Page 70 of Counter Attack

“I scanned what he sent last night, and it didn’t look like hegot much out of the neighbors. Why don’t we plan to talk to the people in Denton’s condo complex tomorrow?”

“That sounds good to me.”

A tense hour later, the bomb squad commander approached her. “The X-ray shows a detonator and what looks like a stick of dynamite eight inches long and an inch and a quarter in diameter. The robot will bring the box out to the parking lot where we’ll disable it.”

“Are you certain we don’t need to evacuate the prisoners?” She didn’t want to risk any lives.

“I’m certain—even if the bomb went off, the amount of explosives the X-ray shows is barely enough to uproot a twelve-inch tree stump.”

She caught his gaze and held it. “You’re absolutely certain?”

He nodded emphatically.

“Then, let’s do it.”

“Get everyone backed up at least a thousand feet.”

Harvey worked his way toward her as they moved out of range of the blast. “I think we need to evacuate the prisoners,” he said, crossing his arms.

Alex cocked her head toward him. Why had he started second-guessing her? And did he not know what a nightmare that would be? “I thought you went home with a migraine.”

“I got to feeling better and came back to work.”

“I’m glad you’re feeling better, but the commander assured me that with the amount of dynamite shown on the X-ray, the prisoners are safe.”

“I don’t like it.”

“It’s my call, Harvey.”

“Yeah. Well, that’s not the way Sheriff Stone would call it.”

“And I’m his chief deputy, calling the shots while he’s out.” Alex clamped her mouth shut and counted to ten to keep from saying more. She might need to count to twenty.

Nathan walked over and stood by Alex. “What’s going on?”

She shot a glare toward Harvey. “It appears he doesn’t agree with me.”

“Here it comes,” someone yelled.

The robot tracked through the front door of the building with the container, and Alex released a tense breath. At least the building wouldn’t be damaged.

Once the robot safely deposited the box in the empty parking lot, the operator remotely removed the top of the box in preparation of blasting it with a high-pressure water hose.

A red flag popped up. But no explosion.

Alex flexed her calves to keep her knees from buckling while a collective sigh went up from the crew gathered around. Then her face heated up. All of this for a fake bomb?

She squared her shoulders and strode to the bomb scene unit commander with Nathan on her heels. The red flag had “BANG” written on it. “Why did Gem alert to it if it’s fake?”

The commander used a pen to inspect inside the box. “It’s a real stick of dynamite, but the detonator wasn’t connected.” He handed the box to one of his men, and he bagged it.

Alex blew out a breath. “Thank you for coming.”

“No problem. As bombs go, even if it’d been connected there wouldn’t have been much damage.” He looked past her and held out his hand. “Nathan Landry, I thought that was you.”

“You know Nathan?”

“I sure do. Our traveling ball teams have played against each other a time or two.”

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