Chapter Eighteen
February 5, 2011 – 3:51am
Not long after, Jimmy sat next to Abby at her computer as she studied the enlarged photographs they'd downloaded from his phone. She kept muttering to herself, things like "blasting cap" and "initiator" and "explosive booster," none of which Jimmy really understood although he'd heard the terms in movies. She seemed somewhat confused by the overall design of the bomb, but when he asked what was wrong, she shook her head.
"It just seems really… odd," she said unhelpfully. "You said this took out an entire office building?"
Jimmy nodded. "And then some," he added, declining to mention exactly what else it had destroyed.
"Huh. Maybe I'm missing something." She shook her head again. "Could there have been more C-4 hidden somewhere else?"
"More?" Jimmy considered what he knew of the design of the sorter. "I suppose there could have been more stuffed into the inside somewhere that I didn't see."
"Huh," Abby said again. Then: "Well, it doesn't really matter for our purposes. What you're going to be looking for is right in here." She pointed to the mess of wires and strange metal shapes that had been behind the front panel of the machine.
"Okay, what wire do I cut?"
"It's not that simple." Abby pointed to one part of the picture. "See this? This is your signal receiver. Cutting the connection from it to the detonator is going to be the easiest way to keep it from going boom when the target gets into range."
"Okay…"
"Now here's the problem. I don't have enough information to tell you for sure which wire is connecting the receiver to the detonator. This bundle of wires here" – she pointed – "is blocking my view."
"Crap." Jimmy sat back and ran his hands through his hair in frustration.
"I also can't tell if there's more than one, or if any of them are decoys."
"Damn it!" Jimmy stood up and started to pace. "What do I do now?"
Abby jumped up after him. "You sit back down and let me show you how to figure it out when you see it," she said, dragging him back to his seat.
Jimmy shook his head. "Sorry. I'm just frustrated."
"Never apologize, Palmer, it's a sign of weakness." The retort came out automatically as Abby opened several windows on her screen, each showing the detonator/receiver connection from a different angle – none of which was the one she needed.
"Okay." Jimmy rubbed at his face with his hands. "Show me."
He paid careful attention as Abby traced the path of several different wires, some of which were likely decoys, while at least one was the actual connection between the detonator and the receiver. But when she tried to explain how he'd be able to tell the difference, her convoluted explanation left Jimmy confused.
"Abby, Abby, I'm not getting it." He leaned back and rubbed tiredly at his eyes. "I… I don't think this is going to work."
"Don't give up on me, Jimmy."
"I'm not giving up," Jimmy insisted. He glanced at his watch. "But I'm running out of time if I'm going to try this tonight."
"Okay, take me with you."
"No!" Jimmy shook his head frantically. "No, Abby, I can't. If I screw this up, I don't want you to get hurt."
"We'd just start over again, wouldn't we?"
"I don't actually know that, Abs." Jimmy shrugged helplessly. "I don't know what happens if I die. We might get another chance – or killing me might end it. If you died with me, Gibbs would kill me!"
"Er, Jimmy –"
"I know, I know." Jimmy got up to pace again. "But I can't risk it. I'm sorry, Abby, but I just can't stand the thought of watching you die, too. I –" His voice broke. "I've seen too much death these last few days." His shoulders slumped, and he turned away, raising his hands to hide his face.
He felt Abby's arms wrap around him from behind – not her usual flying hug-tackle, but a gentle embrace. "Are you sure we can't call Gibbs?" she asked quietly.
Jimmy nodded. "I told them last night, and they still died," he said. "I'm not sure what they did, so I can't warn them not to do it again. I thought if I could get there first…"
Abby gave him one last half-strength squeeze, then let him go. "Come on. Let's look at this again. Even if you can't get there tonight, there should still be tomorrow night, right?" Her voice held just a hint of a pleading note.
