He cradled her body, her face buried in his chest. It was nice to be held, especially by him. She missed him; she missed him so much. But, they had unfinished business. Reluctantly, she pulled out of his arms and faced him, all business. "I know where he's going to make the last attempt." She announced.
Explaining the situation to him, they got out of bed and quickly dressed, modesty be damned, and went into the living room. Lucy opened a silver brief case, revealing several tools and devices that he didn't recognize, and pulled out a pair of cellular phones with headsets.
After clipping the phones to their clothing and donning the headsets, Lucy tested the units. She took two black nylon backpacks and placed the equipment they needed in each one. After a last check, they went downstairs to their car and drove out of the garage.
"Shouldn't we call the police?" He asked.
Keeping her eyes on the streets she answered him without turning her head. "Not yet. Namen will be monitoring the police frequencies. If he knows the police are coming, he might panic. We have to check the hospital first. Then, if we find what I think we'll find, we call the cops."
They drove on to the hospital, taking various streets and alleys to avoid the rush hour traffic starting to form. Stopping outside the entrance to the emergency room to drop off Cater, Lucy drove into the parking garage to look for Namen while Carter ran into the ER to start his search.
He ran into Weaver in the lounge. Surprised he was here alone, she approached him. "Carter. What are you doing here?" She asked.
"Kerry, I need you to evacuate the hospital. There may be a bomb." He said.
She then noticed that he was wearing a headset and there was a cellular phone clipped to his belt. After reading the e-mail warning and the attempt on Carter, she knew he wasn't crazy. Moving quickly and professionally, she made the announcement to the staff and began the evacuation.
Someone contacted the police and they were sending the bomb squad, but there was a trauma in progress and the patient too unstable to be moved.
Carter began his search at the front desk. There were no bags or suspicious packages to be seen. He moved into the lounge and checked the lockers; they were all locked. A check of the refrigerator revealed nothing.
Then, checking the cabinets, he found it. All the wires were black, and were either attached to the explosives or to a crudely-made circuit board. The explosives were four yellow sticks, which appeared to be packed with a plastic like substance. An LED display, a timer, was counting down. There was less than four minutes left. He reported his findings to Lucy.
A single bomb to take out the hospital, how cliched. "Ok, you've done your job, just get everyone out of there and wait for the bomb squad."
Carter got up and out of the lounge when he noticed there was a patient in trauma one that was unstable. Then, he realized that there were at least a half-dozen patients in the ICU. "We can't, there are too many critical patients. We can't get them all out in time."
Realizing that rush hour had set in, Lucy fully realized Namen's plan. "He planned this so that the police would be stuck in traffic. I'll be right there Carter." She said.
She was about to park her car and get out when she saw Namen getting into a gray BMW 5-Series sedan. "On second thought Carter, you're going to have to do it." She said as she quietly pulled back out of the parking space to follow Namen.
Oh god, don't tell me. "Do what?" He said.
"Diffuse the bomb. Don't worry, I'll talk you through it." She said.
She cursed; Namen had spotted her and smashed through the exit gate out of the garage. Lucy pulled out into street after him as he turned onto another street, the rear end of his car fish-tailing as the tires fought to regain traction.
"Lucy, all the wires are black." He said.
Clever bastard; that made the job even more difficult. "Damn. Don't worry about it Carter. Just talk to me. Describe the bomb to me. You're gonna be my eyes and hands. Just do what I tell you and trust me ok?" She said.
"All right." He said, and got to work describing the device. "There are four yellow sticks wrapped in a bundle. Attached to it is a timer with a digital readout counting down from three minutes and twenty-three seconds. I can see a circuit board with several wires attached to a small black box, and two other wires leading to the sticks."
Lucy turned onto another street, downshifting into second to catch up with the speeding BMW. They were approaching the entrance to the Eisenhower expressway.
"All right. First, don't move the bomb. Second, don't cut any wires. Since all the wires are black, we can't risk cutting them. So, we're going to give the bomb squad more time to dispose of it safely." She said.
Carter was beginning to sweat. "How the hell do we do that?"
"You jam the timer. If the timer doesn't reach zero, it won't detonate. That won't diffuse it, but it will buy you some more time. Open your bag; you'll find what you need. I'm going to tell you how to make a circuit that will bypass the clock and stop the timer." She said.
Carter sat down in front of the cabinet, opened his backpack and emptied its contents on the floor next to him. Kerry Weaver rushed in and saw him on the floor. "Carter! What the hell are you doing? Get out of here!" she yelled.
"Carter, what's going on?" Asked Lucy.
