Chapter 185
- Evan -
Becky stretched.
"I agree with Josh. Where to next?" She looked at Duke.
Duke looked at District 4's evacuation route.
"The district should already be making preparations to move to the next location. Citizens who escaped the lower districts should have caught them up.
"So far, we have saved almost everyone in the 4 city districts from here. We cut it close with the last one, but you kids surprised us."
"Me too!" Josh chuckled. "It was so hard getting most of them through,
"The more people we compact in one city, the more bodies that we need to move. Next time we may not be so lucky."
"We have lost 4 of 7 cities," I spoke up. We may have James helping on the other side, but there is only so much he can do, as we have learned. We need to find the hackers and the governor and get to the bottom of this before we lose any more cities or people."
"Agreed," Duke nodded.
The speakers mounted along the plaza crackle suddenly.
James? Is he trying to get through again?
Everyone looked up.
Josh groaned, with his fingers crossed in both his hands.
"Let it be good news!"
"Uh...Guys? I hate to mess with your break..."
Josh glanced around.
"I knew it...I knew it...!"
"Micah looked at his hands. You crossed both; you should only cross one, or it's bad luck." She joked.
"Now you tell me!"
Becky shook her head and looked at a camera.
"I have been watching the camera feeds of District Four and the police scanners. We may have a new problem..."
Josh sighed loudly. "Of course, we do. Let's hear it.
He spoke as if he didn't already know; no mics, no audio could be heard on our part.
The massive public display screen mounted above flickered on.
A security feed filled the screen.
In the downtown district, the police lights flashed everywhere.
Barricades were holding back crowds.
Emergency vehicles filled the street.
"What happened now?" Micah muttered?
The camera zoomed toward the center of the police blockade.
The crowd of civilians pressed against the barricades, staring nervously and whispering as the officers shouted for them to move back.
The rain hadn't slowed.
Red and blue lights flashed across soaked pavement.
The camera centered on the front step of the large stone building.
The City Bank.
Josh leaned forward slightly.
"I really don't like the look of that."
The image zoomed again.
Standing halfway up the steps was a wide-eyed man, soaked from the floodwaters.
Shouting at the line of police behind their barricades.
And in his hand, a detonator. Strapped to his chest was the bomb. Several crude explosives, wires running between them in a messy web of duct tape and metal.
Becky's posture shifted.
"Oh no...!"
The image sharpened again as James adjusted the camera remotely.
Micah exhaled slowly.
"You have got to be kidding me. This is not good, not for him or anyone else around."
Inside the bank behind him, civilians pressed against the glass windows.
Hostages.
James's voice crackled over the speaker again.
I can't hear what he's saying from the security feed, but the police scanners are going wild. The bomb squad is still twenty minutes out.
I rubbed my face with both hands.
"Twenty minutes, you say...Agh!"
I looked back up at the screen.
"Yeah... We don't have twenty minutes, it looks like to me. Things seem to be getting pretty heated."
Duke stepped closer to the display.
His eyes moved slowly across the structure of the building.
Studying and calculating.
"What would happen if the explosives were inside the structure? He asked calmly, pointing to the building in the image and making a house-roof sign above his head at the camera.
"Roof...? Building, oh." James caught on.
James immediately pulled up the structural blueprints and overlaid them on the screen.
A wireframe of the bank appeared over the screen.
Several support columns lit up in red.
"If that bomb goes off near the center of the lobby..." James said carefully.
"...The entire building just may collapse. What is worse is that the main city gas and water lines run underneath and could be affected."
Josh slowly turned his head.
"This could possibly trigger another flood. It would be localized. Some streets could be affected, but if the hackers get into the system again, it could make the situation even worse."
The map shifter again.
The water flow model appeared over District Four.
James seemed to have already thought some of this through while we still studied the image.
If the bank were to collapse completely, the street behind it, depending on the blast radius, opens directly into the lower canal tunnels. Damage there could potentially cause flooding again. Fortunately, though, such a collapse would likely be substantial and impact many homes, but it would not destroy City District 4."
I sighed. "That's what I was afraid of, though it is not a guarantee."
Micah leaned her head down, looking at something on the ground.
"Between the main line and a canal, the city's systems and people can keep going like this."
Silence settled over all of us.
I picked Kaysi back up.
Still unconscious and still breathing.
Her hair clung to my jacket from the rain.
Josh stood up.
"You're not going to wake her?"
"Not just yet. We need her to recover fully. Something about her powers amplifies us. She needs all the strength she can get for herself and us right now. We are not out of the waters yet, and I fear there may be more to come."
Josh nodded.
"Well...!" He stretched his neck. "That's just fantastic. Let's go stop a lunatic."
Josh helped Becky up on her feet as she stepped beside him.
Josh stretched a sore spot on his shoulders.
Micah looked over and frowned. "Are your shoulders hurt from before? You sure you're up for this?"
Josh smirked.
"Never better. He reached over and grabbed Becky's waist. I could care for you too if you like."
Micah shook her head. "You proved your point; this isn't your first rodeo carrying someone showing off.
Becky leaned around Josh to look at Micah.
"I know we asked before, but are you sure you're okay after hitting a brick house?" She teased, looking up at Josh.
"Never better!" She chuckled, quoting Josh.
Josh looked over at Duke and Baby flying low.
"So what is the plan, Duke?
"Observe him for now. Baby, go ahead and scout what you see and give us a report if anything changes before we get there."
She nodded, then launched upward into the air with a powerful rush of wind.
Duke murmured, "I'm not entirely sure, but something doesn't seem right. I don't believe he intends to hurt anyone or himself. If that were his plan, he would have already acted on it!"
Josh sharpened his eyes.
"So he wants something."
"Exactly," Duke said.
"And desperate men with bombs don't stay patient forever."