"Let's go this way" David suggested to Walter as they made their way through the crowds. The two men walked next to each other silently. Even though David had numerous bruises on his face and a split lip Walter could see that David had the dimensions of someone that most American females would find attractive. Perfectly cut blonde hair, hazel eyes and a physical build which had more muscular tone than his own. Walter felt annoyed by this, but he knew he shouldn't be.
"You're enabled aren't you?" Walter said suddenly.
David smiled. "You mean my intellect? Yes."
"Your recommendations about optimal damage for the explosives in the Subway were too precise for you to be anything else. What is it?"
"145. Not anything too impressive."
"Why didn't you mention it earlier?"
"Well," David said thoughtfully "Ever since it was discovered that Alex had severe autism, I didn't want to talk about it in front of him. He may be non-verbal, but he can understand quite a bit. As he got older, it became less important and now it's not something I typically think about."
Walter was shocked. "But when you're enabled you can do things no one else can do. Don't you want to keep pushing the limits of your intellect?"
"I do, and I know I should Walter. But having Alex, well, priorities get shifted." He smiled to himself. "Having a job where I work the same hours every day is really important, which limits my options as to what field I'm in. But I usually spend most of my spare time thinking about ways to help Alex. If I can make his life a little easier I know my intellect was well spent. I know you understand that. You could be hiding in a cave somewhere thinking up a theorem which would give you a lot of prestige in the scientific community, but ultimately you know it makes no difference in the practical world. So instead you started Scorpion. "
Walter nodded as he thought of his team and Megan.
"Walter I haven't been able to find any terrorist organizations that match the parameters we need." Sylvester said over the coms.
"Surprising. What do you think Toby?"
"Could be that there are several independent explosive makers who were hired to do this one job. "
"Sylvester search the criminal database for people with a history in black market explosives. If these guys are from independent backgrounds then there needs to be someone in charge, otherwise it would just be chaos." Walter responded.
"We're here" David said as he swiped his card.
Walter and David made their way to a spot underneath the lowest track level. "This is interesting." David said. "There should be an explosive here, but I'm not seeing anything."
"Do you think we beat the terrorists here?"
"It's possible, but I'm not that optimistic." Walter agreed.
"Just sent the first group into the red line tunnel" Cabe said. "I'll let you know if they find anything."
David and Walter climbed their way to the next location. "Still nothing."
Something's wrong. Walter thought. "David if the terrorists had fewer bombs, where would they have to put the lynch pin?"
Walter waited for him to speak, recognizing the face David was making as a calculation in progress. "They would have to hit the alternator. The alternator sends power to the third rail, which in turn powers the subway cars. We can take a short cut if we squeeze through some pipes." Both Walter and David sprang into a jog as they made their way through the service tunnels. "It's through here" David said as he pushed his body through two large pipes. Walter did the same. What he saw when he got through made him stop dead in his tracks.
"uh….Walter?"
"Yes Happy?"
"Toby and I heard your conversation so we also headed for the alternator. Are you seeing the same thing we're seeing?"
"Yes."
"What are we looking at?" David asked. "I've never seen anything like it."
"No one has."
"What's going on?" Cabe asked. "Talk to me Walter." Walter took a step back to look at the mass of wires coming out of the control box next to the alternator. There must have been hundreds, all the same color looped into different sections and then hooked into another box with an antenna sticking out of it. The mass of wires looked like chaos, but Walter could see beyond it to a cold, calculated manner underneath the surface which sent an involuntary shiver up his spine. There was a complex pattern to the madness of the wires which said For you, Walter.
"We've got a major problem!" Paige said breaking Walter's concentration and snapping him back to reality.
"What is it Paige?"
"It's Alex he…"
"Is he okay?" David asked involuntarily.
"He's fine. But, he started another drawing and….He must have seen the terrorists because he drew one man pointing a gun and 3 other faces. Walter. It's…"
"Collins?"
There was a moment of silence. "How did you know?" Paige asked finally.
"He left me a message in the pattern of the wires."
"Say again?" Cabe said over the coms.
"He's playing a game with me. He planned for all of it." Walter said.
"Who is this guy?" David turned and looked at Walter.
"He used to be on our team, but after some…complications I had to let him go."
"'Complication's' is an understatement. One time Collins nearly caused a nuclear meltdown." Sylvester said.
"Sylvester run the pictures Alex drew through facial recognition. Maybe we can spot one of them in the station. They couldn't have gone far."
"Scanning. Okay I've got something!"
"Tell me where to go Sylvester." Cabe said.
"Middle platform, subsystem 2."
"Is it Collins?" Happy asked.
"No." Walter and Sylvester said at the same time.
"Collins probably isn't here." Walter shook his head.
"It's one of the other men Alex drew. Cabe I've sent his picture to your phone."
"Happy can you tell us anything about how he hardwired this thing?" Walter asked.
"Walter this is very sophisticated work. It looks like he's manipulated the wires so the alternator will feedback electricity. Every time a train comes by it feeds electricity back into the system." Happy explained. "As soon as it reaches overload capacity all Collins needs is to open a conduit for the stored electricity. It will overload the entire grid from you to us which will cause a massive explosion."
"Could there be any more of these wire traps in the subway?" Walter asked.
"No. It looks like he only needed two of these to complete the circuit. But Walter, unless I take out the wires in a certain order I could risk overloading the system prematurely."
"How could he have set everything up so fast?" David asked.
"Easy." All of scorpion said at the same time.
"Probably took him 5 minutes." Sylvester said.
"I've located the suspect" Cabe said. "We're going to take him down." Walter held his breath while he heard shouting in his ear and what sounded like Cabe punching someone. A few moments later Cabe said "We've got him. We're moving him to a secure location."
"We need to figure out if the system is at capacity. If it is, disarming this mess won't do any good." Walter said talking fast. "We'll have to stop the conduit from being opened by locating where the broadcast signal is and turn it off before the signal goes to the control board."
"I know where to go to get a reading on the electrical system." David said turning to leave.
"I'll head up to where Cabe is. There are some questions that need to be answered." As Walter began to make his way out of the tunnels all he could think about was what Collins' end game was.
For you, Walter.