Chapter Two
Doctor Rizzuto was a giant. Paige stared at the tall, pony-tailed therapist
as she sat next to Walter on a couch in his office. If Toby had wanted them
to feel comfortable and not be intimidated, he'd picked the wrong person
for the job.
"So, Walter, Paige," he said, "Why don't you tell me what happened that day?"
Walter shot her a glance before clearing his throat. "We went to fix the
President's Wi-Fi, were taken hostage, and the rest of our team rescued us."
Paige closed her eyes, a mistake as unpleasant visions swirled through her
mind. Quickly opening her eyes, she realized the therapist had said something
to her and was expecting an answer. "What?"
"I asked if you had anything to add to Walter's account," he said in a patient
tone.
She shook her head. "No."
"Hmm. . ." Dr Rizzuto turned to address Walter. "So how did you obtain your
injuries? From what Dr Curtis told me, they were life-threatening. If they
hadn't rescued you when they did. . ."
Paige smothered a gasp. She had come so close to losing him. More painful
memories swept over her and she felt sick. Then Walter's hand entwined with
hers, filling her with warmth and reassurance.
"I pissed someone off," Walter replied, giving her fingers a squeeze.
"And what did you do to piss someone off?"
The genius shrugged. "I broke a light bulb."
"A light bulb?" The therapist's voice was full of disbelief. "They almost
killed you over a light bulb?" He skimmed through his notes. "And you were
both suffering from dehydration. So they just threw you in a room without
food or water?"
"No, they brought us food and water," Walter said before looking down at
the floor.
Everything he had stated so far was a fact. But they only told part of the
story. He rarely lied, and when he did, it was to protect someone from a
terrible truth, for the greater good. Glancing at him, Paige wondered who
he was protecting now, her or himself? She'd seen the demons in his eyes.
They were the same ones she caught a glimpse of when she looked in a mirror.
"You look like you want to say something, Paige," the doctor said.
"No. Not really. It's not important." She just wanted to forget that day,
but she couldn't. It had been the one of worst days of her life, and yet,
it had been one of the best. What she had shared with Walter. . .her heart,
her body, her love. . . The good was all tangled up with the bad and she
couldn't remember one without remembering the other. It was better to pretend
it didn't happen at all. A tear fell from the corner of her eye and she tried
to furtively wipe it away.
"Seems like it's important enough if it's making you cry."
"I'm not crying. I just have something in my eye."
"Uh, huh." Rizzuto leaned back and crossed his legs. "So nothing extraordinary
happened. Just your typical everyday hostage taking. One where you," he said
as he pointed at Walter, "almost die from a punctured lung, and you. . ."
He looked at Paige before continuing, ". . .where you hug one of your captors
and thank her for helping." Shaking his head, he added sarcastically, "Just
a typical, normal day."
She felt pressure on her hand again, but she didn't dare look at the man
sitting next to her. She sensed he was about to break, just as she was. Paige
closed her eyes. Damn Toby, anyway. Why couldn't he just leave them alone?
Walter was going to punch Toby. If it wasn't for the know-it-all psychiatrist,
Paige wouldn't be on the verge of tears. He didn't even need to look at her
and he could tell. Probably because he was. . .
His phone buzzed, as did Paige's. Letting go of her hand, he pulled his cell
from his pocket, grateful for the distraction. It was a text from Sly. ‘The
big one is coming.' What the hell did that mean? Glancing at Paige, she must
have received the same message because she looked as confused as he was.
Then there was a rumble followed by the room shaking violently. Dust fell
from the ceiling as the floor lurched beneath them. "Get down," he instructed,
pushing Paige under the coffee table before he crawled under it himself,
positioning his body over hers.
The quaking seemed to go on forever but in reality probably lasted a little
under a minute. He could hear car alarms going off and glass shattering and
people shouting. But those sounds all faded as Paige turned so she faced
him then wrapped her arms around him.
"Are you okay?" he whispered.
"Yes. Are you?" He nodded.
Walter had no idea how long they stayed locked in an embrace and staring
into each other's eyes, disturbed only when the table above them was flipped
over. Toby and Dr Rizzuto stood towering over them with concerned expressions.
He rolled off Paige then helped her to a sitting position.
"Oh, God, I need to call Ralph." She scrambled around, picking up the first
cell she found and starting typing in numbers. "There's no signal!"
"No, there wouldn't be," Walter said, "the network is overloaded. Combination
of infrastructure damage and millions of people trying use the system simultaneously."
"But, Ralph. . ." Her eyes were wide with panic, a panic he could alleviate
with technology.
