Malachi immediately gave orders and leaned out of the car window. “You can’t go in there. The gasoline is leaking. The bomb might explode at any moment!”
Nelson knelt in front of Callie, ignoring everything else, focusing solely on the bomb’s timer.
Callie was stunned. She saw his hands covered in blood from the shattered car window glass.
The man seemed unfazed, frowning at the bomb. Several wires of different colors were tangled together. Cutting the right one could stop the explosion.
Callie trembled. “Nelson… don’t bother with it. Just leave. It doesn’t matter if I die, but you’re the backbone of the Oconnor Group. They can’t lose you!”
She was incoherent but had a sense of the bigger picture, not daring to move.
Nelson glanced at her, a hint of helplessness in his eyes. “If I leave, you’ll end up entangled with Jaquan again.”
Callie started to cry. “It’s not my fault. He kidnapped me and Mollie. What could I do?”
The police quickly found scissors and handed them over. Nelson took them immediately. There were only four minutes left before the bomb would explode.
The handcuffs were specially made, and ordinary scissors couldn’t cut through them. Nelson gripped the tool tightly and suddenly looked up at the woman whose lips had turned pale with fear.
“I want to try.”
Callie was stunned but quickly understood what he meant.
Outside, Malachi was pacing anxiously. “Try what? If you try and fail, you’ll both die!”
He shouted at his colleagues, “Where are the experts? Hurry up!”
Nelson knelt there, a thin layer of sweat on his forehead, but his expression remained calm. “There’s no time. We have three and a half minutes left.”
“There are only three wires here: red, blue, and white. The odds of finding the right one aren’t bad. I want to try.”
Malachi took a sharp breath but knew there was no other option.
Callie held her breath and slowly nodded. “I… I guess I have no choice but to trust you.”
He leaned slightly forward, his hands reaching in, speaking softly. “When I was studying abroad, Grandpa wanted to toughen me up by not giving me any living expenses. Guess what I did?”
Nelson’s voice had a calming effect, and Callie tried to stay calm. “What did you do?”
“I used the money I had saved over the years as an entry fee to get into the biggest local casino and used tricks to win a year’s worth of living expenses.”
Callie felt like laughing; this was so typical of Nelson.
“Before I left, they caught me. To punish me, they strapped me to a chair with a bomb and made me find the right wire to defuse it. If I succeeded, they’d let me go.”
It was a game of nerves.
“There were ten wires back then.”
“And then?”
“Of course, I succeeded. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have met me today.” Nelson even managed a smile, his eyes full of reassurance.
Callie smiled through her tears. He was crazy.
Nelson placed the scissors on one of the wires but didn’t cut it. “Even if I fail, it’s okay. I’ll die with you.”
He left no escape route for himself. If the bomb exploded, both would die; there would be no survivors.
Callie looked into his eyes, feeling a pang of sadness. These few minutes might be their last moments alive.
“Nelson,” she said slowly, “my world has always been pure white since childhood. It was meeting you that turned it upside down. I’ve always listened to you. This time, listen to me, okay?”
Tears gathered in her eyes, blurring her vision.
“Choose the white wire.”