"Not good," Patriks said.

"That is a big bomb," Caine observed, "How much damage do you think it could do?"

"If the chemical composition is like that from Oaklahoma City, one barrel could take out a half a block," Patriks said, "Seems like those barrels go throughout the house."

"Can he make a bomb like that?"

"He can make one stronger," Patriks declared, "If I had this much material, maximum damage would be..."

Caine cursed and pulled out his phone, "This is Lieutenant Caine, MDPD, begin evacuation procedures for a six square block perimeter around..."

"I really hate Miami..."

It was almost pitifully easy. Patriks had brought agents from three different agencies. Of course, no one bothered to check exactly which ones he had brought. When flashed quickly enough, a gold badge looks like a gold badge, with almost no difference between FBI and Postal Service Investigation. A cheap polyester suit, off the rack, and an air of arrogance were almost all that was needed to pass as a federal agent.

The confusion of the evacuation only helped matters. Technicians were scurrying this way and that. Officers were trying and mostly failing to keep the evacuation orderly. Files needed grabbing, evidence secured, computers backed up, people needing to leave.

Those in the holding cell were to be evacuated.

A talk to an overworked uniformed officer. A flash of a badge. A mein of arrogance. The transfer of a prisoner to her custody.

No one noticed when she stuffed Mr Reece into her trunk.

Special Agent Bomb Technician Hank Cobry was careful not to let the small, powerful drill in his hand wobble a single centimeter. Doing so could crack the glass o the window. He remembered how two agents, both FBI SWAT, had breached a building to find that the suspect had wired a bomb to the house's security alarm. Breaking the window had killed both of them. If he cracked this window, then the security system would go off, and half of this city would feel the power of these bombs.

The drill finally put a hole, about a 1.5 centimeters in diameter, in the window without cracking it. He took his optical camera and threaded it through the hole. He looked at CSI Wolf, who held the controls and nodded.

Wolf turned his attention to the screen before him. The controls looked something akin to an oversized brief case, with a screen and joystick in it. Wolf gently moved the joystick, causing the fiberoptic camera to move downward. The picture shown on the screen was not reassuring.

Wires crossed the wall, linked with yellow blocks of explosive putty and computer parts. No going through the walls. He again manipulated the joystick, moving the camera to the right, toward the door. He saw that the door also was wired in a similar manor and cursed.

"Not good."

"On the upside, it looks like there is not time piece, so we aren't working on a time limit," Cobry said, "On the downside, every opening we have is wired."

"Anti-Tampering?" Horatio asked.

"We think that these," he pointed at the picture of the block of explosive under the window, "Have regulators on them to detect changes in the electrical current. We shut off the power, bomb goes off. We cut any wire, bomb goes off. Break a window, bomb goes off. Fart, bomb goes off."

"So how do we disarm it?" other Make Safe Procedures (MSP) included removing detonators, using liquid nitrogen to freeze the explosives, and other techniques, but that required getting in first. And that avenue was effectively cut off.

"We screw him like he screwed me," Patriks said, "We circumvent it."

Cobry paled, "That's very risky."

"You have a better idea?" Patriks asked.

"What do you mean, 'circumvent it'?" Horatio asked. He hadn't heard of it during his time in the Bomb Squad.

"Me and Pierce were on a mission to rescue an American hostage in a class. One snag in the mission was the fact that the hostage was wired to a bomb, which had a sensor on his heart rate. Remove the bomb and it blows. Pierce took an AED" Automated External Defibrillator, "Hooked himself up to it so it read his heartbeat, then jury rigged it to the bomb. Bomb read his heart beat enough for the hostage to be gotten out. Spent the next twelve hours disarming."

"You circumvent the path of whatever anti-Tampering device is hooked up," Cobry explained, "If done right, you could do almost anything you want to the device. If done wrong, it could detonate the device. It's hard and extremely risky."

"And a technique Pierce pioneered," Patriks said, "He probably wouldn't have expected us to consider it, so he wouldn't have built defenses against it."

"'Probably' is not a word I want to hear when dealing with explosives," Cobry said.

"But it could be the only way into the house," Patriks said, "Lieutenant, she's your detective, it's your call,"

Caine didn't even blink, "We circumvent the bomb when the evacuation is complete."

"Maneuvering arm through window," the intercom said. Delko watched while sweating bullets, "I see the device," the arm extended to the wire, "Attaching circumvention wire," the little jumper clamp at the end clamped down.

"Wire reading at 15 volts," Delko said, reading from a computer. "Holding steady."

"Arm 2 is maneuvering through window," the intercom squawked, this time the arm on the other side of the door"I see the device," the arm extended, "Ready to attach,"

"Do not attach until my order," Horatio said into the radio, "Arm 1, prepare to cut."

"Arm 1 ready to cut," the radio said.

"Cut and attach on my command," if they broke the circuit too early, then the anti-tampering device would go off. If they attached too early, then there would be two circuits, and the current would be split between them. If that happened, there might be a drop in the current radical enough to set off the bomb, "On my mark... mark!"

nothing.

Everyone exhaled the breath they hadn't know they had been holding. Horatio said, "Bomb technicians, you are clear to work."

Cobry waddled through the door, keeping to the center of the hallway to better see his environment. Throw rugs and debris were to be avoided, lest there be pressure plate underneath. Thankfully, this hallway was made of tile and had a clear path to the hostage. The wires to the blocks of explosive were many and looked complex, but thankfully visible. If all else failed, they could use liquid nitrogen and freeze them. It was one of the simplest jobs he had ever seen.

So why did he have a bad feeling?

He moved to one of the barrels while his partner, Jones, got to work on the explosives wired to the hostage, Detective Dusquesne. He looked at the what he had to work with. What looked like no less than fifty wires were arrayed, with a thin metal plate over the block of explosives, sitting on the blue barrel. It looked for all the world like a spider nestled on an egg.

He gently lifted the "spider" off the barrel of...

Of...

Fuel...

He couldn't smell any fuel.

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