Chapter 13 Cullen's Eight Countdown to Fight Night
Inside Benjamin's hotel room, nobody lights a match, this place is a powder keg. Benjamin sits on his bed, surrounded by combustibles, whittling and polishing a plastic explosive into an emerald shape. There's a KNOCK at the door...
"House cleaning." A maid announces.
Benjamin's eyes never left his work, "Just jumping into the shower doll, can you come back later?"
The maid moves on and on the TV screen, a reporter broadcasts live…
"We're here at the historic Paradiso Hotel and Casino, once the prize resort of Las Vegas, now seconds away from demolition." Just down the block from the Jacob Black Trinity stands (for a few remaining moments) the edifice of the Paradiso, Rosalie Hale's bankrupted hotel-casino.
A crowd gathered to witness its destruction. Jacob Black, for one, his finger on the button and his face in the spotlight; Bella another, standing nearby her guy, and too hidden within the masses, eyes fixed on his ex; and Seth, who keeps a steady bead on Edward.
The reporter announced, "And here's Rosalie Hale, former owner of the Paradiso, come to bid farewell to her fabled resort and wish Jacob Black all the best with his future plans for the property."
Jacob greets Rosalie before the TV cameras and newspaper reporters, and everyone's smiling and shaking hands, but behind those smiles and under their breaths…
"Good to see you." Jacob whispered to Rosalie.
"Go shit in your mouth you ass." Rosalie gritted through her teeth.
Bella's eyes were roaming the crowd – and she finds a pair of eyes staring back at her. She and Edward held each other's glance for longer than a moment and Seth and Jacob both noticed before he turned away to put on his public smile.
Jacob steps up to the podium alongside MIKE TYSON and LENNOX LEWIS, and together they all put their hands on "the plunger" and Jacob leans into a microphone...
"I hope there's as much dynamite in the Paradiso as there will be in this Saturday's fight!"
Then WHOOMPH - the PLUNGER came down and – write your own onomatopoeia here - the PARADISO IMPLODES and Rosalie wipes a tear from her eye. "G'bye, baby."
During the implosion, back in Benjamin's room, as the Paradiso crumbles outside his window, the lights and TV in his room flicker and go out. "Shit!" And Benjamin scrambled out the door, making sure to post his "DO NOT DISTURB Sign".
Now later that night, Jasper tells the gang, "Saturday day is yours. Do whatever you like with it."
Inside the game room at Rosalie's house, from above, slowly descending were all of the team members except for Benjamin. They surround the model of the three casinos. Jasper leads everyone in a run-down of the heist.
"Call is at five-thirty. Makeup and costume. Saul's package arrives at seven-fifteen, and Seth grabs our codes. All goes well there and we're a go. Seven-thirty Quil and Embry deliver Eric and we're committed. From that point, we have thirty minutes to blow the power or he suffocates." Jasper explained.
Flash forward to a continuation of the run-down, we are in the warehouse with the full scale mock-up of the vault and a dress rehearsal.
"Once the electricity goes, all entry points to the vault and its elevator will automatically lock down for two minutes. That's when we make our move. Two guards will wheel in a cash cart and leave it in the vault's center and march out again, closing the thick metal door behind them. When the vault LOCKS CLICK... just above the cash cart there is silence for a spell, the lights flicker out, then the false top of the cart springs open, revealing Eric within, folded neatly." Jasper looks around to note everyone's faces and checks for comprehension and affirmative nods.
Eric inhales deeply, then slowly unspools himself from the cash cart until, at last, he crouches atop it. He takes in the room: vacant and silent. Except for Jasper, who walks right by him, incongruously. "Okay: they've put you in the middle of the room, far from everything. You have to get from here to the door without touching the floor. What do you do?" Jasper asks Eric.
The Bellagio vault has been fully reproduced here, and what we're going through is a trial run. Embry and Quil are in guard costumes, Benjamin is watching the dress rehearsal from offstage.
"Fin says he shorts it." Laurent wages.
