Chapter 32

“Norman?” Tammy could not believe her eyes. Not only did he run up to her but he also did not explode like all of the others. They had told Tammy that if she stopped walking towards the awards platform that they would set off the bomb on her chest. They had said if she made it to where she was supposed to then she could safely take the vest off and run. They never said anything about people pointing guns at her or anybody else exploding!

She yelled at Norm as he got closer, “Don’t! I’m wearing a bomb!” Then as an afterthought she cried, “and this is a new shirt!”

Norman put his hands on her and stopped her from walking. She tried to push past him but then Norman forced her to her knees and looked her in the eyes, “they lied to you. Now stay still while I get this thing off!”

“You can’t,” Tammy yelled back at him before going into a fit, “this is your fault! If you hadn’t sent me that letter I would…” Suddenly Tammy stopped yelling, looked as if she went numb, and then quivered as she asked, “is Danniealla safe?”

“She’s fine Tammy,” Norman replied. He was, of course, lying his ass off. He had no idea where Danni was or what shape she was in right now. He also did not have time to worry about it. He just needed to keep Tammy from twitching so hard.

Norman had to reach down under the vest and Tammy snapped, “watch your hands Norman! You’re married!”

Ignoring her, Norman went on with his examination and when he pulled his hands back out, “well they weren’t lying about that part. That’s a dead man’s switch if I ever seen one.”

Someone else landed on their knee’s next to Norm. He was about to bite Calvin’s head off until Norm saw who it actually was. Then he proceeded to bite Maria’s head off instead, “get out of here. You can’t help right now.”

The German corporal bit back, “I have explosives training.”

Norm gestured to Tammy, “have at it.

The girl took one quick look at it and then said, “I don’t think they covered this in basic.”

Tammy then cried out again, “I’m going to die! I know it!”

Norm slapped his forehead, “this is exactly why I don’t go to Shady Lawn!” He wiped the sweat away and then looked at the bomb’s set up, “it’s got a timer and a remote trigger wired up here. The only good news is you people are jamming the wireless so we don’t have to worry about that much.”

Maria became confused and then said, “something knocked out our com dish. Don’t you remember? You talked to that guy on your phone.”

Instantly, Norm knew exactly what knocked out the dish, “Jake you sorry mutherf…” Norm forced himself to think.

Cal was nearby but keeping his distance. He yelled out to Norm, “you can’t just do that twisty thing that Shannon did?”

“Different detonator Cal,” Norm growled back. He wanted the guy to shut up and stop thinking. It wasn’t helping any. What Norm did say was, “hell this thing has got three different kinds of…” Norm looked back at Calvin, “we still got the breeching charge?”

Cal pointed back to the tent, “yeah in your bag unless the Germans took it.”

Maria quickly said, “the bag that you had is still in there.”

Norm was suddenly glad that Jake never got around to returning the pocket knife. Norm took out the extra one that he had found at Bob’s earlier in the day. Then he asked Maria, “I need something small and metal, um, paper clips. You guy’s got any paper clips?”

“Are you kidding?” Maria replied, “we are the German Army. We have mountains of paper clips.”

“Good, and some tape too,” Norm told her as he pushed her back to her feet. When the German ran off, Norman looked Tammy in the eyes, “stay with me Tammy. I think we’re going to both live.”

“Norm,” Tammy said with a gulp. “Hung always loved riding with you.”

“Tammy,” Norm responded in as calm a voice as he could force out of his mouth, “we can talk all about this stuff later.”

“I never believed it Norm,” Tammy told him. “I never thought it was your fault.”

Cal came back first and tossed Norm the breeching charge. Cal was a little concerned as he watched Norm get to work. Cal even asked, “you know, I’m no expert but, isn’t blowing up a bomb kind of dumb?”

Norm worked the plastic part of the explosives away from the electrical pins. He should have ideally been wearing rubber gloves while doing this. A static charge might be enough to set the thing off. It probably would not kill him but, Norm was pretty sure he could kiss his hands good bye.

As he worked he yelled at Calvin, “tell that Maria girl to hurry the hell up.”