Chapter 11.
Catherine was on her cell phone instantly. " Grissom! Can you see what we're seeing?!".
Everyone, including the Bomb squad were watching the screen. " Yes Catherine, we can see everything. Just hang tight ok, don't touch the bomb". Grissom hung up and started talking to the Bomb squad chief.
" So where do we stand, can we diffuse the bomb manually?", Grisom asked. Looking back at the screen, Bomb squad expert, Ed Stevens answered Grissom question. " Yes and no. There's no way we can diffuse the bomb from out here. Catherine and Sara could diffuse the bomb if i talk them through it but it's tremendously risky, plus, what if your psycho still has control of it, he could decide to detonate it at any time".
Contemplating that thought, Warrick spoke up. " I don't think Dean would do that. I mean from what i can gather, this guy gets off on making us do all the jumping, making us decide things we don't want too. If he detonates that bomb, it takes all the fun out of watching us squirm. I don't think Dean's ready to give that up yet".
" I agree with Warrick. Dean's left us with no choice. If we don't try and diffuse that bomb, we all go boom anyway, but at the same time,if we get it wrong, he get's the satisfaction of watching Catherine and Sara kill themselves and knowing the rest of us couldn't do anything", Nick interjected.
Grissom was on the phone again, " Catherine you're going to have to diffuse the bomb yourselves. We'll talk you through it step by step".
Catherine had put the speakerphone on again. Staring at the phone as though Grissom had just shouted a torrent of abuse at them, Catherine replied with what both she and Sara were thinking, " Are you crazy! Grissom, we have a massive wad of cemtex in front of us and you want us to play, Blue wire, Red wire!".
Sighing, Grissom said calmly, " No i don't want you to play, but other than wait for the timer to reach zero, which we don't want to, we have no other way of diffusing it". As they looked at the bomb, Sara asked, " Grissom, what if Dean decides to detonate the bomb. Isn't this like a catch 22 situation?".
"We don't think Dean will. He's been enjoying the ride, th thrill and satisfaction of seeing us all squirm is too much for this guy. I don't think he's ready to give that up yet". Catherine took a closer look at the cemtex, " We don't think DEan will" Catherine mimicked," I have no idea where to even begin with this", Catherine said disheartened.
Ed the bomb disposal guy came over the phone, " Catherine, Sara, I'm Ed. I'm going to talk you through this step by step ok. The good thing is, i can see exactly what you see, but i'll need your help on the more intricate things, ok. First things first, i want you to tell me how many wires you can see. To do that, gently pull off the front of the timer".
Catherine took charge and carefully took the cover off the timer. " There's eight wires- all red!". Catherine and Sara looked at eachother in dread. How on earth are we meant to choose the right wire when they're all the same! Sara thought.
" Alright, don't panic. What we need to do is cancel each wire one by one until we're left with the live one's. Gently, trace each wire and tell me where it leads to if you can", said Ed.
Sara joined Catherine, moving up to the explosives. "Ok, Sara i'll trace the wires if you can gently hold the others back, ok?", Catherine asked. Sara nodded and went to hold a wire out of the way. Sara totally missed three of the wires, " Sara?", Catherine questioned when she noticed Sara was squinting to focus. " I, er, i'm having trouble focusing. Things keep getting a little blurry. I don't feel too good Cath", Sara said. Concern hit Catherine instantly. She knew how strong Sara was, so for Sara to admit she didn't feel good meant she really was struggling. " Okay, how do you feel?", Catherine asked as she propped Sara against a wall and took a look at her shoulder.
Grissom came over the speakerphone, " Catherine, what's wrong? Sara?". The bleeding from Sara's shoulder had calmed down somewhat but she was still bleeding and had been steadily from the wound to her side from the kitchen. " Feel a little whoozey, and tired, very tired", Sara answered Catherine. Catherine went into motherly mode, Stroking Sara's cheek, Catherine said, " I'll get you out of here sweetie, just keep fighting for me ok, i can't do this alone, I need you ok. Does it hurt much?". Smirking, Sara said, " More than the fork in your a$s", she chuckled.
With a raised eyebrow, Catherine replied, " I'll let you have that one Sidle, just stay with me ok?". Sara nodded. Grissom shouted over the phone again. Catherine picked up the phone and took it off speakerphone, " Gil, i'm gonna do this by myself ok, Sara's ok but she's not feeling too good. And before you ask me twenty questions, Sara's a fighter remember, so can we just get this thing diffused?". With that Grissom handed the phone to Ed, who came back onto the line.
" Alright Catherine, you know what to do, so let's do it, carefully check those wires for me", he said. Catherine began carefully tracing each wire with her finger, and after each wire took a quick look at Sara to see if she was still in the land of the living-she was, to her relief.
Greg was sat away from the screens, Nick noticed. He walked over to the younger Csi. " Hey Greggo, you ok?", he asked. Greg looked up at him, " I've been thinking about how all this began, something we've neglected to do since all this crazy stuff happend. The Homicide wasn't here at no. 13 so how come that was no. Catherine and Sara came too, the cops didn't get it wrong, so the case sheet must have been changed before you got to it hand out, more to the point, how could Dean be sure he'd get Catherine and Sara? Also, the room on the second set of plans...i think Dean has been here all the time, I think Dean is in that room, why else bounce the signal off so much if he was like 100 miles away".
Contemplating Gregs thoughts, Nick responded, " Greggo, I think your on to something, definintely with the change of number on the case sheet-we may have a traitor back at the lab. I think there's more behind this, think about it, nearly every cop is searching for this Dean, night shift are all working here and day shift are covering us. I think this is a cover up".
Catherine was so busy concentrating on the wires, she didn't notice something important. " Erm, Cath, the timer, it's jumping in block of 20 seconds!", Sara panickly said. Catherine watched the timer, it was losing time fast. She was immediately on the phone, " The timer is jumping-fast! What do i do?!".
Dean spoke up once more, " Having fun ladies...let's speed that clock up". The clock stopped counting down in blocks of twenty, it started counting down two minutes at a time instead.
" Ed! We're in real trouble here!", Catherine shouted down the phone. Catherine looked down at her phone, the battery had just died! " Sara, we just lost our bomb expert, my phone's died!". Sara pulled herself up to stand next to Catherine, " So now what, do we just yank any wire and see what happens?!". Sara looked at Catherine for any kind of encouragment. Just then the clocked jumped to two seconds and stopped. The Csi's hearts were in their mouths. Dean once more spoke, " Shall i?".
Nick and his team were glued to the screens, " Ah hell, this is going down all wrong man, we're puppets and he's pulling our strings", Warrick said.
Catherine moved towards the wires, " You know what Dean, screw your games, I'm not playing ball no more". Catherine took a hold of the wires, " Cath what you doing...oh you're not, you are!", Sara questioned. Catherine looked at Sara, " Oh yeah", as she yanked all the wires.