LIFERS Chapter Forty Six

The van had been emptied of everything needed to rig the oil truck for detonation and Nick had half-filled the large container with Paraffin Oil before he strapped it in the back.

Jill had checked on Alicia for a third time and found her still asleep and now stood beside Gregg at the hatch. She felt edgy, like there was some kind of climax coming, either favourable or otherwise, and in the not-too-distant future.

‘So, I guess it’s my turn now.’ she said.

Gregg was about to reply when Nick stepped from inside his van with a roll of what to Jill looked like bright-red electrical wire.

‘I’ve just attached twenty-feet of slow burning fuse to this 200 metre roll of Rapid-lite,’ he told her. ‘Now you need to listen to this part very carefully. This is the bit you burn,’ he said, and held out a length of light-blue, string-like fuse. ‘After you ignite it, it’ll take about three minutes to reach this.’ He held up the roll of red Rapid-lite. ‘And once the spark leaves the blue and hits the red, it’ll only take twenty seconds to burn the whole 200 metres.’

‘What if any of it gets wet, will it still burn?’

Nick looked over the top of his glasses. ‘This stuff is that good it’ll burn in the vacuum of space.’

Jill just stared, her features blank.

‘Anyway, when you’ve poured the oil under each of the windows, tie the 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. ‘Whatever 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 fairly complicated, but have I explained it clearly?’

Jill nodded. ‘Pour the oil, tie the end, loop the Rapidy-litey-thingy, light the blue fuse and stand well-back.’

Nick also nodded, then pushed up his glasses. ‘That’s close enough.’

‘Don’t forget what Zach said about them watching the rain from the windows, Jill. They’ll be there and they’ll be looking out, but they won’t see you.’

‘I know, but it’s still gonna freak me out.’

‘Just look on them as mannequins, dummies in a shop window.’

‘But they freak me out, too.’

‘You’ll be fine, Jill.' He touched her arm. 'But it’s time we got started on this.’

‘And what happens to Alicia while all this is going on?’

‘Alicia stays in the 4x4 until I need to use it to get the girls out. Then you can move her to Nick’s van and drive out to the place where Nick ran out of gas. When we’re done here, we’ll drive out there and meet you.’

She would have preferred to have been there when the end came, to see it all come crashing down about their ears, but there was no reason for Alicia to be there any longer than she had to. Her time in Martinsville was over, and the sooner they got her away from there, the better.

Nick had left the roll of Rapid-lite in the back of the van next to where he strapped-in the container and closed the damaged doors, then he and Gregg gathered what they needed to set the bomb in the cinema tunnel and left to rig it up.

Jill pressed the up button on the shutter and watched as it grated its way to the top. As she hit the stop button, she noticed the rain was now little more than a fine spray, not completely stopped, but it was seriously thinking about it. She didn’t trust they had very long before the residents of Martinsville would be back on the streets.

She climbed in and reversed Nick’s van out and parked it at the side of the tow-truck ready to do her bit. She climbed back out again and returned to the garage to see Gregg emerge from the shaft followed by Nick, who again trailed a strand of electrical cable behind him. He cut it from the roll and attached the two ends to his little electronic detonator.

‘That’s it,’ he said, ‘she’s ready to blow as soon as they’re in the cinema.’

Jill was standing by the 4x4 as she watched Gregg and Nick go about their business of bomb creation. She saw Gregg pat Nick on his back in a congratulatory manner just before he made his way over to her.

‘Are you all set to get up there?’ he said.

‘As much as I can be, but I’ll admit to being a little scared.’

‘Well that makes two of us. And if I’m not mistaken,’ he said, and looked over at Nick, ‘probably three.’

‘What are your plans when this is all over?’

Gregg shrugged. ‘To be honest I haven’t given it that much thought.’

Jill got closer. ‘Do you reckon we’ll keep in touch?’

‘Yeah, sure.’

‘Swap Christmas cards and stuff?’

‘Absolutely.’

‘Maybe even go out for din−?’

‘Hey, come on you guys,’ Nick shouted, ‘the rain’s almost stopped. We better get a move on.’

Without preamble, Jill stretched on tip-toes and kissed Gregg’s left cheek before she walked away and got back in the van. She removed her gun from the back of her jeans and left it on the seat beside her and closed the door. She looked back to see the beginnings of a smile on Gregg’s face; his hand pressed against the cheek she kissed. She smiled back at him, started the engine, and then headed for the Martinsville town hall, and its hoard of unsuspecting misfits.

..

Gregg watched as she drove away, his hand on the kissed cheek, it felt rough, unshaven, but the area she pressed her lips against seemed to tingle.

‘Nice kid, huh?’ Nick said.

‘What?’

He walked over. ‘Jill; she’s a nice kid.’

Gregg nodded, and the kid part? Yeah, if he was honest with himself, Nick was right about that, too. He sighed, turned, and looked at the remaining fireworks and the cylinders scattered around the oil truck.

‘Okay,’ he said. ‘All that’s left for us to do is get the oil truck rigged and get it on the street facing those cinema doors.’

Nick pointed through the open shutter. ‘When I went to get my camera, I came back down that alley at the side of the schoolhouse, and I noticed it faced directly toward the cinema doors. If we can fit the two trucks in there rather than just out on the street, it’ll give us a longer run up, more momentum to get it deeper into the cinema.’

‘Perfect,’ Gregg said.