"Come on, Brad," she sighed. "Can't you be serious once in your life?"

"Maybe," he said. "We may not know for sure until I'm dead, though."

"This is really important," she told him. "We have to defuse this nuclear bomb before the silo doors open and Dr. Malevolence's computer virus launches it and starts World War III."

"You know, I'm not totally convinced," Brad argued. "How many viruses work perfectly when they're released? Writing viruses is hard, you know. Even evolution needs to try billions of times to get it right."

"You really want to risk the fate of the world on the possibility that it MIGHT not WORK?" she said, incredulous.

"All I'm saying is that to justify all this time and concentration I'm putting forth, the threat had better be real." the covering to the detonator mechanism came off in his hands. "Here we go - hand me the wire cutters."

"How do you know which wire to cut?" Paula asked breathlessly.

"I don't," said Brad, closing the clippers around the biggest and greenest wire he could find.

"Seriously?"