Scorpion's New EQ

Chapter 8

The rest of the week went by pretty quick. Everyday after school, Paige would pick up Ralph and I and we would go to the garage. There weren't any cases that we had to attend to so we were all able to relax and enjoy each other's company.

It was Friday, and Paige had picked up Ralph and I from school and we were going to the garage. Once we pulled up, we noticed that there was an FBI vehicle parked outside and two agents on either side of the door.

"What's going on?" I asked quietly. Paige didn't answer, she just opened the door and got out. With a moment of hesitation, Ralph and I followed.

"Paige and Ralph Dineen? Taylor O'Brien?" One of the agents asked.

"Yes. What is going on?" Paige asked quickly. Neither of the agents answered, they just opened the door and allowed us to go inside.

Once I walked through the door, I saw Cabe, Walter, and Happy gathered around something sitting on a table. Three FBI agents stood near the wall watching intently. Sylvester and Toby stood near Sylvester's desk with nervous looks.

At first nobody noticed us, but then Sylvester lifted his head and saw Paige.

"Paige, I can think of 251 ways that this could go wrong," Sylvester called to us. There was a quick beep from the object everyone was gathered around and Sylvester quickly added, "Actually, make that 253."

"Guys, what's going on?" I asked and approached Cabe, Walter, and Happy.

Happy was the only one that turned to answer me, "There was a bomb found in a school building, and as far as we know, it's not activated," Happy moved aside so I could see the box like bomb on the table.

"So if it's not activated, what's it doing here?" I asked, walking to the table. Walter had a panel open and was looking at all the different wires.

"There was a small chance it could have been activated," Cabe answered.

I rolled my eyes, "Yes, so bring it here."

Walter's eyes widened and he lifted his head. In his hand was a small chip. "There's more of them," he said.

"Make that 257!" Sylvester called to us quickly.

"Wait, how many more?" Happy asked and grabbed the chip from Walter.

"At least two. We'd need to track the chip to tell for sure," Walter said, taking back the chip.

"Those things have got to be activated by now! How are we supposed to find them in such a short amount of time?" Toby asked, finally joining us.

"Assuming that these chips are the same, we can track them by their codes," I said and grabbed my laptop out of my backpack.

"Good thinking, Taylor. Give me your laptop and I can get the chip connected," Walter said and I handed my laptop over to him.

"So once we figure out where the bombs are, are we just going to run in to get them? They could blow any second," Paige pointed out.

"Once Taylor can pinpoint these things, she should be able to hack into them and get the time. The only issue is, it could be off by ten seconds," Walter said. With that he handed me my laptop back.

Without anything else I began searching for the code and then tracking it. Like Walter had assumed, two places were pinpointed.

"Uh, we have a slight issue!" I said as I noticed the location of one of the bombs.

Happy was the first one over to me. She took one look at the location and said, "How the hell did they get a bomb into the FBI building?"

That was enough for the three FBI agents to widen their eyes and start to head for the door.

"Wait!" Cabe called after them, "How are you going to disarm them once you find them?" The agents stopped completely and allowed Cabe to continue, "Take Happy and Sylvester. They'll know what to do."

Happy quickly moved away from me but stopped and turned towards me again. "How long do we have?" She asked.

I immediately went to hacking into the bomb. Once I did I quickly said, "Twenty two minutes, thirty eight seconds."

Happy nodded a quick thanks to me and went to get her jacket. Sylvester's eyes widened and I could tell that he had begun to count down in his head.

"Where's the other one?" Cabe asked me. I did same thing, and pinpointed the exact location of the bomb.

I narrowed my eyes and looked at the place. "It's in the hotel down the street," I said.

"The Elixr?" Toby asked and I nodded. Immediately everyone was moving around. As I looked closer at the blinking red dot in the blueprint-like building, I noticed something.

"Cabe, it's in an air vent," I said and swung around in my chair to look at him. His eyes narrowed for a moment and then he took a breath.

"Taylor, you might be the only one small enough to get inside the air vent. How much time do we have?" Cabe asked.

I had already hacked through and as the time popped up on the screen, everyone began to hurry. Thirteen minutes and twenty three seconds.

I quickly jumped out of the chair and listened to Walter give quick instructions.

"Cabe, Toby, Taylor. You guys and I are going to retrieve the bomb. Paige, I hate to leave you out of this, but this is too dangerous and you need to stay here with Ralph," Walter said, the last part directly to Paige. Paige didn't object, she just did a quick nod.

As we were going out the door, Paige stopped me, "Be careful. Please."

"When am I not?" I said with a smile. Then I turned and left the garage, following behind Walter, Cabe, and Toby.

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Author's Note

Not the longest chapter I've ever written, sorry. I've had a lot of things to do today but I really wanted to get a new chapter up for you guys. I hope you like it!