A/N: I know there hasn't been a lot of Patrick and Veronica in a while, but I had to put them as to the side to get through the case. They will return at the end.

Chapter 25: To the Best of my Honour and Conscience.

"Don't touch anything. Just plant my bug, and back away." Toast warned over the open line between Kono and Catherine.

"The house is rigged with explosives, Kono. Niko confirmed it." Steve added as he and Danny had arrived in the bullpen to assist the hacker in any way they could - it would take them too long to get out to where Kono and Catherine had met up with Chin.

"We got that much from our first phone call." Catherine stated impatiently. "How long is this going to take? Heat signatures confirm that there is one person in the house, in the back bedroom."

"That's probably where all the explosives are." Danny stated.

"And the Governor is dumped right in the middle of it." Steve sighed.

"One false move and they are going to blow the whole block." Toast stated from his computer. "I'm into the system but there are a lot of locks and blocks. This is going to take me a few minutes."

"Your snooping around isn't going to set it off will it?" Danny asked.

"The system thinks I'm Niko because of the worm that I introduced into it earlier. There are some fail safes though so I have to tread lightly."

"The bomb squad just arrived on the scene." Chin stated as he joined the conversation.

"All doors and windows are wired to the security system. As soon as one of them is opened it will trigger the switch that will blow the house. Unless you can get in, in the ten seconds allotted to disarm the alarm, the house will go boom with you and the Governor in it." Toast stated. "I'm working to disarm the alarm first."

"We get it, don't touch the house."

"Not until I tell you to, or I can crack the code on the security panel. I'd prefer to disarm the whole house, but the panel might be faster."

"Do we want to take that risk?" Danny asked as he looked to his nervous partner.

"No," Steve said with a shake of his head, "This is the Governor that we're talking about. Work the house angle, Toast. Kono, without touching anything, see if you can't get eyes on the Governor."

"Catherine and Chin, I'd start evacuating the area, just as a precaution." Danny added. "Two blocks, at least. I'll makes some more phone calls to get you some major assistance on that evacuation."

"Good call, Danny." Chin said in response.

"Son of a Bitch!" Toast cursed at his laptop after a long period of clicking as he typed in silence as Danny and Steve let him work and fielded phone calls and barked orders of their own.

"What is is?" Steve asked and rushed around the table to look at the computer screen.

"I can disarm the house, but the back bed room is on it's own circuit. There is a manual trigger in that room and I don't know what it is because it's not part of this virtual world."

"How can you tell there is a bomb back there?" Danny asked skeptically.

"Because every inch of the house is wired and giving off a residual signal to the computer program that is running it. I can unlock the house but the back room stays live and there is no way in or out of it except for the bedroom door and a pair of back windows. Those are wired to trigger the house, but there is something else. A branch in the circuit and then a dead zone - literally and figuratively speaking. There is a failsafe in that room. You'd better get back down to the basement before Duke and Lou are through with Niko and find out what that trigger is, or I'm not sending in Kono, Catherine and Chin."

5-0

"What kind of manual trigger is in the back bedroom?" Steve yelled as he rushed back into the interrogation room - right past Lou and Duke - and once again threatened Niko with his weapon.

Niko just smiled.

"I will shoot you."

"You've said that before, it was all talk. Try another tactic, Commander."

Steve shot Niko's foot and the suspect screamed out in pain.

"The next one will be higher!" Steve spat in the screaming man's face.

"Are you insane?" Niko yelled as he panted for breath.

"What is the trigger?" Steve seethed as he pressed his weapon against Niko's face this time.

"The Governor!" Niko spat in Steve's face. "The Governor moves - the bomb goes boom."

5-0

"You were right," Steve sighed as he moved back into the bullpen, this time dragging a hand cuffed and screaming Niko.

"What did you do to him?" Toast asked as a blood smear left a trail behind Duke and Lou as they held up the baddie.

"Steve shot him." Lou said with a shrug.

"What Lou meant to say was, we have no idea what happened. Steve was with us the whole time. We don't know who shot the fugitive. For all we know he did it himself." Duke said with a wink toward Steve and an overly exaggerated nod of his head.

"Right, we were on a coffee break." Lou jumped in again. "We saw nothing."

"That's how it works? Denial?" Niko asked breathlessly.

"No, I'll tell the Governor that I shot you in the foot to get answers out of you - once we have the Governor out of your death trap." Steve stated and turned back toward Toast. "The Governor is on a pressure switch that is calibrated to blow if he's moved off of it."

"Sneaky. Go all high techy-tech and then revert back to the bombs of your ancestors." Toast shook his head, sighed, and looked at his computer scene with defeat in his eyes.

"So you can disarm the house - right Toast? That way the bomb squad can move in and disarm the pressure switch to get the Governor out."

"Yeah, I can do that." Toast answered but there was disappointment in the hackers tone.

"You did your best, Toast." Steve stated. "We would have blown the whole block had it not been for you. You saved many lives today."

"But not the Governor. Not the most important person." Toast said with a sigh, clicked some commands into his computer and then turned back to Steve. "The house is offline."

Steve spun on Niko once more. "What else do we have to worry about?" he asked once more.

Niko smirked.

"Boss, we have eyes on the Governor." Kono's voice came over the communications line and there was something like dread in it.

"What's the matter Kono?" Steve asked.

"The back bedroom isn't just a bomb," Kono answered. "It's the whole house mainframe."

"That's impossible!" Toast stated and jumped for his computer again.

"It's its own entity." Niko said and smiled defiantly. "More high techy-tech than even you can hack."

"Let me guess, the back up plan was the pressure switch, the mainframe is program to blow if the Governor is moved or not."

Niko nodded. "And you have to be on site to disarm with a voice command. My voice, and I'll die before I give that command."

"Voice command is just a code for deep encryption. It can be hacked as well." Toast stated as he slammed his laptop shut and took a deep breath. "Get me out to that mainframe and I'll hack it."

"You can't." Niko stated but there was hint of concern in his voice.

"I invented high techy-tech. I'll get the Governor out of there." Toast retorted confidently.

"Take Niko to lock up and throw away the key." Steve ordered and motioned for Toast to lead the way.

"What about my foot. I need a doctor." Niko yelled.

"You need more than that, but I don't feel like helping you." Steve stated and walked out of the bullpen followed by Danny and lead by a confident hacker.