group not linked to any organisations. We haven’t got all the details yet and what we do have is sketchy. We’re not even sure of their intentions as yet,” De Luca said, not sure as to how much information he should divulge to the army officer.
“Well I’ll say one thing,” Farina said as layers of Kevlar were folded over each other in front of his throat, “They’ve gone to a lot of effort just for a few relics.”
Now Sonnenburg and De Luca watched as Farina and his Lieutenant both suited up, left the truck and began a slow, heavy walk towards the police car. They passed the robot going in the other direction.
“Why is the other one carrying pipes and a jerry can?” Sonnenburg asked.
“They’ll attempt to drain the fuel tank,” De Luca answered.
“The fuel tank?”
“Yes. The petrol in the car’s fuel tank will create a worse situation if the bomb does blow causing fire to spread.”
“Well they’d better hope there’s no more than twenty five litres because that’s all that can will hold.”
Farina and his lieutenant Gianni Sforza reached the Alfa Romeo. Farina went straight to the open driver’s door and awkwardly, because of the heavy bomb suit, knelt to examine the accelerator pedal. He flicked on a small but very intense light on his helmet to see into the dark footwell. The red and green wires were attached to a small box on the underside of the pedal, reached up to the bulkhead and disappeared under the vehicle’s carpeting, reappeared by the parking brake, ran under the driver’s seat through the back seats and disappeared again into the boot.
Sforza pushed the fuel filler flap inwards and it popped open. A modern filler flap that didn’t have a lock. He fed a dipstick into the neck of the fuel tank and pushed down gently until he felt it touch the bottom of the fuel tank. Then he withdrew it quickly and was relieved to see that the fuel tank was only a quarter full.
They hadn’t filled it to cause the maximum explosion or fire.
Farina joined him at the back of the Alfa Romeo.
“A quarter full,” Sforza shouted.
Farina heard the muted message.
“Let’s get this body out,” he said back, moving into position to take hold of Balotelli’s legs.
Restricted by their equipment they struggled to lift the body out. They settled it onto the pavement. Now Farina could see the boot of the Alfa Romeo was lined with C4 plastic explosives.
“What in the name of God,” he said out loud.
He got Sforza’s attention and pointed into the boot of the car. Farina clicked on the microphone in his blast suit and reported back to the incident unit. The monitor operator listened carefully then turned to Sonnenburg and De Luca.
“The boot of the car is rigged with C4 plastic explosives. You can’t buy this stuff. It’s for military use mainly and is impossible to get, even on the black market, especially in the EU.”
“What is C4 exactly?” Sonnenburg asked.
“C4 is a composition of explosives, odorizing taggant, Dimethyl Dinitrobutane, plasticizer and plastic binder….”
The man speaking could see that he’d already lost the two policemen. He had intended to include that the explosive was Cyclotrimethylene Trinitramine which is approximately ninety percent of the C4 mass. The plastic binder is Polyisobutylene and the plasticizer is Diethylexyl.
Instead he said.
“You take these three items and mix with a small amount of non detergent engine motor oil and you dissolve all these in a solvent, such as a thinner for example. The solvent then needs to be evaporated, filtered and dried and then you’re left with a white substance similar to clay. The type of clay a potter or modeller would use.”
“And then it’s a deadly explosive?” Sonnenburg asked.
“Oh no. It’s very stable and can take a lot of shock. Which is why it didn’t go off on its journey in the car to its current location. You can drop it, throw it into a fire. You could even empty your 9mm in to it and it won’t go off. It needs a detonator, extreme shockwaves or heat. The advantages of it are that it can be moulded into any shape. Ideal for inserting it into gaps or cracks for whatever you want to blow up, bridges, buildings, etc. Mostly it is in the form or shape of bricks. Colonel Farina just has the job of removing the detonators. He will start by disabling the device on the accelerator pedal.”