Page 106 of Spencer

Good.No surprises, then.

But Spencer needed to correct his brother on one point. “And it’s not whatyou’reup against, Buck. It’s whatwe’reup against,” Spencer admonished.

“No. It’s too dangerous,” Buck barked out reflexively. “There’s no need to put all three of us in harm’s way. That’s bomb diffusion one-o-one. The fewer people around, the better.”

“Sorry. We don’t have time to argue the point,” Spencer told him resolutely. “I’m going down with you.”

Buck gave him an assessing look, probably to determine if there was any chance of changing his mind.

When he clearly didn’t see one, he nodded. “Okay. But don’t do anything without my go-ahead. I’m in charge on this one. I want to make sure everything is neutralized before we get Tabitha out. Understood?”

“Yeah. I get it. You’re the boss, Buck.” At this point, Spencer would agree to anything. He just wanted Tabbi to be safe.

He took a deep breath, then followed his brother down.

In seconds, they were side by side at the box.

Buck leaned in, closely examining the motion switch.

After a good minute of recon, he leaned back and gave Spencer an okay sign.

Spencer’s gut untangled just a bit as his brother pointed for him to take a look.

Spencer studied the spot his brother was indicating, and understood immediately where Buck’s confidence was coming from. Ghillie had gone old-school with his rig. He hadn’t used a set-up that was high-tech, like ultrasound or infrared for his motion detector. Instead, he’d installed a simple, physical-bubble switch; a mercury blob inside a small, glass cylinder, that when disturbed would move to one end or the other of the little tube, putting it in touch with one of two metal contacts. That would engage the attached battery and provide the spark needed to ignite the PBX. Either direction the bubble moved would trigger a detonation when the mercury met the metal.

Difficult, Spencer realized, but not impossible to disarm.

Spencer drifted back to let his brother work.

Buck adroitly removed a long, thin tool from his pouch. The blade on it looked lethal. While he bent to his work, Spencer reviewed what little he knew about PBX.

It was malleable, making it good for many uses in many forms, and luckily, the substance in and of itself was pretty stable. The wildcard here was the switch and trigger set-up. How sensitive would the bubble be to jostling? How much movement might it take to send the mercury to one end or the other?

Spencer watched as Buck slowly and cautiously slid the flat blade under one end of the PBX where it attached to the switch.

Nerves sizzled.

Spencer would have held his breath, but it was already held.

What Spencerneededto do right now was to stay completely calm. Without anxiety, he could stay submerged on one breath for just over fifteen minutes. If he got jazzed, he could cut that time in half.

He attempted and managed to find his inner Zen, but it was tough, considering things could go boom at any second.

Buck, however, looked confident.

Once his brother had his blade in place, he placed a steady palm over the glass to hold it motionless, then he began to slowly and carefully cut through the PBX rope.

When the first end gave way, Spencer’s initial instinct was to move forward, but he kept himself in check. Buck had given him specific instructions not to jump-the-gun. That was the only thing still holding him immobile.

Buck began working on the other end of the connection, which would soon—Spencer hoped—separate the remaining two pieces of the puzzle.

Time had never moved this slowly for Spencer. He’d thought that waiting in the SUV had been hard. But this was absolute torture. He couldn’t imagine what Tabitha was going through.

Spencer focused on the blade.

Back and forth. Back and forth.Until…

Triumphantly, Buck snatched up the switch, then held it aloft in his hand before carefully placing it in his pouch as evidence.

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