Chapter 9 - The Copper Bridge
“Hold him steady,” Carmine instructed, pressing Emmett closer to Nell, who was desperately chafing her father’s unresponsive arms.
Carmine took the stripped lithium battery pack from the camera and the exposed copper leads. If Salvator’s master terminal controlled the electronic seal of the door through this exact conduit line, a high-voltage surge fed backward through the relay cable should fry the pneumatic breaker outside.
It was a billion-to-one shot. If he miscalculated the resistance, the battery would simply explode in his hands, blinding him or blowing off his fingers in the confined space.
“Carmine, don't,” Nell whispered, looking up from her unconscious father, her gray eyes swimming with tears. “You’ll kill yourself.”
“If I don't, we’re all dead in three minutes anyway,” Carmine replied flatly.
He didn't hesitate. He jammed the raw copper leads directly into the main conduit junction box hidden behind the wall insulation, bridging the positive and negative terminals with the camera’s battery pack.
For one agonizing second, nothing happened. The refrigeration fans roared on. The digital timer ticked down: 01:45.
Then, a violent, blinding white arc of electricity snapped across the conduit box with the sound of a small cannon firing. A thick plume of black smoke billowed out from the wall, smelling intensely of burnt plastic and copper.
Outside, in the guard shack, the master terminal exploded in a shower of sparks, shorting out the pneumatic locking mechanism with a sharp, pneumatic hiss.
May you like
Clang.
The heavy iron deadbolt outside dropped back into its housing with a hollow, mechanical release.
