She couldn’t stand the silence. “What happens now?”
Ian met her gaze and held it. “Now we wait.”
Which they did. For nearly thirty minutes. During that time, patrol cars arrived and cordoned off the street. Ian got out to meet the patrol officers, and he remained with them until the bomb squad arrived in a van. Soon, two MEDU officers scrambled around to the back of their vehicle and flung open the doors.
They stepped into huge ugly green suits that reminded her of Teletubbies. “They have such a dangerous job.”
Brendan turned from his spot in the passenger seat. “The suits have rigid ballistic panels covered in flame-resistant Nomex. Plus body-protecting Kevlar. They’re well-protected.”
“How do you know the details?” she asked.
“I planned to try out for the squad,” he said, longing in his voice.
Aiden looked at his brother. “But I botched that for you.”
“Nah. It was Dad’s transplant that changed my career path, but I get to do far more in my current position than I ever would’ve on patrol.”
“And you get to work with your brothers.” From beside her, Clay cast a wry smile at his brother.
“I thought we were talking about positives.” Brendan laughed, and his brothers joined in.
Malone loved how they could joke with each other, even in such a situation. Could she work with Reed and be this fun-loving? They were both pretty serious type-A people. Wouldn’t likely work. Better to remain brother and sister only.
A guy dressed in black tactical pants and a black polo shirt with the squad logo on the chest jumped out of the driver’s seat of MEDU’s van and started shouting so loudly that she could hear his commands through the SUV’s thick glass.
“That’s the team leader, Sergeant Charlie Zamsky, yelling out orders,” Brendan said. “He served on an explosive ordnance disposal team in the army, and of course he graduated from the FBI’s Hazardous Devices School.”
“Of course?” Malone asked.
“All certified bomb techs are required to graduate from the school.”
She hadn’t known. When she’d seen the squad in action the last time, she didn’t have Brendan or anyone else to give her play-by-play information.
Ian joined Zamsky, and they had a quick conversation before Zamsky took out what looked like a nearly indestructible laptop and placed it on the hood of his vehicle. A large silver robot came rolling down a ramp from the back of the van and rolled toward her front door. Two arms protruded out front with long pincers acting as hands ready to seek out the package.
“Zamsky uses that computer to maneuver the robot,” Brendan said. “He’ll start by taking an initial X-ray of the suspicious package. If the X-ray proves the item isn’t explosive, he’ll give us an all clear.”
The robot slowly approached the brown box.
“He’s taking that X-ray now,” Brendan said.
Zamsky looked at his computer screen then looked up to Ian and said something. Ian’s shoulders relaxed.
“Looks like it’s not a bomb,” Aiden said. “Hope Ian can get the X-ray forwarded to his phone so we can see what the boxdoescontain.”
Zamsky brought the package back with the robot and took if from the arms. He put it in a large plastic bag and tapped the corner of the package on the hood of his vehicle.
“What’s he doing?” Malone asked.
“By tapping the box, he’s gathering any suspicious powder inside into a quantity that will show up on an X-ray.”
“Suspicious powder, like anthrax,” Clay added.
“Glad they’re checking,” she said. “I once got a letter from an irate husband that we worried was something bad, but it turned out to be baking soda.”
Zamsky took the package, set it on the ground, and adjusted the robot.
“He’s taking another X-ray,” Brendan said. “The machine they use can give amazing detail on the box’s contents.”
