Gods and Monsters

VII

Trafalgar Square, London

The sun continued to shine down over London as it had back in Chalfont. The blue sky was cloudless and clear unlike the streets surrounding the city. Getting to Trafalgar Square had been an absolute nightmare. Traffic was backed up due to the diversions, forcing Peggy to park her car a few streets away and jog over with Charlie. Clearing one of London's main tourist attractions was never going to prove easy, but with a bomb right in the centre, Peggy figured that people would have a bit more common sense to leave the area. Charlie had even pointed out a group of young tourists taking selfies with the bomb in the background.

The bag which the bomb had been found in was between the two fountains, right in the heart of the area. Prime location for attention. The question that would be going through a lot of people's heads would understandably be who would want to commit this act of terror. Fingers would be pointed in the obvious places, and a whole outbreak of accusations and scandals would follow in the weeks after, no matter whether the bomb went off or not.

A plainclothes bomb defusal specialist crouched down next to it and was working on stopping the explosion as Peggy and Charlie worked their way around the perimeter of the area, meeting up with Yates, Mike and Atlin. Even from up here, just outside the National Gallery overlooking the bomb, the group could see the young woman working her hardest on saving countless lives. Peggy couldn't even begin to imagine the pressure the woman would be facing. Not only having all the people in person watching you, but the eyes of the worldwide media bearing down on you, as various news outlet helicopters began to circle the otherwise clear sky above.

"This is a bloody nightmare," Mike said. "how'd someone manage to just leave a bomb in the centre of London?" His tie hung loosely around his neck, and he wiped a few beads of sweat off his head, caused by a mix of the summer heat and the stress of the whole situation.

"CCTV footage shows a hooded figure placing the bag down before taking a photograph of Nelson's Column and leaving without picking the bag up. I guess if you saw that at the time, you might think it was a simple mistake, but people grew suspicious and now we're here." Atlin answered. She seemed a little more composed as she spoke, although inside she was just as nervous as all the others. Atlin had only been a teenager at the time of the 7/7 bombings, so this would likely have been her first real taste of this sort of scenario. At least this time, they could prepare.

Peggy checked her watch. 13:04. "How long until the bomb goes off?"

It was Yates' turn to answer. "The bomb tech is reporting that the bomb has another fourteen minutes to go until detonation." He continued to stare straight ahead as he spoke, his face unmoving. Peggy remembered Yates was one of the detectives investigating the 7/7 bombings and was even part of the team that caught one of the terrorists responsible.

"And the radius of the explosion?"

"Unknown. The bomb specialist down on the ground is reporting that the bomb is like none she's ever seen. We're waiting on more bomb specialists to arrive, but in this traffic I'm not sure we're going to have much luck."

Peggy felt her heart sink at this. Obviously, the priority was getting the bomb defused, but if that no longer became an option, there was no chance that the police would be able to clear all these civilians away in time.

"I don't suppose we can just choose between a red and a blue wire either?" Charlie added before taking a sip of tea from his flask, but his comment went unanswered. "What's the bomb tech doing in plainclothes anyway?" He instead decided to enquire.

"Bomb squad can't make it through the traffic and Gemma, the girl on the ground, is a bomb defusal specialist having served in Afghan and Iraq before moving closer to home. She was nearby when reports came in about the bomb so we figured that she's our best shot for now." Yates answered.