Chapter 9

"Booth, you're kidnapping me again! I need to get back to the lab. I am quite capable of driving myself. At least when we get to the community centre, let me take a cab or something," said Brennan, testily. She knew she was becoming over tired and easily ticked off.

"Hey, I thought you would want to be in on this. My mistake...Come on Bones, think, bomb...psychic fair," said Booth, as he reminded her of the obvious with an encouraging smile to help win her over. "Besides, this new incident doesn't free you from your need for protection. I'm not letting you out of my sight until this thing is settled or we know for a fact you're not a target."

She was used to this from Booth and his "emergency" mode but it didn't get easier to deal with when it got between her and getting work done.

"If anything, finding a bomb at a psychic fair should be more evidence in favor of neither me or Angela being targets," she said.

"That proves my point right there. You're not thinking in your usual logical way. That is an unproven assumption. It's an unidentified box until known otherwise, Bones," Booth replied, rather happy with himself for being the logical and right one for a change.

All Brennan could do was mutter to herself. She so hated when he was right at her expense. Of course, no matter how tired she was, she would always choose to be where the action was. Being "chained" to Booth wasn't reallly all that bad, she thought. She almost smiled but caught herself in time to avoid Booth noticing. She didn't want to give him anything else to gloat over as he congratulated himself for winning this round. A wave of exhaustion spilled over her as she rested her weary head back against the car seat's head rest.

Booth looked over at his partner resting her eyes but still obviously tense. He reached over to cover her hand with his. Brennan opened her eyes and looked over at him.

"I promise, as soon as I find out what is going on, I'll make sure you get to the lab one way or another. You should really be wanting to go home. You look awful and I mean that in a totally supportive "telling you the truth only 'cause I care" kind of way," Booth said, hoping to get a smirk at the very least out of her.

Brennan rewarded him with half a chuckle and knew he was right, again. Damn, this was really getting out of hand. She gave his hand a squeeze, gently removed hers from his grasp and closed her eyes again as she tried to get comfortable.

After a 30 minute drive through rush hour traffic, they finally arrived at the centre where organised chaos gave way to pockets of panic among the crowds being kept behind the hastily assembled police barricades.

Booth wished he could have let her stay in the SUV to rest but he was serious about keeping her in his sights. Feeling slightly refreshed by her short rest, Brennan allowed him to usher her ahead of him as he surveyed the situation and flashed his badge to gain entry to the centre through the police perimeter.

As they entered the main hall, they were held back to watch the bomb squad go through their protocols to secure the troublesome package. They were informed that a sniffer dog had confirmed the presence of explosives.A bomb disposal robot was dispatched to carry the package through a cleared path to a disposal capsule parked in the middle of an empty parking lot. Booth and Brennan followed at the prescribed safe distance as the device was placed into the large "garbage can"- like cannister.

A few minutes later, they and the surrounding crowds were rewarded for their patience as they witnessed an explosion that could probably be heard a couple of miles away. Although this was all very exciting to see and hear, the crowd fell silent as they realized with a shock the real danger they had been in.

At that moment, a woman's voice could be heard coming towards Booth & Brennan as they stood a few feet away from one of the barricades.

"Please, I must speak to Agent Booth and Dr. Brennan. I know they're here. I saw them enter the centre," the woman said to the nearest policeman.

"All right, all right. I'll let them know you are here. What's your name, ma'am?" the officer asked.

He was getting weary of being approached by every so-called psychic here. He mentally groaned "This would have to happen at a psychic fair". He'd heard everything in the past hour, from spirit guides pointing the accusing finger at some famous "still-at-large" criminal to the ghost of Jack the Ripper. At least this one actually knew the names of real people involved in law enforcement or their related fields. Booth and Brennan's partnership was actually pretty famous in both of their respective professional circles. This officer had recognised them in the nearby crowd of cops, fire fighters, bomb squad personnel and other officials managing the incident.

"Marianne Maisson," she answered the officer politely but with an authoritative edge to her voice.

Hearing this, Brennan turned to see Anna's grandmother trying to get her attention. Booth flashed his badge at the office and said, "Let her through, I'll take responsibility for her."

"Dr. Brennan, thank God I found you," Marianne said, relieved at completing this part of her task.

