by John Jonas
As he was driving to work the next morning, Jim was thinking that one of the employees, maybe a security guard, might have said something to a loved one and that’s how the leak occurred. Sylvia wouldn’t have said anything. Another possibility is someone in D.C. may have slipped up after receiving Melinda’s emailed report.
When he arrived at the Facility, there were news vans and reporters set up near the gate to the parking lot and Jim had to drive through the throng of people and cameras to get into the parking lot. He ignored the volley of questions being shouted at him as he walked to the parking lot toward the security building. When he reached his office, Linda told him that Ms. Powell wanted him to go to her office as soon as he arrived. Jim poured a cup of coffee and walked down the hall to Melinda’s office. Rick Sorenson was seated in one of two chairs across from Melinda’s desk and they were talking about the news media at the front gate.
Rick said “I’ve told the guys at the gate to keep those vultures a hundred feet away from the entrance and keep a sharp eye out and not to answer any questions. We are going to have to issue a statement to the press eventually.”
Jim took a seat in the other chair and asked “Have you heard from D.C. yet?”
Melinda said “Yes, I have. I was told to keep a lid on this thing and that The Department of Energy will make a statement late this afternoon to the Washington media outlets. Also, they want to find out how this got out to the press. Rick, have you talked to your men? Did any of them say anything to anybody outside this compound?”
“I asked the three guards that were in the command center when we looked at the video and they swear they kept quiet. I’m going to polygraph them later but I doubt it will show anything. I just don’t think they are the source of the leak.”
Melinda looked concerned and said “I have a friend that works as an assistant to that blonde news anchor on channel 5, I’m going to give her a call and see if I can get her to talk to me. Maybe we can find out how they got the story. In the meantime gentlemen, business as usual and let’s meet for lunch in the conference room, I need to go over some figures with all the Department heads.”
Jim spent the rest of the morning in his lab with his new analyzer and the mysterious triangle from the vault getting nowhere. The readout he was getting was gibberish and he was getting frustrated, thinking that he had not calibrated it right. When the clock on the wall reached noon, he left and took the elevator to the cafeteria level. Today’s entrée was fried fish with vegetables on the side, and Jim asked for a to-go container and picked up a bottle of water on the way out the door. Two other people were already on the elevator when he got on for the ride back down. They were talking about the news reporters by the front gate. One of them said “That guy from channel 15 asked me how much uranium we kept here.”
Jim said “I hope you didn’t tell him.”
She replied “I know we aren’t supposed to say anything Mr. Wilkins so I just said ‘no comment’ and kept walking.”
Jim reminded them that D.C. will do the talking for them as he exited the elevator and turned left for the conference room. There were six people seated at the conference table when he walked in and all of them were talking and eating while the projector was being set up. There was an empty seat next to Rick so Jim sat down and greeted Melinda, who was across from them. Some people had brought their lunch and the rest picked something up from the cafeteria. When everyone was finished and the projector was ready, the meeting convened with a slide presentation of various financial figures. When Melinda was finished, everyone was excused except Jim and Rick. After the last person had left and the door closed, Melinda said “I heard back from my friend at channel 5. You’re not going to believe what she said.”
Rick said “Did she tell you who told her about the theft?”
She said “Yes, she did. Do you remember that woman that we caught inside the perimeter yesterday?”
Jim said” Yes, she’s locked up in the Maricopa County Jail, isn’t she?”
“Yes she is, and my friend told me that she caused so much trouble there that it made the police scanners. A reporter heard it and went over to the jail to try and get a story out of it.
Turns out that this woman told him, the reporter, all about the theft.”
“What I want to know is how she found out.”
Rick said “I used to work for the Sheriff and I still have a few connections there. Maybe I can get us a visitation with her.”
“When can you arrange that?” Melinda asked.
“I can set it up but I can’t be the one to visit her, it will have to be one of you. I’m too well known over there.”
