Chapter Three
"Oh, damn..." Steve and Jaime both muttered under their breath, laughing at their identical thought and sighing as they realized their desire would have to wait a little longer.
"Hi," Oscar said, knowing he was the last person they wanted (or expected) to see. "You know I'd rather be leaving you alone right now, but -"
"It's urgent," they completed for him, in perfect unison.
"It's more than urgent. Let's go inside." Before they were even seated, Oscar had spread a map of Southern California across Jaime's kitchen table. "Intel reports indicate terrorists have planted a bomb somewhere in this section of the San Gorgonio Pass."
Jaime's face paled instantly. "That's where half a dozen different fault lines meet up," she told Steve.
Oscar nodded. "Exactly. And it gets worse. Data on the device and its detonator indicate that it could be nuclear."
"Oh, no!" Jaime felt Steve's arm tighten around her waist as she considered what that could mean. "Setting off an explosion there – any explosion..." she could barely form the words.
"Would be beyond catastrophic," Oscar concluded for her. "It's due to detonate at midnight tonight."
Steve looked at his watch. It was almost 8:30. "It'll take at least an hour to get there. That only leaves me a little more than two hours to find -"
"Leaves us," Jaime interrupted.
"Not this time, Jaime," Steve insisted. "This is way too dangerous."
"So I should just sit here and wait to see if I get blown into bits?" Jaime shook her head.
"Oscar can get you to somewhere safe."
"No. Try again, Austin," she insisted. "I can hear the detonator; without me, you'll never find it in time. I'm going with you."
The sound of a chopper landing in the driveway interrupted their argument. 'Your ride is here," Oscar told them quietly.
- - - - - -
Jaime and Steve spent the first half of the chopper ride going over a topographical map, deciding where a bomb was most likely to have been placed, and where the safest nearby spot was, so they could hit the ground running. The pilot was going to hover but not land, and return for them when he received their datacom signal. In the meantime, they would be alone in a vast, rocky wasteland with a live nuclear warhead. Once their plans were complete, they pushed the map away and leaned into each other's embrace, holding each other close for what they hoped would not be the last time.
When they reached their designated area, they pulled close together and threw all of their passion and emotion into a single kiss. They weren't voicing the words, but their eyes spoke volumes about their feelings, and they shared one more lingering gaze before jumping together onto the rocks below.
After a pause to get their bearings, Steve began to scope out the landscape while Jaime closed her eyes to listen for the faint buzz/tick sound of the detonator. After a few minutes, she shook her head. "Nothing," she whispered. Grabbing Steve's hand in the dark, she moved slowly across the rocks and crevices, trying to be aware of every nuance of sound and wishing she wasn't scared out of her mind. If any sort of a bomb went off at this point, where the San Andreas Fault met most of the other major fault lines, there'd be literally nothing left, so she reasoned that the terrorists themselves had to be long gone. That was why she didn't notice footsteps, blending in so well with Steve's and her own.
Floodlights suddenly flashed on, illuminating their surroundings, which at that moment included gunmen advancing toward them from every direction. One man stepped away from the circle and moved quickly toward the shocked and completely ambushed couple. His lips curled into a sneer. "Hello, Cyborgs."
Jaime and Steve glared at him in silence, and Jaime snaked an arm around Steve's body – not for comfort or affection, but to press the 'Emergency' button on his datacom. Accomplishing this, she stepped away from him and toward the apparent leader of the group.
"Stay right where you are, Jaime," the man snarled. The bitterness and familiarity with which he said her name made Jaime take a cautious, closer look. The man's hair was tucked into a knit cap, pulled low over his forehead and his eyes were black with anger and hatred, but Jaime was startled – and frightened – to see that she knew those eyes very well.
"Chris? What the hell...?" She took another step toward him with widened eyes, but the man she'd once thought she loved raised his gun with one hand and shoved her roughly with the other – ironically sending her reeling backwards, directly into Steve's arms.
"Isn't that a pretty picture?" Williams jeered as Steve helped Jaime regain her footing on the craggy terrain. "And a very lucrative one for me, I might add. I knew Goldman would send at least one of you to take care of a threat this big, but two for the price of one...it must be my lucky day." He shook his head in mock sadness. "You made a big mistake, Darling," he told Jaime. "I really did love you; I still love you."
"And you're expressing that love with a bullet?" Steve challenged, his hands balled into fists of rage.
"I haven't shot her, have I?" Chris snapped. "The money I'll make when my friends here take possession of you - and later, of her, too - will be at least a little compensation for having my heart ripped out and trampled in the dust."
"Chris..." Jaime said softly, falling silent when Steve shook his head.
"Williams, if you love her like you say you do," Steve ventured, "then let her go. You know better than most people what these men will do to us. Can you really let that happen to the woman you love?" He took a step toward Chris, and was halted by more than a dozen raised weapons. Williams aimed his own gun at Steve's chest and was about to pull the trigger when a low beep from the datacom grabbed his attention.
"Put your radio on the ground Austin," he commanded. Steve didn't comply, and Chris turned the gun toward Jaime. "Do it now, or watch her die." Reluctantly, Steve placed the device on the rocks and stepped back to stand with Jaime. Before another word could be spoken, Williams fired a single shot that blew the datacom into pieces.
Immediately, the ground beneath their feet buckled and began to shake.
- - - - - -
