"You got it man?"
"Yeah. Listen, you need to tell Jack it is in the cellar, strapped to a beam on the ceiling."
"You sure."
"Yes," he snapped, before hanging up. Now he had to call Hammond and give him a situation report on the man they found in the cathedral (who was not talking despite there persuasive methods) and explain why its best that they have left the cathedral take over by Jack to the local cops. He was still struggling to explain that one, he couldn't say it was so his plan would work out nice. He decided he would simply have to tell Brad that Jack was acting on his own authority, and seen as there is a warrant for his arrest he is no longer involved with C.T.U. Therefore they have no jurisdiction in the area. Seen as the cathedral is empty of innocents and they have the man who was going to trigger the device, there is no longer a threat posed. Therefore the scene belonged to L.A.P.D. It was a long shot, he was praying Brad would buy it.
Jack flipped his cell shut, a brief smile quickly flickered across his face, before it was replaced with seriousness once more.
"It's in the cellar."
Father Andrew nodded his head, they had one of those. "This way."
Jack followed slowly, Father Andrew was clearly going as fast as he could, but it was taking him some time. They moved through the building, and down two more spiralling stair cases. They passed through the dungeons, at which point Jack couldn't help but look at in awe of this history. They got to a trap door and Jack opened it up, it was too stiff for the old man to open. While Jack worked with opening it, Father Andrew decided to take this time to explain why they had to take such a long route to get here.
"They made this place about a hundred years after they originally built the building. It was where they stored their valuables. Which is why its hidden so well."
Jack just nodded, he now had the door fully open. He looked down and realised it was a high drop, the elderly man wouldn't make it. He looked up at him, the priest knew it too.
"Its to the right of the room. You will feel a concrete door. The main cellar room is on the other side of that."
"Thank you. Sir you had better leave the building now. If the forces come in they will not find me. Get as far away as you can from here, it could still blow."
The man looked at Jack sadly. " I already told you. If this building dies then so do I. It is what He intends. I will wait here for your return."
Jack realised there was no point in arguing with the man. Instead he gave him the briefest nod of a head, then lowered himself into the blackness. His feet dangled through the air a moment before he let go of the ledge his fingers were wrapped tightly around, then he hit the floor. The room he now stood in was pitch black, the light from the hole he had climbed through not making its way through the nothingness. He couldn't see anything. As he took a few tentative steps forward he lifted his hand to the rough ceiling, noticing almost immediately that it had a steep downwards slope to the north.
As Father Andrew had instructed him to move to his right he knew this slope wouldn't effect him, but he stooped anyway, always cautious. He stepped backwards and his back met the wall, he could feel the coldness through his sweater and realised the room was made of pure stone. This thought stopped his movement as a sudden worry hit him. The door was stone, that's how he would know what it was. How would he tell the difference, what if he couldn't find the door? He thought about his torch in the boot of his car and mentally kicked himself, before moving on. The bomb was still ticking, he would just have to search for the door.
He began to side step his way along the wall, his back merely inches from making contact with it. He ran his left hand gently along the wall in the hopes that he would somehow notice the door when he came to it. Right now he was working on preventing his mind from listing the possible insects there could be surrounding him. The thought was as comforting as the shudder which ran through his body each time his hand touched something he presumed was a cobweb. Something he certainly didn't want on his hand, or anywhere near him for that matter.
He could feel himself starting to panic, his hands were shaking slightly, he had to calm himself down and stop thinking about his surroundings as he was getting distracted. He shook his head to clear it as he took another step, then he froze. The texture beneath his hand had suddenly changed. It was no longer coarse but now smooth and even. This had to be the door. Jack turned to face it and ran both hands over the wall until he found an edge. It wasn't much but he managed to get his fingertips beneath it, before he started to pull. Nothing. It wouldn't budge.
His breathing became more laboured as he struggled to open the heavy door. Realising that it was too heavy for him to move he kicked at it in frustration. He herd the noise echo from the movement and felt the vibration through his hands. Getting an idea he placed both palms flat against the wall and began to push against it. Little happened at first but after more effort he could feel it move before him. More determined than ever his knee was know joining in the effort, pushing against the obstructing object with all of the energy he could muster. He was finally rewarded for his efforts when the door jutted forwards, leaving a gap just big enough for Jack to pull his lean frame through which he did immediately, his body now running off of an adrenaline high.
As he stepped into the new room he instantly noticed the climate change, it was even colder that the other had been, his body began to shiver involuntary. He rubbed at his arms in an attempt to warm himself whilst looking around his new surroundings. It was still black, nothing else could be seen. An idea suddenly came to him and he cursed himself for not thinking of it sooner, he could use the light on his cell phone.
He pulled it from his pocked and flipped it open, the light leaving a short path of vision from the phone. It was better than nothing. He wandered around the edge of the room taking each step carefully, he was more than aware of the bombs presence in the room. Finally he got lucky as he came across a dusty light switch drilled into the wall. He flipped it on without hesitation, more than pleased to see it worked as his eyes screwed themselves up in defence to the sudden brightness.
Once his eyes had adjusted he looked around the room seeing nothing but a blue crate in the corner. Looking up to the ceiling he was surprised to see that there were indeed beams running parallel along it, the sort you would expect to find in a countryside cottage. More importantly, he observed, was the rectangular box strapped to the centre beam.
He dragged the crate over and used it to stand on whilst he quickly examined the box. He pulled out his knife and carefully cut through the straps holding it to the beam. Once the blade worked its way through the material Jack steadily grabbed it and lowered it down to the top of the crate. He stepped down and kneeled down besides it suspiciously, using the crate as a tabletop. He checked the exterior of the box and saw noting which indicated that taking the lid off would trigger anything, so he gently removed the grey lid and tossed it aside.
His breath was coming through normally now and his pulse was steady, his eyes fixated on the sight before him. It was a simple mechanism but there was enough explosive to take out another three buildings as well as the cathedral. It was the timer which alarmed him. The screen was split, the top half displayed a number which went up each second the other number went down. It was recording the time the bomb had been activated for, almost twelve hours. This comforted Jack some, at least his actions hadn't triggered the device. If this did go wrong, he wasn't responsible. The number on the lower half of the screen made him gasp though, wiping away any comfort he may have felt. He had just over two minutes before the bomb detonated.
