The Human Inside

Chapter 18

Two Hours Later

Center-point Energy Plaza Building: Forty Seventh Floor

    A loud crash filled the room of the empty floor. The door flew off the hinges and 917 sprinted into the room alone. He briefly looked to the right and to the left. His scanner was beeping rapidly and his HUD was fixed on one point.

    Activating proximity sensor, he thought. Turning on the spot, he moved down the aisle way.

    "This is 917," he said. "The room seems to be blocking my sensors. I am getting close to the signal and it's in here but I have a really bad feeling about this."

    "What do you mean?" his technician asked.

    "Like we're running out of time."

    He found a set of garbage cans where there was trash on the floor near one of them. Suspecting that was his target even though he could barely detect the readings, 917 jogged over. He dug his hands into a garbage can and shuffled his hands through all of the disposed trash.

    "Someone would have definitely have had to scatter this mess in order to hide a..."

    917's hands felt something solid. Grasping it, he gently pulled it out and laid it on the floor.

    "...bomb," he finished. "Really nasty looking device."

    The instant he pulled it out of the garbage can, his sensor instantly found and locked onto the device again. Was it the garbage can or something in the room? There was something that had prevented him from detecting the bomb but there was too much to do.

    "Quick," 917 said to his technician. "Scan the garbage can! And see if this floor underwent any changes within the past year! I need to dismantle this thing as soon as possible. Initial observations show there is no timer indicating any form of a countdown. Not a typical explosive."

    "917," his technician replied. "I can get you the building's construction records easily. But you got to scan that garbage can as best as you can!"

    With his right hand, 917 grabbed the bomb and tried to open it. With his left hand, he placed it on the garbage can.

    "Tactile contact confirmed," he said. "Analyzing."

    "917 come in."

    117's voice added to the transmission.

    "This is 917," he examined the device carefully and looked for a way to deactivate it with his right hand. When he was done with his hand analysis of the garbage can, his left hand whipped back to the bomb, "I have found the last bomb signature at the top floor. Attempting to disarm now."

    "Understood 917," 117 said. Although it was the last bomb they had detected minutes ago, he sounded very frantic. "But why the delay? Did you have any problems?"

    "There were some complications evacuating the building," 917 opened a compartment and stared inside so his tech could see as well. Wires and switches were organized in a very chaotic assembly. Pretty typical. "Humans do not really excel at evacuating when there is a threat until after it has happened. It is an odd observation in several books, movies and real time events. The building is clear though. But something in this room was masking my sensors which prevented me from locating the bomb. Had to search manually in the blind."

    "Does it have a timer?"

    "Nope. It's probably the same as the previous ones."

    "Then we are at least on the same track," 117 sighed. "Only a fraction of the explosives that were big enough had a countdown but we have no way of identifying whether the smaller ones will detonate simultaneously or at random times."