The chase had progressed onto the expressway. Namen crashed his BMW through a closed toll booth gate as he continued onto the busy highway. Lucy followed him, pushing her car's engine up to its redline to keep up.
"Weaver's here. She wants me to get out." He said.
"Tell her that we're trying to buy them more time to evacuate the hospital and to get out." She said, barely keeping her voice even; she almost rear-ended someone that Namen forced into her path.
"Just get everyone out of here. I'm going to help buy you some more time." He said. Kerry didn't move and got agitated. She was more worried than angry. "Damn it Carter, you are not a bomb expert. Now get-" He cut her off "- you listen to me. We don't have time to argue. The bomb squad is not going to get here in time. If I don't stop this bomb, people are going to die. Now get out!" He said, making his tone clear that he was not going to argue with her.
Kerry didn't move, she wasn't going to leave her friend and colleague in front of a bomb. "Then I'm staying with you." She announced, sitting down on the floor next to him. "She wants to stay with me, what do I do?"
The chase had left the expressway, they were entering down town Chicago. Namen was sideswiping, and colliding with other cars to try and elude Lucy. His gray BMW 5-Series sedan was already sporting a broken headlamp cluster, a crushed right front fender, a missing passenger-side mirror, and numerous scrapes and dents. Lucy's S6 had no more than a few scratches, since Namen was merely clearing a path for Lucy to follow.
"Ok, listen to me carefully. Find a tool that looks like a small claw with several small teeth. It looks like an IC puller with several connection points on it. You should have one in your bag. See it?" She asked.
Carter rummaged around the contents of the bag on the floor, looking for the tool. He found the odd-looking tool and picked it up. "Got it." He announced.
"Ok, there should be a microchip on the circuit board. That runs the timer. Clamp the tool onto the chip." Her voice rose a note when she almost hit a sign post on the curb and sideswiped a parked car, smashing her passenger-side turn signal, marker lamp, and knocking her mirror off. "Sh-" She steered back behind the BMW and kept pace. They were lucky that no pedestrians have been hurt. However, the more time that was passing, the more likely it was going to happen. She had to stop him now. But first, the bomb. "Ok, there are some wires with alligator clips. You'll need five leads."
Kerry helped Carter fish out and untangle the leads. There was less than a minute left. "I've got them, now what?" He asked. Less than fifty seconds.
"First lead attaches to the top left pin, the other end to the second pin from the top right." Lucy was now looking for an opportunity to pass Namen and cut him off. It was going to take critical timing. "Done." She heard him. "The second lead attaches to the third pin from the left on the bottom, and the other end to the pin on the top right." Forty seconds and counting. "Third lead to the fourth pin from the bottom right, and the other end to the top left pin." Thirty seconds. "Done." Two more leads. "Ok, the fourth lead to the third pin from the bottom left to the second from the bottom left." Twenty seconds.... nineteen "Got it." Eighteen... One more lead. Seventeen... "Fifth lead attaches from the top right pin, to the-" Fifteen... "First pin on the bottom left" Twelve...
Carter made the last connection and the clock stopped at eleven seconds. He and Kerry let out a breath of relief. "It stopped Lucy."
Back in the speeding car, she let out a sigh of relief. "Good work Doctor, now get out of there and wait for the bomb squad."
Just as she told them to leave, they could hear the sirens from approaching police cars. They both got up and exited the hospital just as the police arrived. Carter quickly told them where the bomb was and about the jammed timer and got to a safe distance.
"Lucy, where are you?" He asked. Back in the car, Lucy saw her opportunity to stop him. They were approaching a construction site near Mercy hospital. "I'm northbound on South Cook approaching one-hundred eleven Avenue. There's a construction site. I'm gonna cut him off." She saw an opening in traffic, down shifted into second, and buried the accelerator into the floor. The needle on the tachometer swept over to its redline as she was thrown back into her seat. The Audi wagon side-swiped the BMW as she pulled ahead of him from the right. "Lucy-" She cranked her wheel hard to the left, sending the Audi into the BMW, crushing her left fender.
The collision knocked the BMW off the road and sent both cars careening into several pieces of heavy equipment. Namen slammed on his brakes and pulled up the parking brake handle, sending him into an uncontrollable skid. Keeping the last of her cool, Lucy let off the accelerator and tried to steer around the various pieces of equipment and workers in her path. She was still doing at least 40 MPH when she saw the metal framework of the new building rapidly enlarging in her windshield.
Carter heard the sounds of crushing metal and the screams of workers through the static of her cell phone. "Lucy!!!"