The Bomb 4

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Amanda pulled the last form from her typewriter and carefully laid the paper in the file on her desk. Picking it up, as well as her purse, she quickly made her way to Mr. Melrose's office. He was obviously out but she left the file, along with a note, on his desk, for when he returned. The report had taken a little longer to type than she had expected but glancing at her watch, she thought she should still have plenty of time to make it to the meeting with Alton Weight at one pm, as she had promised Lee.

However just as she reached the elevators, "Amanda." Amanda closed her eyes and dropped her head with a groan before pasting on a smile and turning back to see Bob Abernathy making his way towards her. He had been in the office for several days now and seemed convinced that Amanda was his personal assistant. Her status as an agent in training had no effect on him.

"Amanda," he began as he approached. "Glad I caught you. Look, I have to leave for a while but I have a ton of filing on my desk and some reports that need to be typed…"

"I'm sorry, Bob." Amanda smiled genially as the elevator opened behind her. "But I have to run. I have to be somewhere at one." She tried to enter the elevator but he moved in front of her.

"Amanda, this is important. This stuff just doesn't get done by itself you know." He gave her a patronizing look that irritated her immensely.

Moving around him and just barely catching the elevator door before it closed, Amanda quickly hopped into the car and shrugged at him. "Don't know what to tell you, Bob. Maybe you should see if there's a secretary available." The doors closed before he could say anything but she caught the look on his face and it made her chuckle as she silently rode the elevator up to the lobby.

Mrs. Marsden looked up when Amanda stepped out of the elevator closet and nodded as Amanda placed the badge on her desk. "Going to lunch, Mrs. King?"

"Uh, no, Mrs. Marsden. I have an errand to run for Mr. Stetson. I'll be back in a couple of hours." Amanda gave her the same smile she offered to everyone at the agency, well almost everyone. The smiles she gave Lee were different, even if he didn't seem to notice.

Exiting the office, Amanda quickly made her way to her car glancing again at her watch. She still had time as long she didn't get delayed again. Hurriedly she threw her purse in the front passenger seat, climbed in and started the car. Quickly buckling her seat belt, she pulled out of her parking spot and headed east.

Though she seldom listened much to the radio as she drove, today she felt like it. Switching it on, she turned the dial several times, before finally finding a station that offered up some up-beat pop tunes about young love and afternoon delights.

Amanda laughed, thinking of what would delight her that afternoon, or more specifically who. But Lee, it seemed to her, was beyond her reach. And though there were times like this morning, when he seemed about to do more than merely smile at her, he still hadn't really given her too much indication that he saw her as anything more than just a friend and co-worker. That fact irritated and bothered her, but she could see no remedy for it as of yet.

Heading down the road, Amanda's thoughts were more on Lee than the time and it wasn't until she had to break sharply for the extremely slow going semi in front of her, when she glanced at her watch and realized she stood a chance of being late to meet Lee's contact.

Pulling over to the left as far as she dared, Amanda carefully checked the road up ahead. Though she hated to speed and always avoided it as much as possible, she had come to realize that there were times it just couldn't be helped.

Scanning the road again, she gave a turn signal and pressed down on the accelerator, easily passing the semi before pulling back into the right hand lane. Unfortunately, she had easily passed a patrol car, as well, that was sitting on the side of the road just waiting for people like Amanda to break the speed limit.

"Oh, no." She groaned as she saw the flashing lights in her rearview mirror and heard the siren. Sighing deeply, she dropped her head with a rueful shake and pulled over to the right, immediately reaching for her purse and pulling out her wallet.

The officer was pleasant and non-condescending as he took her information but he was also extremely slow. Amanda came close to pulling out her credentials and claiming her trip as an urgent matter on government business but she decided against it. Despite her reasons, she had broken the law and she would take the ticket she had earned.

When the officer handed her the ticket as well as her information, Amanda smiled politely, thanked him for his kindness and carefully pulled back out onto the road. Glancing at her watch again she could see she was now truly running late and just prayed that Lee's contact would still be there when she arrived.

The neighborhood chosen for this pick-up was as generic as could be. Non-descript, Lee would've called it. Modest homes all generally built and landscaped the same with sparse lawns up front and postage stamp sized backyards. Here and there a small tree would appear in the front yard with perhaps a bush by the drive but nothing about the area was unique.

Easily finding the house, Amanda parked at the curb and quickly exited the car, practically running up the drive and towards the front of the house. She was just nearing the front porch when a small hand on a small clock ticked over and set off a small bomb that leveled the house and sent the front wall flying outwards, landing on top of Amanda.

TBC