Chapter 5 - The Deactivation
Vance dragged the woman across the floor, pinning her hands behind her back. She was staring at the blinking display in sheer terror now. The cold detachment was gone; her handlers had just tried to put a bullet through her head.
"They set it to short-fuse," she gasped, her breath coming in ragged hitches. "The company... they knew I’d get caught! They wanted it to detonate in the terminal!"
"How do I disarm the solenoid?" Liam demanded, his fingers rapidly unscrewing the faceplate of the lead cylinder.
"The blue wire is a decoy," she spilled frantically, her loyalty vaporizing the moment her own life was on the line. "Cut the white lead coming from the altimeter switch, but you have to ground the casing first or the static charge will trip the relay!"
Liam looked around. "I need copper or steel!"
Odin stepped forward, placing his heavy brass collar ring directly against the base of the aluminum valve casing.
Liam didn't waste a second. He gripped his multi-tool, slid the wire-cutter blade beneath the thin white filament, looked into Odin’s calm, unwavering eyes, and squeezed.
SNIP.
The digital display went black.
A soft, pneumatic hiss escaped from the valve—a tiny puff of pressure—and then... complete, utter silence.
The red blinking light died.
Liam collapsed back onto his heels, wiping cold sweat from his forehead with the back of his tactical glove. He looked down at Odin. The dog lowered his head and gently nudged Liam’s knee with his wet nose.
"Good boy," Liam whispered, his hands trembling slightly as he pulled the dog into a tight, fierce embrace. "Good boy, Odin."
Vance let out a massive sigh of relief, slumping against the counter. "Jesus, Beckett... what kind of monster puts something like this in a civilian airport?"
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"The kind of monster that runs Aegis Dynamics," Liam said, his voice turning to ice as he stood up and turned back to the woman.
She was staring at the disarmed cylinder, shaking uncontrollably. "You don't understand... this wasn't an attack on the airport. This was a test run. They're shipping three more of these containers to Washington D.C. tonight."
