Spy in a Little Black Dress - By Maxine Kenneth Page 0,64

Emiliano, continuing to examine the dynamite stick in his hand. “See this fuse? It’s very short. There is no way I could light it and get back down the slope before it set off the dynamite.”

They checked the other dynamite sticks and saw that all the fuses were of the same length. Emiliano looked visibly deflated. It had been such a good plan. And now it seemed like all that hope was in danger of being quashed. Jackie tried hard not to appear equally crestfallen.

“If only there was some way we could extend the fuse,” Emiliano said, succinctly defining the problem.

Jackie felt the weight of the messenger bag in her hand and a thought occurred to her. She reached into the messenger bag and, like a magician conjuring a rabbit from a hat, produced reel three of Dracula. “I was told that this movie was made on nitrate film stock. That’s extremely flammable. If we could—”

Emiliano saw where she was headed and rushed to fill in the rest. “Just take several feet of film and use it to extend the fuse, I could light the dynamite and be down the slope before it exploded. Jacqueline, you are a genius.”

Emiliano was so obviously overjoyed at Jackie for coming up with a solution that he embraced her, squeezed her tight, and spun her around.

“Jacqueline, I could kiss you,” he said with one of his uncustomary outbursts of emotion, perhaps abetted by the fact that they would soon have company to deal with.

“Why don’t you?” Jackie blurted out before she could stop herself.

Emiliano accepted the invitation and kissed Jackie full on the lips. It was the first time he had kissed her since that night in the inn, and she was reminded all over again that no matter how infrequently he used them, Emiliano definitely knew what to do with his lips when it came to kissing a woman and leaving her yearning for more. Unfortunately, thoughts of the jeep coming up behind forced them to cut this romantic interlude short.

As soon as Emiliano broke off the kiss and the scenery around her stopped spinning, Jackie opened the film can and took out the reel of film, which she handed to Emiliano. He unspooled several feet and held up the film to look at it. It appeared to be blank.

“Good,” he pronounced. “I think this is what they call the leader, so we can take some film without damaging the actual movie.”

That was Emiliano, Jackie thought, the cautious lawyer, always scrupulously tending to details.

From his pocket, Emiliano produced a pocketknife and opened the blade. He continued to unspool the reel of film until he judged that he had enough, then used the knife blade to cut off a large section of leader from the rest of the reel. He then gave the reel to Jackie; she put it back in its can and placed it in the messenger bag.

By this time, Emiliano had started up the slope. Jackie followed, and Emiliano held out his hand to steady her as she climbed up after him. It was a somewhat steep ascent, made more awkward by the loose stones beneath them that constantly threatened to undermine their balance.

Finally, after some careful tacking back and forth up the slope, they arrived at the ledge holding the pile of rocks in place. Emiliano bent down and examined the underside of the shelf, checking for the exact right place to plant the dynamite stick.

“This one stick ought to do the job if we place it right here,” Emiliano said as he wedged the dynamite in place beneath the ledge.

“You look like you’ve done this before,” Jackie observed.

“I did. I picked up a rudimentary education in explosives when I worked in the mines.”

“When was that?”

“When I was in law school.”

“I thought you said you worked your way through law school as a lector.”

“I worked in the nickel mines too. In the summers. Law school was very expensive.”

As she watched, Emiliano spliced the end of the fuse onto one end of the leader by taking the fuse and threading it through the first set off sprocket holes on either side of the film. He tugged on it gently and the two pieces held firmly together.

“There, that should do it,” Emiliano said, closing his knife and pocketing it.

They went back down the slope, being careful not to slip and fall. Once back on the roadway, they returned to the truck, which Emiliano drove back about fifty feet, judging it to be