TOM OWENS LIKED to work in the back room of the house they were occupying. Though it wasn’t as safe as the
setup he had at his cabin in Millwood—if he made a mistake here, the whole building would go up in seconds—it
was darker and quieter than the other rooms, and he liked the height of the table he was working at. He also didn’t
mind the fact that Ellis Warrenton seemed a little uneasy being around all the explosives.
On the downside, Kimmy didn’t come in here to sit and talk to him either.
There was a knock on the door and Owens grunted, “It’s open.”
Ellis opened the door but didn’t st ep into the room. That was his most common way of communicating whenever
Owens was working on his devices. “What are you working on?”
“The bomb we need for the detective’s car.”
“What about the bomb we’re gonna use on the bank?”
“This was it. You said we needed something for the detective’s car quickly. The only suitable device I had was the
one I made for the bank.”
“But we need a bomb for the bank.”
“I thought we needed to take care of the detective first.”
“We need them both.” His tone was getting more strident.
Owens watched Ellis’s eyes track over to the crate in the corner of the room. “I have the larger bomb for the Con Ed
facility over in the corner. I haven’t done much work on it yet,” he explained, then hesitated. He wasn’t good under
pressure like this. He blurted out, “I also have a satchel device.
It’s remote controlled. I’d need to make a few adjustments to the remote.”
Ellis said, “Let me see it.”
Owens stood from his chair and trudged across the hardwood floor. He squatted and searched a box next to an old
dresser. He pulled out a fourteen-
inch square canvas bag with a shoulder strap. He stood up and showed it to Ellis. “See, you can carry it across your
shoulder so it doesn’t attract attention.”
“What remote is associated with it?”
Owens bent down and picked up a radio-control-car remote. It looked like a high-tech pistol. “Just turn the power
on under the handle,” he said, holding up the remote so Ellis could see the switch. “Then pull the trigger.
There’s a two-second delay.”
“And you could make that work for our bank idea?”
“Yeah.”
“When?”
“I’ll work on it when I can. Maybe in a few days. I’ll probably need to add a little extra C-4 to make it more
powerful.”
Ellis groaned in frustration. “You need to get with the program, Tom.”
“You mean I need to get with your program. All you want is money.”
“I want to make sure our cause is sustainable.”
“How sustainable is the cause if Pry talks to the police?”
“Pry won’t say shit. Once we get this cop Bennett out of the way, Pry will be off the hook. That’s what the lawyer
told me. Plus it’ll screw up the police investigation.” Ellis looked down the hallway like he couldn’t stand the sight
of Owens any longer. He shook his head and said, “You’re too idealistic. This is the real world.”
Owens thought about that. It was the real world. In a perfect world his brains would make him Ellis’s boss. He
didn’t say anything out loud. He knew that would frustrate Ellis. It apparently worked.
The growl Ellis let out told Owens he’d succeeded in his effort to frustrate.