Time Bomb(58)

Z gripped Kaitlin’s hand and closed his eyes.

He had done this to her. If he’d answered her message today, she wouldn’t have come looking for him. She would be healthy and whole if it weren’t for him.

“If we get her to a doctor, there still might be a chance,” Rashid said. A hand touched Z’s shoulder, and he opened his eyes to see Rashid’s looking at him. “The stretcher is almost done. It’s not very strong, but Kaitlin is light, and if we strap her to it with the electrical wire . . .”

“I can try to braid the twine and the cords together faster,” Diana said, and Tad added, “I’ll help. Rashid can finish getting the stretcher ready, and I can work with Diana. We’ll get her out of here, Z.”

Would they?

“I can’t just stand here and do nothing.” Z paced toward the window. “There was nothing I could do for my mom. Nothing at all. But it seems like the fire is under control, and the radio said the firefighters were coming in soon. Maybe I can help them by moving stuff on this side so they can get through.” He turned and headed back to Kaitlin.

“I can help,” Frankie said.

“No,” he snapped, and looked at Kaitlin’s face, wishing she’d open her eyes. But it was like his mother all over again. Shallow breathing. Eyes closed.

“Look,” Frankie said, “I can go one way and you can go the other. Two of us can check out all the stairwells faster that way while the others work on the rope. If one of us hears firefighters or spots a path that can be cleared, we can let the other know.”

Z’s knee-jerk refusal died on his lips. “Fine.”

Frankie clapped his hands together. “Let’s do it.” Frankie headed for the door and Z turned to Rashid. “Take care of her for me. She’s special.”

Rashid nodded. “I will, Z.”

Z looked at the terrifyingly slight, almost imperceptible, rise and fall of Kaitlin’s chest. “She’d want you to call me Alex.”

“Okay. Alex,” Rashid said. “But when we get out of here, you’ll have to tell me why you’re called Z.”

“I will,” Z promised. Frankie opened the door. Smoke and dust came through as Frankie disappeared down the hall.

As Z was leaving, he whispered to Cas, “I meant what I said before. I get wanting to die.”

Before she could say anything, Z ran.





When truth is buried underground, it grows, it chokes, it gathers such an explosive force that on the day it bursts out, it blows up everything with it.



—émile Zola





1:51 p.m.





Rashid





— Chapter 42 —


SOMETHING WENT snap in the hall—probably Z or Frankie had stepped on a tile. Then things got quiet.

No one moved.

“What did Z say to you?” Diana glanced over at Cas.

“Nothing.” Cas looked out the doorway and shook her head. “It’s not important. What’s important is getting out of here.”

Rashid took a deep breath and nodded. “You’re right. Since they can’t get a ladder up here and Kaitlin might not have time to wait for Frankie and Z to come up with another option, we should keep working on the stretcher until we hear otherwise.”

Tad frowned at the door before nodding. “We’re almost there. The metal strips seem secure. They might hold together as long as the rope doesn’t give way. Diana, what do you think?”

“I think you should worry about your part and I’ll worry about mine.”

“Don’t fight,” Cas said from the doorway that Frankie and Z had just disappeared through. Rashid saw the tears that glistened in her eyes as she asked, “Can we turn the radio back on? Maybe they’ll tell us help is finally coming.”

Rashid clicked on the radio before heading over to help Tad. There was the buzz of static, then the announcer telling everyone that the firefighters were making progress. The fire was contained to the west side, and they hoped to have it out soon.

“With one person of interest being questioned, authorities are now working to find another individual they have confirmed is involved in this terrible bombing. A source confirms that the individual is one of the students trapped on the second floor of the school. With four bombs having already gone off, there appears to be one explosive device still inside the school that could detonate at any time.”

Another bomb was ready to go off, and the bomber was one of them.

They all looked at Rashid.

Of course they would look at him. Everyone outside was probably also assuming he was the bomber after that report. A Muslim with a family from Palestine. Of course he must be radicalized. Angry. Eager to strike. He didn’t care what they thought out there. Maybe he had when this started, but not now. The only people whose opinions mattered were the ones inside this room. “I am not part of this.”

He looked over at Kaitlin.

Rashid hadn’t wanted to say it aloud, but he was almost sure she wouldn’t make it. He wasn’t his father, but he’d learned enough from him to know the odds were bad when he first saw her and were getting worse with each minute that passed. If they thought he had caused this . . . that he had gone against everything he had ever been taught . . .