END OF PART ONE
Fandom: Houston Knights
Rating:
PG for language and special effects
Spoilers:
None
Category: Action and
such
Title: Sky High
Author: Killash
The Disclaimer: So, no, Uh-uh! The Houston Knights don’t belong to me, though I’d be SO rich if they did, and you can be sure I wouldn’t have let anyone cancel the show in the first place. But, no. They belong to Jay Bernstein, CBS, Columbia pics, and other people I don’t know. No infringement intended, I have obtained no money with this work of fiction. Please don’t sue, I’m not even insured.
"Will you cut it out, Lundy?"
"Well, You ain’t doin’ it right, La Fiamma!
"Yeah, like you know so much!"
"You mess up and we ain’t gettin’ a second chance, you know?"
"I know, I know... now, shut up!"
"Fine!"
"Fine!"
"......."
"Don’t cut the red one, La Fiamma, red is too obvious!"
"I wasn’t going to cut the red one, Lundy, and stop breathing on my neck will you? I’m suffocating in this damn Texan heat anyway, I don’t need you to be SO close!"
"Oh, right! Any excuse to bitch about the city..."
"Shut up, Lundy!"
"Well, I ain’t the one who’s..."
Click.
"What was that?"
"Well, if you’d just shut up for just one second maybe I’d be able to...!"
Click.
"La Fiamma..."
"Sssshhhhhh!"
Click.
"Oh man..."
"What is it, La Fiamma?"
"The clock... it’s jumping forward... look!"
Click.
"Oh Shit!"
"Yeah... very articulate, Cowboy, now back off!... God damn it! Why did it have to have so many wires... wires... wires..."
Click.
"The clock... La Fiamma..."
"I know! Be quiet, I’m think.... wait... wait... wait... I think I got it! Hmmm... I can make a bridge to the power source without disturbing the CDR magnetic seal if I connect the green one... uuhuh..."
"Waitaminute... waitaminute... La Fiamma, you sure you know what you’re doin’? Maybe you should cut the copper converter right there!""
"Don’t touch that! And what do YOU know about it, Lundy? You cut class the day we learned this lesson!"
"I did NOT!"
"You did too! I remember! Now get back and let me work!"
"I think you’re wrong, La Fiamma..."
"I’m NOT wrong, I know a lot more about this than you, now back off!"
Click.
"Well, hurry up then!"
Click.
"Will you give it a rest! It’s not as easy.. as it looks!.."
"It doesn't look it, La Fiamma!"
Click.
"Ehem... I hate to rush you, boy, but there’s only fifteen more seconds!"
"Shut up!"
Click.
"Now it’s ten!"
"I know, I know... Damn it!"
"Well, what are you waiting for?"
Click.
"It’s not that easy, I tell you!"
"Well, don’t think so much about it, just DO something!"
Click.
"Shit!"
"La Fiamma, will you just cut the damn thing?"
Click, beep.
"Oh no...."
"What?"
"Er.. I think we should just run..."
"What?"
"Run!... Run! Run!"
"What’s goin’... why..."
"Come on, Lundy!"
3...
2...
1...
"Too late."
"Oh, Jeez!"
Chapter 1, Lesson 2 – Understanding the
importance of your connectors
"Well, gentlemen, congratulations! You’re dead." A tall man with raspy voice said as he signaled someone to turn on the lights.
"Damn it!" Joe exclaimed, slapping his knee. "I thought I had it this time!"
Sergeants Levon Lundy and Joe La Fiamma stood up and took their seats in the test room of The Bomb Squad Training Section at the Houston Police Academy
"Well, you shoulda listened to me, La Fiamma!"
"We would’ve blown up sky high if I had cut the copper converter, Lundy!"
"We blew up sky high anyway, La Fiaaamma!"
Joey leaned back, exhausted. "Yeah, yeah, yeah..."
"Don’t you EVER stop fighting?" The tired instructor finally asked the two detectives.
"Well, yeah... sometimes... when we ain't together... but try workin’ with a partner who’s a know-it-all from Chicago, who thinks we’re still livin’ back in the eighteen hundreds over here... and see if you..."
"Will you cut it out for five seconds?" The instructor snapped.
"Alright, take a pill!" Joey mumbled.
The instructor ignored him as he delivered his evaluation. "Now, Sergeant La Fiamma, you should try to make faster decisions as Lundy said, you WERE right about the procedure, you know? You just couldn’t stop wondering if it was right or wrong and just do it!"
"I know." Joey lowered his eyes, frustrated.
"And you, Sergeant Lundy," the instructor continued before they could start arguing again, "Your partner’s right... the copper converter was a bad idea, your instincts are good, but you need to study your links and connectors lessons harder if you don't wanna end up in bits and pieces!"
"Damn!" Levon shook his head in disappointment.
Joey smiled faintly, "Ohhh, brother! I can't believe it!"
Levon knew that Joey felt as defeated as his partner, and he also knew that he did have to study harder if he wanted to pass this course... and he wanted to! More importantly, he needed to, they both did.
The instructor broke the sudden silence, "Well, better luck next time, gentlemen." He handed the two men their failed test sheets, "I’m afraid you won’t pass this course until you get this one right, so... I’ll see you next week."
"Again?" Joey frowned.
"Yep"
He grunted, exasperated. This was the fourth time they had failed this test. If only Levon knew more about connectors... and if only he could stop hesitating so much... if only... "It’s all your fault, Lundy!" he retorted.
"It’s MY fault that you can’t decide on what to do before the damn thing explodes in your face?" Levon shot back.
"Well, you were distracting me!"
"May I remind you that we have to do this as a team or we ain’t gonna pass this damn test and we’ll end up stuck in this Explosives Course for the rest of our natural lives?"
"Ha! I should live that long!"
"You’re right! You’ll probably blow us up within the first week!"
"Well, if you just stopped CUTTING class...."
The instructor closed his folders and rubbed his eyes as the two cops walked out of the classroom.
"*I* should live that long..." he mumbled.
