LIFERS Chapter Forty Two

Gregg stood beside the oil truck, his plan to rescue the two remaining girls all but ready to go. ‘This is about half full of highly flammable Paraffin Oil,’ he said to Nick. ‘What if we strap all your gear around the fuel tanks after we’ve fill them, and then send it through the front doors of the cinema to detonate right in their midst? The fireworks alone might not be enough, but with the help of a thousand gal─’

‘Woah, hold on a minute,’ Nick said. ‘Before you get all carried away with that idea you need to know that those tanks can withstand an enormous amount of abuse. And as powerful as my stuff is, I don’t think they’ll even scratch the surface.’

Gregg disagreed. ‘The tank is at least fifty years old and constructed of one layer of very thin iron, and it’s almost rusted through. I don’t think it would take much more than a firecracker to rupture it; take a look yourself.’

Nick inspected the condition of the tank, and although it took a little effort to do, the rusty iron gave with a “Whump-whump” sound when he pushed on its side.

‘You may be right,’ he said. ‘And thank Christ we don’t make them like that anymore.’

‘But didn’t you say the engine was shot,’ Jill said. ‘So how are we supposed to drive it in there?’

‘We don’t drive it in, we push it in.’

‘Just the three of us? Or were you thinking of using Alicia for that extra little bit of muscle?’

‘I was actually thinking of using another vehicle to do the hard work for us,’ he said, then saw Nick look at his van, the 4x4, and then the oil truck.

‘But there isn’t anything in here that’s big enough to push it with,’ he said.

‘No, but there’s something in the alley that’ll do it.’

‘Didn’t you say hot-wiring it won’t disengage the steering lock?’ Jill said.

Gregg disappeared around the other side of the oil truck.

Jill looked at Nick, Nick shrugged.

‘Here,’ Gregg shouted. ‘See if they work.’

Jill reached out and caught a bunch of keys. ‘Where’d these come from?’

‘You threw them to me when we first came in here. One of them might fit the tow-truck. Reckon you could drive it?’

‘If it helps us get out of here, and it’s got wheels and an engine, I’ll drive it,’ she said, then turned for the shutter.

As Nick let her out and lowered it again, Gregg checked on Alicia to make sure she was still asleep then picked up the flashlight from inside the office so he and Nick could enter the tunnels to determine how best to block off the ones they needed to.

When they reached the point where Gregg thought they should blast, Nick pulled at the struts that held up the ground above. ‘Feels like wet straw,’ he said.

‘So you reckon they’ll collapse easy enough?’

‘Sure, but if we detonate this close to the junction we could bring the roof down in the wrong place and block the tunnel leading to the garage and cinema. What we need to do is go fifteen to twenty feet farther into the tunnel, that way we could blow out a couple of these supports and take out just the one tunnel.’

‘And will we still have enough explosive power left for the oil truck?’

‘More than enough,’ Nick said.

‘Well then, we have our plan for getting them out of the town hall and into the cinema. After that, all I need to do is get in there and get the girls out.’

They emerged from the shaft to hear the tow-truck pull up outside the shutter and Gregg went over to push the up button. He noticed the rain had eased some more but still blustered about, which made him step back when the shutter reached knee height.

They needed the tow-truck inside the garage in order to pull the oil truck out, but first the 4x4 had to be removed along with Nick’s van. And before they could do that, Nick needed to rig the tunnels for collapse.

Jill jumped down. ‘Piece o’ cake,’ she said, and tossed the keys to Gregg.

‘Stage one complete, now we need to start getting these tunnels rigged if we want to get finished before the rain stops altogether. Will you stay with Alicia in case she wakes up when we’re down there?’

‘Sure, as far as I’m concerned, the sooner we sort this, the sooner we get out of here.’

Both turned when they heard a painful creak come from the van’s rear doors. Gregg went over to look inside.

‘Is that rubber?’

‘Yeah, has to be, can’t be too careful. Static electricity can be the worst of a pyro’s nightmares.’

Gregg wasn’t sure exactly what he expected to see when Nick first mentioned the fireworks, maybe some traditional type rockets and a whole pile of usually crafted whizz-bombs, but these were nothing like any he’d seen before. And when Nick said they were “Mean fuckers” he meant it.

