Page 69 of 72 Hours

“Status report, Brad,” said Judith. Her voice was very tight, but she was obviously trying not to snap. “Both you and Simon.”

Brad’s voice sounded odd, as if he were sleepy. “We’re... alive. I’m at the hideout. I’m injured, but not badly. There was a small explosion on my entry, and the door burst apart in my face. Simon is....” His voice failed.

“Why have we lost transmission? Is it the reception?” Judith urged someone to explain, anyone. Phil shook his head, bemused.

“No, I’m here,” came Brad’s voice again. Now he just sounded distraught. “I’m sorry, Judith. I only have my small portable radio with me, and anyway this is... hard.”

I caught Niall’s eye. If I looked half as miserable as he did, things were bad. Brad’s voice continued, shaky but tenacious. “Simon is bound at the far side of the room. He seems to be connected up to some more explosives. It doesn’t look too sophisticated, but I’m no expert. Trouble is, when I came in and the first bomb went off, it seems to have triggered the fuse on the stuff around Simon.”

“You mean he’s primed now,” Niall said.

“Yes,” Brad answered. “I don’t know how long we have.”

I had a sudden, vivid image of Brad staring desperately at Simon across a dirty, abandoned room and yet not being able to go to him. My chest tightened painfully. Niall was watching me but I couldn’t even formulate words to explain my vision.

“Can he talk to us?” Judith leaned in beside me.

“No, his mouth is sealed too. I... don’t want to get too close... in case there’s more... in case I accelerate it.” Brad’s voice got suddenly higher and faster. “I need help here, Judith. I don’t know enough about explosives. It could be ready to blow any minute.”

“You should get out, Brad, while you can,” she urged. “I have bomb disposal experts on their way now—”

“You should know better than to say that,” he snapped back, sounding more like the Brad we all knew. “I’m staying here. We get saved or we go down together. Whatever it is, I don’t go anywhere without him.”

Niall looked up at Judith, keeping his voice low so that Brad didn’t hear. “What about Greg? Can we persuade him to tell us anything about the device?”

“No time,” she muttered back. “He’s on his way to a high security facility with federal agents. They’d not release him quickly or easily enough.” I saw her hold his gaze. “Niall, you must help him disarm it.”

Niall stared back at her. So did I. “Judith, I don’t have specialist knowledge of explosives.” I thought it was fucking amazing he sounded so calm. “I can’t see how it’s configured, can’t see what we’re really dealing with. I could only guide him through the basics.”

“So we’ll have to hope Greg knew no more than that,” she said. “At least until the experts get there.”

“We can’t risk it,” Niall persisted. “I think Greg did know more than that.”

“But so does Joe,” I interrupted. Everyone turned towards me. “Look,” I rushed on. “Joe Lam is more of a combat guy, I know, but he has a damned good knowledge of weaponry as well, almost as good as Niall. And he’s been studying the explosion at Niall’s apartment. Maybe he has some idea of what Greg used, how he set up the devices, if he has some kind of signature.” I could feel the weight of their gazes on me. I could almost hear the crackle of Brad’s breath on the other end of the radio connection. “I mean, I don’t fucking know, do I? But it’s worth a try.”

For five seconds, I don’t think anyone breathed.

Then Judith nodded and handed the cell phone down to us. “You call him, Niall. I’ve programmed in the hospital number. Tell them you’re calling on my behalf and they’ll connect you to Joe.”

Niall stood up, flipped open the phone, and keyed in the number. As he waited for it to answer, he looked into my eyes. “This is okay with you, Tanner?”

“Fuck, of course it is,” I said, but I knew what he was saying to me. He was asking if I was truly rebuilding my bridges, if I’d truly made peace with myself. Three months back, I’d have rather cut his hands off than have him spend any more quality time alone with Joe Lam. But then, I’d been the prick then, hadn’t I? I was on a new lease of life now. “I want you to work with him on this, Niall. We’re all on the same side. The two of you will work it out. We must save the guys. In fact, I’m fucking well insisting you do this!”

“Okay, okay.” His mouth quirked in a small, twisted smile. The hospital connected him, and he moved away from the radio to hear his call more clearly. He swiftly started speaking to Joe.

I turned back to the radio. “Brad, how much did you hear of that?”

His voice was just a thread by now. “You mean you and Niall arguing? Just like old times.” The joke was weak. His voice caught again, and he continued more slowly. “I understand you want me to disable the bomb on Simon. Niall and Joe will talk me through.” There was a scuffling noise in the background, but it might just have been interference. “Look, Tanner, if anything happens to us, I want you to know how much we care about you all—”

“No, it’s cool,” I said quickly, breaking in. “Don’t say any more. You’ll both be fine.”

There was silence from his end, then soft shuffling as if he were easing his way a little nearer to Simon. I could hear him murmuring words, but I couldn’t make them out. From the soft, caressing tone of them, I knew I wasn’t meant to. They were for Simon alone.

Niall came back over with a grim expression and an open connection to Joe Lam on the cell. He spoke directly to me, not Judith. “Joe thinks that Greg had a favourite way of setting his detonators in a domino effect. That’s what happened at the apartment. It sounds similar to the initial explosion at the hideout, when Brad broke in. There can’t be many stages to find in a small house, so if we can disable a switch somewhere along the line we can probably delay the process until the bomb guys get there.”

Phil spoke gruffly, stepping forward from beside Junk. “I know about detonators,” he said. “I can help some. So long as you ain’t bothered how I got the practice.”

I started shifting backward on my arse, to keep out of their way. “So get on with it!”