Blonde Bomb Tech

by Lara Santiago

  “Where do you think you’re going?” She heard the hurt in his voice even as the tone caressed her skin. She wanted him so much.

  “Home.”

  “You didn’t even say goodbye.”

  “Goodbye, Jake.” She stared out the front window, knowing that if she turned and looked at his soulfully sad face it would completely undo her. She would do anything, say anything to keep him.

  “Damn it, why are you running away from me? Are you mad at me? What did I do?”

  Sabrina closed her eyes took a deep breath to strengthen her resolve. She turned to him. Mistake. The wounded expression on his face would have put her on her knees if she’s been standing. Taking a deep breath as the memory of what she kept secretly lodged in her brain she murmured, “No…nothing. I’m…I don’t want to talk right now…” Sabrina looked away from his pained green eyes.

  Pulling open her door he told her, “Well, too goddamn bad. I want to talk to you and now is the time.”

  Sabrina was all out of time. Judgment day was upon her. Jake was not going to let it alone. She turned off the ignition and stepped from her car leaving the door open.

  “Fine.”

  Jake grabbed her. He kissed her hard on the mouth, surprising her. Sabrina returned the kiss and willfully participated in it. He tasted like beer and deep concern. She smelled his cologne and it made her legs weak, he felt so good.

  Her big secret smacked her in the brain yet again. She stiffened in his arms, no longer allowing his lips to comfort her. Not now.

  “I love you,” he said, breaking the kiss his mouth hovering over hers and whispered a plea, “Tell me you love me.”

  Sabrina gazed up at his face. “I do love you, Jake, but I can’t marry you. I have a huge secret.”

  “I already know your huge secret. That’s how we met.” He smiled and she felt his posture relax. Sabrina put an arms length of distance between them and replied, “No. Not this one you don’t.”

  “Doesn’t matter. I’ll keep all your secrets. I promise.”

  “I can’t have children, Jake,” she blurted out and almost slapped her hand over her mouth out of habit.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Sabrina opened her mouth and blabbed out the biggest personal secret she ever had. The one she’d wanted to keep from Jake as long as possible. The confession, which now hung in the air between them, like a huge flying white elephant. Sabrina watched him closely, wondering what disdainful thing he’d say.

  Jake’s eyes narrowed and a questioning look registered. “What do you mean?”

  “I’m infertile. Can’t get pregnant. That’s why Harry left me, because I’m damaged goods and he wasn’t willing to give up his dream of children. Are you?” Tears of anger filled her eyes.

  “I…I didn’t…” Jake looked pained. He wasn’t looking at her, but his face showed the realization of her words.

  “What do you have to say, Jake?” she goaded him.

  Jake put his hands up to his face wiping one down each side as he opened his mouth to answer, “I…let me think a minute.” He finally looked at her. His face registered the same pain she saw when she looked in the mirror and remembered. A glance of pity crossed his features and that was her sign to leave. She didn’t want to see the look of distain next. Time to go.

  “Your minute is up. I see the look in your eyes I wanted to avoid. I’m sorry, but I can’t be who you want me to be. I’m not the one for you. Goodbye.” Sabrina got into her car and sped off with no further argument from Jake.

  She made it to the first stop sign six blocks away before she burst into tears. She allowed herself a solid five minutes to cry as other cars pulled around her honking and swearing. After she stopped sobbing enough to drive, she headed for her lonely, sterile little house. When her pager went off she jumped in surprise. Great. Now what? Was it Jake calling? Would he be angry? Would he pity her more?

  Sabrina sniffed and looked down at the number. She wished it was Jake calling to tell her he loved her anyway.

  Instead, it was Hennessey and the code displayed was for another bomb threat. She wondered why he called. She was off the squad, wasn’t she? Maybe it was a mistake and he’d forgotten. She called in anyway. Her night couldn’t get any worse. Now if the bomb exploded she didn’t have a security blanket for tonight.

  “Hey. Did you page me by mistake?”

