32This is my first story written from a FB challenge, but it literally wrote itself as soon as I read the prompt. Many thanks to midnightandahalf for her excellent beta skills and for fact checking my Google translate Spanish. Enjoy!
Despite the mild autumn afternoon, I could feel the beads of sweat making their way down the inside of my t-shirt. So much for the 24-hour protection my deodorant advertised. I tried to hide the trembling in my hand, but the rubber handled snipping tool in my grip was visibly shaking as I moved it toward the red wire. Every bomb defusing lesson Rangeman's resident expert had given me was now ricocheting around in my skull like a four-year-old who chugged a Monster energy drink before playing in a bounce house.
I tried to focus on my training. I closed my eyes and pictured the mock ups we had worked on. Was it "red means dead?" Or was it "blue and you're through?" Who the hell makes up these stupid sayings anyway? Fat lot of good they were doing me now.
The man secured to the chair before me was trying to remain calm, but really, how calm can you be with an explosive device strapped to your chest, a timer counting down to zero, and the world's worst bounty hunter turned world's worst bomb disarmer standing before you with a pair of wire snips. I was pretty sure his calm exterior was hiding a quivering mass beneath.
"You can do this, Estefania. I believe in you. Cut the wires and let's get out of here, huh?," he said, keeping his voice low and soothing. "I take you to Shorty's for pizza, si? You do your thing and pizza and beer on me tonight, okay?"
"Sounds great," I said, not taking my eyes off the wires snaking out from behind the digital display that was now under two minutes and counting. I needed to make a decision quickly or it wouldn't matter which wire I cut; we'd both be confetti.
That's when I saw the white wire. I don't remember anything about a stupid white wire from my training. It was always blue or red. Is "white right?" Cripes, now I was making up the stupid rhymes. Think, Stephanie, think.
The timer continued its relentless march towards zero. We now had less than 90 seconds. It was "go" time. I cleared my throat and tried to sound confident.
"Okay," I said, voice cracking. I cleared my throat again and tried once more. "I need to cut the wires in the correct order. But I need to make sure they don't touch each other once they've been snipped. That means I need you to sit really still. Got it?"
"Got it. I sit still, you snip." he said.
The timer hit 60 seconds and an ominous beeping started. Yeah, that annoying noise will help with the stress. Fish or cut bait, I told myself. Great, another stupid saying. Focus. I crouched down in front of the man with the device strapped to his chest. Taking a deep breath, I slipped the snips up under the red wire, and squeezed the handle. The thin wire gave easily between the sharp blades of my snippers. I let my breath out in a whoosh. We didn't die.
Crap! The timer was still counting down toward zero. And it was counting down faster than it had been. Double crap! I moved my snips to the white wire. Red, white, then blue, right? Snip.
The timer flashed twice before going dark. Oh my God, I did it! I looked up and saw his eyes getting wide just before the device started shrieking at an eardrum shattering level.
"¡Corre por tu vida!" he shouted."¡Ahorrarse!"
"What? Don't yell at me in languages I don't understand!" I said, frantically trying to figure out how to silence the screaming device.
"Run!" Hector said, but it was too late. There was a loud pop and a haze of pink engulfed us both. I looked down to see my chest, arms and midsection dyed a bright fluorescent pink. Hector hadn't fared much better. The exploding dye pack had coated his entire face, making him look like some crazed make-up experiment that had gone horribly awry.
At least the explosion had silenced the alarm on the device. The door opened behind me and I could hear laughter from the next room. Ranger and Tank walked in. The twitching at the corners of his mouth told me Ranger was laughing on the inside. Tank was making no attempt whatsoever to contain his amusement. He was grinning from ear to ear as he moved behind Hector to unlock the handcuffs that were securing him to the seat.
"It's not funny you two," I said, irritated. "If that had been a real bomb, Hector and I would both be goners."
Ranger pulled me to him and kissed me behind my ear. Probably the only clean spot he could find. "Babe, if that had been a real bomb, I would have let Hector be blown to smithereens before you got anywhere near it."
"Then why has he been teaching me how to defuse a bomb if you're never going to let me near one?" I asked.
Hector responded, "Because of tu suerte, Estefania. Your luck. Sometimes you have buena suerte, good luck, and sometimes you have mala suerte, bad luck. The way things explode around you, it is good to have the training. Comprendes?"
Bobby and Lester finally pulled themselves together enough to move into the room. One look at Hector's bright pink face and they both doubled over laughing again.
"Laugh it up, boys," Hector said, slinging an arm over my shoulder and pulling me into him. "No pizza for you."
Still chuckling, Bobby straightened and wiped a tear off his face. Jerks. Ranger gave my arm a tug and pulled me out from under Hector's arm and into his side. I tried to tell him I was going to get dye on his Rangeman uniform, but he didn't care.
He kissed me behind my ear again and whispered, "How 'bout I take you home and make sure I remove every last spot of dye from your body?"
I felt myself getting warm and tingly in all the right places and licked my bright pink lips in anticipation. "That could take hours," I said, my voice husky with desire.
"Days, even," he murmured, his eyes dilated black to match his Rangeman uniform.
Without taking my eyes off the man in black before me, I said to Hector, "Gonna have to take a raincheck on the pizza and beer, Hec. I just had an offer too good to refuse."
¡Corre por tu vida! = Run for your life!
¡Ahorrarse! = Save yourself!