The leader of the bomb disposal team introduced himself to Terry as Major John Styles. He was a tall, stringy man with gaunt features and a shaven, bald head. The black overalls he wore hung loosely from his body, apart from at the waist where a utility belt gathered them tightly around his hips. His breath smelt of cigarettes and his fingers were stained orangey-yellow indicating he was a heavy smoker. “We’ll need a large, clear area to assemble our equipment and an office desk from which to operate it,” the major instructed. Terry led them to a ground floor foyer housing the elevators that would take them to the second floor. “You can assemble your equipment here in the foyer.” He directed the men to a large space in front of the elevators. He turned to the major. “If you will follow me.” He led him to an office close by. The office contained four large desks, three with workstations and one empty. One of Terry’s agents already occupied the office and had the blueprints spread out on the empty desk. They approached the desk. Terry pointed to a location on the blueprints. “This is the room that’s wired major. There are three slabs of plastic explosive, each connected by wires to a small metal box. The slabs are about six inches long by three inches wide and about an inch thick.” The major studied the blueprints for a moment before taking a black marker out of his breast pocket. “Do you mind if I draw on these?” he asked. Terry nodded in agreement. The major removed the top off the pen and drew a circle around the room housing the explosives. “This is blast zone one, within this radius everything will be destroyed should all three slabs detonate. In all likelihood the whole building will collapse.” He drew a second circle enveloping the first. “This is blast zone two,” he advised. “Damage to equipment and people in this zone will be the result of the pressure wave, the heat wave and flying debris. Structural damage will be less but still likely.” He drew a third circle around the previous two. “Blast zone three. Damage here will be limited to injury from broken glass and falling objects jarred loose by the vibrations. Outside of these zones there is no potential risk to life, even if all three slabs detonate.” The major put the top back on the pen and placed it back in his pocket. Terry looked at the major’s drawings. The control room was well outside of the blast radius, as was their current location, but the laboratory containing the functional Harmoniser was just on the edge of blast zone three. The decision to evacuate had been the right one. “So, do you think you can make it safe?” Terry asked.
“Difficult to say before I’ve seen it but we’ll certainly give it a shot. Have the areas within the three zones been evacuated?” the major asked. Terry advised him they had. “Good.” The major said, “So let’s go and see how the team are getting on.”
They headed back to the foyer where the men were busy assembling what looked like a large orange bug on tank tracks. The major beckoned for Terry and his colleague to approach the machine. “What you see here is the latest generation in bomb disposal robots. Known as ABDU, which stands for Autonomous Bomb Disposal Unit, this machine dramatically reduces the risk of injury or loss of life as a result of us having to disarm bombs directly. Using satellite communication technology, we can operate this unit from up to ten miles from the actual site.” Terry nodded and studied the machine. It was the size of a child’s pedal car but stood about three feet off the ground due to the tank tracks. The main body was made up of two halves forming a dome of bright orange plastic. A robotic arm protruded from each side of the body with ends like metal claws. Recessed into the orange dome were a number of cameras and LED lights pointing in every direction.
“Now, if you don’t mind, Stuart, we’ll head back to the office and set up our control station,” the major suggested.
Set up within minutes, the control station consisted of three sixteen-inch monitors and what looked like a games consul, complete with joystick. One of the technicians sat at the consul and flicked a switch. The screens came to life. One screen showed the elevator doors, a second showed a back wall opposite the doors while the third was split into four views each showing a different area of the foyer. The man took hold of the joystick and used his thumb to manipulate a button that controlled the camera angles. He moved the joystick in various directions seeing the images on the screens change as the ABDU moved around the foyer. “Ok, ready for you now boss.” Thanking the technician, the major replaced him at the consul and turned to Terry. “Ok, if you are ready we will proceed to the site.” Terry gave the major the go ahead. The image of the elevator doors grew larger on the screen as the ABDU moved toward them. To Terry’s amazement, a robotic arm reached up and pressed the button for the elevator with a finger extending from the metal claw. Having navigated the lift to the second floor the ABDU was now on its way down the corridor leading to the room with the explosives. It took just a few minutes before the door to the room came into view. The arm appeared again, slowly extending toward the door.