"In light of that intel, I'd say the odds of a bomb in this body are about one hundred percent," Riley said. "Which means you all have to go."
I disagreed. I'm stubborn like that. "I'm staying. Everyone else should go though."
Dad wore a grim face. "If Merry stays, I stay."
I turned to him. "Dad—I'm not a baby, and this isn't the first time I've been in danger. You need to go. Mom doesn't need to lose both of us."
Rex said, "Senator, you need to go." He nodded to Ted. "Please take him out to the car in the parking lot."
Ted agreed. "I'll take him out, but I'm coming back in. I'll do all I can to get the other patients to safety."
"Merry," Dad protested.
I put up a hand to stop him. "Go!"
My father sighed, then followed the director of security out the door.
I turned to Dr. Body, "You should go too, Soo Jin."
"I think I should stay," she said a little hesitantly. "You need an expert here. What if the explosives are hidden beneath organs or muscle tissue?"
"I don't think we need to handle Evelyn with kid gloves anymore, do you?" Riley said. "If I have to tear her apart, I'll do so. Wrath is right. You need to go."
The medical examiner started to protest, but Rex cut her off. "You should go help evacuate the rest of the patients. They'll need all the doctors they can get."
Dr. Body looked carefully at each and every one of us, her eyes finally settling on Rex. Oh for crying out loud! Was she going to flirt with him right in front of me? If I didn't explode in the next few minutes, I might rethink giving her the kittens.
She finally gave a little nod and fled the room a little too quickly. I guess she wasn't as calm as I thought. As for me, my heart was beating a merengue that was giving me a migraine. I looked at Rex.
He shook his head. "I'm not leaving, Merry."
I started to protest. I was going to say something about him staying alive long enough to take care of my cats, but to be perfectly honest—I was glad he was here. Then when I vomited from watching Riley desecrate the corpse, he could step up and help Riley.
"Fine," Riley said.
He pulled an overhead light closer to Evelyn and placed the scalpel on the sutures. After a moment's hesitation, he started cutting through the black threads. Rex and I stepped closer. It was so quiet we could hear the blade cutting through the thread. I was pretty sure we were all holding our breath too.
I'd decided that it was in our best interest not to talk at all. First of all, because I didn't want to distract Riley, and secondly, because I've never disarmed anything more difficult than cutting the fuse on dynamite. And even if I did know a thing or two, I was rusty.
I was staying for support. At least, I'd like to think my presence was helping. And for some very weird reason, I was staying for Evelyn. Somebody should be on her side, right? Even though she was a traitor and bad guy—she had gone on the trip with us, and she tried to warn us by giving Lauren the puzzle box. Which is all pretty weird because she could've just stopped by my house.
Of course, it didn't undo all the horrible things she'd done—even though I didn't know exactly what they were. But it was something, and the woman deserved to have someone by her side as Riley sliced through her remains.
Riley was locked in concentration. He had a focus I could only admire. I tended to get distracted easily these days. Riley had this gift of tuning out the whole world to focus on one thing. And if anything deserved his full attention, it was this.
He wasn't taking any chances. Riley cut about four inches longer on each side of the new stitches. No point in having to backtrack if needed. After the last snip, he put on latex gloves and gently eased the body open.
I wasn't too squeamish. When I'd said I'd probably vomit earlier, it was from the tension. Not seeing the body. I could feel my blood pressure spike as Rex stepped even closer and brought the light down closer to the body. I didn't move.
Riley whistled. That wasn't good. I didn't ask. Like I said, I didn't want to break his concentration. But I did notice that vein in Rex's neck throbbing. This seemed bad. Really bad. Neither man spoke. Riley just bent closer to the cavity and moved his fingers around.
There's no way around it. Bombs are scary. And now that they could be controlled by cell phone, they were even scarier. But with Blue and Red holding off a whole SWAT team in Des Moines, I doubted they were even thinking of the Evelyn Bomb. Still, it was just one more factor in the stress fog that seemed to fill the room.
My thoughts drifted back to Evelyn again. By now, I was pretty sure she'd tagged along with my troop on the DC trip to hide out. It was a good cover, but she was taking the chance that someone would ID her. But why did she pick me? And why did she implicate me in that fax?