Chapter 1, Lesson 3 – Chemistry and Physics of natural explosives
Lieutenant Joanne Beaumont slammed her office door, making a superhuman effort not to strangle the two men sitting in front of her desk. The morning had been dreadful and it was all because of Lundy and La Fiamma.
Levon Lundy and Joe La Fiamma. The Texan and the Italian. What a pair! After today's fiasco, Levon would wish he'd never followed his Grandfather footsteps to become a cop, and Joe... well, not even his Mobster relatives up in Chicago would be able to get him out of this mess.
Joanne was furious about what had happened. The two partners not only had failed to report the whereabouts of the suspect they were supposed to have been following all night long, but at the time of the police sting at the main suspect’s house, they had simply not shown up. Now the suspect was on the loose and the case had suffered a major throwback.
"Joanne, you gotta believe me!" Levon glanced at his partner, "We didn’t know anything about it!"
"What do you mean you didn’t KNOW anything about it?" She had to use all her willpower just to keep from throwing things at them, "You were informed yesterday morning, along with everybody else, and the additional folders with YOUR orders to locate Gallagher, were delivered later TO YOUR DESKS!! You were advised, you were informed!!!"
"Joanne, we weren’t here yesterday mornin’!" Levon said, "We were at that Bomb Squad course!"
"Yeah!" Joey finally helped, "And we were stuck in the middle of the final test all afternoon, we never saw those folders until just a minute ago!"
"The final test?" she couldn’t believe it. "You mean you STILL haven’t been able to pass it?"
"Well, it’s not that easy!" Joey started his mantra.
"Not that easy? Then, how come McCandless, Wright and Gutierrez passed it on the first try? How come O’Neil, Johnson, Bailey, Sanchez, Brody and Hathaway passed it shortly after? How come of all the guys in this department YOU Two are the only BOZOS who are still at it?"
"Well..."
"Well?" she leaned on her desk, crossing her arms, fire in her eyes, "Tell me!"
"We..." Joey looked at his partner, unsure.
Levon threw his hands in the air, defeated. "Oh, Jeez, we might as well tell her, La Fiamma!"
"But..."
"Tell me what?" Joanne frowned.
"She’s gonna find out eventually anyways, we might as well confess while we still have our skins!"
Joey looked at his beautiful, and now furious, Lieutenant, she was scary sometimes, but she would understand... maybe.
"Well, see... Lieutenant... the thing is this... we... um... how can I explain this... we... er..."
"Oh, La Fiamma, I wonder how you get so many dates with those communication skills!" Levon interrupted, "Here’s the thing, Joanne. We both took that course before as we told ya..."
"And I told YOU that you HAD to take it again anyway! The CHIEF ordered it! The STATE ordered it..."
"And we did!" Levon cut in, "Sorta..."
"What do you mean... sorta?"
"Well, we talked to the instructors..." Joey continued, "And they agreed to give us the final test on the first day... you know, to skip the whole boring theory thing again..." Joey saw Joanne’s face darkened even more, if that was possible. "And yeah... we passed..." He clarified quickly, "But now we had all this time in our hands and nothing to do... and that’s when Captain Taggert approached us and proposed this... and we made the stupidest decision..."
"You think?" Joanne was boiling.
"Uh... well..." That was it! Joanne had used that amazing Angry-Texan-Woman power. Now Joey felt intimidated.
"See, " Levon continued, coming to his partner’s aid, "I... we... uh, Captain Taggert offered to enroll us in the Specialized High Tech Explosives Defusing course. It’s new, state of the art... they use totally new equipment and all..."
"They have the latest bomb constructing techniques... you know? The kind used in the Middle East and by international terrorists..." Joey chipped in. "We... we thought it would be a good idea at the time..."
"Yeah, we did!... But we was so wrong!" Lundy said.
The two men's faces were so grim they were starting to look pathetic.
"You were... And... May I ask... why?" Joanne knew what the next answer was going to be and couldn’t help but feel sorry for her two friends. This time they sure got themselves in deep...
"Well, it turned out to be a little bit more complicated than we were originally told..." Lundy started playing with his hat.
"Plus, you can’t pass the course unless you get a perfect score..." Joey continued, "So, well..."
Joanne closed her eyes. Against her will, her anger was fading away watching her detectives' pathetic looks, but she would NOT let them see it just yet. "Well, what?"
"We.. we haven’t passed yet." Joey lowered his head. "We have gotten perfect scores on all but the final test. So we have to keep trying until we get it right!"
Joanne bit her lips to hide a quick smile. "Really? And how many times have you tried?"
"Four!" Joey almost whispered. He didn't know it but he had just blushed, and Joanne found it adorable.
"Jeez, Louise!" Joanne turned to the window so they wouldn’t catch her smiling again. "I don’t believe you two!"
"We... we’re sorry, Joanne!" Lundy appealed to his former partner’s sense of friendship, if it was still there, "I know we shouldn’t have gone behind your back... but the other course was so... basic!"
"And you just HAD to go complicate things so much to get more thrills, as if just living side by side with each other wasn’t enough!" the woman shook her head, trying to sound admonishing.
"Well..."
"Oh, save it!" she sat tiredly, looking for a solution to this whole deal. "If you had come clean with me from the beginning, Gallagher would be in prison by now!"
"Lieutenant..."
"Shut up and get out of my office!" she tried to sound angrier than she really was. But how could she ignore those pathetic sorry looks? How, if she knew that her friends had their hearts in the right place... if only they would keep their brains there as well...
The phone rang as they stood to leave.
"Beaumont!" she answered, dismissing the two men with an almost angry glance, "Yeah, Brody, what’s up?"
The two detectives closed Joanne's door behind them and returned to their desks, tired of missing the target, tired of arguing...tired of all the disappointing setbacks that had turned their, otherwise normal, lives into a constant struggle with failure.
Tired of themselves. So tired.
Five minutes later Joanne’s door opened and she hurried out. "Lundy, La Fiamma!"
