Catch A Tiger By The Tail (THIRDS 6)

“I have a visual on the device,” Ethan said as he gingerly removed the roll of cables.

“Affirmative.” Calvin spoke into his earpiece. “Sloane, Sarge, Ethan has a visual.”

“Keep me posted,” Sloane replied.

“Got it.”

The door burst open, and Ethan stared at the couple in expensive suits as they sucked face and grabbed at each other’s clothes. Are you fucking kidding me? Ethan ignored the two and went back to work inspecting the device in front of him while Calvin tried to get the couple to leave.

“Folks, I need you to evacuate the building,” Calvin told them.

“You scared the shit out of me, man.”

“Sir, miss, you need to leave right now. There’s a possible incendiary device in the building.”

The yuppie in the thousand-dollar suit sneered at Calvin. “It’s a drill. We get these all the time.”

“Sir, please, I need you to head for the exit as quick as you can. This is not a drill.”

“Yeah, give me five minutes.”

“Sir—”

“Hey, you work for the government, right? Which means I pretty much pay your salary. So you can wait a minute.”

Uh-oh. Ethan smiled to himself as he removed the Packbot from his vest so he felt less constricted. From the corner of his eye, he saw Calvin’s nostrils flare.

“Get out of the building now!” Calvin barked, his hand going to his rifle.

The guy nearly shit himself as he took off. His girlfriend swiftly followed.

“Un-fucking-believable.” Calvin shook his head before joining Ethan. “What have we got?”

“Let’s find out.” Ethan removed his knife from his belt and inspected the edges of the lid before slowly inserting the blade underneath one corner. The lid wasn’t wired, simply an outer casing. Carefully he removed it and cursed under his breath. The explosive was nestled inside a shitload of C-4. He removed his smartphone to snap a few pictures of it just in case. His phone would send the images to his desk interface, where he could analyze them later for more information on who put this together.

“It has antihandling measures. A mercury tilt switch. I need to lower the temperature. It’ll take a few seconds,” Ethan said, grabbing his kit containing the dry ice. “You need to go.”

“Fuck. Okay. How long do you have?”

“Four minutes and thirteen seconds.”

Calvin relayed the information to Sloane before turning to Ethan. “Get it done and be safe.” Calvin kissed his cheek before running off.

As quickly as he could without compromising himself, Ethan removed the dry ice rocks with his tweezers and one by one placed them on the tilt switch, watching as the temperature steadily dropped. With each degree, seconds ticked by.

“Come on.” As soon as it hit the temperature he needed, he used his knife to lift the clock, revealing the wires underneath. He was familiar with this device. Carefully he snipped the blue wire, and the clock turned off. With a sigh, he tapped his earpiece when he heard a faint beep.

Calvin’s voice came over his earpiece. “Ethan, what’s your status?”

“The device has been disarmed.” He quickly walked down the wall of servers, listening to the beep. Something was wrong.

“That’s great. We’ll send in Disposal.”

“Wait.” Ethan rounded the corner. He scanned every server, and then he saw it. One of the servers had a disconnected wire. The light was flashing to indicate the loss in connection. Someone had tampered with it. “Shit.”

“Ethan?”

“There’s another device.” Ethan pulled out the shelf and inspected the box. It was identical to the other one. He slipped his knife under the lid and gently pulled it off.