Page 92 of Wild Oblivion

"That's very good, Deputy. I hadn’t thought of that before,"he snarked. "What if this is a positive way to impact the world?”

"By creating death and destruction?"

"A means to an end.”

"What end?"

"A changing world order.”

"I think we’re doing just fine.”

He laughed. "You're sadly mistaken if you think our current situation is just fine. There's nothing fine about it. The world needs a wake-up call."

"And you're going to give it to them?”

"I’d love to talk politics and social order all day, but time is of the essence. You should really be asking the question: Where is the next bomb?”

"Now that you've brought it up, where is it?"

“When the sun is high, it will preside over many who will die.” He paused, then said, “That’s kind of catchy, isn’t it?”

“Don’t quit your day job.”

“Wasn’t planning on it. This is too much fun. Imagine what I could accomplish with real Oblivium.”

“It’s going to go off at noon?”

"That would be the obvious takeaway," he said.

"You haven't been truthful yet. I don't suspect you will start now."

"You never know, Deputy. I might surprise you. Good luck."

He ended the call, and I pulled myself out of bed, my heart already thumping with adrenaline. I hustled downstairs and banged on the hatch to JD’s stateroom. "Get up. We've got another bomb threat."

Jack groaned and made noise.

I called the sheriff and updated him on the threat. I told him the riddle.

"The Sunset Bowl," Daniels said. "Kickoff is at noon. That's gotta be it.”

"I'll call Thompson. Get the bomb squad out and the sniffers, not that it will do any good.”

“I don’t like this. These riddles are too easy. If I didn't know better, I'd say he wanted us to find the bombs.”

"That's why he accelerates the timelines. Maybe he's trying to catch us all on site and take the entire police force out.”

"That would be a bold move.” The sheriff exhaled a frustrated breath. "People are going to start packing into that stadium before long. They're already tailgating in the parking lot. You know how these things are. People are gonna be pretty pissed if we shut this game down.”

“Well, they’re going to have to get over it. He said this is going to be the biggest yet. We have no idea what the blast radius could be.”

“That last one was pretty damn big.”

I told him we were on the way, then ended the call, rushedupstairs, and took a quick shower. I toweled off, got dressed, and holstered my pistol for an appendix carry.

By that time, Jack had crawled out of bed. We nuked a couple of breakfast burritos and stuffed our faces before running out the door.

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