"How much time do I have?" Sophie tried hard to keep her voice from shaking. Eliot quickly did the math in his head.
"If you carefully lift the vase to 2 m above ground, it will take about half a second to reach the floor once you let go. Hoping that the pudding will stall the explosion somewhat, I'd say, you have about a second to clear the room."
"Hoping?" Nate couldn't help but ask. The hitter shrugged his shoulders.
"Never done this before."
"A second doesn't sound like much to me", Sophie said.
Eliot tried to reassure her.
"You can do a lot in a second. I once took out four guys in half that time. You gonna be fine."
Sophie took a deep breath.
"Alright! Everbody get out of here."
"I stay. I'm gonna stay with Sophie" Nate said at once. Hardison nodded.
"We are not leaving you, Sophie."
"Look, I appreciate what you guys are going to do, but if you don't get out of here now, then I'm gonna kill you myself when this is over, so just ... just GET OUT", Sophie yelled at them.
Parker and Hardison exchanged a glance and slowly began to make there way to the door. ELiot gave some last minute instructions.
"Don't throw it into the air. The device will hit the bottom and it will go off. Just let go and drop it."
Sophie nodded.
"Okay"
The hitter followed his teammates out of the room, leaving only Nathan Ford behind.
"You too, go on" Sophie urged him.
"I'm staying with you" he said.
"Listen, it's gonna be fine, Nate. You know me!" She tried to sound upbeat.
"Sophie" His voice was hoarse from emotion, barely more than a whisper.
"Please!"
Finally he gave in.
"Do it exactly the way he said", he reminded her before he turned away and walked to the door. As soon as he reached it he turned around and waited, barely out of the room.
Sophie took another deep breath, then she slowly lifted the vase up over her head.
Parker and Hardison had walked to the far end of the hallway. Eliot, who was following them, stopped and turned around. He saw Nate still standing by the door.
"Nate! What are you doing? Get away from there!" He started to move back with the intention of dragging the other man with him.
When Sophie let go of the vase and started to sprint towards the door, Nate extended his arms to her. She heard the vase crash on the floor and jumped. She flew into his arms exactly when the blast hit them, smashing them both into the wall on the far side of the hallway, knocking the breath out of them.
Eliot turned his head away and lifted his arms to protect his face from the heat wave the explosion caused, but he didn't slow down. He reached the couple the moment they slid to the floor.
Sophie looked shaken, but her gaze was clear when she turned towards Eliot.
"Are you okay?" he asked, looking her over for any visible injuries.
"I'm fine", she managed and crawled to the side to take her way off Nate. He did not stir, his eyes were closed.
Eliot extended a hand to his neck and took his pulse. It was beating strong and regular.
"Nate! Nate, can you hear me?"
He gently slapped the older man's face. His eyes flew open with a start.
"Sophie!" he croaked hoarsely, looking around.
"I'm here! I'm fine", she reassured him.
Hardison and Parker had come over to them.
"Do you need an ambulance?" the Hacker wanted to know, his cellphone at the ready.
Eliot nodded his head.
"Yeah, I think we should get you both checked out, just to be sure. That was quite a blast."
But Nathan Ford shook his head.
"No. No wait. Don't call the ambulance, at least not yet. I think we can use this."