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That wasn’t precisely true, but we’d go with it for now. I gently pushed open my door and set one foot on the street. Every second that passed made me think of my friends back at OPS, and what I would be doing now if I were with them. I didn’t know if Ivan had any experience dismantling bombs, but I’d seen IRIS do it a time or two. I might be able to handle it.
“Slowly,” Ivan warned as I started to shut my door.
I nodded, then took small steps toward the woman who was now shaking. Sobs wracked her body, making this even more dangerous than when we first arrived.
Ivan said something to her in Russian that I didn’t understand. I picked up on a few words, but I doubted that asking for the bathroom would be very helpful right now. I kept pace with Ivan, stopping when he did. But I was close enough to see that the bomb was in the stroller—right next to a baby.
“Holy shit,” I whispered.
“She is sleeping for now,” Ivan said. “But if she wakes up and moves, it could trigger the explosive. We need to be fast.”
He spoke to her again in Russian, but all I could focus on was that bomb. Who would put one in a stroller with a baby? That was just wrong on so many levels.
I just started to reach in when Ivan shouted, “Stop!”
I instantly froze, peeking over my shoulder at him. “You don’t want me to remove the baby?”
“There could be a pressure plate. If you lift her, it could detonate, instantly killing all of us.”
The woman pleaded with Ivan to save her child as she wailed incessantly. I knew this was hard for her, but a little quiet would go a long way in helping us think.
Ivan got down on his knees and checked out the bottom of the stroller. Hearing his heavy sigh, I knew immediately we were screwed. He stood, pulling me away from the stroller.
“There is a pressure plate with a secondary trigger if we attempt to disarm it.”
“I could be wrong, but that sounds bad.”
“It is very bad. I need you to take the mother and make her move across the street.”
“What? You want me to leave? No way.”
“It is for the best.”
“No, what’s for the best is that we get that baby out of the stroller and dismantle the bomb. If we move her, she’s only going to be a problem.”
“And what would you suggest?” Ivan asked testily.
“You mean, to dismantle the bomb?”
“No, what do you suggest I wear to dinner tonight?”
I nodded at him with a lopsided grin. “Yeah, I see what you’re doing there. But you can’t rattle me. I’ve got this. Okay, here’s the plan. That baby weighs maybe three pounds, right?”
Ivan gave me a droll look. “You are not around babies much, are you?”
“Never.”
“That child is at least three months old, which puts it between ten and seventeen pounds.”
My jaw dropped. “Are you fucking kidding me? How can a kid weigh that much? Is the stroller even equipped to handle that much weight?” Ivan’s jaw tensed at my outburst. “Right, I’m not helping. Okay, so we need to find something that weighs as much and pull an old switcheroo.”
“There is no switcheroo. It will not work.”
“It worked inIndiana Jones,” I grumbled.
“Your hero unleashed a gigantic rock that rolled after him, nearly killing him. Not to mention all the other damage it did to such an incredible find.”
Okay, now this was getting a little weird. “You know that place was imaginary, right? The director made it up for the storyline.”
