Chapter 13 - FOUR MINUTES TO SAVE EVERYONE
Four minutes sounds like enough time until you’re staring at a bomb.
Then it becomes nothing.
Daniel dropped beside the device.
“You know explosives?” I asked.
“I’ve had six strange years.”
That was not reassuring.
Jenna grabbed the manifest.
“Which crate was armed?”
“This one.”
“No. I mean why this one?”
She scanned the serial numbers.
Then pointed.
“These numbers are sequential.”
Daniel understood.
“There may be more.”
We split up.
Federal agents evacuated the building.
Ryan found a second device beneath the stage.
I found a third inside the catering storage room.
Three timers.
Same countdown.
Victor had planned redundancy.
Jenna ran back toward the loading dock.
I grabbed her.
“Where are you going?”
“The power panel.”
“For what?”
“Ryan once told me his father designed military fail-safes. These detonators might synchronize through the building network.”
Daniel shouted from across the room.
“She’s right!”
Jenna reached the panel and cut the main data relay.
The timers froze.
For one second.
Then restarted independently.
“Fantastic,” she muttered.
One minute.
Daniel disabled the first device.
Ryan worked on the second under instructions from an agent.
I stared at the third.
“Tell me what to do.”
Daniel shouted wire colors.
Thirty seconds.
I cut one.
Timer continued.
“Wrong one.”
“Useful information.”
Jenna dropped beside me.
She looked at the circuit board.
Then at the manifest.
“These shipments came from a government supplier. Emergency shutdown should be coded.”
“Where?”
She pointed at a tiny switch hidden beneath a plate.
I tore it off.
Ten seconds.
Nine.
Eight.
I flipped the switch.
Nothing.
Jenna grabbed the device.
Twisted the safety collar.
The timer stopped at three seconds.
Silence filled the room.
I stared at her.
“You are never doing that again.”
She smiled shakily.
“You’re welcome.”
Outside, Victor was placed into federal custody.
The evidence was overwhelming.
Weapons trafficking.
Attempted murder.
Conspiracy.
Daniel’s attempted assassination.
Victor looked at me as agents pushed him into a vehicle.
“You think you won?”
“Yes.”
He laughed.
“You still don’t know who started this.”
Daniel stiffened.
Victor continued.
“Your father didn’t discover the operation.”
He looked at Thomas Hart.
“Thomas did.”
Jenna turned toward her father.
Victor smiled.
“And Thomas wasn’t working for the Blackwoods when he found it.”
Thomas lowered his eyes.
Jenna whispered, “Dad?”
Her father finally revealed the secret he had protected for decades.
May you like
“I was sent to destroy the Blackwood organization.”
And Evan’s father had known from the beginning.
