Pressing her lips together, Cassidy could only shake her head. “Afraid to move it too much.”
“What does it feel like?”
She closed her eyes and concentrated on the weight pulling on her shoulders. “Hard casing. Probably plastic, judging by the weight. Five pounds, maybe? No more than ten,” she concluded, opening her eyes again.
“No sounds? No heat? No vibrations?”
She shook her head. “No.” She let out a huff of a laugh. “Feels like a gaming console,” she said with a wry smile. “Do you think I ripped poor Darien off?”
He met her attempt at levity with a somber stare. “No. But I’m going to let Max give you a sniff. Okay?”
She nodded and he snapped his fingers. The large dog bounded up beside her on the bench as if he thought they’d never ask. Cassidy tried not to flinch as his cool nose brushed the side of her neck. He whined and growled softly, the sound practically vibrating inside her. She winced and shied away when the dog gave three sharp barks in quick succession then dropped onto the bench.
“He’s trained in explosives, huh?” She grimaced at the sad attempt at small talk but was unable to come up with anything better under the circumstances.
He gave two quick snaps of his fingers, and Max hopped down, resuming his position at Jake’s feet. She watched as he gave the dog a head scratch, murmured a word of praise and pulled a small treat out of his pocket.
“He’s done a bit of search and rescue when needed but specializes in detection. Explosives and narcotics.”
“And?” she prompted, hating the quaver in her voice.
“It’s explosives. Likely an IED,” he confirmed.
She shot Max a nervous glance. “How do you know it’s not weed or something?”
Jake gave the dog another pat. “He gives different signals to let me know what’s detected. That way, I know how to approach.”
“Right. Makes sense.” She nodded like a bobblehead, anxious to make it clear she wasn’t entirely without expertise in this area.
“I think I should hold on to this,” he said, holding her phone up. “You know cell signals can interfere with whatever kind of transmitter they’re using.”
“Right.”
“You have a radio?”
She nodded and moved to unclip it from her waistband, but he stopped her. “Keep it. They work on a different kind of bandwidth, low frequency.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Got any extras around?”
She raised the radio. “Thompson?”
A second later, a gruff voice came across. “Copy, Chief.”
“Would you grab one of the extra radios for Trooper Donovan to use?”
Bud’s response was a curt, “Will do.”
Her phone buzzed in his hand, and they both looked down. Another text.
Jake opened a new message from yet another unknown number.
Give her the phone back.
“I told you they can see us,” she said, snatching the device from his hand. She and Jake both craned their necks, scoping the entire area for anyone close enough to see them sitting knee to knee.
“Must be a camera around,” he concluded.
“Probably more than one. Security has cameras and the company who manages the rides and attractions have some of their own, but these rides are dismantled and rebuilt a lot. Not sure how many there are or what condition they might be in.”
Jake hazarded a guess. “They could be hacking into them.”
