Olivia didn’t have time to offer much comfort to Wade, she was too busy watching the commotion outside. The small robot deployed by the bomb squad made its way slowly to the building. When it reached the steps, it rolled up to the door in front of them. The long steel arm lifted and the camera zoomed in on the device attached to the center of the two doors. After a few tense minutes and the viewing of different angles, the little robot backed away.
“What’s going on, Quinn?” Olivia asked.
“They’re going to disarm the bomb.”
“So it’s real.”
“Did you doubt it?”
“Not really. Hoped it was a scare tactic, but . . .”
“Yeah.” She heard someone say something but couldn’t catch the words. “Hold on a sec,” Quinn said.
An ambulance squealed off and out of the parking lot. Olivia guessed the unconscious police officer was the occupant. There were two other ambulances waiting at a safe distance. She hoped they weren’t needed.
“There’s a bomb rigged on the back door as well,” Quinn said. “They’re not remote detonated, they’re set to go off if you push open the door.” That was a relief. “However, there’s also a timer on it. Looks like we have about six minutes to get you out or disarm it.”
All relief fled.
“What about up in the attic area?” she asked.
“Still checking that out but got a bomb guy suiting up to disarm the one on the front door and get you two out. Now.”
“What if it’s a trick? You try to get in the front door and the back one blows?” Olivia asked.
“We’ve thought of that, but there’s no evidence that’s the case.” He raked a hand through his hair. “And we’re running out of time.”
Olivia could see Quinn’s grim voice didn’t set well with Wade, but he had no choice but to put his life in the hands of people who knew more than he did. He didn’t like it one bit. From the corner of her eyes, she saw his fingers curl into hard fists.
A figure who looked more like an extra in an alien invasion movie stepped up to the door and set a metal box on the ground next to him. His gaze met hers through the door and she breathed a sigh of relief. It was Katie’s friend, Shaun Garrison. His eyes widened briefly when they met hers. She nodded and he did too. A silent promise not to let them blow up.
She believed him. Or rather, believed he would do his best to disarm the bomb. If he didn’t, they’d find out on the other side of eternity. She gave a brief thought to the fact that she wasn’t ready to die. Ready in the physical sense and the spiritual. “Shaun’s got this,” she told Wade.
He was watching the man outside the door with an intense expression. “You know him?”
“Yes. We’re going to be just fine. He hasn’t cut the wrong wire yet,” she joked without humor.
“Why does that only make me feel marginally better?”
She gripped his fingers in a hard squeeze, forcing him to relax his fist. “Be ready to run.”
“I’ve been ready.”
Shaun bent down and went to work. “How much time do we have, Quinn?”
“Four minutes and counting.”
Her stomach clenched. He bent his head as though listening. “What?” His voice thundered in her ears.
“What is it?” she demanded.
“The back door has two minutes and twenty seconds on it.”
“She wanted everyone focused on the front,” Olivia whispered.
“Surely she had to know we’d check the whole building,” Quinn said. He listened again, then looked up, his eyes sharp. “The attic’s clean now. Can you get up there?”
Now? “Yes.”
Wade didn’t waste a second. Still gripping her hand, he pulled her to the string hanging from the ceiling. With a hard jerk, he had the stairs down. She pushed him to go first. He hesitated, obviously wanting her to go first.
“Now’s not the time for gentlemanly manners. Go.”
He did.
“Give me the countdown, Quinn. Count it down in my ear,” she said as she followed Wade up the stairs. She reconnected the Bluetooth option with one hand, never stopping her forward momentum.
“Fifty-nine seconds. Fifty-eight. Go, go. Fifty-six—”
Olivia registered the words. Once in the attic, she noticed Wade had his phone out and turned on. By the light of the white booting-up-screen, she could make out the way they needed to go. But they didn’t have to use it. One of the bomb squad members was already there, shining a bright light. “Come on, move it, people. I’m not ready to die.”
Neither she nor Wade bothered answering, but she did notice he picked up his speed a bit. She kicked aside boxes, debris, and insulation, staying on the flat storage surface. “Forty-five, forty-four.”
Guided by the squad member’s light, Wade slipped through a hole in the wall that belonged to the business next door. Quinn’s voice continued the countdown.
“Go, go, go!”
Wade slid down the stairs that were already down, thanks to the bomb squad. Olivia followed. The door was propped open by another member.
“Twelve, eleven, ten.”
Olivia hit the door a fraction of a second after Wade. She heard the other two squad members running after them even as she counted down the remaining seconds in her head.
She saw Quinn grab Wade and shove him behind a barrier that had been erected. Next, hands were on her, pushing her. “Zero,” Quinn breathed.