  “No. 714 Denholm Avenue

  is the address of the latest bomb site. Sound familiar?”

  “Shit.” Sabrina had spent fifteen years at that address. It was the orphanage where she grew up. “I’ll be there in a few minutes. Does Peters know you called me?”

  “No, I’ll ask for forgiveness later on. I need you on this one. I went in and took a look. It’s ugly. Murphy is on his way. Brown and Smith would be as useless as tits on a boar. I only let them do the other one because I knew it was a simple defuse.”

  “Thanks, boss. I’m on my way.”

  “Where are you?”

  “In my car…driving.” Sort of.

  “Are you okay? You sound funny.”

  “I’m fine,” she said, but didn’t mean it. Sabrina hung up before she started blubbering again. She needed to get a grip, quick. She hadn’t broken up with anyone in years. It hurt like the bitch she remembered and Jake was a bigger loss than Harry ever was. She was out of practice in dealing with all the emotional aspects. She would have to schedule some time to cry her eyes out in private later.

  Sabrina arrived on site just as the bomb squad’s containment truck pulled up. She looked at her eyes in the rearview mirror. Red and puffy as she expected. Darkness was falling so maybe no one would notice.

  Sabrina exited her car and her heart caught in her throat at the sight of the fire truck on site. It wasn’t Jake’s company, but to round out her crappy evening, she saw Ted Echols. There was someone she needed to avoid at all costs tonight. His company already helped evacuate the residents of the building and the surrounding buildings. He caught her eye and winked. Great.

  Sabrina headed for the bomb truck. She saw Murphy and got a warm rush at seeing a friendly face. It made her eyes water up with sentimentality. Murphy was her partner and the only other guy she trusted more was Jake.

  Until tonight…no, she still trusted Jake.

  Jake deserved better than the childless life she could give him if they stayed together. He deserved a fertile little bunny of a wife. Crap. The thought of him with someone else made her take a sharp breath. Get on the shelf in the closet or the back burner wherever you are living now, she cautioned her emotional mind. Now is not the time.

  “Hey, Murphy,” Sabrina said and didn’t try to hide the melancholy in her voice.

  “Hey, Sabrina, I see you’re back in the saddle. So did you get special permission to play tonight?” Murphy looked at her and bless his heart ignored her red, blotchy face. He knew she’d spent her youth here. Perhaps, he thought, she was sad about her childhood.

  Sabrina turned and looked at the building where she’d grown up. She hadn’t been back since she left nearly eight years ago. She remembered the smell of the place. Like a school. Institutions always had a certain smell. She could be marched blindfolded through the place and know exactly where she was.

  “Looks like it. You want to be Butch or Sundance this time?” she asked, trying to lighten her own mood.

  “Ladies choice,” he said, and grabbed his bag from the truck. Hennessey stepped up, but didn’t speak. He glanced around them like they were spies meeting in secret or something, probably to make sure Peters wasn’t present, and then nodded for them to proceed.

  “Let’s check it out.” Sabrina turned to Hennessey. “Where is the device?”

  “Girls’ dormitory in a janitor’s closet. The device is attached to a tank of liquid. We aren’t sure what it is, but the color is orange.”

  “Pumpkin orange?”

  “Possibly. You have a lot of time. The timer is set for midnight. It would have gone off in the night if
the janitor hadn’t discovered it. Everyone is already safely out of the building.”

  Sabrina and Murphy both nodded and headed into the place she’s spent the greater part of her life. They crossed through the front double doors, and marched up the long central flight of stairs. The décor hadn’t improved since she’d been gone.

  Early American institutional poverty was the style evident all around her. At the top of the staircase they turned to the left and walked down a long wide hallway to the door of the girls’ dormitory. Sabrina knew exactly where they were going. She led them to the open door of the janitor’s closet.

