Page 55 of Beachcomber Danger

Chapter 17

“Ileft the scissors in the pile of books over by the wall.”

The wall was four feet away. Four torturous feet away, but they had to try and get there, get themselves extricated from the chairs, and shut down the bomb before Dane got there. She took a deep calming breath, sweat already streaming and mixing with the blood on her face, head throbbing.

“You ready for this? We lift and push together until we reach the wall. Then we knock the pile of books over to dislodge the scissors. Got it?”

She felt Sassy nodding her head.

“On three.”

They lurched forward and made it to the wall with only three pushes and a little extra pain thanks to Sassy’s energy. It was easy to topple the pile of books with one shove using the corner of her chair. The scissors dislodged and clattered to the floor in front of her. According to the clock on the wall, only seven minutes had lapsed.

Shana wanted to weep with joy.

“We need to fall sideways, Sassy and I think it’s going to hurt, so prepare yourself.” They positioned the chairs so that when they fell her hand would land near the scissors. If she didn’t break anything in the process, she should be able to maneuver the scissors to cut the tape. Eventually.

“Ready? On three.”

They crashed and Shana bit her lip rather than cry out from the pain in her left shoulder. Sassy screamed.

“You okay?”

“I’m fine, it’s just that this cement is so hard. It’s just a bruise. I’ll be fine.”

“Where’s the bruise, Sassy?” Shana hoped it wasn’t her head. She struggled to grasp the scissors while she spoke.

“On my hip. It’s okay. Did you get the scissors?”

The blades were open and sharp and that was a good thing as Shana maneuvered one half of the scissors inside the tape binding her wrists. Ignoring the sting of her skin slicing she moved the blade up and down, pressing with her fingers, contorting them and applying pressure until they ached with cramps. But she kept going.

With her eyes squeezed shut against the pain and cramping and against the clock on the wall, she broke through the layers of duct tape and freed her hands.

“I’m free.” She pulled her arms from around the back of the chair and knelt. Then ignoring the minor cuts, she picked up the scissors and cut Sassy’s wrists free, noticing there were only two layers of duct tape. This struck her as odd, but there was no time now to dwell on it.

She helped Sassy to her feet and took her by the hand to the farthest corner of the basement from the stairs and behind a metal file cabinet.

“What are you doing?”

“You stay here while I go examine what kind of explosives they set up. It’s likely something simple with a detonator attached to a trip wire. If so, I’ll have us out of here in no time.”

She didn’t bother talking about plan B, what she would do if it wasn’t a simple tripwire explosive, because that’s all she was equipped to handle.

Sassy nodded her head and Shana ran in her bare feet to the bottom of the stairs, grabbing a flashlight from a shelf along the way. Shining the light on the door, she saw the wire, but oddly it appeared that the explosives were on the other side of the door. She started up the stairs when she heard the back door of the pie shop crash in.

“No, don’t touch the basement door!” She screamed as loud as she could, keeping the panic from her voice as she rushed to the top step, stopping short of the door.

“Dane, do you hear me? Don’t touch the basement door until you defuse the explosives.”

She heard commotion and the sound of two people pounding on the floorboards.

“Is that you, Shana? Are you in the basement?” It was Dane’s voice.

He was right on the other side, inches away.

“Do NOT touch the door. It’s wired with explosives.”

“Yes, I can see that. They made it obvious. Looks like they were trying to slow us down, but not kill us.”