Captured By The Mercenaries

My backpack could house the C4 bricks that everything was strapped to. It would be more comfortable carrying it that way than in a large box.

We’d have to take the glass container by hand. It was housing the bio agents and dropping it would still result in a bad day. A very bad day. It was better that way anyway since it was so delicate and dangerous.

I picked up a screwdriver and with steady hands, I dismounted the glass casing and separated it from the C4. Gingerly, I handed that over to Sig.

He took it and went to stand nearby, cradling it in his arms as though it was a baby and not a container filled with toxic chemicals.

With that done, I focused back on the wires. Carefully, I removed them and tossed them into the box nearby. I dismantled the timer and handed that back to Arsen. “Can you put it with the wires?” I asked, eyes still glued to the C4.

I hadn’t said anything to them, but in the debriefing one of the things they’d told me was that the bomber—i.e. Roj—liked to set the C4 on a secondary IED. That way, if anyone tried to pick it up and move it, the secondary bomb would explode in their face and set off the larger bomb.

“Arsen,” I asked. “Do you have a knife?”

He handed over a pocket knife and I used the blade to cut the duct tape holding the bricks together. I had no way of knowing if there was another bomb until I cleared away the C4, but if there was it was sitting on a pressure plate. The weight lifting off the plate is what would trigger the bomb to explode.

I could only hope since Roj hadn’t planted the bomb himself—Rafe had mentioned he was still at the compound—and how quickly his men had dropped it off and left, that they hadn’t set something else up. If he really did all the work himself, then he would’ve had to have been here to set up the secondary explosive. It wasn’t something that you could pre-package.

Swallowing hard, I shifted the blocks, doing my best to move them as little as possible. From what I could tell there was no plate. Holding my breath, I picked up the first brick. Nothing. I dragged over my back pack and stowed it away. One by one, I packed away the C4 until the entire IED was dismantled and ready for transport.

“You planning on bringing that with us?” Arsen asked, doubt heavy in his tone.

“It could come in really handy,” I told him with a smile. “I can rebuild it within minutes.”

“Really?” Rafe asked, then an evil smile spread over his face. “Maybe it’s time we gave Roj a taste of his own medicine.”

“My thoughts exactly,” I replied, matching his wicked smile.

“Minus this shit, though…right?” Sig asked, hefting the glass tube in his arms to make his point.

“Right,” I said with a laugh. “No one needs to be messing around with that stuff.”

“What’re we going to do with it?” Arsen asked.

I tilted my head as I thought. “I’m not sure, but we’ll think of something.” I stood up and picked up the back pack.

Rafe took it from me and slipped it on. Arsen picked up the cardboard box and Sig still had the glass container.

“We’ll figure it out on the way,” Rafe said. “Let’s get out of here. The lack of explosion and death will make its way back to Roj. They’ll know we were here.”

I cast a glance around, peering into the darkened corners of the alleys as I followed my men out onto the street. Relief poured off of every step. This had been a close one.