Page 59 of Play the Game

I choked out a laugh, a real one this time.

“Good, that’s what we need,” he said. “For you to calm down. Doc’s going to have a cow over here, watching your vitals spike like this.”

I took some long, deep breaths.

“Very good,” he said. “Now, this is a good news, bad news story. The good news is, there’s a HEAT vehicle half a block from the building, due north. Start running now, and when you get to the car, take off. Because the device is underground, the blast itself will be more contained, and you should be able to escape the explosion.”

“And the bad news?”

“You’ll probably breathe in some nerve agent. We have a HEAT crew with Hazmat suits and respirators. If you…” His voice wavered, and he cleared his throat. “If you stop breathing, they’ll pull you out and give you atropine to counteract the nerve agent.”

“I can’t. Jason, listen to me. If the bomb blows, the nerve agent will go into Lake Michigan. Animals will die immediately. People outside the blast zone will die, too. Some immediately, some not long after. And it will be an environmental disaster.”

“I know, Tam, but we’re having trouble finding the schematics to defuse that thing, and—”

“And it might explode anyway. I understand. But I have to try. We took an oath when we joined HEAT, remember? One life in exchange for many.”

“No one asked you to make that sacrifice, Tam. No one gave the order for you to do this.”

“Now you want to do things by the book?”

He sighed. “Touché. Okay, bestie, I’m getting you out of there. I’m going to walk you through some steps, and I need you to listen very carefully.”

“You found the schematics so we can defuse it?”

“Remember, you have to stay calm. Do you have your wire cutters ready?”

Cutters, of course. I pulled them out of my kit. “Yes.”

“Okay, now I’m going to have you cut three wires, in exactly the sequence I tell you. But this is very important, Tam: Once you’ve cut each wire, you cannot let it touch any surface of the bomb. The first one’s going to be easy. The second one will be harder, and the third one will be a bitch, okay?”

“I’m not sure. I don’t...”

“One at a time,” Jensen said. “Ready?”

“Ready.”

“First, cut the purple wire to your left and hold it. Very good. Now, use the palm of your hand to keep it away from the rest of the device while you cut and catch the red one. Excellent. The final one’s the toughest. Can you hold the purple and red with one hand and use the other for cutting?”

I slid my hand behind the second wire. The first two wires were protected. “Ready for the third wire.”

“It’s the white one all the way to the right.”

I took an extra few seconds. Four, to be exact, because I saw them count down on the timer. I took a steadying breath, then cut the wire and caught it a split second later. “I did it. The timer stopped!” I’d stopped the bomb, and now I would get to live.

“When can I let these go?” I asked. He didn’t answer. “Jensen?”

“Tam, I’m here. I don’t have an exact answer, but we’re working on it.”

“I don’t understand. I defused the bomb. Why do I have to stay like this?”

“Because you didn’t defuse it, sweetie,” he said quietly. “You’ve only interrupted and delayed it.

“Delayed indefinitely, or...?”

“Delayed five minutes.”

I felt lightheaded and almost dropped all three wires. I recovered myself. “And then what?”

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