Elisa turned down 3rd Avenue aiming towards midtown, and a few minutes later, she came to a stop near the Kat's Kuts Beauty Salon. The building looked like any other in this area, with its peeling and cracked façade and faded cloth awnings. Elisa took a moment to look at the exterior, then looked a little deeper. The windows, unlike its neighbors, were sparkling clean. The large front window held bright potted plants, cream colored curtains hung in the corners, and the walls inside were painted a light, calming blue. It looked like a day spa from a movie, where women could go and pamper themselves with manicures, facials, pedicures, and whatever else girly-girls liked to do to themselves.

Elisa liked being female, and occasionally got in the mood to dress up and put on a little makeup, but those occurrences were few and far between.

She'd been talked into going to a spa day with her mother and sister once.

Once.

She had driven everyone crazy. She was not a person who liked to sit still for long periods of time, especially not when someone had their hands on her feet. She would indulge in a massage about once a year, but that was about the extent of what she could handle.

That being said, this looked like a nice enough place. Not Exactly the kind of environment that would involve a package bomb.

Elisa made her way through the crowd that was gathering towards the bomb squad. She couldn't be a hundred percent that the black clad figures at the east side of the building were members of the bomb squad, but the black helmets with the face guards and flak jackets were a big clue.

They were there, and they weren't messing around. The explosives experts were busy putting on the gear that would hopefully protect them should the bomb go off, in hopes that it would save their lives. They were hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst.

NYPD officers on the street began backing the crowd up, while others were evacuating other businesses on the street.

Elisa held her badge above her head to get the attention of the other officers, and was waved through toward the armored vehicle that was the bomb squad mobile command center that was parked half the city block away. As she got closer, she could hear the radio chatter emanating from the massive wall of electronic equipment lining the equivalent of an urban tank.

Elisa spotted the team lead, and was thankful it was someone she knew.

"Hey Eagle," Elisa called out, "how does it look?"

Harry Bird, also known as Eagle, had joined the NYPD straight out of the military. He had been a member of the mounted police until one day he happened to mention to a new recruit that he had been trained to de-fuse all manner of explosive devices in the army, and was lucky to find a job with the force because there wasn't a high demand for someone with his skill set once he had returned to civilian life. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on Eagle's mood), his boss had been within hearing range, and had put a bug in the Bomb Squad leader's ear.

The former squad leader had been making noise about retirement, effective as soon as a replacement could be found. Normally, not such a big deal, but with no one to take his place, the NYPD had been scrambling.

Eagle had been asked to teach a few courses on what skills he had been taught in the military, and within a few months, he had been moved to the bomb squad officially. He claimed to miss the regular police force, but Elisa knew the truth.

The man was a total adrenaline junkie and loved what he did for a living. The "regular" positions in the NYPD would bore the snot out of him.

Eagle shrugged. "Same stuff, different day, unfortunately."

"Anything different on this one?" Elisa asked.

"Nope," Eagle said, sending her an apologetic look. "I want this jackass off the street as much as anyone, Maza, but we can't see anything different."

Elisa sighed. "Damn."

"Yup," Eagle said. "I'm about to send my guys in. Hang back here for a moment, until we can get the cover on it."

Elisa nodded. She had no intention of getting in their way. They were the experts, and she would have no earthly idea of how to do what they did, and wasn't going to pretend otherwise.

"We're clear!" someone called, and Elisa realized that while she'd been standing there, the street had been completely cleared.

A group of similarly black armor clad men came forward carrying what looked like a large metal sphere in a metal frame. It looked heavy as hell, and judging by how slow they moved, Elisa's guess was most likely correct.

She had seen one of these once before. The bomb squad would transfer the explosive device into the sphere, seal it and detonate it in a contained atmosphere to minimize (if not completely eliminate) the damage.

The metal cage was lowered with a heavy, almost hollow thunk, and the men backed off once more.

"Wouldn't a forklift be easier to move that thing?" Elisa asked.

"It would," Eagle agreed, "But with as sensitive as these things have been, we didn't want heavy machinery vibrating the ground under it."

"Good call," Elisa said, nodding.

"It's a heavy bastard, though," Eagle admitted. "We have a forklift standing by to help when we're done."

"Smart," Elisa said. "I can't imagine your guys are wanting to move that again anytime soon."

"Got that right," one of the men approaching them said.

"Alright, Dodd," Eagle called out to one of his team standing by. "You're up."

Dodd nodded his head. At least, Elisa assumed it was a nod. It was hard to tell with the amount of body protection the person was wearing. Honestly, she couldn't even tell if Dodd was a male or a female. Dodd was just a black mass with a small window in their helmet to see out of.

Dodd reached down and gingerly brought up what looked like a kind of catch pole with metal pincers at the end.

