Spy School: Crash of Canada (#1)

Chapter 13 - Bomb Diffusion

SPYDER's Headquarters

Toronto, Canada

February 7th

0600 Hours

Even with Erica driving 3 times the speed limit, it still took us 30 mins to get to SPYDER's headquarters in Toronto's morning traffic. 

"Erica!!" Catherine had screamed during the drive. "Be careful, or you will hit someone!!"

To which Erica countered, "So, I'll kill a few people to save millions.? What's the big deal?"

The two of them had kept bickering all the way up until we arrived at SPYDER's HQ. Catherine had then given us radio earpieces to keep in touch while inside the building. I tried to protest that I would only get in the way in an attempt to just stay behind. Unfortunately, Catherine had insisted I go with Erica because I was the only one who knew where the bomb was, and we were running out of time. 

Erica lead the way up to the door. Our old tactic for getting the code wasn't  going to work this time. Instead, Erica removed a small taser form her utility belt. She flicked it on and order me to stand back. She threw the taser at the keypad and ducked behind a tree next to me. As usual, her aim was spot on, nailing the keypad, the taser causing it to short out and explode. Erica and I ran up to the door, and together we were able to pry it open enough for us to slip inside. 

"We're in," Erica said to Catherine through the radio.

"Great!" Catherine replied. "Have you located the bomb yet?"

Just as she asked this, I noticed the door which we had passed while running for our lives. I was pretty sure this was where the bomb was, considering the ticking noise coming form behind the door. 

"Yes," I told Catherine while picking the lock on the door.

Erica and I slipping inside the room just to be faced with a large metal cylinder with at least 50 different colorful wires. 

"What kind of bomb is it?" Catherine asked.

"A C4-YN-60 by the looks of it," Erica told her. "Maybe built in 1941?"

"Oh," Catherine said. "Never in all my days of spying have I had to defuse a bomb as complicated as that."

"You mean you don't know how to defuse this??" I asked, worriedly.

"It would be a lot easier if I could see it," Catherine replied. "But I can still give you guidance."

Erica got to her knees in front of the bomb, I did the same. There were only 5 minutes left on the timer. Erica began studying the explosive carefully. I simply sat to the side, as bomb diffusion was a class limited to 4th, 5th, and 6th year students. 

"Alright children," Catherine said over the radio. "I am going to need you to pull the blue, then red, and lastly yellow, wires."

"Only one problem with that," Erica said. "There are 14 blue, 7 red, and 11 yellow, along with a dozen other colors."

"That does seem to be a problem," Catherine replied. "How about the timer?"

"90 seconds left..!" I said, growing even more worried. "Can't we try dismantling the timer?"

"We can try" Erica said. "But if we do anything wrong, we, and half of Toronto are all dead."

I considered this. But then I was struck my an idea. 60 seconds left.

"Erica," I said. "Last time we defused a bomb, there was a metal case over it, maybe this is the same way.?"

Erica considered this, then figured we would probably die anyway and had nothing to lose. She grabbed one side of the metal cylinder, and I grabbed the other. Together, we lifted the metal case off of the bomb, to reveal the true guts of it. All of the colorful wires on top were just decoys. 45 seconds left. Erica's ice blue eyes went wide with surprise. She dropped back down to the floor in front of the bomb and began carefully pulling the wires out in the order that Catherine had said. 30 seconds left. I got down on my knees as well to help her. 20 seconds left.

All of the wires were now off, laying on the floor around us. Erica grabbed the timer and tried to yank it free, so that the bomb wouldn't detonate. Unfortunately, the timer was not only connect with 6 wires, but also glued onto the bomb itself. Murray's handiwork. 10 seconds left. I saw the tiniest bit of panic cross Erica's face as I came to help her rip the timer off. 5 seconds left. We pulled as hard as we could. 4, 3, 2, 1, and- with one final tug, the timer came free and our momentum sent us staggering backward. But we were alive. I opened my eyes, having shut them in fear when the timer hit 1 second. Toronto was not leveled. I was still alive, leaning against the door next to Erica.

"Erica?? Benjamin???" Catherine called through the radio. "Is everything alright? Did you defuse the bomb??"

Erica turned to me, it looked as though she couldn't help but smile. I found that I was smiling myself. She dropped the broken pieces of timer and threw her arms around me. I was thrown by such a gesture from Erica, but took advantage of every second of it, wrapping my arms around her as well.

"Something bad must of happened," I heard Catherine said on the other side of the radio. "Zoe, Micheal stay here, I am going in."

"We're fine, Mom," Erica replied. "We defused the bomb and are coming out now."

Erica released me and smiled. She took my hand as we walked back out of SPYDER's headquarters where Catherine, Mike, and Zoe were waiting for us in the car. 

Erica turned to me and said, "Tell anyone I hugged you in there and-" 

"-You'll kill me." I finished. "I know the drill."

Catherine threw her arms around us as we made it to the car.

"You had me worried back there," She said. "Not responding is a big no-no in the spy biz!"

"Sorry," I said. "Taking in that you are alive after defusing a bomb has an effect on you."

I purposely left out the part about Erica hugging me, as I had just survived defusing a bomb and didn't want to die to Erica. 

"Alright," Catherine said. "Let's get some food, and back to a hotel for some rest."

With that, we all piled into the car again and drove to the nearest hotel.