29 Minutes Left and I'm the Suspected Bomber

Outside the police tape surrounding a fancy hotel, a police officer can be seen blocking my way.

"There seems to be a bomb hidden in the hotel! Unauthorized personnel are not allowed to get any closer!"

I'm just about to dig out my work badge when the intern next to me, Christine Wyatt, covers her mouth in a pretentiously shocked manner.

"Officer, there's a detonator and a timer in his bag! Those things look so scary!"

The entire scene goes eerily silent. Almost immediately, I see a few guns getting aimed at my forehead.

Anxiety begins overwhelming me. "I'm a bomb disposal expert from the Headquarters Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit! My bag contains all the tools necessary to dispose of a bomb!"

"Throw your bag over to me and keep your hands where I can see them!" Captain Scott Hunter roars at me.

My bag is opened afterward. Things like an insulated cutter, a bomb suppression blanket, and a liquid nitrogen cooling tank are scattered across the ground.

Before I can explain myself, Christine suddenly points at me while screaming, "Why are you still playing dumb? You just told me that you wanted to set off an explosion in that hotel!

"What, now that the police are here, you dare not admit what you just said, huh? You're a terrorist through and through!"

Scott reacts quickly by pinning me on the hood of the police cruiser with my hands folded behind my back.

"We're taking you back for a thorough interrogation!"

My heart almost stops at those words.

The bomb that's packed with enough firepower to take out half a street has already gone on a countdown in the hotel lobby. But I, the only bomb disposal expert who can get rid of the bomb, have handcuffs put on me because of Christine's nonsensical accusations.

Right now, there are only 29 minutes left before the bomb goes off.

"Officer, this is absolutely a misunderstanding!"

Two police officers held me by the arms. My back was pressed firmly against the hood of the police car, and the handcuffs were cutting painfully into my wrists.

"I'm Julius Kinney from the headquarter's EOD unit! My badge number is 079527. You can make a call to verify!"

Captain Hunter, the head of the criminal unit, flipped through my ID twice, then glanced at the scattered bomb disposal tools on the ground.

"You can buy any kind of fake ID these days," he said, tossing my badge into an evidence bag. "How do you explain being caught with detonators and a timer when you claim to be a bomb disposal expert?"

"I never had any detonators in my bag! Those are insulated cutters and liquid nitrogen cooling tanks!"

I craned my neck to look at Christine, who was standing ten feet away. She was leaning against another police car, looking down at her phone without a trace of panic on her face.

"Christine, tell them everything in my bag is standard bomb disposal equipment!"

Christine looked up innocently.

"Julius, how was I supposed to know what was in your bag?" She tilted her head, her voice so cloying it gave me goosebumps. "All I saw were all sorts of weird things, and you kept muttering about blowing up the hotel. I was so scared."

"When did I ever say anything about blowing up the hotel?"

I was so angry that my temples were throbbing.

Captain Hunter raised a hand to cut me off.

"This involves explosives and terrorist rhetoric. Take him to the command vehicle for interrogation first."

"Wait! Just listen to me!" I braced myself against the hood of the police car, refusing to move. "There's a Ghost-7 bomb in the basement of the hotel. There are only three people in the country who can disarm this thing!

"One is at a conference overseas, and the other was killed in action last month. So, I'm the only one left!"

Captain Hunter's hand paused mid-motion.

I seized the opportunity to continue, "I know Luther Burch from your local EOD unit. He can't handle this kind of bomb! The Ghost-7's detonator mechanism is a triple-nested structure, and standard disarming procedure will set it off immediately.

"Just let me go in there, and I'll defuse the bomb within 20 minutes. If I can't, you can do whatever you want with me."

Captain Hunter shot me a glance, then turned to the communications officer beside him.

"What's the situation with the EOD team inside?"

The communications officer's earpiece crackled for a few seconds, and his expression shifted.