Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"PIPE BOMBS. PACKED in cardboard boxes," morgan explained, passing around a large photo of bomb fragments. there had been an explosion this morning, and a man had been injured.
"package bombs," hotch suggested.
"no. the other picture in your hand is of the switch that atf found. same mechanism for both bombs, mercury-activated."
"what does that mean?" vivian asked, her brows furrowing.
"there are contacts to a detonator on either side of a bent tube full of mercury," spencer explained, eager to impress.
"what it means is all you have to do is tilt the package to detonate it," morgan continued.
"so they couldn't have been sent through the mail," elle concluded. "the bomber had to deliver them himself."
"exactly."
"strange way to commit an act of terrorism," hotch said quietly. "why go to all this trouble just to kill a few people?"
"let's recommend not raising the terror alert level for now," gideon decided and vivian nodded in agreement. "no reason to spread panic."
"we got news," jj announced, striding into the room and turning the tv on. "this is just a local channel, but the coverage is everywhere now―cnn, fox, msnbc, al-jazeera, you name it."
"so much for not spreading panic," vivian joked, earning a small smile from spencer.
jj turned the audio on the tv up a little so they could hear the woman speaking. "... but in stable condition in the icu. now, neighbors said they heard a blast at about 10:30 this morning, and police arrived..."
gideon sighed and shook his head. "if dhs doesn't raise the terror alert now, they'll look weak."
"make sure homeland security knows this is everywhere," hotch told jj, sounding exhausted.
vivian was still watching the tv, so she was the first person to see the explosion. she startled slightly, her eyes widening. "oh, shit!" she yelped, subconsciously reaching for spencer's arm and squeezing it.
the rest of the team was also startled, but elle wasn't surprised enough that she couldn't send a pointed glance at vivian's hand holding his arm. vivian quickly removed her hand once she realized what she was doing. in her rush, she failed to notice how red his face had gotten and how his face fell slightly when she let go.
"looks like we're going to palm beach," hotch said, shaking his head. "let's meet at the airstrip in 20."
˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥
"bombings occurred within 3 miles of each other," hotch read out of his case file, pacing across the jet. "first victim was a 74-year-old widow, barbara keller. two hours after that, clurman got hit in his driveway, and 45 minutes later... well, we all saw that. jill swenson, 34-year-old housewife who lived across the street from clurman. of the three, only clurman survived."