"Yeah." Jimmy followed her back to the computer and sat down. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath to steady himself. "Okay, here's what we've got so far. Correct me if I'm wrong, okay?" Abby nodded, and Jimmy started from the beginning. "This is the receiver, and this is the detonator…"
Perhaps it was because they'd acknowledged that it wasn't likely to happen that night, but once the pressure to act was eased somewhat, Jimmy found himself better able to grasp what Abby was telling him. Likewise, Abby was able to slow down and take her time with her explanations, which allowed Jimmy to ask questions to clarify his understanding. In a surprisingly short amount of time, all things considered, they had narrowed Jimmy's choices down to three different wires, and Abby explained what he should look for when he went to disarm the bomb.
"If I were to guess right now, I would go with this one," she finished, pointing to one of the wires. "But take your time, look it over, and if you need help, you can always call me."
"Uh, not if it's tomorrow night, Abby," Jimmy pointed out. "You're not going to remember any of this."
"Hmm, you're right." Abby stood up, her hand under her chin, and began to pace the room. Jimmy watched her with worried eyes. Suddenly, she seemed more subdued, sad almost. Acting on impulse, he stood up and went after her.
"Abby?" He stepped in front of her, halting her in her tracks. "What's wrong?"
She snorted. "Other than that we're going to lose our friends in just a little over an hour?"
"Yeah." Jimmy winced. "Abby, I mean –"
Abby laughed bitterly. "It's okay, Jimmy, I know what you mean." She gestured to the couch. After they were both seated, she picked up a pillow and hugged it. "I wish Bert were here," she sighed.
Jimmy's lips twitched in a slight smile. "Nothing like a flatulent hippo to make you feel better."
Abby smiled, but the corners of her mouth drooped slightly. "Yeah… especially since Bert's the only one I've ever told this to."
"Huh?"
"If you have to do this tomorrow night, and you need help figuring out what to do with the bomb, you need to be able to ask me," Abby stated the obvious. "But you're not going to have time to convince me to help you all over again. So you need some way of convincing me in a hurry that you really are stuck in a time loop and that I need to help you because I've already helped you before."
"Abby, if I had come right out and said that tonight, you would have thought I'd gone crazy."
"Right, that's my point."
"And I still can't predict for you when the phone is going to ring or what's on TV right now. I told you, by the time I actually know –"
"I know, I know." Abby waved her hands to silence him. "So what you need is something that will prove to me in a hurry that you and I have had a conversation that I have no memory of, and the only way to do that is for me to tell you something that you could only have heard from me."
Jimmy was beginning to realize what she was getting at. "Abby, you don't need to tell me anything really personal. I mean, if you tell me… oh, I don't know, who your favorite cartoon character was as a kid, or some story about when you were in grade school –"
"Then I'll suspect you of having been snooping in my journal or doing a background check or something." Abby frowned at him. "This is me we're talking about, you know, and I'll suspect that you and Tony and McGee are trying to play some kind of joke. The three of you together could probably find out quite a bit about me that someone else might be fooled by, but I wouldn't be." She shook her head. "No, if you need to convince me to trust you, then the only way I'd believe it is if you told me something that I know I've never told anyone, because that would mean that I trusted you enough to tell it to you."
"Do you?" Jimmy watched her face carefully. "You said yourself that I haven't managed to prove it to you even now, that it could have been coincidence –"
"It could have been, but it's not," Abby said firmly.
"You trust Rule 39 that much?"
"No." Abby took Jimmy's hands in hers. "I trust my own eyes and ears. Do you have any idea how you looked when I had Tony on the phone?"
Jimmy felt his face heat up. "I – I think I can guess."
"And then there's how you looked when you talked about watching them die…" Her hand came up to catch Jimmy's chin when he started to bow his head. She caught his hazel eyes with hers, using her other hand to squeeze his. It was then that he realized how hard he'd been clenching her hand, and he forced his hands to relax.
"I'm no Gibbs, but I'm still pretty damn good at reading people," Abby told him. "And there's some things that just can't be faked. Now that I think about it, I think I've been seeing you two the whole time, but I didn't put it all together because I wasn't expecting it." Half her mouth lifted in a quirky grin. "Just do me a favor, okay?"
