365个英语简短小故事-66. “We Could Have All Died!”

（单词翻译）

Two bombing attempts in London failed last night. A Mercedes was parked in front of a popular nightclub before closing time. There were at least 500 patrons inside the club. The Mercedes contained 11 full gasoline cans and 7 containers of nails. Apparently¹, the car was to be exploded by a call from a cell phone, but someone, or something, goofed². The cell phone call didn’t trigger the explosion. Instead, some smoke started spewing out of the car.

An ambulance happened to drive by. The driver, seeing the smoke, called the police. The police arrived quickly, and a bomb expert immediately entered the car and started disarming³ the vehicle. A few minutes later, the police were notified about another car, also full of explosive material, parked behind the nightclub. That vehicle was also disarmed⁴. Twice in one night, deadly explosions had failed to occur. The bad guys had lost--this time.

A new prime minister had just taken over in England. He said that God was watching over London. Scotland Yard believed that terrorists were behind the bombing attempts. When one patron at the nightclub found out how close he had been to death, he said, “I’m so happy to be alive! Last night I was dancing all night near the windows next to the street, and I would have been one of the first to die. It’s scary to think about. I won’t be coming to this club for another week or so.”