said. “I think this is the only one.”
Good news. Although Eli was surprised. Special Forces operators tended to go for redundancy. Backup measures were considered a typical fail-safe to getting a job done.
Regardless, he still had a bomb to disarm. “Please, Liv,” Eli urged. “Go.”
“I believe in you.” She held his gaze. “You can do this.”
“Uh, guys.” Trujillo peered inside the unit at the bomb. “We need to hurry this along.” He turned to Lenek. “Head to the chopper. But don’t take off until I give you the word.”
The other agent left without a single protest.
“We’ve got three minutes fifty-eight seconds left,” Trujillo said.
Every fear about loving someone and getting too close, only to lose them, surged to the surface.
Emotions mounted, weighing him down, crushing his chest until he couldn’t breathe.
“Please. You’ve got to go.” He pressed a hand to her stomach, his voice lowering to a hoarse whisper. “For the baby, Liv.”
Tears welled in her eyes. “But you need me to hold the light for you.”
“I’ll do it,” Trujillo said, taking out his cell phone and switching on the flashlight. “I’ll stay with him.”
“So will I.” Johnson stepped up alongside Eli. “This is my responsibility.”
Liv took a shaky breath. “Okay,” she said, her voice sounding almost pained.
“Wait for Ms. Lane,” Trujillo said over his Bluetooth comms. “Take off as soon as she’s on board.”
Without thinking, Eli pulled Olivia into his arms and kissed her. Hot and deep but fast. This was the wrong time and sent all the wrong signals, but he couldn’t stop himself. In that moment, the idea of never seeing her again or meeting their child shredded him.
Pulling away, he let her go. “Hurry.”
“Failure is not an option.” She put the handle of his knife in his hand. “Get it done, Pioneer.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Then she turned and ran toward the chopper.
Eli sucked in a ragged breath and glanced at the timer. Two minutes forty-five seconds. He’d disarmed a bomb in less, though not by much. They had plenty of time.
“Can you do this?” Trujillo asked, shining a light from his phone inside the economizer.
The helicopter lifted into the air, carrying Liv and the other agent away to safety.
Eli could do this. Or at least, he hoped that he could. “Yeah, I think so.”
Coming closer, Johnson shined an additional light from a different angle.
Eli appreciated the extra illumination as he took a closer look at the bomb. Definitely C4 and not Semtex. He was familiar with the design of the device with multicolored wires, and it appeared simple, but there was a wire he didn’t expect and didn’t belong. An orange one.
A foghorn of warning blared in his head at the sight of it.
He followed each wire to the timer. Five in total. Green, red, yellow, blue, and orange. He glanced at the timer.
Two minutes twenty seconds.
The red and blue wires were twisted together, but he needed to cut one of them without snipping the other. Carefully sliding the knife Olivia returned in between the pair, he lifted them apart, easing one aside for just enough separation.
Eli angled the wire cutter over the blue cord. Two minutes twelve seconds.
“Shouldn’t you go for the red one?” Trujillo asked.
“Never cut red,” Eli said. “Unless you want to detonate it. Here we go.” He cut it.
The device beeped, but instead of the countdown stopping, it accelerated.
Johnson looked at him, his eyes flaring wide in alarm. “What’d you do?”
Eli’s heart hammered against his ribs, a frantic drumbeat urging him to flee—a natural instinct he’d learned to suppress. His feet stayed rooted to the spot and his hands were steady. “I must’ve triggered an anti-tamper mechanism.”
The clock flew from two minutes to one minute forty seconds in what felt like a heartbeat.
“How do we stop it?” Trujillo asked.
The booby trap he fell for made him question everything. His training. His gut.
One minute thirty seconds.
“I’ve got to cut another wire,” Eli said, his chest tight, the air growing thinner.
One minute ten seconds.
“But which one?” Trujillo stared at him. “You said to avoid red. So, is it green, yellow, or orange?”
One minute.
The orange cord taunted him. Stuck out like bait. “Definitely not the orange either.”
Fifty seconds.
“That leaves two choices, then,” Johnson said.
Green or yellow. Eli hesitated.
Forty seconds.
Trujillo sighed. “Only a few seconds before this sucker blows. Choose,” the FBI agent snapped.
Thirty seconds.