Spy School: Danger is my Middle Name

Defusing a Thermonuclear Bomb in 5 Seconds

"It what!?" I shouted back towards Erica.

"It goes off in 60 seconds!" she replied. "Get off the plane! Here are the parachutes!"

She burst out from the cockpit, carrying a bagfull of parachutes. Her expression shone with the rarest gem of all- fear, doubt that we were going to get this job done, and I took a few split seconds to cherish the memory of the gaze and burn it into my mind.

Then the mission was on.

"Dylan, you man the cockpit! Jawa, get out the laptop and see if you can hack into their command prompt, and Chip, get our grappling hook and shoot it at the enemy plane! We need a zipline, stat!"

Everybody jumped into action from Erica's orders. I, myself, got on our parachute, zipline, and opened the helicopter door in 20 seconds.

"40 seconds until rendezvous!" Erica shouted. "Ben, get on the zipline! We don't have time to stall!"

I followed Erica's actions, strapping myself onto the tightly-knotted zipline along with Ice Queen. I couldn't help but get trapped in a moment of nostalgia of when we had ziplined through the woods of Spy Camp, just short of two years ago.

I swear Erica's flash of emotion on her face also meant she remembered this moment too. But the look was quickly replaced with a serious one, and before I knew it, we were soaring 5000 feet in midair between two helicoptors.

I don't think that the Croatoan knew we were ziplining towards their helicopter. After all, soaring feet-first directly towards a thermonuclear bomb that's going to explode in thirty seconds wasn't exactly on our bucket list.

Erica's shoes bumped against the hard metal shell of the nuclear bomb, which was dangling directly beneath the whirring blades and the cockpit of the enemy vessel. According to her watch, we had exactly twenty-three seconds to defuse the bomb.

"What?!" I cried, quickly taking one of Erica's screwdrivers out of my pocket. "How is that even going to be possible?!"

"I don't know," Erica sighed, working the four screws as fast as she could. And I tell you, Erica's top speed was fast. The four screws were off in less than two seconds.

"Where do I put these?" I said, holding the four nails out to her.

"We don't have time to talk, idiot!" Erica yelled, practically into my ear. "Just throw them aside!"

So I chucked the four nails overboard, watching as they fell to the ground.

---POV Switch to Agent Dylan---

The bomb was going off in exactly 20 seconds, and the only thing that Jayden cared about was the fact that he wouldn't be able to finish his Cheez Doodles.

"If we're going to die, at least let me watch my favorite TV show episode one more time!" he said, whipping out his phone and opening Netflix. "I'm far too young to get vaporized by a thermonuclear bomb!"

"Don't you realize we all are?!" I said exasperatingly, trying to help Jawa hack into the command prompt of the Croatoan. 

"Yeah, but I'm the only important one!" Jayden screamed again.

"Why don't you help us then!?" I shouted back. "There's a stupid firewall!"

Jawa's hands shook as his fingers pattered against the rough keyboard. "I think I got it! The password is 'Avengethegreatergood777'!"

I sighed in relief. "Then quick, stop the detonation of the bomb!"

Jawa's expression sunk. "There's no kill switch. We can't."

Zoe sighed. "We're all doomed."

---POV Switch to Agent Mike---

Despite the fact that there was no kill switch, I still had an idea how to disable the bomb.

Back in Paris, I still remembered when SPYDER had initiated a plan that contained ridding half of the US of their power routes- and network connection, if you want to include that (Jayden would be devastated).

Anyways, it just happened that I had taken a 3D scan of that particular power/network fryer. And I had it saved in my USB drive, ready to 3D print.

The other day, I was chilling in the library, smiling to girl who smiled at me, when I realized that there was a perfect easy-to-use 3D printer in the corner of the left bookshelves. Seeing that there wasn't anyone using it at the current moment, I had walked over and made a quick scan, put my 3D print on the queue, and waited.

The next morning, I found my print waiting for me before my eyes. And soon after that, I inserted the counterparts needed in the interior.

So then, I had a giant bomb that could rid half of the USA of it's power. But I didn't know when or how I was going to use it.

Until now.

But there was a problem.

The bomb was all the way in my suitcase, which was in the back of the plane. And according to Jawa's screaming, I had exactly eight seconds to get the bomb, detonate it, get Erica and Ben back to safety before the command prompts went down and the Croatoan realized something was up.

So I pounced to my suitcase.

---POV Switch to Agent Benjamin Ripley---