Nick climbed in to unfasten the straps that held the fireworks in place during transit, and now let loose, they rolled around the inside of the van and Gregg cringed at the thought of an unanticipated explosion, but Nick assured him they were quite safe.

He rolled two sphere-shaped objects toward Gregg; both about the size of basket balls and weighing in at thirty-five pound each.

‘How the hell do you get these things in the air?’

‘We shoot them from carbon tubes. Some pyros use a small mortar charge but I prefer compressed air, it’s a lot safer.’

‘So where’s the tubes.’

‘Remember I told you I was one half of the pyro team? Well Matt, the other half, he dove down yesterday with the bulk of the fireworks and all the rigging.’

Strapped up against the far wall of the van were four, five-foot-long, rusty and battered compressed air cylinders.

‘Could we use those as well?’ Gregg asked.

‘I can’t see why not, the combined blast from the fireworks and the fuel tanks should have no problem in taking those with it.

‘And will you be able to detonate it all at the same time?’

‘They’ll all blow together with no problem, give or take a millisecond or two.’

‘A millisecond or two I can live with.’

Gregg lifted the solid paper ball on to his shoulder then picked up the flashlight. Nick jumped from inside the van with a roll of electrical cable and picked up a second paper ball before he followed him.

When they reached the cross-over, Gregg chose to set the first of the devices in the main tunnel leading down to Chambers. They placed the spheres on either side of the tunnel at the foot of two upright supports that were around fifteen-feet back from the junction and Nick attached two wires to one of them then ran a connecting pair across to the other. Then, with Nick unravelling a coil of cable as he went, they both headed back to the garage.

Nick closed the hatch and climbed into his van to retrieve a slim, briefcase-like box and took one of two devices from its grey, spongy interior. After he attached 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,’ Nick said. ‘We’re live, you ready?’

‘Wait, is this going to be loud?’

Nick frowned. ‘Have you never been to a firework display before?’

‘Give me a minute.’

Jill was by the open door of the 4x4. ‘Is it ready?’

‘Yeah, and according to Nick it could to be loud. Better close the door.’

She did.

Gregg went back and knelt beside Nick. ‘Okay,’ he said. ‘Blow it.’

Nick lifted a cover from over a small red button and pressed it. Two seconds later an explosion with two, almost simultaneous booms, lifted the hatch two-feet from the floor before it fell back three or four times then settled.

‘Looks like we’re in business,’ Nick said.

‘Well let’s hope everything else runs as smooth as this, and after we’ve finished with the tunnels I need you to set those fires we talked about up at the town hall.’

‘What if they see me?’

‘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 trance-like state?’

‘I’m sure of it.’

‘Okay,’ he said. ‘What about the one who shot you? And what about mushy on the other side of that shutter? And the one down there in the shaft who was gonna shot me? Why weren’t they all tranced up like that?’

Jill walked over. ‘I’ll do it,’ she said. ‘I’ll set the fires.’

‘I didn’t say I wouldn’t do it. I just wanted to get things straight in my own head first, that’s all.’

‘No, Nick. You need to rig the oil truck and Gregg can’t go outside, so it’s up to me to set the fires. I just need to know how, when, and where.’

Nick shrugged, looked at Gregg. ‘Makes sense.’

‘Okay,’ Gregg said. ‘The best time to do it will be after Nick and I have sealed the last of the tunnels and rigged-out the oil truck.’

‘How do I do it?’

‘First you need to find a fuel container to put some of that paraffin oil in. And when you get up there you’ll need to pour it under each of the windows and set fire to it. When you’ve done that, get yourself back here fast, okay?’

‘Sure, but what about Nick’s fuel container, won’t that do?’

‘No, it’s not nearly big enough; we need something much bigger.’

‘Okay, so do I pour out the oil and light it, then pour out another splodge and light that, and so on? Or do I pour out all the oil first then run around the building like a crazed arsonist lighting each of them in turn?’

‘Neither of those,’ Nick said. ‘I have a better and faster way of doing it. I’ve still got some old fuse I once used before everything went hi-tech; it burns at ten metres per second. It’ll have all the fires lit in no time, so when you’re ready I’ll show you how to use it.’

Jill nodded. ‘Okay.’

‘Nick and I are going to check the damage to the tunnel and set the next bomb, Jill. See if you can find that container.’