Ticking Away Part 5

6 weeks later...

He sat in front of the board, it was 6:45 in the morning. This was way earlier than the time he needed to be at the office at, the others would be there at 8:00. He sat in front of a nearly empty board with only a map on it, "Place location of Cityhall bombings on map one," A red bomb appeared on the 3-D map, "Well, that was a regular bomb, so placing it there would cause the most damage, but an EMP bomb, how would that work?" He pulled out files on EMPs, the files he and Sarah had dug up a few weeks back, "The strongest go up to 750 meters in radius of the blast, so they would probably place it here," He tapped on the screen and made a point where it would be, "Draw line of 750 meters, create a circle around it," He stood in front of a problem, not just the bomb, but the range of the blast, "So all the bots and enhanced in the rally would die, meaning that most of the armed guards would die as well," He thought back to what Trevor Holt had told him, "The end of the bot and enhanced people, we know that they have received guns and ammo from external sources from Gallbatonia, I have you now, I know what you want to do, and I will do everything in my power to stop it," He said looking at the map, "If the rally is here, the bomb would be placed right, here, or in that region, and then the Nature's Children's men would be waiting in this point, this point, this point and this point, probably to surround the rally and the eliminate as many as they can," He paused and pulled out his phone, dialing Alex's number, "Hi Alex, sorry to disturb you."

"No, no, I am awake, tell me."

"Are you planning on going to the rally, in around a weeks time, for Bernard Hill?"

"Yes, why?"

"Okay, just asking."

"Is this about the thing you are working on?"

"Yes, well, I believe so."

"Oh, then I'll watch it on tv instead."

"Okay, thank you, Alex, I'll talk to you later, love you."

"I love you too, Will," He put down his phone as Mark sat down next to him. Will jumped as he did and Mark laughed.

"I didn't think you had time to find a relationship."

"Oh, yeah, well, I never told you, did I?"

"No, I don't believe so."

"I am in a relationship."

"With who?"

"Well, this is the weirder part, coming from me, with a bot."

"Oh, really?" He lifted his eyebrow then laughed, "Your life brother, ha, ha, ha! So what were you working on?"

"On the location of the bomb, I don't think that they are going to use it to kill the bots, but to paralyze them, then execute them."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I tried out my theory with a miniature EMP on my arm, and it cut the communicators from my arm to my brain, so I essentially had one less arm, this is the plan of the bomb, they are going to use it to maim the bots and then kill them."

"But there will be officers there."

"No communications, no enhanced or bot officers, that will be a problem."

"So you are saying we should pull off the rally? Like contact Ms. President?"

"No, I have a better plan."

"Okay, tell me, I'm all ears."

The rally day...

Mark and William were wearing full body armor and walked together with four officers in the darkened sewers of the city. They were looking for the bomb, as the rally had just begun, "Bomb-Signal right."

"Copy that," William took the lead and peaked his head down the hallway and then began to move, "Clear," He carried a simple pistol as his main gun with two more at the ready. The sewers were eerily quiet as only the drops of water and their footsteps broke the silence. The arrived in an intersection, two paths, and they were four, the two officers went together and Mark and William the other. The kept their guns at the ready as they continued heading towards the bomb signal, but there were two of them, the only thing that could explain it would be that there was a decoy. The signal went crazy as they arrived near a corner. William saw three men, armed to the teeth, standing around a weird-looking device, the bomb. William lifted his arm and then turned to Mark. He moved three fingers and then made an M, a W, an E and another 3, MWE-3's, anti-personnel rifles, rounds made to split in the body. William began screwing a silencer on his pistol and then walked to the other corner, "On my go," He mouthed to Mark, before showing the numbers with his fingers, 1, 2, 3. They both began moving in towards the men. William aimed at the men and fired twice, hitting one, but missing the second shot, he was off. Mark fired a volley of rounds at the men, killing the one William missed and hurting the last one. They waited, there was no other movement, at least, nothing they saw, "All clear, we found something," On the other side of the communicators gun fire sounded, "Shit, Mark, can you go help them?"