"Yeah?"
"Time to put all those unauthorized hours to some use... there’s a bomb at the Westin Plaza Shopping Mall and the Bomb squad is all the way on the other side of town!"
"You sure you want us, Joanne?" Lundy asked as they both followed her.
"Brody says it’s a weird lookin’ Bomb." She smiled sarcastically, pushing the elevator button, "Maybe one of your Middle East devices..." she crossed her arms. "We need to look at it until Captain Taggert gets there with the squad, so, right now, you’re the town experts!"
"Oh, damn!"
Joey put on his sunglasses. "You don’t say!"
Chapter 1, Lesson 4 – Rules and regulations for practice in the field
The ‘Westin Galeria Plaza’ shopping Mall was a big compound with dozens of stores, two quite big hotels and an ice-skating rink. At the time of the detectives' arrival, the place was still being evacuated.
They got there seven or eight minutes after getting the call. The bomb was inside a hole, in the center of a new fountain that was still under construction. The two feet high walls of the fountain were painted light blue and near the center was a metallic sculpture that reflected the red numbers on the timer... they had 13 minutes left... and ticking.
Tick
Tick
Tick
"Oh, boy!" Levon exclaimed as he took a look at the bomb. They were in trouble for sure. "It’s bad alright!"
"Oh, is it the International Terrorist kind?" Joanne replied.
"I wouldn’t be so cynical about this if I were you, Joanne," Levon scanned the place, looking for any people that might've been left around the stores and then counted all the blue cubes of TH-17. This type of explosive had been a topic in the course, it was similar to C-4 only... well, different. Yet, one thing was for sure: If this thing blew up, it was going to take the whole place with it.
"See all those little cubes around the box?" he showed his boss, "Each one can make fireworks so big they would see’em all the way in San Antonio!"
"What?" Joanne suddenly lost her sense of humor.
Levon rubbed his eyes and groaned as an answer.
Meanwhile, Joey was sitting on the floor, carefully examining the device. "Hey, Brody!" he called to the tall, dark haired Texan Detective on the scene, "I think you should check to see if they evacuated the hotels as well!"
"They have... but both buildings are on the far corners of the compound. They’re too far away from here!" Brody said. "Right?"
"Not for this bomb!" Joey replied.
"Oh, shit!" Brody echoed Joanne’s thoughts. "I’ll go make sure." He started running out.
"You go do that, and then clear out as fast as you can!" Joey knew he didn’t have to say that twice.
"And see if you can get us an ETA on Taggert while you’re at it!" Levon yelled.
"Right!" Brody yelled back.
"Joanne, you should tag along, there’s nothing you can do here anyway!"
"No. I’m not leaving until the bomb squad arrives!"
Lundy gave Joey a quick look. "Hey, waitaminute... ain’t you the one who said we were the town experts now?"
"I said ‘right’ now, while the bomb squad ain’t around!"
"Well, as an expert I’m advisin’ you to clear outta here and get as many folks as you can to follow you!"
"Levon!"
"He’s right, Lieutenant!" Joey gave her his most charming smile. "WE can handle it... don’t worry about it!"
"No!"
Lundy crossed his muscular arms. "Joanne... we’re wasting precious time just arguing with you, now stop acting like our mother and start acting like our boss, will ya?"
"Fine!"
Joanne Beaumont left, still angry. Still, she knew they were right, and that angered her even more. "I just hope you really KNOW what you’re doin’!" she thought.
Levon kneeled by his friend, "Well, La Fiamma, do you know what you’re doin’?"
Joey didn’t answer. He concentrated on the mess of wires, buttons, lights and plastic before him. It was a medium sized device, not big at all, yet attached it were fifteen to twenty blue cubes which Joey and Levon had recognized right away. It had been on that final test... all four times!
"What do you know?" He commented, "TH-17 cubes!"
"I see’em, La Fiamma," Levon took a deep breath, "They do exist after all!"
"Bummer, huh?"
"You think they can be detached?"
"I don’t see how," Joey picked up a set of small pliers from the toolbox Brody had gotten for them. He carefully lifted the plastic insulator that covered the panel holding the inner connections to the cubes. "See here? It’s like a million connectors! If we move one the thing will blow, I’m sure of it!"
"Hmm... Yeah... I agree. Okay, now what?"
"Well, we go by the numbers. Remember the basic steps?"
"Weird Bombs 101?"
"Yep"
"Alright, Step One- Examine the device."
"Done!"
"Two – Identify the explosive and device type."
"Done!"
"Type V-Zimmer with TH-17 cubes and a magnesium detonator." Levon confirmed.
"Or titanium"
"Or titanium, either one is just as bad."
"Next!"
"Three, look for the power source."
Joey located a black square panel and carefully lifted the plastic insulator. "Hmm, here it is. No way to disconnect it, it has a direct backup line to the detonator, if we touch it... boom!"
"Don’t use the word boom, please! I'm sure it's bad luck!"
"You’re awful touchy for a guy who’s been blown up four times already"
"Very funny! Alright, where was I?"
"Four."
"Locate the links to the timer and detonator and neutralize’em!"
"Ha!" Joey said, "That’s the tricky part!"
"I know." Levon took off his hat and kneeled closer to the device, "This wire here, it touches both the reactive and the timer box."
"Lundy," Joey rolled his eyes and shook his head, "Look at it! It’s a big, red wire right on top of everything! It HAS to be a decoy!"
"Well, maybe it ain't!" Levon patronized.
Joey ignored him, "Look, under this green one, there’s a wire stuck to the bottom of the box."
"It looks as if it’s fused to the surface itself!"
"I’m putting my money on that one."
"Why do I feel like this ain’t your lucky day?"
"Oh, shit, Lundy don’t say stuff like that when we’re defusing a bomb, will you?"
"Hey, waitaminute, here’s something interesting!"
"What?"
"Look at this... this wire, outside the box."
"Where?"
"Right here, it’s also fused... it’s easy to miss ‘cause it’s gray, same as the box, but look, it goes all the way around!"
