He breathed out as it cleared the canister, and dropped the panel onto the front seat. Turning back to the bomb, he surveyed the layout.
The timing cavity was the space of a man’s hand, with four alloy posts supporting a small digital timing display and a series of switches. Wires protruded from the timer display in the top left-hand corner, wound their way through the alloy posts to the switches then out again, disappearing into the hulk of the canister in the bottom right-hand corner. Dan had never seen anything like it.
His hand twitched, once, as it hovered over the wiring. The timing mechanism was complex – if his team hadn’t apprehended Charles on the ship, the device could still have been deployed remotely by mobile phone. Sweat ran down his face as he considered his options. If he worried about what could have happened, he’d never focus.
Dan concentrated on slowing his breathing, desperately trying to lower his heart rate. He wiped his face with his sleeve, rubbed his fingers together and shuffled to try to get a workable position in the cramped quarters of the back seat of the car.
Dan ran his fingers down the wires, testing their thickness. He raised his gaze to the timer, now showing five minutes and twenty seconds. Three years ago, he would have considered that a luxury. He let go of the wires and turned to the front of the car, where he’d placed the tool box. He rummaged around until his fingers found the pliers – small, compact, and perfect for working in small spaces. He removed them and sorted through the contents of the box until he found a small pen-like torch. His fingers wrapped round it and he turned cautiously back to the bomb.
Shining the torch directly onto the wires, he cocked his head to one side, trying to get a look under the switches. He nodded to himself, convinced.
Cutting the blue wire, Dan eased himself back onto his haunches.
Suddenly, hell broke loose. Dan jumped as the car alarm shrieked. He looked down at the timer – at that instant, two minutes dropped off the countdown.
‘Shit!’ Dan tried to block out the noise from the alarm, concentrating desperately and went back to work on the timer – only two and a half minutes now remained. He growled loudly in frustration. So much for luxury. He bound the two ends of the broken blue wire together and the alarm stopped.
A noise at the end of the row of buildings made him stop and look round. A shadowed figure was walking towards him. Dan drew the gun from the waistband of his jeans and released the safety catch. Raising it, he sighted it on the figure as it drew closer. ‘Hold it right there.’
The figure froze. Then slowly raised its hands. ‘Dan, it’s me.’
Dan lowered the gun. ‘Sarah?’
She came running then, tears streaming down her face. ‘I couldn’t leave you!’
Dan extracted himself from the car and caught her in his arms. ‘I don’t need to tell you how stupid you are, do I?’
She sniffed and held back from him. ‘No, not at all. How long have we got?’
He looked back at the timer. ‘Just over a minute and a half.’
Sarah managed a weak smile. ‘Better get to work then.’
He nodded and climbed back into the car. Reaching over to the canister, he ran his fingers gently over the remaining wires. Red, white, green. Red, white, green. Which one? Which one?
He wiped the sweat from his eyes and noticed his hand was shaking. Breathing hard, panting, his mind flashed back to the desert, the dust in his eyes, a friend looking at him desperately, pleading, defuse the bomb! He couldn’t do this, it wasn’t possible –
‘Dan!’
He blinked, looked up at Sarah.
She nodded at him. ‘You can do this. I trust you.’
He closed his eyes, re-focused, then looked at the wiring array below him. And then somewhere, in the back of his mind, he realised he wasn’t going to be able to defuse it. He desperately pulled at the wires, separating them between his fingers. It was no use, Terry had used an illogical pattern. No way of telling which wire would stop the bomb. It was impossible.
He realised his hands were shaking. He tried to think, tried to remember…
Then it hit him. Hard. The fuel cells weren’t hiding the weapon. They were the weapon. He turned and shoved Sarah out of the way.
She stumbled, tripped and fell onto the ground. ‘What are you doing?’ she demanded.
Dan ignored her. He ran round to the driver’s door and wrenched it open. Sliding in behind the wheel, he pulled the door closed, shoved the gears out of neutral and spun the wheels on the wet bitumen. He flicked the lights on and they illuminated the sides of the buildings.
He floored the accelerator and the car shot forward. Sliding the vehicle past what was left of Terry, Dan steered the car between the buildings, the speed increasing with every metre. He glanced in the rear view mirror at the silver canister on the back seat, gleaming in the moonlight. He smiled to himself. There was only one way to do this.
So be it.
As the car shot out from between the buildings, it swept past David and his assault team. They watched in disbelief as the car skidded past the helicopter, accelerated once more and hit the side of the wharf.
Time seemed to slow down as the car lifted off of the wharf, became airborne, then slewed into the dark waters of the Thames below.
Chapter 51
David rushed to the edge of the wharf and peered into the icy waters. The roof of the black sedan was lurching in the tidal flow, slowly sinking. He turned as he heard footsteps running up from behind him.
‘Dan!’ screamed Sarah.
David caught her as she ran to the edge. ‘Careful! We don’t want you falling in as well!’ He held her tight, aware tears were streaming down her face.
They stared at the black sedan as it succumbed to the black water lapping over its roof and sank below the surface.
‘Come on, Dan, get out,’ murmured David. ‘You can do it.’
Two members of his team joined them, aiming search lights at the surface of the water. They swung the beam left and right, as everyone desperately looked for a sign of Dan.