The Manhattan Project Page #7

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- We could drill it.

- No, no.

We might get a static charge.

- Disconnect the batteries.

- What if we get sparks?

Cut the main lead.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's worth a try.

I'll need to remove

the middle plate.

Well, do it, do it.

Anybody have

a phillips-head screwdriver?

How much time do we have?

I don't know.

It's in exponential decay.

Can't you just answer

the goddamned question?

I never was any good at math.

All right...

as Y approaches infinity,

T=1+1/N to the...

to the Nth.

Right.

You're a bright kid.

You ought to do something

with it.

I make it just about...

three minutes to zero.

Oh, boy.

Excuse me, sir.

What about evacuation?

- Evacuation of who?

- The people.

Oh, you mean New York,

Pennsylvania...

Vermont, Canada? Those people?

- OK. I'm at the main connector.

- OK. Go ahead.

- Wire clippers.

- Yeah. Right here.

- What the hell's that?

- Firing circuit.

I programmed the photo strobes

to charge automatically...

ninety seconds from detonation.

The timer

must be all messed up.

Maybe I should have made it

ten seconds.

Anyhow, look,

it doesn't matter.

All I have to do

is cut the power.

It's this wire right over here.

All right, here I go.

Ready? One, two...

No, no, no! Don't cut it!

Don't do anything!

Don't do anything?

What are you, nuts?

Regular photographic strobe

units? That's what you used?

- Exactly.

- All right, here's the problem.

Once those things

are charged...

even if you turn them off

they can discharge...

while you're unplugging it.

This thing could detonate...

just from our trying

to disconnect it.

- Just wait.

- I'll wait. It won't wait.

OK, either that thing

is gonna work, or it's not.

If it's not gonna work...

we can all just stand here

until it reaches zero...

at which point

nothing will happen.

However,

I think it's gonna work...

which means

we have to disarm it.

- How?

- Cut the leads...

between the photo strobes

and the high explosives.

- How many leads are there?

- Six, along this strip here.

All right,

six leads, six wires.

Now the trick is...

we have to cut them

at exactly the same time.

- And I mean exactly.

- Or what?

- Oh, sh*t. Really?

- Come on. Let's just do it.

Colonel, you'll count for us.

Give him the cutters.

You're number one,

two, three, four, five...

You, over here.

This one's yours.

Right there.

Sorry about before, kid. Just

doing the job. Nothing personal.

Three hundred.

- OK, everybody ready?

- Wait. I don't have a cutter.

Get us another cutter.

Over there.

Come on, come on, come on.

I don't believe this. Are you

telling me I'm going to die...

'cause some a**hole

didn't bring a pair of pliers?

- I got it. I got it.

- Is that going to work?

- I hope so.

- Two ten.

OK, I'm going to count backward

from five.

- Everybody ready?

- Wait, wait.

- Do we cut on one or on zero?

- One eighty.

On zero, like this...

three, two...

This is just a rehearsal.

Nobody do anything.

Three, two, one, cut.

Everybody understand?

- One ten.

- OK.

Anybody want to make a bet?

No? OK. Here we go.

For real this time.

Five, four, three, two, one.

That was interesting.

What do you think you're doing?

Letting a little fresh air in.

Get away from that door!

Give it up, colonel.

We blew it.

What are you going to do?

Make us all disappear?

Me... and him?

And all of them?

Too many secrets.

Dr. Mathewson, remember Jenny?

Good to see you.

- Paul.

- Mom.

It's OK.

I did something.

What happened?

Everything.

Tell you about it later.

Let's get out of here.

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