It was possible the fax was sent by Red and Blue to cover their tracks. I guess we'd never really know what Evelyn had been thinking. All we knew was that she'd turned down this job and tried to warn us. That redeemed her a little in my eyes. I really didn't want to know what she'd done to betray her country. It didn't seem to matter now.
We were no closer to figuring out who Red and Blue were. But if the Des Moines police managed to capture them alive, we'd find out. It wasn't as important as defusing this bomb and saving my town.
Rex's phone started buzzing on his hip, but he ignored it. This was more important. This had precedence. There was some commotion in the hall. Probably something with the evacuation. Dooley could handle it. Ted Dooley that is. Kevin Dooley couldn't handle his own breathing without opening his mouth.
After a few agonizing minutes, Riley stood up straight and put down the scalpel. A light sheen of perspiration had broken out across his forehead. That wasn't good. Rex turned to me and shook his head.
"You can't do it…" I murmured.
Riley shook his head. "I can't do it."
"There's a bomb, then?" I asked even though it was a statement of fact now.
"C-4. Lots of it. In plastic bags to keep it dry. And I don't understand the trigger mechanism. It's something I've never seen before."
Great.
"Is there a timer?" That would've been convenient so we knew how much time we had left.
"We have five minutes to figure out what to do next," Rex said.
Oh. So there really was a timer. At least we knew how long it would be before we turned into a red mist.
"So how do we dispose of the body in that short amount of time?" I asked as I ran over to a rolling cot and started dragging it over.
Riley shook his head and took off his gloves. "I'm afraid to even move it. That could set it off. And there are lots of wires. I have no idea which one to cut."
"Isn't it always the red one?" I asked. It was always the red one in movies.
"So, we run," Riley said as he ripped off the rubber gloves.
"Let's go…" I said.
The commotion in the hallway was getting closer and louder. Maybe the three of us could help somehow. The morgue was in the basement. It could bring down this entire wing. Hopefully we could save a few lives…
The noise got louder. It sounded familiar. I saw movement outside the opaque door window.
Oh no…
Kelly burst through the door with the four Kaitlins, the two Hannahs, Lauren, and Betty. The girls were laughing.
"Let's all thank Dr. Body for this spooky, late night morgue tour!" Kelly said brightly as she led the girls into the room.
She stopped short when she saw us gaping at her. Then she saw the body.
"What's going on?" she said as she raced to cover up the body.
Then she saw the open cavity and looked inside. I can only imagine she saw the bomb inside. What were they doing here? How the hell had this happened? A late night morgue tour? Why wouldn't I know about that?
I turned to the door just in time to hear a lock clicking. I tried the handle, but we weren't going anywhere.
"What the—" I looked at the girls and decided not to swear, "—are you doing here? We didn't have anything scheduled!"
"Is that a dead body?" Betty cried out.
"Cool!" Lauren and one of the Hannahs said in unison as they stepped closer.
"Dr. Body called…she told us it was a slow night and would be a great time for a visit…" Kelly's normally calm demeanor was cracking.
One of the Kaitlins ran over and threw her arms around my waist. "We're having a haunted lock-in!"
Rex was beating a fire extinguisher against the three-by-three-foot glass in the door. It wasn't breaking, but he kept at it with a fury I'd never seen before.
The girls started to advance on the body, and Kaitlin joined them, but Kelly dove in front of the table, refusing to let them go any further. I looked around for a spot to store the girls when the bomb went off.
"This is bad, isn't it?" Kelly asked.
I ran to the walk-in freezer and tugged on the door handle. It wouldn't open. How could something like this be locked from the inside? I shot a glance to Riley. He set his jaw and picked up the scalpel. He turned to the body and started poking around.
We were trapped. Locked in with a bomb. Dr. Body had betrayed us. She'd set this whole thing up. I should've seen it coming. She was new to town. She was the only witness to Red and Blue stealing the body. And now she'd called my girls and Kelly here and locked us in.
That was the big one. Taking out children would be a coup for anyone trying to hit America where it hurt. The patients in the hospital were just frosting on the ticking cake.
