Variety Cryptic 4: Keep Solving and Nobody Explodes

 This one's going to be a bit different, so I suggest reading this post the whole way through.

 The idea for this one first spawned when watching one of juff's streams, a fellow constructor and a very entertaining solver. In it, they were doing a co-solve of a certain puzzle - I forget which exactly - and I thought wow, this whole cryptic business is much more fun and exciting with a friend along to help.

This cryptic has been inspired by the game Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes and is thus designed for TWO solvers. You can still solve it with one person, though if you can get a friend to play along the experience should be better.

One of you is designated the role of the DEFUSER. The defuser is allowed to look at the bomb (i.e. the grid and clues) and NOT allowed to look at the manual.

The other is designated the role of the EXPERT. The expert may only look at the manual and NOT the grid or clues.

Work together to decipher the clues and the instructions, test your communication skills and your friendship, but most importantly have fun!

For an additional (and completely optional) challenge, set a 150-minute timer to emulate the real feel of the original video game and for that extra bit of panic just at the end. (I know a lot of people don't like solving cryptics as a race so I'll stress again that this is OPTIONAL and only if you want it)

Enough blabbering from me, go forth, solve clues and have fun! Thanks once again to skaldskaparmal for test-solving, go do his latest puzzle at https://skaldskaparmal.github.io/

For the DEFUSER'S EYES ONLY: The Bomb

For the EXPERT'S EYES ONLY: Crossword Defusal Manual