"Lundy, I think you just found the main link."
"You think?"
"Yeah, and I also think that you just found the main booby trap."
"Oh, jeez!"
"That’s right, and I don’t have the slightest clue what kind this one is!"
"Well, La Fiamma," Levon smiled mischivously, "Lucky for you I brought this!"
"What?"
Levon grinned as he reached under his jacket and produced a small, blue book he had tucked in the back of his pants. Joey’s face lit up with a smile of his own.
"Well you little cheater!" He exclaimed, "You brought the text book?"
"Yep, the "Norwell’s Connector Systems Manual" he read, "A must for every occasion!"
"Lundy, I could kiss you... but then I’d have to shoot myself and we don’t want that."
"No, I don't think we want that!" Levon opened the book and searched for something to help them. "Now let’s see."
Just then, the timer hit minute seven.
"Um, Lundy?"
"I see it, now shut up!"
"Right."
Joey studied the device in front of him for a few moments and searched for a solution. This bomb was not so uncommon. Well, not for most terrorist groups and mass murderers anyway. V-Zimmer type... They had seen such bombs in a video in a class they had taken three weeks ago, and they had both passed the test. Joey frowned, remembering his lessons; he had to cut three wires, that much he knew, but which three?
‘Okay,’ he thought, ‘the first one has to be the copper converter link to the cubes, which means... this yellow one.’ He ran a hand through his short, dark hair. "Lundy," he said out loud, "I’m gonna cut the yellow wire."
"Uhuh" Levon was lost in his reading.
Tack. Joey cut the wire. Nothing happened.
"Waitaminute!" Joey’s words suddenly downed on the Texan, "Which one?"
"The yellow one, it was the first link to cut."
"Was?" Levon paled, "Oh, hell, I don’t want to know about it!" he opened the book again, his heart beating faster and stronger with every passing second.
Joey felt cold sweat covering his forehead. His vision threatened to blur and his stomach began aching. He recognized the symptoms. They had to do this fast or the adrenaline rush would have his way with him.
‘All right’ his mind began racing again, ‘Now, the second one... the timer spark silencer, it comes from the power source and connects on the negative... that means... that it has to be either this green or the red.’
"Lundy," he spoke again,
"I don’t wannna know about it, just cut the damn thing!" Levon felt his heart coming out of his chest. His hands shook imperceptibly and he searched the book faster.
3 minutes
"Uh, Lundy, I’m not sure if it’s the red or the green."
"Well, La Fiamma, you said the red was a decoy!"
"That’s the big red one, not the little red one."
"Oh, jeez... let me see!"
"This red one... or this green one!"
"I see them both connecting on the negative, so we just need to see which one begins at the power source!"
"They both do, dumb ass!"
"Damn!" Levon stared at the apparently tangled wires. His head began hurting. "Damn, damn, damn!"
"You see? It could be either one!" Joey ran a hand across his forehead. He looked around, they were right in the center of the compound. Even if they ran like hell right now they wouldn’t make it outside in time. "Damn!" he echoed Levon’s feelings.
"Okay, let’s focus." Lundy said, "The red one starts here... what’s inside this panel?"
"What? Well, the power source, you idiot!"
"I know that!" Levon replied, "but which ‘part’ of the power source connects right here?"
"Hey, wait a second... you’re on to something!"
"Don’t sound so surprised, La Fiamma!"
"No, I mean, this side of the power source is negative... so if the red one goes here... hmm... then the one coming from here would need to go on to the other converter before looping here, right?
"Right!"
"So, I think the one over here would have to get this one and this one back to the source...!"
"Don’t think, be sure!"
"I’m working on it!"
"La Fiamma, if you’re wrong and we blow up, I’ll kill you!"
"Yeah, right, and what are YOU doing? Did you find the outer connector kind in that book yet?"
"Well, if you stopped interrupting!"
2 and a half minutes
"Step on it Lundy!"
"Shut up!"
Tack. Joey cut the second wire praying to God and every saint he knew, his deduction was correct. Nothing happened, they were still here.
"Which one was it?"
"Read the damn book!"
"Fine!"
Tick
Tick
Tick
90 seconds
Tick
Tick
Tick
60 seconds
"Lundy!"
"I’m lookin’!"
Tick
Tick
Tick
45 seconds
"Lundy!"
"I found it!" Levon showed Joey the print, "Here, you see? It’s a sequencing system"
"It’s NOT!"
"See, this is the outside wire, it charges the timer and then the detonator in a loop while your decoy red wire or whichever it is feeds the timer in DC charge... or something like that!"
"Or something like that?"
"Well, just cut the next sequence cable La Fiamma... the one connected to the second link... this one right here..."
"The blue one?"
"Yeah, the blue one!"
"And the double charge from the referencing layer, Einstein?"
"Oh."
"Right!"
20 seconds
"Er, La Fiamma, just cut a wire, now!"
"Yeah, I see it! It has to be the third sequence, if it is, in fact a sequencing system..."
"It is, it’s in the book.... 16 seconds!"
"One, two... three, four, five... here... it’s the other yellow one!"
"Where, I can’t see it!"
"It’s in here, under these wires, see?"
"How are you gonna cut it?"
"Through this opening... here..."
"Well, cut the damn thing, La Fiamma!"
"I’m trying... I’m... Oh, no! The pliers don’t fit in this opening!"
"What?"
"It’s too small!"
10 seconds
"Oh, Shit!"
"God damn it!"
"Try it sideways, like that!"
"I did! Don’t you have a knife or something on you?"
"No, I’m looking in the tool box!"
"Wait, wait... I didn’t count the other wire... the one I already cut! This one’s the sixth... not this one..."
5...
"Shit!"
4...
"Here!"
3...
"Well, Cut it! Cut it!!"
2...
Tack
1...
......
"Oh, man!" Levon sat back and leaned on the small wall. The timer blinked in silence.
It was over. The bomb was defused.