"Booth, this is Anna's grandmother, Marianne Maisson. This is Special Agent Seeley Booth, Marianne," said Brennan as she made the introductions.

"Why did you need to find us so urgently and how did you happen to know we were here," asked Booth as he collected his first impressions of this woman.

"The bomb scare was a breaking news bulletin on Anna's hospital TV half an hour ago. I'm also acquainted with several of the participants here. This is a large show and there are people here from all over the country. I was actually on my way here even before the news came on. Anna gave me a picture for you and a message. She says look out for "fingers in his pocket". She couldn't really explain what that meant. A cab got me here ten minutes ago and as I said I saw you walk in," explained Anna's grandmother.

She handed the picture over to Booth who unfolded it to reveal a fairly accurate representation of 2 bomb disposal canisters with blast lines coming out of both and a drawing of a man with short hair and a moustache. He was wearing a uniform like suit with a name badge on his jacket that read "Walters".

"Booth, remember Anna was right about my mother and sister," Brennan added and tried to justify her support by using the "results prove worth" method of logic.

At that moment four members of the bomb squad walked past them returning to the community centre after taking care of the reported package. Booth instantly made the connection to the last name of the dead deliveryman and got a glimpse of a moustache on one of them through his protective mask. Taking an intuitive leap, Booth called out, "Hey, Walters, did you find the other bomb?"

The man Booth had noticed turned his head to respond to the calling of his name and reached into a pocket with his right hand. Booth removed his gun and pointed it at the man stopped in front of him. "FBI, Walters. Hold it right there. If I'm wrong I'll apologize. Please remove your hand from your pocket slowly and put your hands up." He motioned to a nearby officer to search the man's pockets. As the man removed his hand, he revealed that he was holding what looked like a cell phone.

"I wouldn't come any closer, if I were you," yelled Walters. "You think that bomb was exciting. The other one is even better. You'll never find it in time." His threat got the attention ofeveryone within hearing range and was quickly surrounded by law enforcement with their weapons drawn.

"That won't do you any good, Walters. You may be good at building bombs but how you were able to pass as a bomb technician, I'll never know." Booth taunted the deranged man at the end of his gunsight.

Walters pressed a button on his device but nothing happened. Panicking, he pushed it again but still got no response. At this point, the cops surrounded him, secured the device and took him away in handcuffs.

"Agent Booth, how did you know the trigger wouldn't work," asked Marianne, aghast at the chance he had just taken.

'It's standard operating procedures during a bomb threat, Ms Maisson. Cell phone jamming equipment was one of the first responding teams when the bomb threat came in. It was turned on just before the other bomb was detonated. If you scan the crowd you'll see a lot of disappointed people trying to get their cell phones to work. Wireless triggers like this one made from a cell phone won't work. If that man had been a real member of the bomb squad, he would have known that," explained Booth.

Ten minutes later, a call was heard that informed the team that the other bomb had been found and as before, the appreciative crowd was treated to another contained explosion. Their contribution for the 'entertainment' was a lot of cheering and clapping as the police attempted to encourage everyone that the show was now over. The centre was still being searched to make sure there were no more surprises waiting for them. It would be off limits for at least the rest of the day.

"Hey, Booth," called an approaching man in FBI emergency gear trying to get his attention, "Wait up."

"Hi, Frank, what you got," replied Booth.

"Thought you might like to take custody of some evidence found on the suspect. Should interest your partner there," said Frank, Booth's FBI colleague, as he passed an evidence envelope over to him.

Booth opened the envelope, took a look and without further comment, handed it on to Brennan who had taken that moment to put on a pair of plastic gloves she always carried with her. Having a look for herself, she put a hand into the envelope and took out a shriveled severed finger for a closer look.

"Looks like Anna did it again. Just like she said,'fingers in his pocket'. No thumb but it appears that someone's missing four fingers," said Brennan as the implications of this sunk in. Well, at least now they had caught their bomber. With any luck, they could now fill in the rest of the story.

Booth was released from the scene to return Marianne to the hospital and then headed off to the Jeffersonian to fulfill his promise to return Brennan to the lab. The gruesome gift of bones was all that was needed to wake her up to full attention. For as long as that lasted. Booth touched his lucky chip in his pocket and bet himself that, when he returned in a hour, he would find his Bones curled up on her office sofa having a long awaited and necessary nap.