Chapter 11

They had planned on 10 containers of fuel to be placed with the bomb, so their little wagon was not large enough. They decided to go shopping at a store featuring garden supplies to find a wagon or cart large enough to do their job. The first shop they visited had such a cart, but it was much too large and heavy to hook behind a Segway. They were looking around for an alternative solution when George spotted a wagon larger than what they had been using, but still small enough to be hooked to a Segway.

The shop had two of them, which they liberated. They still wanted one more, so they went to another shop where they found the same size wagon in the same brand. They took one and headed for the recycling plant.

This was mostly a large warehouse, and it was not even locked. Who would want to steal someone else's garbage? The sorted items were stored in massive bins, but they were labeled, so the trio didn't have any problem identifying which one they were interested in. Otto climbed up the access ladder and tossed down 10 of the bottles that had previously been used as laundry bleach containers. Fortunately, they did find enough of the screw caps, so they were in business.

Now, they headed to the boat shop. There were three large storage containers on site, one held styrene and two held toluene, used as a solvent for cleanup. Toluene was actually a better choice, from what little information the men had. Toluene had been a major component of the mixture sold as gasoline, so they figured that it was a good choice for their needs. Anyway, they filled their 10 plastic jugs with toluene and were careful to cap the jugs before leaving so as to control spillage.

Now that they had everything they needed, they headed home. They unpacked their loot and waited for George to fix supper. George decided to get a little fancy, so he fixed a tossed chicken salad. Otto admitted that it tasted good, as did anything George fixed, but he would have preferred a steak.

The next night was when they planned to install and set their bomb in Joan Rivers HS. When that time came, they loaded up and set out about midnight. They were confident of finding the school easily because Joseph had produced a map for them from the computer. They rolled along at a nominal 15 KPH and arrived after about 40 minutes of travel. The building was somewhat larger than they had realized that it would be, but they still hoped that their bomb would be large enough.

They had the building's plans along with them, so they decided to go in the back door. Surprisingly, there was a freight elevator in the building, and they used that to move every thing to the second floor. They drove their Segways down the wide corridors to the closet they wanted. It was locked, but the master key they had unlocked the door for them and they looked inside.

They had just started setting things in the closet out of the way when they were discovered by a slave. He was an older man and didn't look especially dangerous, so they decided to talk rather than to fight. He introduced himself as "Eleven" and asked what they were doing on "his" floor.

Eleven explained that he was part of the cleaning crew that came in at night to prepare the building for the next day's classes. George told him their plan to bomb the building, and Eleven thought that was a wonderful idea. Eleven was especially pleased when he was told that the bomb would go off when the school was full of girls.

It turned out that Eleven had been a "pet," but he had been discarded when his owner had completely crushed his balls when she was 15 years old. It was punishment for not eating the "shit pie" she and some of her friends had prepared for him. He had escaped being killed because he was strong enough to be a manual laborer. He was sold at auction, and a cleaning firm had bought him to work as a janitor. As it happened, his former owner, the one who had crushed his balls and had taken two hours to do it, was now a teacher at this school, and he hoped that she would be caught in the blast. He asked how he could help in the plot.

George told him that most of the work was done, except for placing the bomb and the fuel jugs. He asked if Eleven could suggest the best way to hide the bomb so that it would not be discovered before it went off. Eleven said, "That ain't no problem. I'm the only one who gets stuff from this closet, and I sure ain't gonna snitch on you guys. I do suggest, though, that you guys wait for three hours before leaving so that you don't run into the supervisor. She's a real bitch, and I wish there was a way to include her as a bomb victim. Just in case, put your carts and stuff in that classroom over there so that it won't be seen in the hall."

That was good advice, and the trio followed it to the letter. They sat around talking while they waited for the building to clear. When they figured it was safe, they rode home.

About halfway home, a red light came on on George's Segway left hand grip. Nothing seemed to be wrong with his machine, so they continued home. Once there, the trio closely examined the machine and found that the light had started flashing and showed the lettering "low charge." They didn't know what that meant, but decided to replace all three of their riding machines as soon as possible. He didn't know it, but pulling the heavier cart had caused the battery to run down faster than it normally would have.

Getting a new Segway just involved killing another cop, so they were not annoyed at the chore. They had figured on going cop hunting the next night, anyway, so it really made no difference to them. However, they had big plans for their activity during the day. They were going to stick by their computers in hopes of watching TV news coverage of their bomb blast.

The first report came in at 9:05 AM. A very excited announcer said, "We have just received a report of a major explosion and fire at the Joan Rivers High School. We have dispatched a remote reporting crew to cover this breaking story. Please stay tuned for further reports. We now return you to your regular program."

A locally produced talk show was running, and all of the participants appeared to be in a state of shock. Suddenly, one of the women jumped up and said, "Oh, Goddess, my daughter goes to school at Joan Rivers. I've got to go see what is going on." She ran off the set, and there was complete silence there for at least 15 seconds. At that point, all of the women began talking at once, and it was impossible to tell what any of them were saying.

The men of the trio grinned at each other and eagerly awaited further reports. Otto said, "It will take this station at least 20 minutes to have anything new, let's see what is on another station."

He changed channels and found a report. "This is Jane Harley reporting from the Joan Rivers High School. Approximately 10 minutes ago, there was a tremendous explosion here that essentially flattened the building and started a major fire. Our KPNX remote truck just happened to be passing when it happened, and our van was rocked by the violence of the explosion.

"Of course, we have no official report of casualties at this early time, but this reporter is sure that very few of the occupants, if any, survived the explosion." This produced a round of high-fives among the trio. "As you can see, a major fire is raging through the rubble and it will still take a few minutes for the firefighters to arrive. Personally, I don't think that their arrival will make any difference, except to keep the fire from spreading."

While she was talking, there could be heard on the background audio the sound of a helicopter. A moment later, before the camera operator could switch her camera, a helicopter appeared on screen, and emblazoned on its side were the letters "KWHU Ch 5." Otto jumped up and switched to channel 5. There was a view from the air of the destroyed school and the fire raging over the pile of rubble. A few bodies could be seen in the debris, but the fire was rapidly approaching them. Suddenly, one of the bodies moved an arm. Otto chortled at the thought of the fire reaching the victim before she could possibly be rescued.

Somebody aboard the helicopter realized the same thing and focused the camera on another part of the rubble. The fire had already burned through there, and there were no bodies to be seen, though a few skeletal remnants might be visible if the viewer had a good imagination. Suddenly, the fire flared up as if it had found some new fuel source, and the helicopter was forced to leave. It was being buffeted so much by the heated air rising from the fire that it was impossible to keep the camera focused on a specific spot. Otto switched them back to the reporter who was on the spot.