After a few seconds Joey also stopped holding his breath.
Silence took over the enormous shopping mall and Joey and Levon tried to calm down their racing hearts.
Joey looked at his partner and closed his eyes.
"Oh, man!" Levon repeated.
Outside, the bomb squad was arriving.
Chapter 2, Lesson 1 – Explosive chemicals
in passive state
Captain Taggert finished up his report and turned to observe the two detectives sitting in front of him inside the small Major Crimes Division meeting room in HPD Reisner Building. The two men seemed to have aged in 24 hours. It was unbelievable, how they had defused a device of such complicated system, and such powerful destructive capacity. Maybe they were not as lost as they seemed in the tests. If only they could perform as well in class.
"So, can you tell me again, how you..." he started.
"Captain Taggert... with all due respect," Levon interrupted the tall, black man, leaning back on his chair, "We really don’t want to go over it again, we just want to go home and sleep!"
"That’s right!" Joey said, "We haven’t slept a wink since all this started and we still need to find the bomber, you know what I mean?"
"Yeah, alright. But when this is over, you two come to see me, okay?" he stood, "I’d really like to talk to you some more."
"We’ll be there, Cap, no problem!" Joey shook Taggert’s hand.
After the man left, the two cops were left alone, in silence and exhausted.
"So?" Lundy finally spoke. "Wanna lift?"
"I’d appreciate it, If I drive now I’ll probably crash into the first stop sign."
"Uuuhuh..." The Texan groaned.
They lingered there for a few more moments before the door opened and Esteban Gutierrez entered the room. "We have a lead."
"Who?" Joey asked tiredly.
"The girl from the store in front of that fountain said she remembered a man in white working on it the day before. The men from the construction said they use a dark blue uniform, not white. Then a security guard said they had a camera installed on a few of the exits. WE saw the tapes and found a guy wearing a white overall getting in and out. The compound administrator says he’d seen the man before... we have a pretty clear picture to pass around. Esteban handed Levon the picture of a balding man in his late thirties.
"Cool!" Joey said, "And here we thought you guys didn’t work on Friday nights!"
"My date’s waiting for me as we speak."
"Right. Did you pass these around to the uniforms?" he lifted the photo and Joey snatched it from his hand.
"Tomorrow, first thing."
"Fine with me, good night, Esteban!"
"Buenas Noches, amigos!"
He left and Joey let the picture fall on the table, his mind numb.
Levon knew he had to get up but something was eating up all his energy. He tried to get up, but his body wouldn’t cooperate and his eyelids were getting heavier.
Joey leaned on the table and closed his eyes, he didn’t even try to get up.
Two minutes
later both cops were snoring soundly.
Chapter 2, Lesson 2 – Revision and diversification of Explosive sources
A white semitrailer parked in front of an old, three-story building located right in the middle of one of the richest and most exclusive parts of Houston. The front porch of the building had a big, stone sign that said "Carol Bauer School", inside, three hundred kids all dressed in shiny blue uniforms were bored to death with first period. The morning was warm, the sun was shining brightly.
The driver of the trailer stepped out of his vehicle and, after checking the back doors, he looked around and crossed the street. No one in sight. He proceeded to the next block and got into a gray 1988 Ford, Lincoln. From there he took a remote control from his pocket and pressed a button labeled ARM.
Inside the trailer a red light turned on and a timer started ticking.
Tick
Tick
Tick
Miles away, in the Major Crimes
Division bullpen, inside the Reisner Police Building, two detectives were arguing
loudly... as usual.
"Three days, Lundy!" Joe La Fiamma yelled, "Three Goddamned days and not a clue! Do you feel as useless as I do? Is this what we call police work?"
"Will you give it a rest, La Fiamma!" Levon leaned back on his chair and threw a file on the desk. "We ain’t gonna get nothin’ to appear like magic with your yellin’ and screamin’!"
"Well, we should!" La Fiamma barked back, then he closed his own file and sighed loudly. "It’s no use!" he shook his head, "We’re never gonna find this guy before he strikes again, that much is obvious!"
"Oh, La Fiamma, would you stop being so negative?"
"Oh, please Lundy! We’re not rookies, let’s just face the facts and start preparing so the man won’t get us by surprise!"
"Fine! What do you suggest we do?"
"How about doing a little studying on connectors, cowboy?"
"Shut up, Chicago, you ain’t as hot as you think you are, y’know?"
"I am!"
"Uuuhuh..."
"Hey, Lundy! La Fiamma!" McCandless called from the doorway, "Come on! We may have him!"
They were instantly up.
"What do you mean?" Lundy asked.
"That weird lookin’ bomb had parts that can’t be bought in any K-Mart! We had the lab do a study, remember?"
"Yeah, I remember... I remember they said they’d found nothin’... well nothin’ much" Joey grunted. "Just that detonator... and those cables!"
"And that relay cord, and those silver pieces..."
"Okay, okay... I get it! Still, the had nothing traceable, did they?"
The three men got into the elevator and the doors closed.
Joe Bill rolled his eyes as his two friends kept arguing. Finally he intervened. "Hey! Listen! They’d found nothin’ conclusive... but our extensive search down the electronic and chemical stores finally paid up. We have a possible supplier down in Forest Avenue. A place where they sell things called ‘Interactive Digital Infusers’ and ‘Hexagonal Sub-calibrated Panels’ by the pound!"
"Alright!" La Fiamma smiled triumphantly.
"See, La Fiamma? And you had lost faith!"
"Stupid me!"
Fifteen minutes later they were questioning the owner and collecting possible evidence. The man, who was in his late sixties or early seventies and had a strong North European accent, said he’d sold some parts like the ones they were looking for to the fellow on the picture they were showing him.
BINGO!
Now, how could they find this dude?
Well, that was, again, the tricky part, because the man had paid in cash and had left nothing that could be traced to him.
He’d paid three thousand dollars in cash!
Three THOUSAND dollars!
He had to be quite rich!
