Corrector

by Blink, Bob

“What happens if you cut the wrong wire?”

  Josh hesitated the briefest of moments. “More than likely the one minute counter will be activated giving us all a brief moment to consider our misspent lives. Of course, we could be wrong, and the bomb could simply go off immediately. One can never be sure about these designs until they are examined at length in the lab afterwards.”

  “Very well. Proceed,” Carlson instructed.

  Carlson turned to Jake. “There is no need for you to be here. You’ve done your part. Evans or Laney can take you away from the site to a place you will be safe.”

  Jake shook his head. “I think I best stay. I have a bad feeling things aren’t going to be as straightforward as indicated.”

  Carlson stared at him intently for a minute, then nodded. “Your choice. Just remember, the longer you wait to decide, the less your chances of getting far enough away.”

  The next fifteen minutes passed extremely quickly if one was considering the time remaining before the bomb was to be triggered, or extremely slowly if one was waiting for action. When Josh’s voice came over the intercom it startled everyone.

  “We are going to cut the blue wire,” he announced. This was as much to inform the watchers what they intended as to create the formal record. Their actions, both audio and visual were being remotely recorded to be studied later, whatever the outcome of their efforts. What they learned might be of use against any similar devices, whether the team survived or not.

  Jake realized his hands were clammy and he was opening and closing them in anticipation.

  “Wire cut,” Roy announced as he extracted his hands from the bowels of the device.

  More measurements were taken and voltages recorded. There seemed to be a lot of discussion that was too technical for Jake to follow as the men working on the bomb talked as they examined the results. Jake couldn’t help but sense the movement of time. He glanced at his watch. Too slow, he thought.

  “We are going to cut the green wire,” Josh announced abruptly.

  On the monitor they could see Roy lean forward and reach inside the electronics with the special wire cutters.

  “Oh shit!” Josh said almost immediately. “That started the timer.”

  “Can you stop it?” Laney yelled into the intercom.

  “There should be a way, but that would mean understanding the circuit, which we obviously don’t seeing we tripped the destruct switch. Cutting the wrong wire, which would be any but the correct one would most likely mean immediate detonation.”

  “Well do something man!” Laney yelled excitedly.

  Jake could see the timer rapidly scrolling down. They had less than twenty seconds to detonation.

  . . . . . . . .

  “We are going to cut the green wire,” Josh announced.

  “No!” Jake said loudly. “Don’t cut the green. That’s the wrong one.”

  Josh had put his hand out to stop Roy from continuing his move to cut the wire. “What? He asked, surprised anyone would question their decision.”

  Carlson looked at him questioningly. “Jake?” she asked.

  “They cut it,” he said. “That started the counter. It’s the wrong one.”

  Carlson nodded while making a decision. “I can’t explain it at the moment, but I think you need to consider the green wire the wrong choice. What would you cut if the green were eliminated?”

  “The red wire would be our second choice, but there is a disturbing current in that wire. I fear it will start the counter.”

  Watching Jake as she spoke, Carlson said with confidence. “Cut the red.”

  Josh hesitated a moment.

  “If you’re wrong,” she whispered to Jake.

  “If the red does anything, I can warn you again,” he said.

  Carlson smiled minutely. “You’re handy for this kind of thing.”

  Josh’s voice came uncertainly over the net, “Cutting the red wire,” he said.

  Tensely they all watched as Roy reached deep into the mechanism and cut the wire.

  The relief was clear in Josh’s voice a moment later. “That worked. Red wire cut. Two wires to go.”

  Another long wait followed while Josh and Roy re-examined the circuitry in light of the knowledge gained from the wires they had cut. Finally, they appeared ready to go forward. Once again they all held their breath as the two men cut first the orange wire, and then finished up with the stripped white/purple wire.

  “That did it,” Josh said with a deep sigh of relief. “The power is off. The bomb can’t be triggered now.”

  The relief was palatable among the group waiting for the result.

  “Jesus!” Laney exclaimed. “I about shit my pants.”

  Evans was looking a bit shaky as well. Carlson didn’t seem particularly perturbed. Jake felt his knees were weak.

  “Doesn’t anything bother you?” he asked Carlson.

  “It was a bit tense,” she admitted, “but I decided to trust in you. I figured if something went wrong, you would find a way to make sure it worked out okay.”

  “It sounds like you believe me then. I didn’t think any of you did.”

  “I’m probably the only one,” she admitted. “The others who have heard your claims have real doubts.”

  “We have a problem!” Josh said urgently over the net.

  “What’s wrong?” Carlson asked immediately.

  “The one-minute timer has been activated,” Josh replied.

  “I thought you said the bomb was safe?”

  “It is. It can’t explode and it shouldn’t be able to trigger the timer. The signal had to come from the outside.”

  “So someone is trying to make sure by using the remote detonate control. We know they are out there. Our next job is to chase them down.”

