Evan heard her panic but couldn’t obey. “No way. At the very least I can remove the device and drop it below.”
“No, Evan.”
“As much as I like hearing your voice, I’m signing off so I can concentrate.”
“Evan,” she said, “please ... be careful.”
“Always.” The driving rain made the steel girders slippery and nearly impossible to hold on to. He’d taken his gloves off to work on the bomb and could put them back on, but he had abetter idea. “Haul me up, Mack. It’ll be faster to hoof it across the bridge than to try to cross on the girders.”
“Roger that,” Mack replied.
Evan glanced at his watch and swung free from the steel and into the pouring rain, making sure to keep the phosphorus from connecting with a massive beam.
Mack hoisted him up. “Sergeant’s already headed to the other side to secure new rigging.”
Evan disconnected his rope. “Let’s move.”
He set the jar of white phosphorus in an out-of-the-way spot and hurried across the bridge. Mack kept up, cowboy boots and all. They covered the quarter-mile span, and then Evan put on his gloves. The sergeant had the rope secured.
Evan shared the location where he’d placed the jars of phosphorus. “It will remain stable as long as it’s in water. Make sure it stays that way.”
The sergeant nodded, then started for his truck.
Evan connected the rope and was soon swinging down over the side of the bridge, thankful not to have the skin-eating chemical in his pocket. He climbed onto the girders and got eyes on the other device.
It was identical to the first one, along with another jar of phosphorus. Timer was set for forty-seven minutes. He removed his gloves and grabbed a small screwdriver to open the waterproof housing. He let the screws and cover fall into the sharp wind to save time.
He got a look at the bomb.
Man. Oh. Man.
He was wrong. This bomb was different. It had an anti-removal device. He couldn’t quickly disarm it like the other one. Likely the reason they’d brought Shah into the country, as he had the most advanced bomb-making skills.
“Evan,” Kiley said over his earbud, “where are you at on disarming the second device?”
“This one has an anti-removal device. It’s gonna take longer.”
She gasped.
“What is it? What’s wrong?”
“Bilal Amari and Nabi are here. A deputy’s got eyes on Amari, but Nabi bailed from their vehicle and could be anywhere sending a signal to the bomb.”
CHAPTER 29
EVAN HAD TO KEEPHIS FOCUS.He couldn’t think about Nabi, phone in hand, racing toward the dam. His mind screamed to start with the phone connection, but he had to render the bomb safe in a certain order, and that meant starting with the anti-removal device.
He swallowed, but his mouth was bone-dry.
C’mon, you can do this.
He willed his hands to remain steady and slid his fingers along the wires, tracing them back to the RDX. Each movement calculated. Precise.
He grabbed his wire cutter. A heavy gust of wind buffeted his body, and he lost his grip. His leg slipped. His body swung out from the girder. He dropped. A free fall toward the river, swinging like a pendulum.
The rope caught and held, his wild swing through the slashing rain slowing. The rope jerked, and he was hauled upward.
“Thanks, man,” he said to Mack.
