“Stand down!” Okada bellowed, rising from his place behind the G-Wagon.
With that single order, the militia complied.
“We need to hurry!” I cried as Okada quickly joined us.
"What happened – why did the Custodians attack us? What is in that box?" the councillor demanded.
"The Custodians brought a bomb," and I whispered the next part so that only he could hear me, "a nuclear bomb, and it's set to go off in less than four minutes. You have to let us disarm it right now."
"A what?" the councillor asked in sheer disbelief. And then, in seeing that our serious expressions didn't change, he added, "No, absolutely not. I will get in the bomb disposal unit. We will evacuate the town immediately!"
"There's no time to wait for your team, nor any point in evacuating. No one could get far enough away from the blast radius," David replied.
I grabbed the councillor’s arm with a bloody hand. "You cannot get a better bomb disposal team than David and I, Sir. Trust, me, we can disarm this."
He stared at me for what felt like eternity, but in reality was only a couple of seconds, and then reluctantly nodded his consent. All the same, as David and I rushed to the bomb, he instructed the Militia captain to call in the bomb disposal unit. The rest of the Militia and TTC personnel moved quickly back from us.
"Right! I reckon removing the exploding-bridge-wire detonator is the best bet," David said. Then, “Shoot! There's a lid screwed over the top. We have to take it off first, but we'll need to get the bomb out of the box so I can see where the screws are. Man, we don’t have time for this!"
“Wait!” I said as I leaned on the unit's casing and made a few ultrasonic shouts. I pulled David to me. "Don't argue, just listen. Put your fingers down here, and here. There are two screws there, and two on the other side. Remove them and the lid will come off."
"Three minutes," Nanako announced quietly with a calm I didn't feel.
David nodded and set to work quickly removing the four screws with a combination of touch and his electric screwdriver. That done, we lifted off the aluminium lid, exposing the exploding-bridge-wire detonator.
"Two minutes," came Nanako's countdown to doom.
Armed with the tools he needed, David lay half inside the refrigeration-maturation unit and attacked the detonator wires one by one. Using echolocation I watched him work and marvelled how his fingers could operate so deftly considering what was at stake if he failed.
Finally, he pushed himself off the bomb and slid to the ground, breathing heavily. "It's done."
"The clock's still counting down!" Nanako pointed out in a panic. Councillor Okada had noticed too, his face white with fear.
"Don't worry, the wires are no longer connected to the explosives or the timer, so it's counting down to a non-event," David assured us.
Nevertheless, we all held our breaths and watched the counter tick down to zero.
"Now do you believe me?" David asked.
I wanted to give him a crushing hug, but didn't have the strength. The throbbing pain from my head and chest wounds were taking their toll, so I just sat on the ground beside him and leaned against the trailer.
The councillor congratulated us for disarming the bomb, as did several of the Militia. None of them, however, knew what sort of bomb we had just disarmed.
"David, where on earth did you learn how to deactivate a thermonuclear bomb?" I asked, completely in awe of his abilities.
David stared at me as though it was the first time we had met. "From books and manuals I found in the ruins and smuggled home," he replied. "But Jones, you wanna tell me how you can see through metal?"
Nanako placed a finger against David's lips. "Such questions are best not answered, David."
He nodded and said no more.
The threat of the bomb gone, reality came crashing back to me. "Michal, Leigh!"
"I'll check on Leigh," Nanako said, and she darted away with David at her side.
I staggered over to Michal's prone form and checked for a pulse again. I knew it was a futile exercise. He was gone.
Nanako ran back and knelt beside me. "Leigh's pretty bad, but I think he's gonna make it. Shorty and two Militia are looking after him."
I nodded, despair that we had lost Leigh turning into a sliver of hope. I don't know what I would have done if I lost both of them.
We heard the approach of screeching sirens and several ambulances drove up to the loading dock. Paramedics swarmed out and rushed to treat the many wounded. I was struck by the thought that Hamamachi's peaceful trading centre had been turned into a battlefield. I would never forgive Newhome for this, not ever.