Chapter 17

The sheriff turned to his prisoner. "Where," he asked, "are the bombs?" "Under the tanks," the woman answered, "by the control values. They're meant to blow the values off then ignite the fuel."
"How in the name of hell did you manage to plant them?" one of the security people asked.
"We replaced the delivery driver," the woman answered, "with a look alike. If you check you'll find he hasn't come home. He WON'T come home."
"Damn!" the security man snapped. "Damned bastards!"
"What matters right now," the sheriff asked, "is can we disarm the bombs and remove them?"
"If you try to remove them without disarming them," the woman warned, "they'll explode. There's an anti tampering device. But Wes told me the disarming codes...if he wasn't lying."
"Give!" the sheriff ordered.
"You press the off button," the woman continued, "then put in 81. You press the pause button then put in 32. If it's right the time should stop."
"Everybody got that?" the sheriff asked to everyone standing around. Everyone nodded. The sheriff looked to the nearest tank, grabbed the woman's arm and led her off. "Come on!" he snapped, "Let's go try one. If it doesn't work we'll be the first to know."
The woman looked horrified but did not resist as the sheriff led her to the tanks. He crawled under one, shined his light up, and found the device. He put in the code, waited a second and yanked the device off, then started breathing again. "It works!" he cried.
The rest hurried off to the other tanks. The sheriff checked the next two. They had no devices. He brought the woman back to the shelter. Someone took his device and hurried off with it. In a little while midnight passed and there were no explosions.
Phil and the others rejoined them. They took the prisoners into her livingroom. The sheriff sat her down and asked "Why?"
"We were the most powerful organization on Earth," the woman answered. "Presidents cowered when our leader told them we were in control. Then the damned Spir came, and everything started to crumble. People started standing up to our agents, all over the world. Our agents began to be arrested, tried, convicted, even executed. Now they're going to elect The Buxom Bitch, a damned entertainer, a talk show host. And she's going to shut us down, put us out of business. Who in the hell do they think they are? The director said enough! We organized attacks all over the country, tonight before the elections. But we got caught, and that thing said cooperate or be a vegetable for the rest of your life. So to save my ass I've got to betray my friends but I won't. I won't end up like that, not a helpless piece of walking meat for people to use!
I've got papers, recordings, video, and I know where there's others. Many of us didn't trust our leaders to keep their promises, and kept things to make sure they did. Subdirector Day is involved in this operation, and the director himself. He gave overall approval. I hope the ones sent to get the damned First Speaker succeeded. I hope at least THEY succeeded!"
Phil jumped up, stepped over, and whacked the woman hard across the face. "Easy!" the sheriff snapped. "I'd like to wring her neck too, but she's been promised that she'll be well treated. DO you want that promise violated?"
"No!" Phil answered, "But she's going to start showing some respect or she'll get a well deserved spanking."
"YOU couldn't give it to me!" the woman snapped.
"You wanna bet?" Phil snapped back.
"SIT!" the sheriff snapped. Phil sat down. There were footsteps and two deputies entered. "Take this woman to the jail," the sheriff snapped, double security tonight. I'll fill out a report in the morning. She may be visited, but if anyone tries to take her away lock them up, no matter who they are!"
The deputies nodded, took the prisoner and hurried off. The sheriff looked at his watch. "Well," he remarked, "I've got to go find some place to stay."
"Nonsense!" Hatfield put in. "There's plenty of room at the lodge. I don't think there'll be any question of impropriety if you stay overnight."
The sheriff hesitated for a moment then nodded. He was led to a room and had no trouble at all getting to sleep. In the morning he found a fresh uniform hanging on his closet door, brand new, and the pants fit! He smiled to himself. "These peoples' efficiency!" he laughed. HE was glad for the clothes. He stopped by his home on the way to the office. There was nothing left. Everything he owned was gone. He knew the safe box in the cellar with his most valuable possessions, his family papers, photos and videos would be safe. He'd salvage them later. Right now he wanted to be at the office and make sure things were going well. He didn't need to worry, things were going VERY WELL!

Page 31

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