"Emergency compartment! Emergency compartment! The device is in the emergency compartment in the back of the buses!"
The shout in his headphones was the first piece of good news Special Agent Davison had all morning.
"Copy that!" he shouted, sitting up in his seat in the helicopter. "Take a picture of it with your Palm and send it to me ASAP!"
"Roger that!" came the excited response.
A moment later, Davison was looking at a small cylindrical device sitting among road flares, road cones, and a first aid kit.
"Attention all units!" he said clearly into his mic. "The device is in the rear emergency compartment! Uploading photo to your PDA's! Bomb-squad; check the devices and sound off when we have the real-thing! I want all the decoys checked off the list. Any bus with a decoy is to be left under armed guard and I want all other officers and agents to move on with the search! Fifteen minutes and counting, people!" he looked at the screen and quickly counted the remaining green dots. "Thirty-six buses to go! Let's move!"
All units sounded off in response.
"This is unit forty-six!" The shout came over his headphones. "You can call off the search!" he said excitedly. "We've located the real device. Repeat: We have located the real device! Bus twenty-eight thirty-four; corner of Lexington and Hill."
Agent Davison felt as if the weight of the world had just been lifted from his shoulders. "Unit forty-six!" he shouted back. "Verify! You've located the real device? Over!"
"Roger that!" they called back. "The device is filled with roughly three pounds of C-4 plastic explosive, remote trigger. I just need a few minutes to isolate the wiring and we can-"
"Negative!" someone else shouted, cutting in. "This is unit nineteen! We have confirmed: we have the real device! Repeat: WE have the real device! Nitroglycerin core, mercury switch; the trigger's a digital kitchen timer. I don't know what Forty-six is holding, but this baby's the real thing!"
"I'm not holding a flashlight full of Play-dough over here, Nineteen!" unit Forty-six shouted back.
"This stick is testing positive for explosive content! And I've seen enough boom-boom to know the real thing when I see it!"
"If you're holding C-4…" Unit Nineteen shot back. "I'll drink this nitro and light the fart, forty-six!"
"That's enough!" Davison shouted. "I don't care which of you has the real deal. It's possible he slipped us two real devices! Both of you get it together and get those devices secured or so help me I'll-"
"Agent Davison?!" someone else shouted.
"WHAT?!"
"This is unit Twenty-eight! We just opened the emergency compartment! We can confirm: we have a live device. Repeat: we have a live device here. Bus Twelve-twelve. Corner of Main and Metro. Some type of exotic blend; remote trigger."
"This is unit Five." Another shout came. "We got the same thing here! Bus fourteen-eleven. Corner of Truman and Fifth!"
"Unit Thirty-one here! Bus seven twenty-three. We're on the grass in Metropolis Square Park. We got a live stick of C-4 here as well; a timers on this one too."
"This is unit seven, nitro and mercury here; and it's hot!"
"Unit eighteen checking in! We got more of that exotic stuff! Readings are of the charts!"
"This is twelve! We got one too!"
Agent Davison closed his eyes and just listened to the calls as they poured in, the tension in his shoulders returning with a vengeance.