Chapter Seven
We tore down the highway, Philip spending most of his time either in the fast lane overtaking other drivers.
"Slightly more comfortable than the last time one of us had to drive anywhere," muttered Jake.
--See, Cassie?-- said Ferdie brightly, nibbling on some crumbs he'd sniffed out under the back seat. --Told you he could drive.--
Cassie rolled her eyes and gazed out of the window. "Do you have to drive so fast though?" she asked.
"That bomb goes off in about less than eleven hours," Philip replied. "The sooner we get there, the more time we'll have to get ourselves in gear."
--Do we even have a plan?-- I asked. --What exactly are we going to do when we get there?--
"Are you talking to me, or Jake?" asked Philip.
--Anyone who has any ideas whatsoever.--
Philip shrugged and continued driving, so Jake spoke up. "Guess we should find out how many people are in that building," he said. "Do some kind of risk assessment of the surrounding area."
"Risk assessment?" laughed Rachel. "Since when did we do risk assessments?"
"This isn't just some normal battle, Rachel," Jake sighed. "It's going to be affecting a heck of a lot more people than our usual missions. I thought we'd been through that."
"What do you mean by a risk assessment?" asked Cassie. "Like counting the number of people who might do? Or making sure this building isn't next to a hospital or anything?"
--If it is, there's no way we can let it go off,-- said Maggie.
--How are we going to do it?-- asked Tobias, who was watching Ferdie's ferret form with hungry interest.
"Well, obviously we can't do a proper, formal one," Jake said. "My guess is that we just morph birds of prey and fly over the building and see what's around."
"Very thorough," said Marco dryly.
"Well, there's not much you can do in a few hours," Jake replied. "Anyway, once we've got a scope for how much damage the bomb might do when it goes off-"
"If it goes off," chipped in Cassie, who was still determined to avoid as much bloodshed as possible.
"-we should get inside and see if we can find this technology the Yeerks are working on."
"What, just nose around and look for a couple of out-of-place Dracon beams? Jake, buddy, not to spoil your fun, but I don't think the Controllers are just going to leave their work lying around for idiots like us to find."
"Well what then? Morph German shepherds and sniff out the bomb?"
"Damn right find the bomb!" cried Rachel in joy. "I've always wanted to see what a real, life big ole' boomer looks like."
"Rachel, you're insane, you do realise that right?" said Marco. "Absolutely insane."
--What would we do once we've found the bomb?-- asked Tobias. --I thought we were going to let it go off? I don't see what good finding it first would do. Except to make sure it actually exists.--
"How do we know these terrorists have even planted a bomb there already?" Philip asked. "They might be planning to deliver the bomb just before it explodes. They might drop it out of a plane or drive a car into it."
--Might be a suicide bomber,-- said Tobias. --Might be walking around the mall right now, and won't enter the building until tonight.--
"Oh, Rachel won't like that!" laughed Marco. "What if it went off in The Gap?"
Rachel batted her eyelids at him. "What if it went off in the video arcade? No more Time Crisis for you."
"Hmm, I doubt it," said Philip in answer to Tobias's thoughts. He exited the highway and joined the intercity freeway, quickly gathering speed. "Erek seemed clear enough that the bomb would be set to go off at a specific time. If you're going to deliver the bomb, as opposed to planting it, the timing wouldn't be nearly as accurate."
"Maybe Erek got it wrong," Cassie said. "Maybe twelve hours was just an estimate."
--I agree with Philip,-- said Ax. --Erek would have told us if he was at all unsure. And I do not understand the full workings or motives of these terrorists of yours, but it seems to be that an attack on a government building is one that requires a great deal of planning.--
"They're not exactly our terrorists, Ax," interrupted Marco, grabbing a packet of crisps from the carrier bag. "I doubt anyone would want to claim them as theirs."
Ax took no notice of him and carried on. --The explosive devices in which I have been trained may be vastly more efficient than your primitive devices, but the underlying methodologies are similar. Mobile, transportable devices are more commonly used for opportunistic attacks, whilst set-down devices with a set countdown timer are more appropriate for planned attacks.--
"You sound scarily like a member of Al-Qaeda yourself, Ax," muttered Marco.
"You learn anything like that in the army, Philip?" asked Rachel.
"Similar, I agree with what Ax said," Philip replied.
"That's still just an assumption," said Cassie. "Just because a set of factors makes something more likely doesn't mean it will actually happen."
--It's pretty much the best we can do right now, though,-- I said.
"We still don't have much of a plan," Philip said. "Everything we've been talking about replies on assumptions. Let's try and decide what we're going to do in regards to events that we can control."
"Like what?" asked Rachel.
"Like working out when we are going to let the FBI know, so we know when they would be most likely to call in the evacuation order."
"How long does it take to get hundreds of people out of a building like that?"
"If they're government agents, then hopefully not long. I'd say less than twenty minutes. They'd be trained in situations like this, and hopefully they would have had enough drills to know how to act."
--What about the people in the surrounding areas? If the bomb does go off, then we'd have to make sure that everyone in the nearby buildings got to safety,-- I said.
"Well, the clear-zone around the building would be about a mile's radius, possibly more. Obviously that's just a guesstimate - each city should have its own preparations. It's difficult to tell how big the zone should be without carrying out a test explosion first."
"Which I guess isn't too common?" asked Marco sarcastically.
"Well it's not exactly the most cost-efficient way of carrying out a safety check," Philip smiled.
--How long does it take for the FBI to issue an evacuation?-- I asked.
"If they're worth the tax-payer's bucks, they'll do it within minutes," said Jake.
"What if the FBI don't believe us?" Cassie asked. "Erek said they got loads of threats everyday, but they don't go and evacuate everyone each time they get one."
"It's their job to believe us," Jake said.
"What if they try and locate the bomb, and try and neutralize it?" asked Rachel. Cassie looked a little hopeful at this.
--Yeah, they might have learned about the threat by now,-- said Tobias.
--Guess we'll have to leave them to neutralize it,-- said Maggie. --I still don't like the idea of it going off just to destroy some equipment of the Yeerks'.--
"Look, we've already gone through all that," said Philip. "If the FBI do attempt to neutralize it, then I certainly do not suggest that we try to intervene. That would make us as bad as the terrorists. We only allow the bomb to go off if no one tries to stop it."
"But we don't try and prevent the FBI from finding the bomb, either," asserted Cassie. "We let them do their job, whether they find it or not."
"Sure," said Jake. "That all sounds pretty reasonable to me. We go along with the original plan; meet up with these two Chee, find the building before we do anything, work out how much damage the bomb will cause and alert the FBI during a suitable window of time. If the bomb isn't neutralized, we get out of the way quickly. Hope the Yeerk equipment was destroyed, but no lives were lost."
--Doesn't sound like we really have to do that much,-- said Ferdie. --Sounds like the FBI are doing it all.--
"That's their job, Ferdie," said Jake. "They save the country from terrorists, we save the world from the Yeerks."
"Besides, we had to make a huge decision, Flawless," sighed Philip. "I think that counts as doing quite a lot."