Boomer – Bomb or explosive mentioned in several In Death books.
The first reference was the boomer a man who was robbing Francois’ Seventy-eighth Street Deli had. It was described as “a small round object,” and “the homemade explosive device was worry enough. The fact that it shook as the hand that held it trembled with nerves was a great deal worse. Homemade boomers were notoriously unstable. The idiot was likely to kill all of them by sweating too freely.” Eve got a bruise on the face and wrenched her arm and shoulder from knocking it free and catching it. She then had the uniforms placed it in a Safe Box to neutralize the threat.[1]
The next instance was a man holding up a Credit Exchange Center two blocks from Cop Central in Rapture in Death, “waving what was surely a homemade explosive with his free hand.” Eve saw the utter despair in his eyes as “he tossed the hand-held boomer high and right.” Eve dived for it, but “missed by a fingertip. Even as she braced for the insult of the blast, the crudely made ball rolled into a corner, bobbled, then settled quietly.” the man attacked Eve, and then Peabody noticed the boomer was heating up, so they took cover. “The explosion blasted the air, fumed out a fist of heat and had God knew what raining down on [Eve].” When Eve got home, she noticed the sulfur smell.[2]
In Vengeance in Death, Liam Calhoun rigged Eve’s police issue vehicle with a homemade boomer: “It had a short-range, classic for car explosives,” meaning it was designed to take out Eve and her vehicle, but not to much damage beyond that. It was designed to detonate while she was driving home, but because her vehicle was faulty, it didn’t explode until she got out and slammed the door. McNab explained it to Eve as: “He linked it to the ignition, figuring it would trigger when you engaged the engine. Fortunately for our side, you drive -- or drove -- a departmental joke. The electrical system, the guidance system, the ignition system, well, just about every damn system in your vehicle was flawed.” Eve replied, “So what you’re telling me is I owe my life to budget cuts and a departmental maintenance crew who have their heads up their butts.”[3]
Howard Bassi, aka, “The Fixer,” was working on a job in Loyalty in Death where he was building timers, remotes, little bugs and boomers.[4] He realized he was involved in something very bad, was afraid of another Arlington, and needed to go under a while. Before he could get away, he was murdered.[5] Those were the plaston-based explosives used by Cassandra[6]; of the materials used, ten pounds were included; one ounce would be powerful enough to take out a level of Cop Central.[7] The targets included:
- Abandoned Glass Factory (Demonstration – no casualties)[8]
- Radio City (Demonstration/Test – no casualties)[9]
- Plaza Hotel Tea Room (Demonstration – over three hundred casualties)[10]
- Madison Square (Damaged – less than four hundred casualties including Anne Malloy)[11]
- Statue of Liberty (Failed)[12]
In Interlude in Death, Roarke told Eve “I might have been precocious, but at twelve I’d yet to run arms, unless you’re counting a few hand-helds or homemade boomers sold in alleyways.”[13]
The car bomb Roger Kirkendall, Isaac Clinton, and Jilly Isenberry used on Judge Moss’s vehicle before Survivor in Death[14] was described by Baxter: “This wasn’t any homemade boomer some yahoo stuck together in his basement because he was pissed off some judge made him pay child support. Lab guys creamed over it -- primary’s words -- plaston base, and it don’t come cheap, electronic trigger designed to blow when the engine engaged, and explode outwards for additional damage.”[15]
Eve described the club bombing in Miami that killed Rosie O’Hara, allowing Zana Lombard to be reborn (from Marnie Ralston), as: “a couple of bozos got through the door, protesting sin or something. Things went wrong and the boomers blew. Took out over a hundred and fifty people... explosions, body parts flying.”[16]
Other mentions.[17]
Not to be confused with Carter Johannsen, aka “Boomer,” killed in Immortal in Death, who got his nickname from the work he did wiring explosives for street thieves[18] or Boomer’s, the clothing store where Susann Prinz Mackie worked before her death, mentioned in Apprentice in Death[19]
References:
- ↑ Naked in Death (ISBN 0-425-14829-7), pp. 64-67
- ↑ Rapture in Death (ISBN 0-425-15518-8), pp. 185, 188
- ↑ Vengeance in Death, Chapter 13
- ↑ Loyalty in Death (ISBN 0-425-17140-X), pp. 11, 92
- ↑ Loyalty in Death (ISBN 0-425-17140-X), p. 12
- ↑ Loyalty in Death (ISBN 0-425-17140-X), p. 95
- ↑ Loyalty in Death (ISBN 0-425-17140-X), p. 164
- ↑ Loyalty in Death (ISBN 0-425-17140-X), pp. 85-86
- ↑ Loyalty in Death (ISBN 0-425-17140-X), pp. 147-156
- ↑ Loyalty in Death (ISBN 0-425-17140-X), pp. 167-173
- ↑ Loyalty in Death (ISBN 0-425-17140-X), p. 304
- ↑ Loyalty in Death (ISBN 0-425-17140-X), pp. 349-356
- ↑ Interlude in Death, Chapter 4
- ↑ Survivor in Death (ISBN 0-425-20418-9), p. 193
- ↑ Survivor in Death (ISBN 0-425-20418-9), pp. 275-276
- ↑ Memory in Death (ISBN 0-425-21073-1), pp. 212, 281, 346
- ↑ Conspiracy in Death, Chapters 4 and 5; Judgment in Death, Chapters 1 and 21; Betrayal in Death, Chapter 6; Reunion in Death, Chapter 7; Divided in Death, Chapters 2 and 22; Survivor in Death, Chapters 5, 12, and 16; Origin in Death, Chapter 20; Born in Death, Chapter 15
- ↑ Immortal in Death (ISBN 0-425-15378-9), p. 25
- ↑ Apprentice in Death, Chapter 9