The Bomb

 “Okay, now very carefully, cut the red wire.”

“Which red wire? There are several!”

“Fine. Brett, just relax. We don’t want to do anything we’ll regret.”

“You’re telling me.” Brett traced the course of the red wire under his finger. It ended on a soldered point on a printed circuit board screwed to the case. A little gold plus sign glinted on the green board next to the solder.

“Okay, I’ve got the live” Brett reported. “That’s the one you mean, right?”

“Hang on... “ The voice on the other end of the line said. “You’ve got to be very careful here. If there’s more than one red wire, and you’re sure the one you have is the live, you need to strip some of the insulation and short it against the send terminal of the card unit. Got that?”

Brett took a deep breath. “Okay, got the send terminal.”

“Right,” the voice said. “Make sure you’ve got enough play in the wire at the point where you strip it that it reaches the terminal. And then you’re going to want to clip the wire against it with a non-conducting clip or something.”

Brett wiped the sweat off his forehead with the back of the hand he held the pliers in. He racked his brain. He didn’t have any non-conducting clips. He cleared his throat. 

“Will a cable tie work?”

There was a sound of air sucking through teeth on the other end of the line. The voice took a while to respond, and when it did, it was hesitant: “The object is to hold the stripped section of the live wire fast against the send terminal with something non-conductive. If a cable tie can do that, use a cable tie. How’s the time looking?”

Brett glanced at the seven-segment display. Its glowing green numbers stared back at him. They taunted him with the inevitability they represented. 

“Not good,” Brett replied. 

“Stay with me, Brett. You got this.”

“Alright, I’ve stripped a bit of insulation off the live and shorted it against the send terminal. I’m holding them against each other with  a cable tie.”

“Once you’ve got that connection you have to make absolutely sure it stays there,” Brett heard over the line. He gave the end of the tie a dextrous tug. It zipped tight. 

“Got it?”

“Yeah,” Brett replied, followed by a long exhalation. 

“Okay, there should be a thin black or blue wire coming off the PCB. There might be a little imprint saying SIGNAL.” 

Brett found it after a few seconds. “Got it.”

Annunciating his words as clearly as possible, the man on the other end said, “Snip it off as close as you can to the board and wrap the end around the cathode of the capacitor on the card unit.”

“What capacitor?” Brett’s tone hovered between panic and resignation. 

“It’s a cylindrical blue and black component and the cathode is the metal bit with the minus sign…”

“Yes, yes I know that stuff, but I don’t see a capacitor!”

The green numbers ticked off the remaining moments. 

“Is there a plastic cover on the board?”

“Yes.”

“Well take it off!”

Brett did as he was told and let out a single, nervous laugh. “Found it. Okay. I’m routing the SIGNAL wire to the capacitor’s cathode now.”

“That’s it buddy. Don’t touch anything else. Make sure it’s a good contact. That’s all from my side. You still there?”

The green numbers glowed steadily. The final digit changed to a zero.

Brett saw a bright light. A glorious light. He heard a most exquisite singing. The light faded a little, revealing stars which spun around each other and resolved themselves into a sphere over a glowing, majestic figure, framed by what looked like hollow, silver wings. 

A trophy. Writing appeared above it: UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE. Brett screamed, grabbing the big screen on each side. 

“It worked! Oh my god it worked! And just in time for kick-off! Dude, you’re the bomb!”

Brett heard a laugh on the other end of the line. The voice replied: “Congratulations on your first decoder hack mate. Why should this be on pay-per-view anyway? Enjoy the game. You owe me several beers.”