The Bomb 12

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Billy and Francine stood in the Q Bureau with cups of coffee, talking to Lee through the cracked door of the vault, while he slipped inside and quickly changed clothes. It was going to be dark when he got to his destination and he wanted to blend in.

"I didn't think of it until I made all of the connections." Lee told them as he finally emerged from the vault dressed head to toe in black jeans, sweater and stocking cap. "Ajax Manufacturing has an old building just outside of town that used to house their main offices. But it was small and cramped and too far out, so when they got to where they could, they built their new space in town and left that building empty."

"That's right." Billy said. "I remember reading something about them trying to sell it but there were some code restrictions or something holding up the sale."

Lee nodded. "Uh hum. Anyway, if you remember in the video, Amanda was lying on a cot in a small cinderblock room."

"So?" Francine asked. "Do you know how many buildings have those kinds of walls?"

Lee shook his head. "No, but I don't need to." Stepped back over to the video screen, he pointed to a spot on the wall just over Amanda's still form on the cot. He tried not to look at her as he pointed. "I know there's only one that has a big AM etched into a scroll around the middle of every room in the building."

Billy grinned as it dawned on him that he'd seen that scroll as well. But like Lee and Francine, his mind had been on the comatose woman, not the walls. "Well, that tells us where she is." He looked over at Lee. "But it doesn't tell us how to get in."

"No it doesn't." Lee agreed. "Unless you know the layout of the building, or at least have a diagram of it, which I do." Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a folded piece of paper and handed it to Billy.

Opening the paper, Billy looked in amazement at the diagram of an office building down to a description of each room. He raised questioning eyes to Lee. "I'm not sure I want to know why you have this."

"Just being thorough." Lee grinned. "There's a short hallway just inside in the back entrance that curves around into a dead end." He indicated the place on the drawing. "There's a room on either side of that dead end and I bet you anything, Amanda's in one of those rooms."

Billy located the area on the map. "Storage rooms. Looks about right." He agreed. "But it also looks difficult to get in to, even with a team of people. There's no cover except those bushes at the back door and that small grove of trees behind the parking lot. It's obvious there's more than one person involved in this scheme. For all we know, Regal could have a whole squad of men there, just waiting for you."

"He could." Lee agreed. "But I doubt it. I think he'll have the minimum number of people at that office building and save any real attack for the factory. That's why I want to go in alone. If there's only a couple or so I can probably neutralize them without too many problems. If there's more, a team of our people could cause a battle that could get someone hurt, or worse. No, I'd rather go in alone and get her out by myself."

Francine looked over Billy's shoulder at the schematics he was holding. "I still think you should have at least me and Billy with you."

"You will be." Lee told her. "I want you two to be just down the street, ready to come in when I need you."

"What's your plan?" Billy asked.

Lee looked back down at the building plans. "I'll know when I get there." He said truthfully as he headed for the door. "You all just make sure to have an ambulance on stand by for Amanda and a team in place at the factory. I'll do the rest."

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The night was eerily dark as Lee stood in the shadows cast by the small copse of trees behind the old office building. That suited him just fine.

He'd canvassed the building when he got there and determined there were at least two people moving around inside. He'd seen the silhouettes of two men in the back right corner of the building. In the left corner, where he believed Amanda was, he saw a high window with a dim light shining through it.

Taking one more look around him, Lee glanced at his watch. It was a little after nine and he knew he'd better make his move soon before they decided to pull Amanda from the building and take her to the factory. Pulling his cap down low, Lee sprinted across the small parking area in the back and jumped into the bushes besides the building.

"Did you hear something?" A low male voice asked from just on the other side of the wall, Lee was leaning on.

"No." Another, even lower voice, answered. "What are you so jumpy about? There's no way Stetson or anyone else could know she's here. Anyway, we'll be leaving in a little bit and then she won't be here." He snickered then. "She won't be anywhere."

"Yeah, well I'll be glad when this is over." The first voice answered. "I don't like any part of this. Hurting that woman the way we did was bad enough, I sure don't like the idea of killing her."

Lee's jaw clenched tightly in anger as he listened to the men talk about hurting Amanda and he wanted to do more than that to them in return.

"You'll forget all about that woman and Stetson too as soon as Regal pays us." The second man chuckled. "Which reminds me, we need to start getting ready to go. Boss should be calling us pretty soon."

"Yeah, I guess so." The first man said.

Lee knew it was then or never. He didn't want Amanda caught up in a firefight if it came to that. He needed to take care of those two men before they got her out of that room. Stepping out of the bushes, he squared his shoulders, raised his gun and kicked the rather flimsy back door in, throwing himself in as he did so.

TBC