And the man also remembered... he had bought quite a lot of stuff... certainly a LOT more than what they had found in that lunchbox-bomb! That meant that Joey was right... the guy was bound to strike again.
"See? What did I tell you?"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah... know it all! You’re very smart, now... Shut up!"
Without anything solid to go on, it seemed they had wasted their time, yet the elderly man said he remembered that the guy had a French accent, and he knew about accents... he was an expert! Or so he said.
So they now had a could-be-French suspect with a balding head and lots of cash on him buying parts for his bombs. And he was dangerous... big time.
"Any word on where this man got his TH-17 cubes with your snitches?" McCandless asked his friends as they crossed the parking lot.
Levon adjusted his hat. "Uh-Uh. Chicken's heard nothin’ on the street. No foreign exchange of chemicals lately, no one selling sophisticated stuff on the street... nothin’!"
"Yeah... J.T.C. has asked around all over the country... he called all his cousins all the way to Seattle, across to New England and down to Guadalajara. No luck!"
"And La Fiamma called some friends in Chicago," Levon added, "and I called a friend in the FBI. Again, not a damn thing!"
Joe Bill turned to his friends and laughed out loud. "You’re tellin’ me that nobody is sellin’ forbidden chemicals in ALL the U.S of A.? I may not be as seasoned as y'all, but I wadn't born yesterday, and I know my crime rates, man! There HAS to be somethin’ somewhere!"
"Well, would you believe that the bad guys are taking a mass vacation?"
"No, I believe that your sources are wrong or plain just gettin’ sloppy, cause they don’t know a damn thing!"
"I hear you!" Levon chuckled. "But it’s true, McCandless!"
"To be true we would have to be livin’ in another dimension, ‘cause it just ain’t possible!" he insisted.
"Well, Joe Bill... welcome to the Twilight Zone!"
Just then, they got a call on the radio and headed to the precinct. Little
did they know that two hours later they would be wishing they were really in the
Twilight Zone.
"Seven Bombs?"
"Seven bombs, distributed all over the city... and the guy wouldn’t give us a damn clue! He said he wanted his money by three o’clock today or they would all go off... at the same time!" Joanne’s voice sounded as frustrated as she felt.
"Three o'clock? Oh, Man! When it rains it pours in your hometown, right Lundy?"
Levon ignored his partner, his heart racing. "Seven Bombs! Holy Mary mother of God!"
"How much is he asking for?"
"Who cares, Joe Bill? The man set SEVEN BOMBS to blow up all over OUR city! We’re gonna get him without paying a penny, you’ll see! We’ll get his ass or my name will cease to be Joseph La Fiamma!!"
"’Cause you’ll be all dead!" McCandless said.
"Right!"
Joanne frowned. "Well, I applaud your enthusiasm Detective, but how are we gonna get his ass if we ain’t got the slightest clue where to begin?"
"But we do, Lieutenant!"
"We do?" Everyone stared at La Fiamma. Only Lundy knew what the man was talking about.
"Yep, we do. Lundy, give the lady that list the store guy gave us!"
"What’s this?"
"A list of materials purchased by the suspect, we thought nothing could be traced back but we was wrong! After much discussion back in the car we discovered a glitch in the man’s plan. He’s French!"
"That’s a glitch?"
"Not in Canada it ain’t!" Joe Bill replied.
Levon half sat on the table and began explaining. "Y’see, those parts on the list don’t include the TH-17, no surprise there, but there’s also no mention of the titanium loop detonator we found in the fountain. You know why? ‘Cause it’s sold only in Asia! More to the point in South Korea!"
Joey continued from there. "So we went to investigate any packages coming from South Korea and it turns out that one was delivered two weeks ago to an address downtown. What do you know? So, we went there and guess what? The landlord identified the suspect! French accent and all!... The guy moved out a week ago, but no one has lived in that apartment yet... so we took a forensics team to the scene and got a very nice pair of fingerprints. They were not in the national database, so..."
"He ain’t got a record!" Joe Bill pointed out.
"Or..." La Fiamma continued.
"He’s French!" Lundy smiled. "Carol is on the phone with the French Police right now."
A very surprised Joanne Beaumont put her hands on her hips. She couldn’t believe these two! "And you hadn’t told me anything about that because..."
"We was gonna, Joanne... but when we came in here to report all of it, you slapped us with the Seven Bombs thing!"
She took a deep breath and sat in front of the big meeting room table, trying to relax. "Fine!" she finally said, "Since you two are so smart, can you tell me what we’ll be doing next?"
"We wait for the French Police?"
"No, La Fiamma, we don’t wait at all!" she was back in Lieutenant mode, "We go out and comb the city for those bombs! I’ll let you know when Carol has something! Now, git!""
"Yes ma’am!"
They headed out.
"Jeez!" Levon said.
"I know!" Joey replied.
Joe Bill scanned the place, looking for Gutierrez. "I don’t know... You think we’ll get him in time, La Fiamma?"
"You can bet your cowboy hat we will!!!" Joey stopped by his desk to retrieve his guns from the drawer. "I’m more than pissed at this guy!"
When they got into the elevator, Levon recalled the words Joey said back in the meeting room.
"OUR city, La Fiamma? I’m touched! I didn’t know you cared!"
"Yeah, well... I live here now don’t I? I’m Italian... with time I tend to nest!"
"And then you become a pest!"
"Yeah, and don’t you ever forget that!"
"How could I, son? How could I?"
Outside, a lot of timers began ticking.
Tick
Tick
Tick
Tick
Tick
Tick
Chapter 2, Lesson 3 – (Summary) Distribution of massive destruction organized systems
"Hey, La Fiamma!" Levon Lundy finished talking on the radio of his Red Jimmy and called to his approaching partner who had stepped into a store to buy something to drink.
"Yo!" Joey got in the car and gave Levon a Styrofoam cup with a lid.
"Gutierrez called. They found one in Hunter’s Creek, behind a restaurant, near the gas station. A cook saw it while taking out the trash."
