SEVEN
“Let's pack it up,” Noah said. “I want everything we need to take with us in the trunk of the car, ready to go at a moment's notice. Everything else goes into the van. Sarah, you and Neil start packing the flowers into the van. Moose and I will start taking down the furniture in the guestroom. Everything goes in the van, we don't leave anything behind.”
“What about the 3-D printer?” Neil asked. “Shouldn't it go in the van? It takes up a lot of room.”
Noah shook his head. “No, I want it in the car; don’t worry, the trunk is big, it’ll fit. I just don't want to leave any traces behind that can link us to the Gomez explosion, and people may have seen the van when Moose dropped off the shrine. We're taking it out of the city, someplace isolated, and then I'm going to detonate all those flowerpots. That'll get rid of the van and everything we bought while we were here, and cause more confusion while we beat it out of town.”
It took them less than an hour to get everything loaded. Neil had gone online and found a likely spot for ditching the van, so Moose took the van and headed for it by one route while Noah, Sarah and Neil took the car and went by another.
There were police cars just about everywhere, including city police, sheriff's deputies and state police. They were cruising the streets, obviously looking for anything that looked out of place. According to the scanner, a ten-block area around the explosion had been sealed off, but the rest of the city was still open. The massive police presence was simply precautionary, but it looked like everyone was driving as carefully as they could.
Neil had chosen an abandoned rock quarry that sat about eight miles north of the city. They found it with no trouble, and Moose was there waiting for them in the van.
The quarry wasn’t very big, but it was deep. The big square pit in the center went down over two hundred feet, with a roadway that spiraled around its walls. The whole property was surrounded by a chain-link fence, but Moose had already picked the lock by the time Noah, Sarah and Neil arrived. They drove carefully down to the bottom, where Moose climbed into the back seat of the sedan beside Neil.
“Good thing this car has all-wheel drive,” Moose said. “I don't think the van would've made it back up out of this hole.”
“It doesn't have to,” Noah said. “As soon as we get up out of here, I'm blowing it up.”
He actually waited until they had pulled out of the gate and locked it before he set off the explosives in the van. It was down deep enough in the hole that the sound was muffled, but the fireball that rose up from the pit in the ground was even bigger than the one that had leveled the Gomez house. They sat in the car and watched it for a moment, then Sarah turned her eyes to the road and began driving back into the city by a winding, circuitous route.
They made a quick stop at a KFC to pick up a bucket of chicken for dinner, so it was nearly nine o'clock by the time they got back to their hotel. Noah was not surprised to see a deputy sheriff standing at the front desk. Checking to see who was registered in local hotels and motels would be a logical part of police procedure after such an explosion, and the deputy turned and looked at them as they entered.
Noah took Sarah's hand and went into his “normal guy” mode as he walked quickly toward the officer.
“Hey, there,” he said, his face looking slightly worried. “Is something wrong? We heard about the bombing, is that terrorists? Are we in danger here at the hotel?”
His nervous chatter put the deputy at ease, and he smiled. “I don't think it was terrorists,” he said. “We just like to get an idea of who was in town when something like this happens, it's just routine. I don't think you've got anything to worry about, the FBI seems to think the explosion might have been related to some drug gangs in the area.”
Noah's jaw dropped, and his eyes went wide. “Drug gangs? Holy shit, you mean drug gangs are using bombs nowadays? Man, this world’s gone crazy, hasn’t it?”
The deputy nodded, still smiling but obviously becoming impatient to get on with his business. “Yeah, it sure has,” he said. “Well, Sir, you have a good night, okay? I've got to get back to work.”
“Oh, yeah, I'm sorry,” Noah said. Sarah tugged on his hand and said, “Come on, Baby, I'm tired.” Noah smiled once more at the deputy, then turned and walked with her toward the elevator. Moose and Neil had gone up ahead of them carrying the food, and they found them waiting in the hall outside their rooms.