After cleaning herself up the best she could, using the inside of the poncho and the make-shift shower, Jill joined Gregg standing over by the hatch at the back off Nick’s van.
‘So, what happens now?’ she asked.
Gregg was about to reply when Nick stepped from inside the van holding a roll of looked like bright-red electrical wire. ‘I’ve just attached twenty-feet of slow burning fuse to this 200 metre roll of “Rapid-lite”. Now, Jill, you need to listen to this part very carefully. This is the bit you burn,’ he said, holding out a length of light-blue string-like fuse and waggling its end. ‘After you ignite it, it’ll take about three minutes to reach this,’ he added, holding up the roll of red “Rapid-lite”. ‘Now, once the spark leaves the blue and hits the red, it will only take twenty seconds to burn the whole 200 metres.’
‘What if it gets wet, will it still burn?’ Jill asked.
Nick looked over his glasses. ‘This stuff will burn in a vacuum it’s that good.'
‘Okay!’ she said, not fully understanding what the hell he meant by that.
‘When you’ve poured the oil under each of the windows, tie this bit where the two fuses meet, to a drainpipe, or something close to the wall of the building. Then, at each of the deposits of oil, loop the “Rapid-lite” over it like so.’ Nick looped the fuse on the floor to demonstrate. ‘What ever you have left, just drop at the last deposit. Once you’ve done that, light the end of the blue fuse and get back here as fast as you can. Now, I know it’s complicated, and it’s a lot to take in, but have I explained it clearly enough?’
Jill raised a shoulder. ‘Seems simple; drop the oil, tie the end, loop the Rapidy-litey-thingy, light the fuse, and get back!’
Nick nodded. ‘Close enough for me!’
‘Jill, do you remember how we found Hal over there in the cell, when he just stared into space?’
‘Yes.’
‘Well I think that’s what you’ll see when you reach the town hall, they’ll be looking from the windows, all of them, watching the rain like the old man said, but they won’t see you.’
‘Are you sure?’
Gregg cast a wary glance at Nick before turning back to Jill. ‘If I’m totally honest with you, no, I can’t be one hundred percent certain.’
‘Then how many percent certain can you be?’
Gregg shrugged. ‘Fifty!’
‘Fifty? That’s not an awful lot of percent, Gregg.’
‘I know, but it’s the best I can give you.’
Jill sighed, folding her arms. ‘Okay, I’ll trust you enough to accept fifty, but I have a question. What happens to Alicia while all this is going on?’
‘Alicia stays in the 4X4 until I need it to get the girls out. Then you can move her to Nick’s van and wait for us at the place where Nick ran out of gas. When we’re done here, we’ll drive down there to meet you.’
Jill wanted to object at not being there for the climax, the fireworks, and the loud bang. But it would be best for Alicia if they were far away when it happened.
Nick, Gregg and Jill, spent the next fifteen minutes emptying the van of all its fireworks and air cylinders, and everything else Jill wouldn’t need to set the fires. Nick left the roll of “Rapid-lite” in the back of the van next to where Gregg had put the oil container. Then he and Gregg gathered what they’d need to set the bomb in the cinema tunnel and left to rig it up. As they descended the steps, Jill watched from the top of the shaft, and when they reached the bottom, the beam of the flashlight turned sharp left, disappearing towards the cinema.
She pressed the up button on the shutter watching as it rose; the rain continued to fall but was much lighter, not stopped, but seriously thinking about it. She didn’t think they had long at all before the residents of Martinsville would be back on the streets.
Jill parked Nick’s van at the side of the tow-truck after reversing it from the garage. And as soon as Nick and Gregg returned from the tunnel, it would be her turn to contribute to the demise of the Martinsville Menace. And even though she was nervous about it, and by no means saw herself as a vengeful person, even though she owed them big time, she was actually looking forward to her part.
A couple of minutes later, Gregg emerged from the shaft, followed by Nick, who once more trailed a strand of electrical cable behind him. After cutting it from the roll, he attached the two ends to his little electronic detonator.
‘That’s it,’ he said, ‘she’s ready to blow.’
Gregg walked over to Jill standing by the 4X4. ‘You all set?’
‘As much as I can be, but I’ll admit, ‘I’m a little scared too.’
‘Well that makes two of us. And if I’m not mistaken,’ he said, looking over at Nick, ‘probably three.’
‘I have to ask you, Gregg. What are you going to do when all this is over?’
Gregg shrugged. ‘I haven’t given it much thought.’
‘Well what ever you decide, I’d like be-’
‘Hey look,’ said Nick, interrupting, ‘the rain’s almost stopped.’
‘You better get going, Jill. We don’t have much time.’
Without thinking for too long, Jill stretched, kissing Gregg on his cheek, but before he had time to register the manoeuvre, she turned and walked away.
After opening the driver’s door of Nick’s van, and before climbing in, she looked back at him, there was a smile on his face, and his hand was pressed against the cheek she’d just kissed. Once inside the van, and with a huge smile on her face, she started it up and headed for Martinsville’s town hall, and its hoard of unsuspecting misfits.
Gregg watched as she drove away, his hand touching his face, it was rough, unshaven, but the area she’d pressed her lips against seemed to tingle.
‘Nice kid, huh?’ said Nick, now standing beside him.
‘What?’
‘Jill, she’s a nice kid.’
Gregg sighed; Nick was absolutely right about that, she was nice, very nice, and the kid part? Yeah, he was right about that too.
‘Okay we’re all set,’ said Gregg, trying to shake all other thoughts from his head. ‘All that’s left to do now is for us to get the oil-truck rigged and get it out there facing those cinema doors.’
Nick pointed through the open shutter. ‘Earlier, when I went to get my camera, I ran up the alley between the schoolhouse and the library. On the way back I noticed the alley faced directly toward the cinema doors. If we can fit the two trucks in there, it’ll give us a longer run up, more momentum to get the oil-truck deeper into the cinema.’
‘Perfect,’ said Gregg. ‘Let’s get this lot fastened to it, and get it out there!’
