Chapter 12 - Seconds Before Disaster
The warning sirens echoed through the maintenance hangar.
Director Harold Crane spun toward Flight 782 just as crimson lights began flashing beneath the aircraft's left wing. Engineers abandoned their diagnostic stations and sprinted toward the emergency exits while the airport fire brigade accelerated across the polished concrete floor.
"Evacuate the hangar!" Crane shouted.
Chief Engineer Martin's voice came through Crane's radio, distorted by static.
"Don't let anyone start the suppression foam! Ethan says the trigger isn't thermal."
Crane froze.
"What?"
"The explosives are connected to the fuel-monitoring circuit. If the automatic fire system activates, it will complete the electrical path."
The firefighters halted in confusion.
Inside the underground chamber, Ethan wedged his wrench deeper into the rotating gears. Sparks erupted as the motor struggled against the steel tool.
Victor Lang watched through the camera with unsettling calm.
"You've delayed one mechanism," he said. "But you cannot stop two."
Ethan ignored him. Instead, he studied the movement of the gears. They weren't driving the countdown—they were synchronizing two independent systems.
One controlled the warehouse.
The other controlled Flight 782.
He suddenly understood.
The explosions were never intended to happen at exactly the same time.
One was meant to distract everyone while the second erased the evidence.
"Ethan?" Martin called through the shaft.
"I know which one is real!"
"What?"
"The warehouse charges are only strong enough to destroy documents. The aircraft carries the main explosives."
Martin immediately radioed Crane.
"Search the landing gear compartment! Right side!"
Security officers rushed beneath the aircraft with portable lights.
One mechanic suddenly yelled.
"I found something!"
Hidden behind a maintenance access panel was a sealed titanium container wired directly into the aircraft's electrical backbone.
The timer displayed only three seconds.
Then...
It stopped.
Not because it had finished.
Because someone, somewhere else, had paused it.
May you like
Victor smiled.
"You finally found the correct device."
