Jill walked over to the oil-truck to start explaining what
she had in mind. She had no idea if it would work or not, but to her, it sounded like a good plan. In fact, it sounded like a great plan.
‘How much oil’s in here, Gregg?’
‘It’s about three-quarters full.’
She walked back to them both, each standing either side of the oil drum. ‘What if we strap all the fireworks to it, and one on each of the fuel tanks for good measure? When they’re all in the cinema we send it through the front doors and detonate it? The fireworks alone might not be enough to bring the house down around their ears, but with the help of a thousand gallons of oil-’
Nick held his hand up, cutting Jill off. ‘I don’t want to stomp on anyone’s parade here, but those tanks can withstand an enormous amount of abuse. And as powerful as the fireworks are, I don’t think they’ll even scratch the surface. Sorry, Jill,’ he said, pushing up his glasses. ‘But as feasible as that one sounds, it’s a non-starter.’
‘Hold on a minute,’ Gregg said, raising a finger. ‘The tank’s old, and rusted almost clean through. I don’t think it’d take much more than a firecracker to rupture it. But you are right in one respect, Nick; it certainly is a non-starter, because unless you intend to push the truck into the cinema, Jill, it isn’t going anywhere. I told you, the engine’s shot.’
Nick went over to take a look at the condition of the tank. Where he’d been sitting on the tyres earlier, and just below the centre of the bevel, was a two-foot-long, eye-shaped, section of rust. He pushed the fingers of both hands against it, and although it did take some pressure to do, the flaking eye-shape gave a little, indicating a fairly thin, and very much weakened barrier they’d have to breach. He then returned to the oil drum.
‘It wouldn’t take much at all to rupture that, and getting in there won’t be a problem, we could tow it in, well … push it in.’
Gregg didn’t want to sound overly negative, but the need to state the obvious just arose. ‘There’s nothing in here big enough to tow it, or to push it with, Nick.’
‘Perhaps not,’ Nick agreed. ‘But there is outside in the alley.’
‘If you mean the tow-truck, it’s locked.’ Jill said, taking her turn to burst a few bubbles. ‘And even if we break our way in, we’d still need keys to get it started.’
Gregg disappeared around the side of the oil-truck for about ten seconds before returning. ‘Here,’ he said, tossing something in Jill’s direction. ‘See if they work.’
Jill reached out, catching a small bunch of keys. ‘Where’d you get these?’
‘You threw them to me earlier. One of them might fit the tow-truck. Reckon you could drive it?’
‘Nothing ventured nothing gained.’
‘Just don’t get it stuck in the mud, like you did the patrol car, eh!’
‘If this gets stuck in the mud, Gregg, I’ll push the damn oil-truck into the cinema myself, how’s that?’
Gregg said nothing in return, he just held up his palms in acquiescence.
Nick pushed his glasses along the bridge of his nose. ‘Well I suggest we get a move on. It’s getting brighter out, and the rains thinning,’ he said, anxious to get started.
Jill smiled at Gregg before turning towards the shutter. Nick pressed the button to allow her underneath, and after she’d gone, he closed it again to within two feet. After checking on Alicia, who seemed to be sleeping soundly, Gregg picked up the flashlight, then he and Nick entered the shaft.
When they reached the point where Gregg wanted to blast, Nick began pulling at the struts holding up the ground above. The amount of water over the years had permeated the wooden beams softening them considerably.
Nick stood, rubbing his chins. ‘If we detonate here, close to the junction, we could block the tunnel leading to the garage and the cinema. But if we go further into the tunnel, say fifteen to twenty feet or so, we could blow a couple of these supports bringing down the roof.’
‘And will we still have enough explosive power left for the oil-truck?’
‘Yeah, with those cyliders, we'll have more than enough!’
‘Well then, we have our plan for getting them out of the town hall and into the cinema. Now all I need to do is to get in there and get those girls out.’
‘Any ideas on how you’re getting in there?’
‘I’ll be going in through the front doors, Nick, and I’ll be leaving through the front doors, with the girls.’
‘Well in that case, it’s time we got started.’
When they finally emerged from the shaft, the tow-truck was pulling up just outside the shutter, the rain looked to have eased but was still being blown about by the odd gust of wind, which was why Gregg hit the up button then stepped back a little.
What they needed was the tow-truck inside the garage to get the oil-truck out, but first the 4X4 had to be taken out, and so did Nick’s van. And before they could do that, Nick needed to rig the tunnels for collapse.
Jill opened the tow-trucks door and climbed out. ‘Piece of cake,’ she said, with a triumphant jump to the ground. ‘But I’ve realised another little flaw in our plan.’
‘What’s that?’ said Gregg.
‘How do we tow the oil-truck into the cinema and not get blown up ourselves?’
‘Like Nick said before, we don’t tow it, we push it through the doors using the tow-truck, and before Nick detonates, we reverse back out.’
She nodded. ‘Okay, sounds good.’
‘Right, Gregg, we need to start getting these tunnels rigged,’ said Nick.
‘Jill, will you stay with Alicia, just in case she wakes up?’
‘Yeah sure, you get moving. The sooner we sort this, the sooner we can get out of here!’
Nick opened the doors of his van and they gave out a painfully sounding creak.
Gregg looked inside. ‘Rubber?’ he questioned.
Nick looked at the walls of the van. ‘Oh that. Can’t be too careful; a lightning strike, although I’ve never been hit by one myself, can be a most unfortunate occurrence. Plus it helps to keep down static.’