  They could see Josh shaking his head on the monitor. “The timing is too precise. The counter is within a second of the exact time. I think it is the result of an automatic external control. I’ve been thinking ever since we saw the transmit-receive circuitry. I think there is another bomb, and the two are radio linked. If either reaches the one minute mark it transit the trigger to the other. This bomb won’t explode, but what if there is another?”

  “I think he’s right,” Jake said suddenly.

  “What would make you think there is another bomb?” Carlson asked.

  “The blast area on the map,” Jake said. “It’s been in the back of my mind. This factory is located well off the center of the pattern. I was somewhat surprised that we found something here, but couldn’t pin down why. But if there was a second bomb on the other side of the pattern, and they triggered essentially together, then the slightly oval pattern we’ve seen would make more sense.”

  “Five seconds,” Josh said resignedly.

  . . . . . . . .

  “It’s set to go off at noon,” Carlson informed him.

  Josh glanced at his watch. “Just over three hours. You’re certain of that?”

  “There are two bombs,” Jake said suddenly interrupting.

  Shocked by the interruption and the message, Carlson looked at him. “Jake? What are you talking about?”

  “There’s a second bomb and we’ve got to find it. Disabling this one won’t be enough.” He’d considered back-tracking even further, but he needed to be here to impress on Josh exactly what needed to be done.

  “The bomb here is radio linked to the other one. Each can trigger the other in addition to the internal circuitry. The wires you need to cut are the blue, red, orange and white/purple, in that order.” He repeated the sequence.

  “When you examine the circuitry you are going to think you to want to cut the green instead of the red. That would be wrong, I promise you. You’ll have to trust me on this. Take that information and disable this one as fast as possible. We’ll hopefully have another for you to disable soon, so you can’t take too long on this one. We can’t know if the circuits are the same on the two bombs.”

  Carlson was still a bit stunned. “Ar
e you sure about this?”

  “Absolutely. Quick. We need the maps. We have to decide where they might have put the second bomb. We only have three hours.”

  Chapter 37

  “Who is that guy?” Josh asked when Jake and Laney headed off to retrieve the necessary maps.

  “He’s a special consultant that we have on board. He is the person who brought the presence of the bomb to our attention,” Carlson replied.

  “He knows too damn much. How can he be aware of how the circuit is built unless he had a hand in it? Are you sure we can trust him?”

  Carlson was really starting to understand just what Jake could do and how important he was. “Yeah, we can.”

  “Then why didn’t he tell us all this earlier rather than at the last minute?”

  “This won’t make sense, but he didn’t know until just now,” Carlson said.

  Josh looked at her as if she was stupid. “That doesn’t make any sense,” he said.

  “Not without the proper briefing, I know. Maybe when this is over I can explain it to you. For now, you and Roy should take care of that bomb. Don’t get cute. Use what Jake told you. It is the best intel you could possibly get.”

  Slowly Josh nodded, accepting that she knew something that he didn’t, and that she wasn’t going to share that information with him at the moment. He signaled to Roy and they headed off to have a firsthand look at the bomb.

  Susan turned and looked around until she spotted Jake and Jim Laney, as well as Harold Evans, hunched together across the way, a large map spread out in front of them. She walked over to see what they had decided.

  The map they had spread out was the one they had carried around for the past several days during their hunt for the device with the nominal search area outlined in red pencil. Looking over their shoulders Carlson could understand what Jake was saying. The area was noticeably elliptical, rather than circular, and the factory they were in was well off center to the south. If the area they had outlined was correct then something would have to be placed to the north of their current location to fill out the pattern. They should have seen that from the beginning. They had focused the initial search near the pattern center, but it had never occurred to anyone that more than once device might be involved.

  “It would have to be somewhere around here if it is to properly fill out the pattern,” Laney said pointing.

  “That would be the Sweet Alburn area,” Evan replied nodding his agreement. “That would make sense. There is an industrial area there that is just now starting to see significant reclamation.”

  “What did we find there in the way of factories?” Jake asked. He was personally convinced they would follow more or less the same approach wherever they placed the second bomb.

  “Are we certain there is only one more bomb?” Susan Carlson asked.

  The three men looked up at her in unison. It was Laney that replied.

  “I don’t think we know, but it would have to be more than three if the pattern can be assumed to be correct. Three would make it lopsided.”

  “I hope not,” Jake added. “I could repeat this kind of loop, but we would have no clue where to start looking if there are more. The whole area would open up. We’d better hope there is just the one additional device.”

  Harold Evans interrupted the discussion. “We found three factories in that area,” he said. He listed the names and pointed to the locations on the second map where he had marked each place that had been visited.

  “The cannery,” Carlson said immediately when Evans completed his list. “I knew there was something wrong with that place.”

  Jake remembered as well. They had found a very intact facility with signs that the street population had left for no apparent reason. It now seemed likely they might have been urged to leave.

  “Did we ever find out why the place was cleared? We asked someone to look into it,” Carlson demanded.

  Evans nodded. “The owner was located. A couple of months ago someone expressed interest in buying the facility. The owner had the police chase everyone out in preparation to clean it up for the prospective buyers. Then the deal fell through for some reason.”

