Benton cursed, “Shit!”
Mason struggled break through the crowd but he realized the guy was just too far away, and he wouldn’t be able to get to him in time to tackle him or chase him off. So instead he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out another gift courtesy of explosives expert Chris Bradley—a stun grenade.
Mathew Benton was a star quarterback in High School and used to be known for having a great throwing arm. It had been many years since then, but as he hurled the stun grenade up onto the ledge, he seriously hoped that his old Hail Mary pass would still work.
The airborne stun grenade landed right at the assailant’s feet, and seconds later a loud boom could be heard rattling the ledge. Benton looked up in time to see the suspect knocked to the side and sent tumbling down a fire escape. ‘I still got it.’ Benton thought to himself. With that throw his old high school coach would indeed have been proud.
Mason meanwhile continued work on the screw. Finally, he was able to tug it loose and with it, the back plating came right off. Mason then watched as the red wire disconnected without a problem. But to his amazement, the green wire was so badly rusted and corroded, that even without being bolted on by the metal plate it was still attached.
Mason cursed, “Damn—what the hell do I need now, some WD40?!”
Just then Kyle then came on the line and informed him, “Mason the virus is already starting to release!”
Horrified, Mason asked, “Are you serious?”
Kyle confirmed, “Yes I can detect trace elements of it. Its’ in small quantities but will gradually increase!”
Mason knowing, he had no choice, said a few prayers—even though he wasn’t known to pray—and gave the cord a gentle tug. To his relief it fell away—and the generator shut down.
19
Who Pulled the Fire Alarm?
Mason reported back to Kyle on the comm link, “Kyle! I did it! It’s shut down! How much of a threat does the small amount released pose?”
Kyle informed him, “Not much if you can get people to immediately evacuate the area, but if they linger for too long, they could get sick.”
Mason looked at the crowd and cursed, “Shit…how am I supposed to get them to get out of here.”
Kyle responded, “I don’t know…but you have to..."
Mason snapped back, “Alright…alright… I’ll think of something.”
Mason then looked to his right just as a DJ on another platform was announcing, “Welcome to Little Italy 2029!”
A woman next to the man then handed him some kind of Italian, meatball sandwich. The guy took a bite and then joked with the crowd in what was meant to be a thick Italian accent, “Now-a That’s-a Spicy Meat-a Ball!”
Mason not appreciating the humor too much cursed, “Great…”
But it was when he was looking up at the nonsensical ramblings of the DJ parading across the stage with his microphone that Mason had an idea. He thought to himself, ’If thousands of people are willing to listen to this idiot, then maybe I can get them to listen to me.’
Raina watched from a short distance away as Mason tore down the float platform like a madman and began shoving his way through the crowd.
She shouted, “Mason?”
But he didn’t hear, he shoved through person after person like a wrecking ball offending just about everyone in his wake. Some tangled up patrons even bumped into each other in the confusion and began throwing punches at one another.
Mason didn’t care. As revelers attempted to scratch and punch at him, he remained fixed on his goal and plowed right ahead. Once he finally made it to the stage, he grabbed an overhead railing and like a master gymnast used it to swing up onto the platform.
The DJ startled to see him, mistook Mason for a deranged fan, and literally dropped the mic before running off stage to get away. Mason then knelt down and picked up his dropped microphone to shout, “Everybody get out! There’s been a deadly virus that has been released! Evacuate the premises”
At first no one believed him and jeered at him stuff like, “Get off the stage moron! Get down from there!”
Mason wouldn’t give up however as he pleaded, “Listen to me—this is no joke. I’m a government agent with a task force assigned to foil a major terrorist plot. We’ve stopped the main attack but some of the virus has managed to escape. But if you leave now—you won’t get hurt.”
The crowd still seemed slow to catch on so Mason quickly patched Kyle in on his Comm Link and told him, “Alright Kyle buddy I need your help. They’re not listening—time for Plan B. Pull the freaking fire alarm!”
Kyle a veteran hacker—immediately understood Mason’s request and knew what to do. He logged into the control center operating the parade, and hacked into the emergency alert system. It was then child’s play for him to activate flashing lights and sirens on every corner.
Nothing gets people’s attention like a blaring fire alarm, and if they needed any further convincing, Mason once again grabbed the mic and Mason not resorted to something that they say you should never do in a crowded location. He started yelling, “Fire!! Fire!! Fire!!”
In the chaos of the blaring alarms, this seemed to get an immediate reaction as everyone in the crowd began to work as an echoing chamber repeating that there was a fire somewhere on the festival grounds.
Even though in reality—none existed, the power of suggestion being as it is, soon patrons were swearing up and down that an inferno had erupted on one of the floats. And like a tidal wave of fearful humanity, the people then flooded toward all of the exits until they could get clear of the danger.
As the people dispersed, Mason shouted into the commlink to Raina, “Raina! Everybody’s leaving! Now’s our
