I followed him to the blast location. He squinted at the damage, ran his fingers along the scorched marks, sniffed the wreckage, and sorted through the rubble. Filling his pockets with odd bits of metal and wires, he straightened and asked to see what we had collected.
The control room was empty when Bubba Boom and I entered. I showed him the pieces Logan found. He set everything out on a table, including the fragments he had gathered. Arranging and turning the bits, he scrutinized each one.
Logan arrived, but I hushed his questions. He stood next to me as we waited for Bubba to finish.
“This doesn’t look familiar,” Bubba said. He held the biggest chunk up to the light.
“Not one of yours?” Logan asked. His tone was almost nasty—very unusual for him.
“I stopped building these. You know that better than anyone,” Bubba said.
These two had a history. Wonderful.
“The Pop Cops aren’t around. You could have returned to your old ways.”
Bubba Boom huffed in exasperation. “You’re still mad at me? I never told the Pop Cops about you and your sister. That was more important than the fact I stopped helping you design your little gadgets.”
“Those gadgets?—”
“Logan, that’s enough,” I said. “He agreed to assist us with finding the bomber.”
Giving me an odd look, Logan said, “How did you find out about him?”
“Jacy.”
Logan and Bubba Boom exchanged a glance.
“What?” I demanded.
“A distraction?” Logan asked him.
“Could be.”
Fear sizzled up my spine. “Another bomb?”
“No,” Logan said. “More like keeping you busy and away from the real culprit.”
“Why would Jacy do that?” I asked.
“Don’t know,” Logan said. “He’s hard to read.”
“Anything that doesn’t have numbers scrolling across it is hard for you to read,” I teased.
“Real funny. At least I didn’t fall for Jacy’s disinformation.”
“Not quite,” Bubba Boom said.
“What doesthatmean?” I asked.
“Just because I stopped playing with fire, doesn’t mean I ignore what’s going on around me.” He held up a twisted piece of metal. “I recognize this.”
CHAPTER 5
“Do tell,”Logan said.
I swatted Logan on the arm. “Cut it out.” He acted like a two hundred week old, and I wondered if he had looked up to Bubba Boom only to be disappointed when the man caved into the Pop Cops.
“There’s a couple of scrubs,” Bubba said, “I wouldn’t call them Tech Nos as their devices are rudimentary, but they’ve gotten together and built a few incendiary apparatuses.”