James spat and retorted, "Make it a sawbuck."
From a dead squat, Eric leaps, hands first, from the cash cart to a ledge five yards away, and grips it safely with both hands without touching the floor. From this position, he'll inch his way to a counter, then, to the door.
Laurent pays up. Behind him, a DOOR SLAMMED, and he turned to see Benjamin, at last. Sniffing the air, he double-takes. Benjamin is covered head-to-toe in sewage.
"We're in deep shit." Benjamin announced.
Seth hoses Benjamin off, his accent angry and thick as he spits out water and the story of his afternoon and if nobody understands a word he's saying, that's okay. "The damn demo crew didn't use a coaxial lynch to back the mainline! Onioned the mainframe couplet!"
Rosalie leans into James and asks, "You understand any of this?"
James looks at her, "I'll explain later."
"Blew the backup grid one by one! Like dominoes!" Benjamin spat.
Edward looked disgusted, he hardly understands any of this either, "Benjamin, What happened?"
Earlier today a cabal of city engineers investigated subterranean fuse boxes, and Benjamin tailed them, hiding near a waterfall of effluent. "They did exactly what I planned to do. Only they did it by accident. Now they know their weakness. And they're fixing it."
After his impromptu shower, Benjamin towels off his hair.
Edward pressed, "So?"
"So unless we decide to do this job in Reno, we're screwed." Benjamin delivered his blow.
Edward stood and paced very frustrated. He's come too far for things to go awry now.
Jasper interjected, "We could…"
Edward stopped him mid sentence, " By Tomorrow?"
Edward keeps pacing; Jasper hangs his head and thinks while Benjamin dries his hair and an idea occurs to him. "We could use a pinch."
Edward stops pacing and Jasper looks up. Edward asked, "What - is a pinch?"
"A pinch is the equivalent of a cardiac arrest for any broad-band electrical circuitry. Or better yet, a pinch is a bomb... but without the bomb. Every time a nuclear weapon detonates, it unleashes an electromagnetic pulse which shuts down any power source within its vicinity. That tends not to matter in most cases because the nuclear weapon destroys everything you might need power for anyway. Now a pinch creates a similar electromagnetic pulse, but without the headache of mass destruction and death. So instead of Hiroshima, you get the Seventeenth Century." Benjamin explained as if he were talking to a bunch of third graders.
Jasper asks, "For how long?"
Benjamin smiles, "About ten seconds."
Edward was nearly out of breath, "Could a pinch take out the power of an entire city? Like, I don't …"
"Las Vegas?" Benjamin finished. "Yes, but there is only one pinch in the world big enough to handle it."
Edward and Jasper trade a look and they have their answer.
"Where?" Edward asks.
"Pasadena." Benjamin said bashfully.
Later that same night, headlights hit a sign: "Cal Tech. HIGH-SECURITY AREA. KEEP OUT." A white van shoots past it.
Embry and Quil man the front seats as Edward, Benjamin, Eric and Seth huddle in the back. Benjamin and Eric both prepare equipment for their raid. Hooks and rope for Eric, a small blowtorch and a drill for Benjamin.
Edward spoke to both Benjamin and Eric, "You two ready?"
They both nodded and, with Edward, start out the van's rear door. Seth starts to follow but...
Edward turned and looked at him, "What are you doing?"
Seth replied, "Coming with you."
Edward smiles and shakes his head no.
Seth was furious, "But…"
The van door slams shut right in his face.
Outside the laboratory at a perimeter door, Edward picks a lock, then he, Eric and Benjamin disappear into the lab's interior.
Seth twiddles his thumbs, tired of being seated at the kids' table. Meanwhile, up front, another Mensa meeting has been called to order...
Quil looked at Embry, "Are you a man?"
Embry raised his eyebrows and replied, "Yes."
Quil dug again, "Are you alive?"
Embry replied, "No."
Quil guessed, "You're a Vampire!"
"Shit… you win again… Okay it's your turn." Embry balked.
