“They’re all black.”Whenthere was no answer Nick asked, “Why?”
“Because Wikipedia says tocut the blue wire,” Finn replied, and Nick closed his eyes.Apparently, they were beyond even the help of Google.
“The metal clip has tocomplete a circuit right?”Nick said trying desperately to thinklogically.“I mean that’s what they use metal for so that thecurrent can flow.I reckon we cut this one.”
Sam shot him a nervous look.“AlthoughI have no idea what to do, and can’t think of a better course ofaction, I am scared shitless.”
“Me, too,” Nick said as hetook the Leatherman, opened the scissor implement and placed itaround the wire in question.He took a deep breath and with a quickprayer he began to apply pressure to cut the wire.
“Wait!”Nick gasped andalmost cut the wire out of shock at the voice in his ear.“Don’tfucking cut that wire, babe.You do and it’ll set off a chainreaction that will not end well for any of us.”
“Fuck,” Nick breathed, hisheart hammering in his chest.
“Aiden?”Sam’s voice wasat least an octave higher than usual.“How the fuck are you on theend of this line?”
“Your LT came out ofnowhere and slipped the damn thing in my ear.That man is a fuckingshadow.I have no idea how he managed to do that, but I am fuckingbeyond impressed.”Nick looked over at Sam and could see from thelook on Sam’s face that he wasn’t surprised by his LT’s stealthskills.
“Yeah, that sounds likehim.”
“Okay, so I caught yourdescription, but need to wait until I’d turned my back on Muir, whoincidentally is our tormentor today and has absolutely noconnection to Duncan whatsoever.”
Nick frowned.“Then why the need tofuck with us?”
“He heard us talking inthe bar that night Sam decided to take a chance on us.”Aiden’sreply had Nick struggling to remember the conversations thatweren’t centered around their selfish need for Sam to commit totrying with them.“Apparently someone said I was the best in thebusiness, and Muir, the narcissistic twat, took umbrage with that.But enough of that.You cut that wire, the connection will breakand the device will explode.The copper wire is what is completingthe circuit between that device and the other three that line thewalkway to me.”
Nick’s heart stuttered.Four devices?Five if he counted the vest strapped to his lover, and Nick verymuch counted that vest.
“We are running out oftime for us to worry about each individual device,” Aidencontinued.“We need to defuse the circuit piece by piece thatconnects all of that to me, and we need to do it quick.We onlyhave about twenty minutes left, and I am going to need some time todefuse this vest.”
“Tell me what to do,” Nicksaid with determination.This was not how they were supposed toend.
“You have to fool thecircuit into thinking it hasn’t been broken.Find something metal,and it has to be thin and malleable.You need to slide it underthat copper conduit and then wrap it around itsecurely.”
Nick looked around.“Where the hellwould we find something like that out here, Aiden?This is thewoods, not fucking Home Depot!”
“This might work,” Samsaid as he handed Nick a long thin silver object.On closerinspection, Nick could see it was a stick of Doublemint gum stillin its wrapper.
“Genius!”Nick said as heplucked the gum from Sam’s fingers, unwrapped the gum, and shovedit into his mouth.“Sam has Doublemint gum.The metal wrappershould conduct the current, yes?”
Aiden was silent for a moment.“Yeah,it should.Give it a go.”
Not the most stellar endorsement, butNick figured they had nothing to lose.Chewing on the gum he foldedthe wrapper then began to slide it under the copper wiring.Atfirst, it refused to slide and buckled instead, but Nick wasinsistent.A few seconds later, it slid beneath the wire and Nickworked it further under until he was able to pull it completely outthe other side.When he had the wrapper wrapped completely aroundthe wire, he secured it to itself with the gum.
“Hey, look at you,” Samsaid.“Getting your Boy Scout vibe on, huh?”
Nick looked up with agrin.“What, you’ve never watchedBeverlyHills Cop 2?”
A soft laugh came from the commsdevice.“I fucking loved that movie.”Dev’s voice came this time,and the rest of Bravo team all talked about their favorite parts ofthe movie as Nick and Sam continued up the path.The second devicewas larger and looked like it was packed into some kind of pot, butthe process for disarming the circuit that connected it to Aidenwas the same.As was the third device.
“Fuck,” Nick cursed whenthey got to the fourth device, and all chatter on the line ceased.This one was a lot harder than the first three.There were nocopper wires that Nick could see.It was simply a medium sizedblack box.No wires going into it, none coming out ofit.
“Talk to me, Nick,” Aidenasked calmly.
“I can’t see how to blockthis circuit,” Nick said after describing what he saw in detail.“There’s nothing to cut, or wrap or anything.”
Aiden’s curse came over the line.“Fucker’s probably using a mercury switch internal and a pressureplate beneath that damn thing.There is no way to disarm that,Nick, so don’t even fucking try.”
Nick shared a panicked look with Sam.“What the hell are you saying, Aiden?”