  They stepped inside a large ten-foot square space with heavy-duty metal shelves lining all four walls. On the shelves were various cleaning products, the industrial size in most cases. The device sat at the back of the small room. A large trashcan on wheels had been pulled to the side. Perhaps that was how the device was delivered. Murphy stood to the side to let Sabrina take a look at the scene.

  “This looks familiar,” Murphy said. “Have we seen this before?”

  “I think I saw something like it in a movie once. One of the Die Hard movies, maybe. You know, the one with Samuel L. Jackson,” Sabrina said, still studying the device and surrounding room.

  “Oh yeah. It was at a school and it turned out to be syrup or something. Right?”

  “I think so. Listen, this isn’t going to fit in the containment truck. We’re going to have to disassemble it here and get it out piece by piece. How on earth did someone get this thing up here without anyone seeing?”

  “Don’t know. Maybe more than a single trash can trip.”

  “Let’s go get some more tools, I think we’re going to need everything, plus some schematics,” Sabrina said.

  “What’s your first impression?” he asked her, as usual.

  “I think I’ve seen it before, but not in a movie. I just can’t place where. Perhaps I read about it in a book. I’ve been studying up at the library in my off time,” she said off-handedly as she intently studied the scene before her.

  “I think I know what we need to do.” Sabrina suddenly remembered where she’d seen the bomb before. It had been in an obscure text from years ago. “We need some things from the truck.” She turned and Murphy followed. They walked down the empty hall towards the staircase.

  “Good for you. Glad to see your didn’t spend your entire vacation in bed,” Murphy chuckled.

  Sabrina flashed to her earlier evening with Jake. She didn’t have Jake anymore. He was gone. Without warning Sabrina’s legs gave out and she fell to her knees, sobbing.

  The utter feeling of intense sadness had hit her like lightening. She couldn’t stop herself. One minute she was fine and strolling along the halls of her past and the next she knelt on the floor trying to wipe away endless tears.

  Murphy was next to her in a second with an arm around her shoulders. “What’s wrong? Do I need to go beat his ass?”

  “No…it’s me…I’m to blame,” Sabrina managed between rapid sharp intakes of breath. She was hysterical. Jeez, what was wrong with her lately? Her emotional side was becoming impossible to predict or control.

  “What happened?” Murphy reached for a cotton cloth out of his bomb bag to give to her so she could wipe her face.

  “Not now…bomb…defuse…”

  “We have a minute. Besides do you want to go back outside right now?”

  She gave a sharp intake of breath. “Good point.” Sabrina wiped her eyes and looked at Murphy. “I broke up with him, Murphy.”

  “What? Why?”

  “I can’t have kids. I’m infertile. He wants them, of course, and he’d be a great father…and…I can’t do that to him.” She started crying again.

  “What did your doctor say?”

  “He said it was unlikely I’d ever conceive and to look into adopting and foster care.”

  “Did you get a second opinion?”

  “No. The first one was hard enough to listen to. Five years ago, my boyfriend called me damaged goods and left me to marry some girl he got pregnant. So I gave up men and joined the bomb squad.” Sabrina had stopped crying enough to stand. “Aren’t you glad I did that so I could break down on you like this tonight?” She looked at Murphy’s smiling face.

  “What are you smiling about?” she asked, punching his shoulder. “You’re so mean.”

  “You should go see another doctor. My wife Leah’s doctor told her the same thing after we’d been married a year. She left me and went to live with her mother for three weeks, until one morning she woke up and started puking all day. Eight months later our first son was born.”

  “Really?” Sabrina sounded hopeful for the first time ever about this subject.

  “Yeah really. You can talk to her if you want. Same doctor told her she’d better enjoy her only child because she had erratic cycles or something and she’d never have more than just Billy. You know we have four kids, right?”

  “Yeah.” Sabrina thought furiously over the information he gave.

  “Our two oldest kids are fifteen months apart. She went to a new doctor during the middle of her second pregnancy after calling the first one a quack to his face during a prenatal checkup. Of course, I have always believed that I’m such a macho stud, I balanced out her erratic cycles.”

