September 13, 2005
Week 20 - Impossible Dreams 7
Episode 3
They continue down the street and walk into a narrow alley.
"Ah ha!" Lamont suddenly yells, through his plastic mask. "It is just as I feared! Do you see the bomb?"
"The bomb?"
"The nuclear device.... brazenly left at the street corner, by that traffic light." He points.
"You... you mean that mailbox?"
"My arch foe, Captain Camouflage, has cleverly altered its appearance. But I assure you, it is an atomic bomb nonetheless." He steps out of the alley, toward the box.
Powell follows him. "Uh... What are you doing, Mr. Lamont?"
Lamont swings back toward Powell and grabs his arm. "My God, Pan Boy! I told you not to call me that! We must refer to each other by our code names." He turns back to the mailbox. "At enormous personal risk to myself," he says, "I must attempt to defuse this bomb, before it reduces the entire county to rubble." He reaches into a pouch and pulls out a pair of pliers. "These Coyote Pincers should do the trick." He opens the flap of the mailbox and grips one of its hinges with the pliers.
Powell looks around frantically. The street is empty except for a young couple, holding hands, who slowly stroll toward them. Powell quickly steps in front of Lamont, trying to block the couple's view of him with his body. "Um," he says, "do you think you should be doing that, uh, Coyote Man? I mean, that's government property..."
"Of course it's government property," Lamont says as he twists the pliers. "The bomb was stolen from an army base." The hinge snaps off. Lamont repeats the process on the remaining hinge, which soon breaks. He tosses the, now unconnected, flap of the mailbox to the street. "There! I've opened the hatch. Now that I've gained access to the electronics, I can disable the triggering mechanism." He leans forward and sticks his arm deep into the box.
The young couple walks past them, staring at their costumes. Powell flashes a weak smile, trying his best to hide Lamont from view.
Lamont leans further forward. "If I could just... find... the... There! I've got it!" He stands up straight and pulls his arm out of the box, clutching a handful of letters. "The arming mechanism!" He tosses the letters to the sidewalk and stamps on them. "Thank God!" He looks at Powell. "I have succeeded," he says. "Hundreds of thousands of lives were saved, this day!"