So a little while later and a new game, Quill asked Embry, "Co-sign squared over .0455."
"No. Co-sign squared over .0415." Embry corrected.
".04-five-five." Quill answered.
"One-five." Embry disagreed.
"You're so wrong." Quil whinned.
Embry was infuriated, "You don't know your string theory, bitch."
Later after a spell of silence...
"Emily told me she loves me more." Embry taunted.
"So, my Mom told me that your Mom named you after some stupid soap opera star."
"Did not." Embry hissed.
"Did too." Quill teased.
"Stop it! Fuck, both you shut the fuck up." Seth barked.
Quil turned to look at Seth, "Make me bitch."
Embry looked at Quil, "Stop it."
"Make me little bitch." Embry jaunted.
The next thing you know, Quil and Embry broke out into a wrestling match. Seth had just about enough and he sneaks out the van's back door without them hearing him.
Seth sulked along the laboratory's perimeter and he finds the door Edward pick-locked, and disappears inside. A moment passes. And the next door opens, and Edward, Benjamin, and Eric appear, pinch in hand - they've succeeded. They weave a path to the van...
Embry and Quil were still wrestling as the trio appear. Edward, Benjamin and Eric pile in the back...
Edward announced, "We got it. Let's go."
Embry floors it, and they're off.
Quill yells, "Wait a minute."
Embry brakes, and they're not prepared. Everyone jolts forward, bumping and banging.
"Shit, where's Seth?" Edward spat.
Everyone realized at that moment that Seth was not there.
Just then, SIRENS and ALARMS and lights come to life. Uh-oh.
Edward spins to look out the back of the van, Benjamin by his side. His eyes scan the compound, then Edward spotted him, "There he is."
Out of the lab, and its beveled-glass stairwell. Seth scrambles up its steps, a flight ahead of a duo of chasing guards. As he ascends – on the other side of the building, two more guards arriving on the roof are moving toward the staircase. "Shit, Seth will be trapped." Edward spat under his breath.
Edward, Benjamin, and Eric squat side-by-side-by-side, watching all this. Eric makes a colorful observation about Seth's predicament and of course, no one understands it.
"One of us should help him." Quill shouted just above a whisper.
Benjamin responded and he echoed Edwards thoughts, "Then there'll be two of us who need saving.
Edward stated as if it were any comfort, "He knows where we are."
Both sets of guards appeared on the rooftop, and they found no Seth between them - he's disappeared.
"Where'd he go?" Embry whispers.
Edward and Benjamin slowly turn while Embry and Quil crouch inches behind them, wanting to spectate as well.
Embry caught Edwards expression, "What?" Then he realizes their goof up, so he turned to Quil, remonstratively, "Would you – shouldn't someone be behind the wheel?"
CRASH!
A second-story WINDOW EXPLODES as a desk chair flies through it, followed shortly by Seth who leaps onto a steel-mesh overhang running alongside the building.
Edward screamed, "Alright, back it up, back it up!"
Quil leaps into the driver's seat, shifts into reverse.
Seth runs along the overhang, then leaps down, onto the reversing van, and rolls along its roof and down its windshield.
Through the windshield Quil jabs his thumb over his shoulder "Get in the back jack."
Edward appeared from behind the rear doors, "C'mon, c'mon..."
Seth scrambles back over the van, and Edward and Eric pull him in. Quil hits the gas for a quick getaway, but he does so before the rear doors are closed, and one of them slams shut right on Eric's hand - CRUNCH!
"Ahhh! $%^$*&%*& %!**&^" Eric cried out in agony.
As the van hurtles away, Benjamin tends to Eric, cradling his hand, and Edward stares down Seth, breathless.
Edward spoke very slowly and precisely " I say stay in the van, you stay in the van, got it? 'Cause you lose focus for one second in this game, and someone gets hurt."
Seth glared at Edward, "I got it."
They continued to stare daggers at one another as the van pulls away into the night.
The next day, A boxing announcer Trumpeted, " It's fight night in Las Vegas!"