“Thank you,” the sergeant said. “We’ll get the suit ready.”
Kiley stared after him, still gnawing on her lower lip. Evan understood her angst. As the leader, she’d made the best decision for the team, for innocent civilians, yet it wasn’t a decision she wanted to make.
She stepped over to him and locked gazes. “You’ll wear the suit, and no cowboy maneuvers.”
Despite the danger awaiting him, Evan smiled. He liked seeing her so confident and in charge and respected her all the more for putting aside her personal feelings for the greater good. “I’ll just go get suited up.”
“Youdoknow the risk, right?” she asked. “We’ve jammed cell signals, but our suspects could be in there with a manual trigger waiting to blow the place.”
“Could be, but RANGE-R didn’t pick up any movements.” They’d run the handheld radar device that looked like a large stud finder along the exterior wall. Using Doppler radar technology, the device had a ninety-five percent probability in detecting the slightest human movement, as slight as breathing, within fifty feet.
“I know, but...” She shuddered, likely over the unknown five percent.
“But it’ll be okay.”
“Ready for you, Bowers,” the sergeant called from the back of his vehicle.
“Time to get after it.” Evan inconspicuously squeezed her hand and gave her a smile. She returned it with a trembling one of her own. Reluctant to leave her feeling so upset, he took a breath and marched over to the truck, where the tech helped him into the eighty-pound suit. Evan purposely avoided looking at Kiley as they affixed the many Velcro tabs, tugged up zippers, and lifted the helmet over Evan’s head.
When he was ready, he gave a thumbs-up in a bulky glove and headed up the steps with a tool bag in hand. A lumbering task, and sweat beaded up on his forehead before he even reached the stairs.
It had been years since he’d strapped on the heavy bomb suit, and his steps faltered. Not for long. The briefest of moments, but long enough for the memory of Olin’s death to come rushing back.
No. Stop. No one’s going to die here. You got this.
He started off again. Calmly. Rationally.
At the top, he glanced back at Kiley. A lump formed in his throat, and he swallowed hard as he turned toward the bomb. He wouldn’t disappoint her. Put her at risk. Or anyone else for that matter.
He carefully set down the tool bag and knelt on one knee by the window nearest to the door, working hard to maintain his balance. He grabbed a glass cutter and pressed it against the window. Each movement calculated. Exact.
He lifted out the circular shard carefully and threaded in the camera to take a better look at the wiring and track it back to the C-4 explosive. Then he scoped out the device, a pressure trigger that released when the door opened and the lack of pressure activated the bomb. While it was a relatively simple device to render safe, he had to get his tools inside the building to accomplish the task.
Showtime. Just him and the bomb.
Alone.
Tick. Tick. Tick.He could almost hear a detonator ticking down when in fact there wasn’t one. Just the switch that he needed to disarm.
He pulled out his camera and broke the glass, then swept the sharp shards out of his way. He set the bag of tools inside and paused. If anyone was going to come out laying down fire, he wanted it to be now, not when he was hunkered down near stacks of C-4. But his actions were met with silence.
Now the truly hard part. Getting the suit through the window.
He lifted a bulky leg over the sill, then scooted in feeling like a blimp squeezing through the eye of a needle. He grabbed the bag and bent before the device. He withdrew a Leatherman from the pouch. The multipurpose tool felt familiar in his hand as he still carried one in his pocket every day.
He raised it. Prepared to cut. Took a deep breath in the stifling helmet. Held it and paused to lift his eyes.
If any situation called for prayer, this one did.
He offered a quick request to keep everyone safe. To make his movements sure and true.
He made the cut, a quick snip.
Nothing happened. What he expected. Still. He held fast for a moment. Waited.
Silence.
He eased out a breath and lowered the Leatherman. A simple and anticlimactic ending for all the prep and discussion on how to handle the device.