"Oh, man! A gas station? This guy ain’t playing around!"
"Didya ever think he was?"
"I didn’t think anything!" Joey said, "I just hope we find them in time, it's getting late!"
Levon didn't answer.
"What about that report in that movie theater?" Joey asked, "Did they tell you what happened?"
"Bomb Squad’s on it." The Texan took a sip of his beverage, "They called in spare bomb experts from all over the state, they even called Austin for Federal reinforcements but Esteban said that only a couple of three-man teams have arrived."
"That plus our own five guys... makes eleven, two guys a piece... there ain’t enough!"
"I’m impressed! You didn’t have a girlfriend in fourth grade, La Fiamma?"
"I’ve always been good at math, Lundy!"
"Not when you gotta girlfriend!"
"Shut up!"
"92-14... 92-14..." the radio suddenly called again.
Levon gave his partner a dreaded look and answered. "Ninety-two Fourteen here."
"92-14, we have a report of a 5-11 at Belmont and Yellowstone, near your last reported location."
"Yeah, affirmative. We’re three blocks from there."
"Captain Taggert is waiting for you at the scene."
"Roger. 91-14, out!"
Levon turned on the engine and stepped on the accelerator. "Damn it!" he swore.
Joey put on his sunglasses. "Four more to go!" he said.
Tick
Tick
Tick
Tick
At Belmont and Yellowstone was a park full of people and surrounded by office buildings, banks and stores of every kind. There were at least five or six hundred potential victims just in one corner. This was getting worse by the minute.
"Captain Taggert!" Joey called the tall dark man, "Where’s the response team? This place should be evacuated by now!"
"Didn’t you get the latest?" Taggert was adjusting his armored vest. "The guy called again, right after the first device was found. He said if we evacuate any of the places where the bombs are, he’d detonate the bombs. All of’em!"
"Son of a Bitch!" Lundy and Joey both exclaimed at the same time.
"What’s the deal with this guy?" La Fiamma yelled.
"Apparently, twenty million dollars is the deal. If the Mayor don’t deliver in less than an hour and thirty minutes... boom!"
"Don’t say boom, will ya?" Levon took off his hat and swept the sweat drops off his forehead with the back of his hand.
"Why?"
"He sees it as bad luck!" Joey answered. "So, what’s up with this bomb, can you defuse it?"
"My guys are working on it. They are spraying Nitrogen on the detonator now."
"Okay, so what are we doing here?"
"I need you two to see to the other one we found."
"Another one?"
"Yeah, it’s on the top of the ‘William T. Farnsworth Physical Rehabilitation Clinic’ on El Paso Boulevard."
"On the top floor?"
"On the roof. Apparently, it’s got wires to every floor of the building. We’re trying to find a way to take the patients to safety without the guy finding out, but we’re runnin’ out of time!"
"And you want US because..."
"We’re short on men as well, and you two proved quite capable on that shopping mall on Friday!"
"But, Captain..."
"No buts... I need you... we need you. Go on, do your thing!"
"Uh... Captain," Levon looked at Joey nervously and then blurted out a confession, "Uh... Sir, last time we had a text book to help us!"
"A text book?"
"Norwell’s Manual!"
Taggert stared at the two sergeants before him and suddenly busted out laughing. "What?"
They kept silent.
"Oh, brother, you guys kill me!" he chuckled, "You brought a text book?"
"Yeah, but we don’t have one now!"
Without another word, Taggert approached his parked vehicle and opened the trunk. He rummaged inside, still chuckling, and took out a book. "Here, I never thought of that... use this one, it’s much better than Norwell’s pocket book."
La Fiamma was speechless.
"Much obliged!" Levon said, half surprised half embarrassed.
Taggert kept laughing silently and gave both men a toolbox and some chemical containers. "Here, you’ll need that. Now go! We have little time!"
"Yes, sir!"
They started out to the Jimmy in silence when Taggert called again. "Hey Lundy, La Fiamma!"
"Yeah?"
"Bringing the book... That’s the smartest thing I’ve seen someone do!" he wasn’t chuckling anymore, just smiling. "Don’t blow yourselves up, you have potential!"
"We’ll do, Cap!" La Fiamma answered this time.
They got into the car.
"See? He said I was smart!" Levon grinned.
"That’s because he’s never seen you trying to hit on a woman!"
"Shut up!"
Chapter 2, Lesson 4 - Different kinds of containers
It was a long way. At least 15 to 20 minutes without traffic, and there was traffic!
The shortest route from Belmont to El Paso Boulevard was going through Alameda, one of the richest and most exclusive parts of the city. With it’s wide streets, it’s nice, big houses, trees, parks and beautiful people, Alameda was the place where Movie stars and people who owned things like Oil Companies chose to live.
It was a nice place where streets had a speed limit of 25 MPH, and right now Levon was breaking every possible law cruising through the garden-surrounded streets.
"Lundy, you’re gonna kill somebody! This is a residential area, you can’t go this fast!"
"We don’t have the time to..."
"Lundy!"
"Ye’r right, I’m being stupid."
"Always!" Joey smiled as Levon slowed down to a decent speed.
"Ha, ha!"
"Hey! Wait a minute!"
"What?"
"I have a bad feeling!"
Lundy slowed down but didn’t stop. "Why?"
"Something wasn’t right back at that intersection."
"Why?"
"Just go back, will you?"
"La Fiamma, we don’t have the time..."
"Go back, Lundy!"
"There’s a BOMB on top of a clinic full of people, La Fiamma!"
"I know, go back!"
Levon slammed the steering wheel in frustration and hit the brakes. One minute later they were back up the street, in front of a big building that looked like a school.
"What?" Lundy stopped the Jimmy, "What the hell is it, La Fiamma?"
"A trailer."
"Yeah, so?"
"It’s just a feeling... I hate this feeling!" Joey mumbled as he got out of the truck and started inspecting the big vehicle. No one was inside, no one around. The school was full of children, they both could hear them.