Gregg was amazed at just how many fireworks there actually were inside the van. He’d expected to see traditional type rockets and a whole pile of usually crafted fireworks, but these were nothing like any he’d seen before.
Nick climbed inside and unfastened a couple of straps allowing some of the fireworks to roll around. Gregg cringed at the thought of an unanticipated exposion, but Nick assured him they were quite safe. He rolled two sphere-shaped objects towards Gregg; both about the size of basket balls, and weighing in at around thirty five pound apiece.
Gregg let one of them to roll into his waiting hands. ‘Jesus,’ he said, fumbling with it. ‘How the hell do you get these things in the air?’
‘Some Pyros use a small mortar charge, but I prefer to use compressed air, it’s much safer. We shoot them from carbon fibre tubes.’
Gregg looked about the van. ‘You don’t have any tubes.’
‘I don’t carry those with me; they’re delivered to the site and the whole set rigged up before I get to a gig.’
Strapped up against the far wall were four, five-foot, rusty-looking compressed air cylinders. ‘Could we use those too?’ asked Gregg.
‘Hell, yeah, strap a couple of these babies onto one of those daddies, and … Ka-boom.’
‘Will you be able to detonate them all at the same time?’
‘Oh they’ll all blow together all right, give or take a millisecond or two.’
‘Great,’ replied Gregg.
Gripping the solid paper ball with both hands, Gregg lifted it on to his shoulder and picked up the flashlight. Nick jumped from inside the van, grabbing a roll of electrical cable from near the doors as he went. He then picked up a second paper ball before following Gregg into the tunnel.
When they reached the cross-over, Gregg chose to set the first of the devices in the tunnel leading down to Chambers. They placed the spheres, one on either side, at the foot of two upright supports, and at around fifteen-feet back from the junction. Nick attached a wire to a small length of fuse on one of them, before running the wire across to the other.
When they were done, he and Gregg walked back to the garage with Nick unravelling a coil of electrical cable as he went. After entering the garage, Nick closed the hatch behind them but didn’t bolt it. He climbed into the back of his van, retrieving a slim, briefcase-like box, and opened it out taking one of two devices from its soft, spongy interior.
After attaching the electrical cable leading from what they now referred to as the, “Bombs”, he flicked a switch and the device illuminated, indicating it was ready for use.
‘Okay,’ said Nick. ‘We’re live … are you ready?’
‘Wait, is this going to be loud?’
‘You betya,’ he scoffed, smiling.
‘Just give me a minute.’
Jill stood by the open door of the 4X4. ‘Is it ready to blow?’ she asked.
Gregg nodded. ‘According to Nick it’s going to be loud,’ he said, looking in the 4X4. ‘Better close the door.’
Jill nodded.
Gregg went back to join Nick and knelt beside him. ‘Okay, Nick,’ he said, with a sharp nod of his head. ‘Blow it!’
Nick raised his eyebrows just above the rim of his glasses and said, ‘Fire-in-the-hole!’ At that, he lifted a cover from over a small red button, and pressed it. They waited, and for about three seconds, three very long seconds, there was nothing, then, a loud explosion with two distinct booms very close together, lifted the hatch at least two-feet from the floor. It fell back down, bouncing three or four times before settling.
‘Yes!’ exclaimed Gregg, starting to rise. ‘Let’s go see.’
Nick stopped him. ‘Give it a few minutes. We won’t see anything until the dust settles anyway.’
Gregg nodded. ‘Listen, if we’re successful in blocking these tunnels, I need you to set those fires up at the town hall. I’d do it myself only it’s-’
‘What if they see me?’ interrupted Nick.
‘Trust me, Nick, they won’t see you.’
‘How can you be that sure?’
‘One of them told us they stare at the rain in some kind of daydream. He called it “Watching”. Jill and I saw it earlier in the cop across the road; even as we stood before him he didn’t see us.’
‘So you think they all slip off into this, this trance-like state?’
‘I’m sure of it.’
‘Okay, what about mushy out there?’ he said, pointing to Sheldon. ‘And the one down there in the shaft, why weren’t they all tranced up like that?’
‘Look Nick-’
‘I’ll do it,’ stated Jill, walking over to them. ‘I’ll set the fires, just tell me where you want them.’
‘I didn’t say I wouldn’t do it,’ protested Nick. ‘I just wanted to get things straight in my own head first, that’s all.’
‘No, Nick,’ said Jill. ‘You and Gregg need to rig the oil-truck, I’ll set the fires. Just tell me how, when, and where, Gregg?’
‘Once Nick and I have sealed the tunnels, we’ll sort out the oil-truck; that will probably be the best time to set the fires. As soon as that lot are in the cinema, we blow it and them, clean away. One thing we don’t want is that lot out on the street; so we have to set the fires before the rain stops, otherwise they won’t use the tunnels.’
‘How do you want me to do it?’
‘See if you can find a container, a big container, something we can put a good amount of oil in. You’ll need to pour it before each of the windows and then set fire to each deposit you make. With a bit of luck, they’ll think the whole place is burning down. When you’ve done that, get yourself back here fast, okay?’
Jill nodded.
‘I have some fuse which burns at ten metres per second,’ said Nick. ‘It should have all the fires lit very quickly. When the time comes, I’ll show you how to use it.’
‘Okay Jill, you find a big enough container, Nick and I are going to check the damage in the tunnel and set the next bomb.’
