Operation Honey Trap vs The Emperor of the Apocalypse-Chapter 188: Planting the Bomb

*SALAMANCA MARKETS, TWO WEEKS LATER*

Delphi chatted to the butcher, who she had been shopping with daily. "Are you sure the Emperor’s visiting today?" she whispered behind her hand to the man, pretending delight.

"Yes love, they give us stall keepers advance notice, but we’re not supposed to tell anyone," he winked at her. "I’m giving you this choice information because you buy the choicest cuts from me, sweetheart," he laughed at his own joke.

Delphi smiled as best she could at the lame joke.

"I’m so excited to see him, thanks for the heads-up. I’ll tell my husband we need to do a bit more shopping so we can catch sight of him."

"You women and your shopping, I tell you... You never seem to tire of it. If only you had the same stamina for other things us men like," he winked at her again, and Delphi looked for Alton, starting to feel uncomfortable with this man’s forwardness.

Alton walked over to her, placing a protective arm around her shoulder.

"This nice man was just telling me that the Emperor plans to visit today," she told him.

"Is that so," said Alton with feigned disinterest. "I suppose the next thing you’re going to tell me is you need to stay longer at the markets?"

Delphi giggled behind her hand, and the men rolled their eyes at one another... women!

Delphi and Alton strolled off hand-in-hand. As soon as they were lost in the crowd and out of sight from the butcher, Alton signalled at Brenner, and he and Loveday joined them at the market rendezvous point.

"We’re on!" growled Alton. "Operation Salamanca’s active."

The men escorted the women straight back to the safehouse, keeping a leisurely pace. They didn’t want any last-minute attention.

Everyone knew their jobs today back to front. They’d had weeks to prepare, and weeks of waiting, so they were a well-oiled machine.

The women immediately started to pack the house up and clean it top to bottom so there wouldn’t be any traces of them left behind.

Wolf and Arrie went to get their horses ready for a rapid exit. Brenner was playing lookout for the three men planting the bomb, so he set off for the markets to start busking.

He would sing and play the guitar under a licence he had managed to secure, being one of the few of them who weren’t being hunted.

"Looking good, Bren," said Opal to her brother, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. "Good luck," she said seriously, looking him in the eyes.

"Yes, Brenner you look hot," called Loveday. "Go make us some money, boy!"

"The girls will all be swooning, Bren," called Indy, "good luck!"

He laughed easily. "It’s not me who needs it, it’s the General, and Baer and Niko who are handling the bomb. See you all in the new age!" he waved over his shoulder.

Opal looked anxious as her brother shut the door behind him.

"Don’t worry Opal, he’ll be fine," said Delphi, putting an arm around her shoulders. "They’re all very smart men, and we’ve practised this a thousand times. Piece of cake."

"I hope so General, I really do," Opal’s voice was tense with worry.

Delphi felt the same way, but she tried to keep the girls buoyed. It was no good if they all became paralysed with anxiety during the wait that was to come.

Niko, Baer and Alton arrived in the living room, ready to go. They were all wearing public works uniforms they had stolen, complete with hard hats, sunglasses, and in Niko’s case, a false beard. They had basic ID’s on lanyards. They wouldn’t hold up to scrutiny, but they were good enough for today’s purposes.

Delphi gave Alton a quick kiss on the cheek. "Good luck, baby," she whispered to him.

"You can do better than that," he said to her, pulling her in for a long kiss on the lips.

"Stop it you two, you’re making the rest of us single dogs jealous," said Baer.

Niko looked hopefully at Indy. She shook her head imperceptibly. "Good luck Niko," she said to him, "come back safe".

He grinned at her, "of course. You needn’t think I’m going anywhere until I’ve got you by my side again."

She laughed gently and smiled at him. She didn’t have the heart to be mean to the man today.

"Good luck Baer, good luck Niko," called Delphi, when she came up for air from her kiss. "Do us proud boys!"

"We will General, don’t worry about that!" said Niko, waving at them all as the men stepped back into the alley.

"Let’s get busy girls," called Delphi. "It might seem like it, but we don’t have long for what we have to get through."

The men had removed a drain pipe cover and had long poles and a toolbox they were using with some witches hats, for good effect.

"Niko, are you sure you push that stick down there and stir like that?" asked Alton doubtfully. "It’s a sewer, not a cauldron."

"Look, how many people actually know how you fix a sewer? For all they know you just stick something like this down to unblock it."

"Famous last words," muttered Alton.

"I’m heading in," said Baer.

"Are you sure you don’t need me?" asked Alton.

"Nope. Nothing you can add to the job, and it will attract attention seeing two workmen trying to fix a carriage box."

Baer carried the bomb in a toolbox. The plan was to plant it in the carriage dismount box the royal visitors had used on their last visit to the markets, while Niko and Indy were watching.

The three men exchanged a quick shake of their wrists, then Baer was off.

He approached the dismount box with his shoulders back confidently, like he had every right to be there and do his work.

He opened his tool box and set it down behind the carriage box. He had already taken its dimensions and given it a thorough examination in the dead of night.

He carefully lifted out the bomb, which was designed to look like a timber box you might use to brace the sides of the carriage box as it aged and got wobbly. In actual fact, the ’timber,’ was extremely light balsa wood.

Baer cut a quick rectangle in the side of the carriage box, partly to allow him access to plant the bomb, and partly to ensure it had a good exit point, and didn’t just shoot the carriage box up into the sky.

He screwed a small bracket against the inside edge of the carriage box, then, hands shaking slightly, he babied the bomb through the entry point and secured it to the bracket.

Once the bomb was in place, he added some additional brackets which would hold it there, even if the carriage box was tipped over.

He finished up by adding some cuts to the other sides of the box. Not enough for it to break under somebody’s weight, but enough for it to split down the fault lines when the bomb went off.

He stood up and dusted his work pants off, picking up his toolbox and whistling a jaunty tune as he walked away.