Metafire

"Well, suppose that George did cause New Boston to blow up. We would know it, wouldn't we?"

"Unless it looked like an accident. For example, George could give the bomb controller a code that caused it to blow up a week from now. How would we know? It could be an FBI mistake. Furthermore, any of us, with the release code, has access to programming the bomb controller."

Angela countered, "But the FBI would know if it was them or not. If it wasn't them, they would hold us responsible. Then George's threats would be useless."

"OK. Actually, that's right. As long as the FBI can't hurt us, we should be able to demand and get anything we want. It's only if the bomb is actually used, that we would lose."

"That's right. Frank, we may have put Metafire in danger in order to save Jane."

Then Frank got clear, "I suggest this. Put off sending the clearance signal to the FBI until Jane is rescued. That is two days from now. We have to have a way to explain the situation with Jane. George and the others are going to know."