by Mark Lemke
CHAPTER 62
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Everyone except Pak and Hays took off to head elsewhere in the plant, putting distance and heavy machinery between them and the one bomb they knew of.?
Pak set the bomb down carefully and gave Hays a brief, questioning look, as if asking him why he stayed.
Hays said with a grim smile, "I thought you might need some help.? What's the plan?"
Pak was studying the device.? "I don't want to try to disarm this thing right here.? It looks pretty unstable.? Touching something even with this low-tech timer might set it off.? Best thing to do is find a spot where it can't do much damage and let it blow itself to smithereens."
"On the way in here, I noticed a door at the bottom of the steps.? Some kind of room, down below, a level or two.? It looked out of the way."
Pak didn't say anything.? He was focused on watching the bomb, trying to figure out what to do, and more importantly, how long he had to do it.? He finally picked it up and said, "Lead the way."
The two of them moved quickly back the way they'd come, down the stairs to the ground level with the main transformer bank, found the door unlocked and went inside.? It was a small room with what looked like an old boiler in it.? It wasn't running and didn't look like it had in quite some time.? Hays quickly checked out the room, going behind the boiler.? Nothing in there looked currently operational or highly technical.?
"Bring it over here," Hays said from behind the boiler.?"There's nothing much back here but a concrete wall, and I suspect it's pretty thick."
Pak moved over to him and set the bomb down gently in the corner.?
"Okay.? I suggest you stand on the other side of that boiler . . . just in case."
Hays did as he was told this time.? "Okay.? I'm clear."
He waited there in a moment of absolute silence.? The room was cold and there was no running equipment or machinery to add any ambient noise.? He couldn't see Pak but knew better than to ask him what he was doing.? He'd know in a minute, one way or another.
Just then, Pak walked around from behind the boiler.
"Got it!" he said, holding the detonator.? "It's not likely to go off now, but I suggest we leave it where it is and clean it up later."
Hays just breathed out.? "I thought you said we were going to explode it?? You took a mighty big chance, wouldn't you say?"
"I made a call, that's all."
Hays didn't know if he was pissed or pleased.? "Good work.? Let's see if we can't help out the Old Man."
"Copy that."
They left the boiler room and headed back up the stairs to the emergency airlock.