  “Yeah.” Sabrina said again, automatically answering as she wondered if it could be possible she wasn’t a total loss. Thinking quickly, Sabrina realized she didn’t even know why she couldn’t have kids. Did she have erratic cycles? She should have gotten more information way back then, but she’d been so crushed at the time…and so young. “What? Yeah, you’re such a stud, Murphy,” Sabrina added sarcastically, his words finally cycled through her brain.

  “I’ll go get the other tools and the schematics. You think about all I’ve said and start worrying about all that unsafe sex you were having.”

  “It was only that…” Sabrina had almost finished her sentence with ‘one time’.

  God, she needed to get it together. All of a sudden she was hopeful. Maybe she could look into a fertility specialist or something. Wasn’t that all the rage now days? Jake. She needed to talk to Jake. No. Not yet. She would go talk to a doctor first and then…she looked up. Murphy was smiling. He winked at her once and stood up. She rose, too.

  “Thanks, Murphy.” He patted her back twice in response and turned to head out without speaking.

  “Wait. I’m coming with you.” Sabrina felt good about herself for the first time in years. She would check things out, but now she was going to kick this bomb’s ass and get her reputation back. Then she’d see about her infertility, and if she couldn’t have kids after all, well then maybe she would look in to adopting or foster care. Amazing what a spark of hope did.

  Murphy and Sabrina got the equipment they needed without having to talk to anyone in the truck and headed back into the orphanage.

  Sabrina felt charged up for this defuse. She was hopeful and determined, ready to take on the world again. They worked inside for a couple of hours before the bomb was defused, going step by step through the process with a sprinkle of gut instinct here and there. There was well over an hour on the timer when they got it to stop. They started dismantling it and Murphy asked, “you want to call Hennessey?”

  Sabrina thought a minute. “No. I don’t want anyone to know we’ve defused it just yet.”

  “What?”

  “Let’s pretend we haven’t figured it out yet.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t want the bomber to have any information. Maybe he’s out there. We know squat about this guy and why he’s doing it. I can’t help but think he’s out to get me. By rights and an edict from Peters I shouldn’t even be here right now.”

  “So what are we going to do? Run outside and cry?”

  “Great idea. Yes, that’s exactly what we’ll do. I want us to look totally panicked and angry when we go back out there.”

  “Isn’t that dangerous?” Murphy said.


  “Maybe, but he could have another bomb stowed somewhere, like the first two times, and I want to make sure there is no way this one can go off with something we aren’t seeing.”

  “Okay, we shouldn’t have figured this one out yet anyway. How did you know how to take this apart so fast?”

  “I told you, I remembered it from a book I read during the fourteen or fifteen seconds I wasn’t having unsafe sex on my vacation. Let’s plan a little before we leave, okay?” Murphy nodded, smiling slyly.

  Sabrina outlined her plan regarding how to act once they left the building and some possible scenarios. Hennessey might suspect, but if Councilman Peters was out there he’d be clueless. The press would only get clueless information from him. If the bomber was out there or watching the news he or she would think the bomb was in play.

  Sabrina stormed to the bomb truck and made a big display of throwing her bomb tools in the truck and yelling. Murphy grabbed her and made it look like he settled her down. He put his hands on her shoulders and forced her to sit on the bumper. She sat with her head down and asked, “Is anyone from the audience paying particular attention to me?”

  “A couple of people.”

  “Anyone we know?”

  “Yep. Suzanne Forrester is here.”

  Sabrina looked up and surreptitiously looked at the line before hanging her head again. She saw Suzanne’s worried face. What was she doing? She shouldn’t be here.

  “Anyone else?”

  “Your fireman, Jake, is here with his brother, Brian.”

  “Oh, crap.” Sabrina took a deep breath…and then another. “Is he coming over?”

  “Calm down, he’s just standing over there for right now. They drove up in time for our show. Hennessey it talking to them. Looks like he’s trying to keep them away from us.”