Cherry Bomb

CHAPTER 48

THE MORNING AND EARLY AFTERNOON are going to be uneventful. Alex orders room ser vice and spends some time familiarizing herself with a M18A1 she’s taken from Lance’s boss, the bomb squad lieut. It’s a serious piece of hardware, appropriate for the job, and comes with det wire and a spring trigger. On the green plastic cover are three words.

FRONT TOWARD ENEMY.

Alex runs her fingers over the embossed letters and smiles her half smile. God love the military.

Next she shapes a good-sized hunk of PENO into a cone and sets up the blasting cap, sun cord, and sparker.

Then it’s a pay-per-view action film, charged to the room. A cop thriller, with a hard-nosed veteran chasing a wily serial killer. Alex liked it up until the end, when the cop predictably shot the villain down. Why can’t there be a movie where the killer beats the cop and gets away? Wouldn’t that be cool?

Alex blames the writers. None of them have the balls to let the bad guy win.

But the bad guys do win sometimes. People have to learn to accept that.

Lunch is room ser vice, again, and the food is so bland and mediocre, and the room so run-down, that Alex wonders how this place can even stay open, especially since it isn’t really cheap. Maybe they have a lot of conventions here.

The hotel has a tiny workout room with a dearth of decent equipment. Alex makes use of the StairMaster for an hour, a towel wrapped around her neck and hiding her face should anyone else come in. No one does. Then it’s back to her room for a shower and another movie-this one a romantic comedy starring Sarah Jessica Parker, who is cute and dresses great but can’t make up for a lackluster script.

Finally, the clock zeroes in on three p.m. She grabs her gear, fights awful traffic, and makes it to downtown Chicago and the corner she’d staked out yesterday. Alex parks in a pay lot, sets up her laptop, finds a free WiFi connection-Chicago abounds with hot spots-and accesses the phone taped to Herb’s tree. She watches the live feed.

The house looks normal, no unusual activity, but Alex can guess that there are a bunch of cops inside, as well as throughout the neighborhood. All waiting for her.

Won’t they be surprised when she doesn’t show up?

Alex keeps her cell phone handy-when things happen, they’ll happen fast. Then she settles in to watch the show.