Joey carefully tried to open the driver’s cabin and found the door open.
"Weird!"
He examined the truck tractor cabin, the bad feeling wouldn’t leave him, he didn't find anything suspicious and suddenly felt stupid. Then he didn’t have time to regret it, because Levon called him from the back of the trailer and everything went to hell.
"La Fiamma!"
He stepped back and saw Levon examining the back doors. There was a red wire below the middle going down and dissappearing below the box. Lundy gave Joey a meaningful look. "I’m starting to get your bad feelin’!"
"Oh, Shit!" Joey said. "I wouldn’t doubt this, you know?"
"Neither would I... what now?"
"WE have to open the doors."
"I know that... how will we do that without causing damage?"
"He hasn’t put any security traps on any of his other bombs!"
"Yeah? And how would you know that, La Fiamma?"
"Taggert would have told us!"
"He mighta forgot!"
"Well, maybe this is just another trailer..."
"Yep, just another abandoned trailer parked in the middle of a suburban area right next to a school full of kids... La Fiamma..."
"Yeah, without a reason or a driver..."
"La Fiamma... what time is school over?"
"What?"
"School! These kids have to come out sometime!"
"Oh Shit!" Joey exclaimed, shaking his head, "I’m betting your hat and Joe Bill’s that it’s at three o’clock!"
"Damn!" Levon looked around the deserted place, "How long?"
"About an hour!"
"Damn again!"
"We have to open these doors, Lundy!"
"I know!"
Levon went back to the truck and got Taggert’s book out. He searched for something in it while Joey followed the red cable down under the trailer.
"Yo! Lundy!" he finally yelled.
"Yeah?"
"Open the doors!"
"What?"
"Just do it!"
"But, La Fiamma..."
"The wire goes into the speed meter, it’s a trap for if you try to move the vehicle, open the doors!"
"You’re sure!"
"Open the doors, Lundy!"
Levon proceeded to open the door. He closed his eyes, waiting for the worst.
Nothing happened.
Joey got out from under the box and helped Levon open them completely. What they saw made them wish they hadn’t even seen the trailer in the first place.
"Oh, shit!"
"The entire school is gonna be rubble pie! This is enough to take out the entire block!"
"Probably not, La Fiamma... it looks bigger than what it is!" Lundy carefully climbed inside and studied the trigger mechanism right in front of him, "I calculate it will take... hmm... about half a block!"
"Oh, wow! I can rest easy now!" Joey tried to think of a way to get the children out of the school without alerting the bomber. "Do you think he’s watching us?"
"Do you want to take the chance?"
Joey shook his head, the bad feeling sinking inside his stomach. "I’m gonna call for backup!" he said, but was stopped by Lundy’s Texan voice before he started to leave.
"I’ll be damned!"
"What is it?"
"It’s just like the one we haven’t been able to deactivate... it’s a Marauder Type."
"You mean the kind that has blown us up four times?"
"Uuuhuh!" Levon looked at his partner and for the first time found an ounce of hope.
Joey stood by the trailer, his eyes unreadable. He picked up the book that Levon had left on the floor and opened it. His eyes flew to the appropriate page and he frowned. "Lundy," he said, "Do you remember what I wanted to do to deactivate it that last time?"
"Um... you mean make a bridge to the power source without disturbing the CDR magnetic seal and connect the energy source to a fake receptor?"
"You’ve been studying!" Joey exclaimed.
"Yeah, well, I’m tired of going to school with you!"
"Right, well... don’t do it!"
"Don’t make a bridge to the power source without disturbing the CDR magnetic seal?"
"No."
"Why?"
"I was wrong!"
"But the instructor said you were right!"
"He didn’t hear me correctly, I wasn’t thinking about the stalling circuit!"
"You've been studying too?"
"I'm tired of going to school at all!"
"Okay!"
"Disarm the first layer, just like in class and then make the bridge across the CDR, that will turn off the circuit and defuse it!"
"You sure?"
"It’s right here in the book!"
"Let me see..." Levon leaned over to see the book when Joey’s words downed on him. "Waitaminute!" he looked at his partner, "Why are you givin’ me instructions?"
"We have no time, Lundy! This procedure takes like half an hour, we’ve done it four times already, remember?"
"Yeah, but..."
"You know how to do this, Man, you’ve been there, but you have to admit... I’m way better at this than you!"
"I never said otherwise, son, where are you goin’ with this?"
"I’m goin’ to El Paso Boulevard, Lundy!"
Levon stared at his friend’s intense blue eyes. He was right. They had to do it! No matter what happened, they had to try. Levon sadly realized that this could very well be the last time they talked to each other. He cleared his throat.
"La Fiamma... Joe..." he corrected, "I... don’t you get killed, y’hear?"
Joey saw the same fear he felt himself painted all over his friend’s face and, instantly, he too realized the reality of this situation. They were two cops with limited explosives training trying to figure out how to save hundreds of lives. The odds were not good. "I don’t intend to die..." he said, unsure... "Hey, I won’t if you don’t!"
"Deal!"
"Promise, Lundy!"
The words caught Levon by surprise, it was as if they were not here, but somewhere else... in a place beyond their cold maturity and without the disguises that came with adulthood. It was as if they were not two grown up cops terrified beyond words of their own inability, but two ten year olds scared to death of the future.
He smiled at his friend. "You betcha!... I promise, now beat it!"
"Here’s the book!"
"You take it withya, I know what to do!"
"But..."
"La Fiamma!"
"Yeah!"
"You ain’t THAT good."
They stared at each other for a moment. Joey finally caved.
"Fine, give me the damn book!"
The Italian grabbed a couple of tools from the toolbox Taggert gave them and left the rest for his partner. Then he got in the truck and called for help. Hopefully, Levon would have the thing under control before backup arrived. As he drove off in Lundy's Jimmy, he tried to calm down his breathing. He was on his own now, but the thing he feared the most was not to go to a strange place to disarm a strange bomb... but to turn out to be better than Levon at it.
END OF PART ONE