"What?"
"After you tell me what I'm about to tell you… make sure you tell me again about you and Tony. I promise I won't tell anyone."
"I will, Abs." Jimmy squeezed her hand, and looked into her eyes. "I trust you."
"Okay." She looked down then, and took a deep breath. "When I was ten years old…"
Jimmy waved at Abby as he got into his car, and watched her wave back. He made sure to drive at a normal speed until he was out of sight; but as soon as he turned the corner at the end of the street, he floored it. He didn't have much time.
He'd told Abby that he would wait until tonight started over again before attempting to sneak in and disable the bomb; but that was before he'd heard her story. Now, he was more determined than ever to get there in time. Even if he got caught in the process, he'd still rather do that than go through another night like this.
If the night repeats, and I have to tell her what she told me… Jimmy bit his lip as he slowed for a red light. There was no cross traffic, so he sped up again and drove through it. It was hard enough for her to tell me. I don't think I can face her when she doesn't remember any of this, and tell her that I know her worst secret. I'd rather not have her know that I know… I wish she hadn't felt like she had to tell me…
The almost nonexistent traffic coupled with Jimmy's lack of regard for traffic laws meant that the trip back to Rothstown was accomplished in record time. Jimmy started to head for his usual parking lot, but a glance at his dashboard clock dissuaded him.
I don't have time to run that far. I can park on that side street near the house where I watched the building. My car doesn't exactly stand out; even if the agents show up before I can get back to it, I doubt anyone will notice.
Jimmy ran across the street and, without pausing, went straight for the window. He briefly debated leaving it open to save time, but decided that might draw unwanted attention from anyone passing by. After pulling the window closed, he ran for the stairwell door, turning on his flashlight so as to not risk tripping on the stairs.
No time for subtle. Just get in, cut the wire, and get out. Or get blown up. Either way, Tony lives.
He crashed through the door and pounded up the stairs, feeling his heart hammering in his chest. He really wished he was in better shape – not that he was out of shape, but he certainly hadn't spent much time running stairs as part of his cardio routine. Jimmy's lungs were on fire by the time he rounded the third floor landing, and by the fifth, his legs felt like he had bricks tied to his ankles. He paused for a second, doubled over, on the sixth floor landing to catch his breath, looked up – and his heart missed a beat.
Halfway down the stairs leading to the seventh floor, two large men carrying flashlights stared, mouths gaping, at the young man on the landing below them. The shorter of the two recovered first.
"Son of a – get him!"
Animal instinct took over. Jimmy fled down the stairs, leaping the last few steps to the landing below. He hurried down the next flight, fighting the urge to look back over his shoulder. He knew they were coming – he could hear them thundering down the stairs after him. As he reached the fourth floor landing and turned to go down the next flight of stairs, he caught a glimpse of one of them out of the corner of his eye. If he'd had the breath to spare, he would have screamed.
The man was closing the distance, but Jimmy was still ahead. If he could just make it to the window – but wait, he'd closed it. Maybe he could leap through it. He knew it wasn't as easy as it looked in the movies, but maybe it wouldn't be too bad…
He was several steps above the second floor landing when the man chasing him stopped, took aim – and hurled his flashlight right at Jimmy's head.
All Jimmy knew was that suddenly, something struck the back of his head with enough force to knock him off his feet and down the last few stairs. He was barely able to bring his arms up in time before he crashed face first into the floor, his glasses snapping in two. Dazed by the impact, he still tried to get to his feet and run, but by then the man had rushed down the stairs and grabbed hold of the back of his coat.
Before Jimmy could react, the man wrapped a thick arm around Jimmy's throat in a chokehold, cutting off not just his air but the flow of blood to his brain as well. In a matter of seconds, darkness descended upon him; without even a chance to struggle, Jimmy passed out.
And just what was Abby's secret? I promise, you'll find out... eventually. *evil grin*