Elisa stood by the truck, watching as Dodd began approaching the package, when her phone rang. The sound was so startling in the silence that everyone seemed to jump. Embarrassed, Elisa fumbled in her pocket, pulling out the flip phone and opening it just to make the ringing stop.

"Sorry," Elisa said, hurrying around to the far side of the truck. "Maza," She all but barked into the phone.

"Elisa," Matt's voice came over the line. "You still good down there? I just heard about the new bomb found."

"Matt, I'm fine," Elisa said, soft and insistent. "Stay home. There's not much to do he…"

The explosion cut off anything else she was going to say.

Elisa startled so badly that she dropped her phone. Instinct made her throw herself backwards into the armored car and covering her head with her arms.

Her ears were ringing with the high pitched whine that always follows an extremely loud, sudden sound, so that she didn't hear her name being called right away. Once she realized that something was being said, Elisa pushed herself back upright, and unsteadily made her way back to the other side where she'd left everyone.

Elisa became aware of the flurry of activity the moment that she rounded the corner, and had a moment of terror when her brain finally seemed to keep up. Then she realized exactly what had happened.

Despite all of the precautions, the damn thing had gone off.

The large window in the front of the salon and the buildings on either side of it had been blown out, making the sidewalk glitter with the shine of shattered glass. The bomb tech's catch pole was laying in pieces across the street, and a thin haze of smoke gave everything an almost dream like quality.

Dodd was on their side on the sidewalk, close to Elisa had seen them last. They had either been blown backward, or hadn't gotten close to it to begin with. She would find out later, she promised herself.

Now, she was going to check on everyone to make sure that they were alright. Most of the squad was on their feet, but a few were still down.

Moans and groans began meeting Elisa's ears, as her hearing began clearing up, but there were no screams. She fervently hoped that that meant that there were no major injuries… and not that someone had died this time.

Elisa flinched as a hand came down on her shoulder, and she whipped around to see Eagle there. He pointed to her, then up to his ear, clearly asking if her hearing was alright.

Elisa shook her head, and tried to respond. She must have yelled a little, because he just blinked at her a few times. Though, the fact that he could hear her was nothing short of a miracle.

Elisa's ears were still ringing, so she saw that flashing lights of the incoming EMS vehicles before she heard them.

She hurriedly scanned the people on the ground, assessing the injuries. Surprisingly, she didn't see much in the way of visible injuries.

Elisa felt a firm hand on her shoulder, and saw Eagle was standing close to her. He motioned for her to follow. He sat her down on the large chrome bumper of the mobile unit, then told her to wait there.

At least, she thought that's what he said. She was never good at reading lips, so he could have said "wait here", "wet hair" or any number of other things… but the "wait here" was a safer bet.

The ambulances, four in all, came to a fast stop near the scene, and a whole horde of medical personnel were suddenly everywhere. Thanks to the body armor that they crew had been wearing, the majority of the injuries were bruising from the impact against the Kevlar. A few seemed to have superficial cuts, but nothing that should require more than a stitch or two.

They were lucky in that way.

Elisa seemed to be the only one having trouble with hearing. As Elisa saw most of the crew taking ear plugs out of their ears, she mentally kicked herself. With the possibility of an explosion, she should have thought of that.

She jumped as an EMS tech was suddenly in front of her.

His mouth was moving, and she was beginning to hear just enough to tell that he was speaking, but it was more in the way that the adults spoke in the Peanuts cartoons.

All she heard was "Wa wa wa wa wa".

She shook her head at him, motioning to her ears.

He frowned, and seemed to call someone else over with a wave of his arm.

Elisa, as the only non-armored person on the scene, was suddenly surrounded by techs, checking her over. She sighed, knowing what was coming next. As was policy with any injury, no matter how superficial, she was going to have to be transported and checked over.

She waved at one of the tech, and mimed writing something. The small female smiled, extracting a small notebook and a pen from her pocket, handing them to Elisa.

Elisa pointed to Eagle, and began frantically scribbling. He had either seen her point, of the tech had called him over, but he hurried to her side.

"What happened?" Elisa wrote, passing the notebook to him for his reply.

"Bomb went off" he wrote.

She read the reply, looked at him and rolled her eyes. She snatched the pen back and wrote, "You think so? Seriously, what happened?"

"Don't know," Eagle wrote. "We'll know more once we examine what's left."

"Keep me posted," Elisa wrote.

"Will do. Go get checked out. I will come and find you after we are done here."

Elisa nodded, getting to her feet. The tech motioned her to follow, and she made her way to the waiting ambulance. She wasn't the only one going, she noticed, as a few of the bomb squad was also loaded up for a trip to the ER themselves.

One of the EMTs handed Elisa her phone. She had dropped it during the explosion, and had forgotten about it. She flipped it open, cringing at the cracked screen and looked at the time display. It wasn't even ten in the morning.

It was going to be a long day.