Jim said “I’ll go, and tell your connection that I’ll have a voice recorder with me.”
Two days came and went before Rick could arrange for the visit with the woman. Jim arrived at the County Jail at 9:30 A.M. inmate visits were allowed between 10:00 A.M. and 3 P.M.
Rick told him to arrive a little early and ask for a deputy Sanchez. He walked into the front door and the first thing he saw was a visitor screening station. Two guards were there, one was at a table with a computer where Jim had to give his name and present an ID, then had to empty his pockets into a plastic tray. The other one motioned for him to walk through the magnetometer to scan for weapons. After going through the metal detector, Jim retrieved his valuables and asked where the visitor center was. The guard closest to him pointed and said “Just follow the signs.” He walked down a hall which turned three corners before he came to a set of double doors with a sign above it that said “ALL VISITORS MUST CHECK IN FIRST.” He walked through the double doors into a room with a security station surrounded in mesh-reinforced glass and a sign that said “CHECK IN HERE”.
Jim walked up to the window and showed his ID and asked for Deputy Sanchez. The Hispanic woman behind the glass said “Wait a minute and I’ll go get him.” After about 5 minutes, a heavy-set Hispanic man that looked to be over 300 pounds came out into the reception area and said “I’m Marco Sanchez, are you Wilkins?”
Jim said “Yes. Rick Sorenson told me to ask for you. I’m here to visit the woman that climbed our fence last week.”
The big deputy said “Ok, have a seat in one of these chairs and I’ll go get her.” He pointed at the woman behind the glass. “This deputy will let you know where to go in a few minutes.” And at that, he walked up to the metal bars and Jim heard a buzzing sound. The door made of bars slid open and he disappeared.
Jim was ushered into a room with five glass partitions that were separated; each one had a chair to sit in and a telephone handset on the table. He sat at the first one and almost immediately a door opened on the other side of the partition. A guard was escorting a tall, light-haired woman wearing an orange jumpsuit with the letters “MCDC” stenciled on them.
She was almost as tall as he was, looked about thirtyish, walked with a slight limp, had straight hair past her shoulders and appeared to have an athletic build but it was hard to tell with the loose fitting jail clothes she was wearing. When she sat down he could see that she had eyes that were almost as green as his and was somewhat attractive. Jim reached into his shirt pocket and turned on the recorder as they both picked up the handset. It had a magnetic field pickup microphone and did not need to be plugged into the phone to record both sides of the conversation. The woman asked “Who are you?”
“My name is Jim Wilkins. I am an engineer at the nuclear storage center. Do you mind answering a few questions about your visit last week?”
The woman’s expression changed when she heard where Jim worked and said “You’re from there? Sure, I’ll be glad to talk to you.”
Jim said “Ok, who are you and why did you try to get into the facility?”
“Cynthia, I go by Cindy. I’ve been trying to tell everybody that the planet is in danger, and I saw everything the other day.”
Jim said “Wait a minute, start from the beginning. Tell me about yourself and then go from there.”
She
then began talking about her life in San Diego working as a paralegal, going to school to earn her degree and having her life disrupted last week. She explained that one night while she was sleeping, she woke up with a strange feeling coming over her and then seeing the inside of some room with a bunch of cylinders sitting in a large rack. She said that she knew it was not a dream because she could almost “feel” her surroundings and that she also could hear the sounds in the room. She then went onto accurately describe the interior of the vault and that there were three cylinders taken. Jim was startled at this because he was sure that detail had not been made public either. He asked “Do you remember what time this was?”
She said “It was about midnight.”
Jim remembered that the intruder had appeared a little after 1 A.M. and California is one hour earlier than Arizona. Startled, Jim asked her “Are you clairvoyant? Do you have ESP or anything like that?”
“No, not that I know of, but I know this is real. I FELT it and I saw it. We are in danger and I felt that too. I don’t know how, but the Earth is going to be destroyed in less than a year.”