"Yeah, no worries, I'll be back as soon as I can," William place his gun in its holster and began opening the case of the bomb, revealing a massive bomb with hundreds of wires and a 16 minute timer, ticking down. He fired at the injured man's gun and pieced it as the man began laughing, coughing blood along with it.

"Pig, take this," He tossed him a notebook, "I was told to give it to the man who would try to disarm this bomb, no natural can answer it, fail and it blows, heh, heh, heh."

"Okay then," He fired once more, this time, his bullet did miss, finding its mark in his skull, "Fuck you," He opened the notebook and saw a list of 200 wires and screws, each with numbers or names that corresponded to wires on the bomb. He flipped a page and saw a detailed list about what to cut and unscrew, but the names of the pieces were questions, "How many screws does a bot have in their left forearm? What the hell? No wonder a natural can't answer that, um, what should I do?" He reached for the pocket that held his phone, "Mark, I found it."

"We found a dud, bomb teams should be there in 10, we are sending your location to you right now."

"I am defusing it, there isn't enough time for them to do everything."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, five years ago I didn't have the time, I have 13 and a half minutes left."

"Okay, then get to it," William began dialing a number on his phone.

"Will? What is going on?"

"I need your help with some things."

"Oh, okay, go ahead, I am listening."

"I have 100-ish questions."

"Oh god, go ahead."

"First," He placed the phone on the bomb and placed it in speaker mode and took a wire-cutter and a screwdriver from another pocket, "How many screws do you have in your left forearm?

"How many? 67."

"Okay, you sure?"

"Yes, I am sure," He found the wire labelled 67 and cut it, "Okay, it worked, um, next one, what was the hardest emotion to learn?"

"Pain."

"The hardest?"

"Yes, pain," He placed his screwdriver in the screw, "Love is close after it," She answered his next question before he had asked it and he began unscrewing, "Will?"

"Yeah, I am being careful, one second."

"What is going on?"

"I have a mass EMP in front of me, and I am trying to disarm it, and the Nature's Children have a book, I guess so that they could engage it, so I have to work backwards."

"Oh, okay, and I am the one who can help?"

"Yes, how many communicators do you have in your right bicep?"

"Right bicep? 2," William wiped sweat from his forehead and cut the wire labelled two, his heart skipped a beat again. He cut the wires slowly, and unscrewed the screws delicately as Alex answered his questions. His heart was racing with each cut and each rotation of his screwdriver. He had 1:30 left until the bomb would go off, "Will? What is the next question?"

"Um, well, I will take it from here, Alex, don't worry."

"I don't know if I can do that."

"Trust me."

"Okay," He placed the wire-cutter blades around the last wire he needed to cut and waited, "What is the last step?"

"It is to cut this wire, but I am going to wait."

"Wait for what?"

"Let me do this, please."

"Okay, do you want me to hang up?"

"No, but I won't talk much."

"Okay, I hope you make it."

"I won't repeat Cityhall 2142, this time, I have my time, and nothing else," His right, natural hand trembled, nearly enough to cut the wire. He took a hold of the cutters with his enhanced arm that did not tremble, "Come on, Will, you can do this," The timer was ticking down slowly, getting closer and closer to 00:00.

3, 2, 1, his hand closed and the wire separated, cut through the middle, the timer never reached zero. The core of the bomb unlocked and William removed the tiny activator of the bomb before placing it on the floor and shooting it, shattering it and the only way to detonate the bomb, "It didn't go off," He picked up his phone, "Thank you Alex, I'll speak to you later," He hung up on Alex before sprinting to the ladder that lead to the surface, to Cityhall, "Mark? Where are you?"

"We are with the military on the surface, we arrested the gunmen that you feared, some are neutralized, but the others are in cuffs now" He said, "Did you get rid of the bomb?" He stopped with one foot on the ladder, "Will? Did you defuse it?"

"Yeah, I did," He said exhaling and walking back to the bomb room, "Tell the bomb team to get here still," He fell back and leaned against the metal frame that was the bomb, "It is harmless now."

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I am good, it is just exhausting to do all that," He looked at his hands and laughed, "I redeemed myself."

"See you soon, Will."

"Is the rally still going on?"

"Yep, we caught out the vans that were transporting the gunmen."

"Good, good, Gallbatonia has a better chance now."