Kelly and I stared at each other for a second. Then I grabbed the cart and knocked it on its side. I ordered the girls to sit down behind it. They seemed confused but the gleam of terror in their leaders' eyes must've made them compliant because they did what I asked quickly and quietly.
Riley was in a full sweat now, and Rex had his gun in his hand, trying to decide if he could shoot through the glass. The space would be just big enough to toss the kids through, hopefully before the bomb went off. But it was possible that shooting the door would fail and even cause a ricochet. It was a tough decision.
Kelly was dragging another metal table over in an attempt to make a protective shell for the girls. It was a long shot, but what else could we do? I joined her, putting that table over the girls' heads.
Rex started kicking the door at what was usually its weakest point—right at the latch. He wasn't having much luck, but he kept trying. Riley was engrossed in trying one more time to deactivate the bomb.
As soon as we had our little metal igloo built, I shoved Kelly in there with the girls. She didn't resist. She had a baby at home who needed her. My goddaughter, Finn. There was no way she wasn't going home in one piece tonight if I could help it.
The girls were remarkably calm. I've never been more proud of them. Hopefully we'd live through this, and I could tell them that.
I joined Riley. Rex was still banging at the door. I couldn't help him. Not that I could help Riley either, but maybe a miracle would happen, and I'd know what to do. That would be nice.
"What's the status?" I asked, looking down into Evelyn.
"Two minutes left, and I think I've narrowed it down to these three wires." He showed me three red wires. Why did they all have to be red?
"You're guessing?" I asked.
Riley turned his eyes to me. "What do you want me to do? I have a thirty-three percent chance of getting it right."
Rex stopped banging at the door. Out of breath and sweating, he came to the other side of the table. Maybe he thought he could help too.
"If we don't die here," I said quietly so the girls wouldn't hear, "I'm going to take Soo Jin apart, piece by piece."
"Not helping," Riley said, his full attention back on the wires. His scalpel moved back and forth, hovering for a few seconds over each wire.
"One minute," Rex said.
He looked at me and gave a weak smile. I nodded and smiled back. So this was how it was going to end. Blown up by a corpse bomb in a morgue in Who's There, Iowa. I always thought I'd die in Uzbekistan or Kazakhstan or one of the -stans. Or maybe Iceland. You never really knew in my former line of work.
Rex looked down at the bomb. "Thirty seconds."
This is not the way we are going out! I wasn't going to let that happen. I closed my eyes in an attempt at achieving bomb disposal nirvana.
"Twenty…" Rex droned on.
No! There had to be something I could do. But what?
"Ten…"
Think Wrath, think!
"Nine…"
Riley looked up at me. "I'm so sorry. There are things I never said to you and now won't get the chance."
If Rex didn't like Riley's statement, he didn't acknowledge it. He really was a great guy.
"Eight…"
"It's okay," I replied. "Really." I didn't want to hear what Riley would say. I wasn't emotionally prepared for anything.
"Seven…"
"Merry…Finn…" Riley ignored my plea. "You have always been…"
"Six…"
My eyes grew wide. A desperate idea formed around the edges of my mind.
"Five…"
"…very important to me…" Riley continued.
"Four…"
I held up my hand to stop Riley. I didn't want to have any weirdness, and I needed to think.
"Three…"
"Cut all three cords!" I screamed.
Riley looked startled.
"Two…"
"Do it! Do it now!" I shouted.
"One…"
Riley stuck the scalpel under the three wires and brought it up hard, severing the three wires.
I closed my eyes and waited.
Nothing happened.
"It stopped!" Rex said.
Screw worrying about ricochets. I took my gun and fired at the window. It took four shots to shatter. Rex ran over, reached outside, and unlocked the door.
"Come on!" I said as I started tearing the metal tables off of Kelly and the girls.
They were out the door in seconds with Kelly barking orders. She knew this place better than I did. They'd be safe very soon.
I slumped against a wall. I was completely spent. Stupid adrenaline.
"How did you know?" Riley asked, a stunned look on his face.
"What?" I asked. My brain was all messed up.
"How did you know to cut the three wires?" Riley asked again.
I shook my head. "I didn't. I just guessed. And hey, it worked!"
Now I just needed to find that evil coroner and show her a new way to use a scalpel…