  “Very convenient,” Jake said.

  “Too convenient,” Carlson said. “We are going there. Jim, get a swat team to go with us and have a pair of other teams sent to the other two locations just in case. I’m certain we will find what we are seeking at the cannery, however.”

  It took very little time before the various teams were on their way to their respective designations. The three agents and Jake rode in the FBI SUV with Evans driving, and the swat team led the way in a pair of police swat vans. They used no sirens and pulled to a stop a block away from the facility. There was little to be gained by alerting anyone who might have been inside and able to trigger any bomb that was there.

  Once they had all disembarked, Carlson tasked the swat team leader with having his men surround the facility and scout for any signs that someone was present or that someone had recently entered the facility. They didn’t have long to wait.

  “There are people inside,” Chuck Farmer informed Carlson after speaking to someone on his swat radio. “My men have located several vehicles on the northeast corner and spotted a pair of armed men just inside the door there. It looks like they are intending to leave, but are waiting for someone or something.”

  “Makes sense,” Carlson said. “Time is running out if one wants to get far enough away from the blast. They probably set the other bomb, then came here and are finishing up this one, then will run away before they can detonate them.”

  She turned to Evans. “I seem to recall a back entrance to this place when we were here the other day.”

  Evans nodded. “It was actually a side entrance, on the western facing side of the facility.”

  Farmer made a quick call on his radio. “One of my men can see the entrance you are speaking of. It appears deserted at the moment.”

  “We’ll go in that way,” Carlson said. “I don’t want to start shooting and alert anyone inside who might be able to trigger the device. Keep your men on this side in place, and have the others assemble near the entrance to provide support as we go in.”

  “Let’s go,” she said, and the four of them started around the outside toward the rear entrance, followed by Farmer who was still quietly issuing instructions on the radio.

  They had needed to destroy a couple of locks on the rear doors to gain entrance, but the swat team was well equipped to do that quickly and quietly. There had been no one watching, and they had made their way through the hollow interior of the facility, taking care to make as little sound as possible in the vast echo chamber of the open concrete rooms. Now they were in place, and could see another U-Haul van sitting in the center of the open room some hundred feet away. As they watched, a figure clothed in a heavy radiation suit stepped out of the back and walked across the floor where two men waited. One was younger, looking almost military and carried a military style rifle with careless familiarity. The other was considerably older and wore civilian clothes and was unarmed. He had a neatly trimmed grayish colored beard, and was obviously the man in control.

  The suited figure stripped off the headgear and nodded. “It’s ready,” he said loudly enough that Carlson and the others could hear.

  The older man pulled some kind of control out of his inner pocket and did something, nodding in satisfaction as he looked at a reading on the face of the device. Then he slid it back into his pocket.

  “Radio control,” whispered Laney.

  Jake was in agreement. This was the man who could trigger the device remotely if the need arose. They would need to deal with him.

  Just as Carlson was about to say something, a shot was heard from the direction of the northeast entrance. Something had gone wrong outside. Immediately the three men they were watching reacted. The man who had been wearing the suit had just finished stripping it off, and he reached and pulled a handgun from his belt. The m
an with the rifle turned in that direction while the older man reached in his pocket where he had put the device.

  Jake was surprised when Carlson quickly raised her Glock and fired two rounds into the man. He stumbled and dropped to the floor. Jake looked at her in shock. It’s what he would have done, but he would have expected an FBI agent to try and arrest the man and give some kind of warning before shooting.

  “Do you think he would have agreed to my command to halt?” she asked wryly. “I couldn’t give him a chance to activate that device of his.”

  At the sound of Carlson’s shot, the other two men immediately ducked behind the van and started running back into the building, away from them and away from the sound of the shots at the front entrance.

  “Secure the truck,” Carlson ordered Farmer. “Don’t let anyone near it.”

  “My men outside need support,” he told her. “There are more of them than anticipated.”

  “Split your team, but make sure no one gets into that vehicle,” she ordered. “We’ll go after the two who ran out the other way.”

  Carlson hesitated for the briefest moment as if deciding something, then bent down and extracted a weapon from an ankle holster. “This isn’t much and I have only the one magazine for it. Don’t use it unless you need it to save your life. I shouldn’t be giving it to you.” Then she handed the pistol to Jake.

  Jake looked at the diminutive pistol. He recognized it from some of the gun magazine advertisements he had seen. It was a Kimber Solo. A small 9mm. He grinned. He’d never shot one, but he liked Kimbers. He had a lot of faith in their products.

  “Let’s go,” Carlson commanded, and the four of them headed off after the fleeing men. Carlson stopped briefly by the body of the man she had shot and verified he was dead and retrieved the small unit he had been reaching for. It was powered off, and she dropped it in a pocket while pointing the others after the two men.

  A short distance down the hall they could see footprints in the dust of the cannery floor indicating the way the men had gone. They were headed into the final packing area where large machines and numerous old conveyor belts had carried the cans and boxed products to shipping.