Sorry for the long delay in updating. And sorry that this one is so short. I will make it up to you! Life's been a terrible Mistress. Between work, the Pyr8z! web show, family and stuff, it has been hard to keep up with my stories. But, if you keep reading, I promise to make my updates more frequent. As a side note, we are considering uniting Jennette McCurdy and Nathan Kress to split the roles in our web show. Just before summer 2010, we will start a campaign to get their fans to email, message and twitter them into giving the scripts a read. It's the fans that make things happen, you know! And now, on with our show:
Aitch slowly approached it.
It looked so innocent, sitting there on the mail room counter at City Hall, wrapped in brown paper. It was square, the size of a car battery and addressed to the Seattle Mayor's Office. It also failed to pass the hand held bomb sniffer that the clerk had used on it a few hours earlier.
He stood there, a yard away from the package, rubbing his goatee with his right hand and trying to think of where to begin.
He was probably an odd sight to his coworkers, who thought he was nuts anyway. All he wore was a long sleeved dress shirt, open, over an orange T-Shirt with 'Tuna Piano' on the front, faded jeans and skaters. There was no solid, heavy Kevlar bomb suit, dome head gear and restrictive armor. He wanted to be able to move freely. And, besides, whenever he finally meets the one he cannot defuse, he wants it to be quick. And the bomb suit would be little protection from a full on bomb blast.
Within the next two minutes, he had the package wrapping open and was feeling around the lid to the box for any trip wires. It looked good. He slowly lifted the lid up, off of the box, inch by inch. It was coming off freely. Another inch and it was clear of the box. He moved it to the left and set it down on the counter.
Aitch looked into the box and there it was, nestled in bubble wrap. Four glass bottles of brown liquid with sealed lids and wires running out of them to a center cube. Thick duct tape held it all together. The cube was plastic with a screw top. He took out a small Phillips screwdriver from his belt kit and started removing each of the four corner screws.
The phone on his hip sang out the ring tone "She Drives Me Crazy". He flipped it open without needing to check the Caller ID on the tiny screen, hitting the speaker button and setting the device down on the counter. "Working, Sam..." he said.
"It's quick!" Sam's voice came from the tiny speakers with a sense of hyper excitement.
Aitch sighed and removed the last screw, put away his screwdriver and began to lift the plastic lid the same way that he did the box lid. "Fine."
"It's about Carly..." Sam started, a edge of seriousness to her voice.
He paused a moment. "This won't be quick, will it?" He continued working off the lid, but it caught on something underneath it for a moment. Aitch froze for a split instant, his blood suddenly cold, expecting the worst. Then, the tug was gone and it came away easily in his hand.
Sam sighed. "Ok, maybe not. Look, do you have a minute?"
Aitch looked into the small plastic box and watched as a digital timer was counting down from two minutes. He pursed his lips. "Yeah...a couple..."