Chapter 83 - Blowin' Shit Up

Realizing the men were probably waiting for her, Cate hurried out the front door and over to her car. She unlocked the Mustang and tossed her and Jon’s Blackberries into her range bag in the back seat, then slammed the door and jogged to the other side of the long gravel lot. As she expected, the big blue quad-cab truck sat waiting by the gate to the range.

Cate sprinted over to the truck and pulled open the back door on the driver’s side. She stepped up on the running board and climbed into the seat beside Jon, pulling the door closed behind her. “Sorry, Mike,” she said, panting slightly. “Got a phone call…”

She glanced guiltily at Jon, who gave her a puzzled look. Nah, I’ll tell him later,” she quickly decided. She and Jon both needed to focus on the training before them. They were literally going to be playing with fire. She would face Jon’s potential wrath after they were done.

“No problem. It’s groovy,” Mike answered cheerily. He reached forward to the dash and nudged up the volume on the radio, turning his attention to the discussion on the sports talk radio channel.

“You okay?” Jon asked softly, his brow furrowing slightly in concern. There had been a strange vibe between Cate and himself since they had arrived at the office together almost an hour ago. But now she seemed particularly tense. Whatever had happened in the past few minutes had certainly rattled her.

“Yeah, fine!” Cate answered, a little too brightly. She looked at Jon and saw him frown slightly. She took a deep breath. “I’m fine,” she said, a little more calmly. “I’m just… a little… off my game today,” she added, by way of excuse. “If I run late in the morning, it just messes me up for the entire day.”

“Okay…” Jon answered gently. He automatically reached over to give Cate’s hand a little squeeze. He saw as well as felt her tense. She hesitated for a moment, then pulled her hand away from his and placed it on her lap. Cate turned her face away from Jon and looked out the window.

Jon sighed and looked out his own window, watching the landscape as the truck bumped along the unpaved road toward the range. What the Hell is up with her? he thought, frowning. He didn’t like the way the day was starting out.

It was his intention to try to get Cate to talk about their “situation” sometime today, to hopefully get her to listen to his point of view. But the way she was acting, he didn’t know how he would even approach the subject without her shutting him down.

Five minutes later Mike guided the truck to a stop at the edge of a large clearing surrounded by a grove of pine trees. Mike, Colin, Jon and Cate climbed out of the truck and moved to the back. Colin lowered the tailgate and pulled several large metal boxes forward to the gate. He and Mike each picked up one box, and Cate grabbed the third.

Jon started to protest that he would carry the box, but he was quickly silenced by Cate’s sharp glare. He let out an exasperated sigh, then followed the three instructors as they carried the bomb kits over to a small cinderblock structure.

Colin busied himself opening the kits as Mike turned to Jon. “Okay, so we’re gonna show you a couple different types of explosive devices, then give you a quick rundown of how agents go about investigating bomb blasts. Since we only have an hour, we’re gonna stick to smaller devices like pipe bombs, vests, and IEDs. That’s what we train everybody on, since a lot of the agents that go through here end up deploying to the Middle East at some point, and are most likely to encounter those kinds of devices. Suicide bombers, roadside bombs, et cetera.”

Mike paused to take a breath from his rapid narrative. “We also train on bigger stuff, like car bombs, fixed devices, and the like, but we’d have to go to a range off the Center for that. Maybe if you come back through here another time, we can go blow up some cars, yeah?”

Jon couldn’t help but laugh at Mike’s enthusiasm, even though the topic was sobering. “Yeah, I’d love that.” He gave Cate a meaningful look. “And I am hoping to come back soon, and spend more time.” He saw a little flash of reaction in her eyes at his comment, then she looked away.

“Cool. We’ll make it happen.” Mike answered. He turned his attention to Cate. “Let’s show him some fun shit!” he grinned.

Cate chuckled and nodded. “Let’s do it,” she agreed.

Mike and Colin started out by showing Jon the different types of explosives and detonators they had brought to the range in the metal boxes. Mike gave a quick description of each item, and explained how certain types of explosives used in combination can cause different blast effects. Then he told Jon in layman’s terms about the different types of bombs commonly encountered by agents in the field and by soldiers in conflict areas.

Jon was captivated by Mike’s lesson; though the subject matter was certainly serious, Mike’s teaching style was engaging and entertaining. In fact, Mike and Colin worked together almost like a comedy duo, with Mike as the effervescent entertainer and Colin as the “straight man.” Jon found himself completely at ease with the men, like they were old friends. Jersey Brotherhood, he thought with a chuckle.

Cate found herself relaxing and laughing along, as well. She had never been able to resist Mike’s infectious grin and boastful enthusiasm. She watched as Jon took in the lesson, her expression softening at his genuine interest.

Her heart squeezed a little at his excited grin when Mike and Colin let him help build a pipe bomb, and she caught herself fixating on his soft lips and the sexy little cleft of his chin as he smiled and laughed. Stop torturing yourself… she heard the little voice in her head say. It’s not gonna change anything. She sighed softly, knowing the voice was right.

After they assembled several explosive devices, Cate and the men took them, one at a time, out to the center of the clearing for detonation. Cate chuckled at the apprehensive look on Jon’s face as he gingerly carried his pipe bomb to the blast area, then she laughed outright when Mike took it from his hand and tossed it onto the ground, causing Jon to swear and jump backwards in surprise.

The group returned to the concrete structure, then Mike handed Jon the detonator. Shielded behind the cinderblock wall, Jon pressed the detonator then laughed excitedly at the loud crack of the explosion he caused.

“All yours, Cate,” Mike grinned. “We just build ‘em & blow ‘em up. You cops clean up the mess.”

Cate chuckled, then gave Jon a little grin and tipped her head toward the range. “Follow me. I’m gonna show you what kind of evidence we would collect.” She led Jon out to the blast area, where Mike had tossed the pipe bomb onto the ground. Jon saw that there was now a small crater there, with various pieces of debris littering the surrounding ground.

Cate stopped Jon approximately ten feet away from the impact spot, and showed him how to survey the scene to look for clues that would be spread across the blast area. Then she led him in close to the crater and crouched at its edge. Jon squatted beside her, his knee bumping against hers, and watched as she pointed out different types of evidence and explained what a crime scene team would collect and the significance of the evidence.

Jon happily followed along with Cate’s lesson, hanging on her every word, enjoying the sound of her voice and the proximity of her body to his. He asked several insightful questions, and was rewarded with a genuine, warm smile. Inside his heart jumped a little with hope that she was letting down her guard. He needed to be back inside her heart.

After thoroughly explaining how to process a bomb blast scene for evidence, Cate led Jon back to the cinderblock shelter. Mike and Jon then placed an improvised explosive device (IED) made from a metal can, nails, and plastic explosive in the blast area, and again Jon detonated it. Cate repeated her evidence collection lesson with the new type of device, again smiling at Jon’s eagerness to learn.

The group repeated the process twice more, with two different types of explosives, then loaded up the remaining materials in the truck for the ride to the arson range. This time the four of them chatted amiably during the drive. Cate glanced sideways at Jon as the truck bumped along the dirt road, and saw him gazing at her with a wistful smile on his face. This time she couldn’t resist giving him a gentle smile in return.