"Coms." He pulled a small, square container from his pocket as he got to
his feet. Opening it, he handed ear coms to Toby and Paige before taking
one for himself. He then grabbed a pen from the therapist's desk and pressed
the nib of it into a hole on the back of the device. "We just need to reset
it to connect to a backup frequency Sylvester designed."
"And Ralph has one? He knows what to do?" Paige sounded uncertain as he handed
her the pen.
"Yes, Sly showed him."
His words were proven true as soon as he inserted his com into his ear. "Mom?
I'm okay." Ralph's voice came in loud and clear.
"Oh, thank God," Paige said, placing her hand over her heart.
"The school suffered minimal damage," the boy offered. "Mostly books falling
off shelves. We all got under our desks just like we've done before in drills."
Walter smiled at the youngster's recitation of facts. "We're going to shelter
in place until emergency services give the all clear," Ralph continued. "Where
are you?"
"I'm downtown," she said, "with Walter and Toby."
"Oh, good, you're at the therapist's."
Paige took the com out of her ear and glared at Toby. Even with his low EQ,
Walter knew the psychiatrist was in big trouble.
"You conspired against me with my son?"
"No, not really. He just agreed with me that you two needed help." Toby adjusted
his hat. "This is neither the time nor the place for this. We've got bigger
problems."
Paige narrowed her eyes at the shrink. "All right," she said, "but this doesn't
mean we won't discuss this later."
"We need to get outside," Walter said, taking Paige's hand. "Come on."
Chaos greeted them as they emerged from the building. Frightened people randomly
darted here and there as sirens wailed in the distance. Car alarms were still
blaring, traffic had ground to a halt. Bricks, stucco, and glass littered
the sidewalks and streets.
"I need to go pick up Ralph," Paige said as they surveyed the damage.
"Impossible. His school is ten miles away. We can barely move ten feet."
Walter regretted his words as soon as he saw the anxiety in her eyes. Reaching
out to her, he added, "We'll find a way to get to him, I promise." He touched
her shoulders and started to pull her closer.
"Whoa, none of that," Toby said, swatting Walter's hands away. "Last thing
we need is you two jumping down the rabbit hole again."
A loud whoosh demanded their attention as a fire hydrant shot straight into
the air a few feet from where they were standing. "Oh, God," Paige murmured
as it came back down to earth and crushed a nearby car.
"Walter?" Cabe's voice came over the com. "You guys okay?"
"Yes. Where are you?"
"We're still at the garage," the Homeland agent said. "The city's a mess,
son. The radio is reporting collapsed overpasses and buildings and fires
all over the metro area."
"They're saying it's a 7.5," added Sylvester.
Down the block, another hydrant flew into the sky. "These explosions are
happening after the quake stopped," Walter observed aloud. "Which means they're
blowing out because of pressure. Which means the water pipes are pinched
off somewhere up the line. Happy, don't the water and gas lines run parallel
to each other?"
"Yes," came the reply. "It was considered a engineering marvel at the time.
They ran pipes all the way to Las Vegas."
"So if the water pipes are pinched off. . ." Walter began.
"So are the gas lines," finished Happy. "And they run through a meter station
under Koreatown. So we're talking about. . ."
"A potential megaton blast. . ." said Walter.
"That's more than an A-bomb." Sly's voice cracked as he spoke.
"Right under everyone in Koreatown," stated Toby.
"Oh, God," said Paige.
"Happy, I'm going to need you guys to get to the nearest cut-off station
and shut down the gas feed." Walter was frantically doing calculations in
his head. "Assuming the gas line was compromised right when the quake hit,
and given the PSI of a large-diameter municipal pipe. . . Sylvester, how
much time do we have?"
His com went silent except for the sound of chalk squeaking on a board. "We're
looking at thirty-five minutes tops," said Sly.
"Okay," Walter said as he turned to Paige and Toby. "We need to get to the
meter station under Koreatown so we can vent it before it detonates."
"You can't take her down there," the psychiatrist said. "It's too dangerous."
"This is going to take more than just one person," Walter pointed out. "I'm
going to need your help, Toby, and I'm not leaving her up here by herself."
"Do I get a say in this?" Paige stared at both men, her hands on her hips.
"Because if I do, I'm going wherever Walter goes."
"Like you would do anything else," said Toby, his tone dripping with sarcasm.
He shook his head. "Fine, bring her along. Just remember who's fault it'll
be if she gets hurt."
"Thirty-two minutes, Walter." Sly's shaky voice spoke into his ear, ending
the discussion. "We're heading out now."
"Good." Walter raided a nearby police car, recalibrating its breathalyzer
to detect gas. Then he motioned to Toby. "Help me with that manhole cover."
Within minutes, Paige was climbing down the ladder into the sewer where Walter
and Toby were waiting. Walter took her hand and they headed off into the
bowels of Los Angeles.