by Mark Lemke
CHAPTER 6
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An hour later, I heard a plant PA announcement asking me-directing me-to report to the security manager's office-again.? Within a few minutes, I was back in the security manager's office with Lynn, the watch commander for the shift, Rob, and Hector, the watch supervisor. ?Hector sat stone-faced and didn't engage in banter with anyone.? It was late at night, he'd been up for quite awhile now, and his security force just got beat.? I had to give him credit, though.? He stood tall and did not start making excuses.? On the surface, it looked like he couldn't do his job and protect the nuclear power plant.? But he knew better, despite how it looked.?
When Rob shut the door to his office to help ensure privacy, Hector couldn't contain himself anymore.? He looked directly at me.? "What the hell was the big idea with the helicopter?" he demanded.? "We aren't staffed to defend from that kind of assault, and you know that!? We're a civilian nuclear power plant, not a god-damn military installation!"
I knew that Hector, as an ex-Marine, took his job seriously and didn't like to lose.? I was also sure he wouldn't like it if he felt he was being played.? He knew the plant's vulnerabilities, and he was only given limited resources with which to defend it. ?So he didn't like being made to look bad, especially when he thought he was being taken advantage of.
Because of my previous conversation with Rob, I already knew where he stood on the issue, but in front of the group, Rob had to take a slightly different posture and demonstrate a more measured reaction.? He didn't like it any more than Hector did but I had to give him credit for playing the grown-up.? I'd read Rob's file.? He'd been in security since the plant started up more than 20 years ago, but was promoted to manager only a few years back.? Not in his prime anymore, but still looking fit with some graying at the temples, Rob's performance reviews indicated he got good feedback for dealing with the leaders of the local communities.? That told me he knew the politics better than Hector did.? Because he worked closely with the Sheriff, Rob was probably aware that there were far more terrorist threats to worry about than Hector knew.? If people in the local communities knew what he knew, they would've been amazed-and then frightened-at the potential risks of having this plant in their backyard.? So even though he didn't like it, he allowed me, as the leader of the adversary force, some latitude to test his team's capabilities.? However, he also knew that loyalty commanded respect.? He had to support Hector's concerns too, and do it in a way that did not appear to be blaming him for the results.? So he started his questions by directing them to the senior person on watch; the Watch Commander.
"Lynn, what happened?? How did a helicopter sneak up on us?"
"We haven't had our full critique of the drill yet, so I don't have all the particulars. It took me a couple minutes to get into CAS, so I'll defer to Hector."
Nice job on passing the buck, I noted.? I didn't mind women in positions of authority if they knew what the hell they were doing.? I'm all about competency.? Lead, follow, or get out of my way.? But I had neither the time nor the inclination to molly-coddle people.? And I didn't work well with people who did.? I'd read everyone's r?sum?s.? Even though Lynn had been in the military, she hadn't seen any serious action.? More than likely she got promoted because she was a woman.? The military will do that.? It had quotas to meet.? Or worse, she got promoted because she had what all men crave.
Based on what I'd seen so far, I was not impressed with Lynn.? I could tell by the look on Hector's face that he was probably thinking the same thing.? However, regardless of how I felt about any one person, my report would not target individuals.? I didn't work that way.? It's all about the team and the objective.
Hector looked at Rob. "All I know is we got nothing on radar, so I have to assume they dropped in on us from the hills behind the plant.? We didn't look that way because we were told the transmission lines heading up those hills would make it suicidal for anyone to try such a stunt."? He said 'stunt' in a sarcastic way, casting a glance in my direction.
Rob turned to address me directly.? "Nick, I agree with Hector.? Bringing in a helicopter, and bringing it from the east, was risky.? You had no right to jeopardize the plant like that."
Nice.? He and I both knew the little dance we were doing here.? I remained standing, though everyone else was seated.? I didn't think I'd be there that long.? Tempers were running high and it was getting late.? The real debriefing would come later anyway.
"I was asked to come in here and find your weaknesses and exploit them in a drill."? I was answering Rob's question but I spoke to all three of them.?
"That's exactly what I did.? Remember, my team consisted of your people acting as an adversary force.? We had a limited amount of inside information, which was allowed; tools and explosives available to others; and, with the exception of the helo, we were acting within your design basis."
"But a helicopter?" Hector didn't appear to be placated by my explanations at all.? "You know as well as I do that using a helicopter is outside our design basis.? You just said so. That makes it off limits!"
I kept a close eye on Hector.? He was venting and in no particular mood to listen to me.? I'd seen this before.? His response to getting beaten was expected.? He has pride in what he does and I'd be disappointed if he didn't.? Right now, Hector was upset, perhaps embarrassed.? I wasn't going to be able to calm him down with reasoning and cold logic, and I didn't want to waste time trying.? All I could do for now was to tell him why he lost.
I decided to cut to the chase.? "You and your guys are good, but you fight by the rules.? I don't.? Sooner or later, you're going to come up against someone else who doesn't.? In a situation like that, you need to be able to adjust and respond.? You need to expect the unexpected. Tonight you didn't, and because of that, you lost.? Your people would be dead now and you'd be on your way to losing the Unit 1 core and contaminating everyone within 10 miles of the plant with radioactive material."
Hector looked at me quizzically as if he didn't know whether to ignore me or try to kick my ass. He knew very little of my background. In an introductory meeting, the site vice president told the security staff he was bringing in a private contract group called NeXus to test security readiness, after which he introduced me only as a 'confidential consultant'. I was sure Hector could guess what that meant.?Hector had probably seen people like me before-tall, lean, and quiet.? Ruthless might be a better description.?? To him I was probably on the fringe of whatever military groups or organizations I used to be associated with.? Hector probably assumed I liked to play by my own rules.? He'd be close in that assessment.? Actually, I don't play by any rules at all, as he'd just found out.?
He looked at me as if he was waiting for me to explain myself, something I rarely did.? The more people talk, the more they give away who they are or what they're doing, and I didn't want these guys to know any more about me than they did. I wanted them to work effectively with one another, without knowing a lot about their enemy.? Sometimes, a simple thing like a reputation is a more effective weapon than actually doing anything.? People react to what they think they know, and they generally react in fear.? So the less they knew about me, the more they would rely on what they knew, or thought they knew, of my reputation, causing them to make assumptions-and mistakes.? It's those mistakes I liked to capitalize on when I could.? It was more important for them to learn how to function without the fear and in the face of uncertainty.
But back to the business at hand.? They assigned some of their own Security Department volunteers to act as the adversary force for tonight's force-on-force drill.? We spent the last couple of days working to assess strategies, vulnerabilities, and routes.? And in that short time, I devised a strategy that allowed me to beat Hector's team.? Hector wouldn't say so out loud, but if pressed, even he would probably admit to being impressed.
Standing there looking at him, I got the distinct impression that Hector wondered if he could take me in a fight. ?Right now he probably wanted to see, not comfortable with the idea that he an
d I were actually on the same team.? As an ex-Marine, Hector was no doubt confident in his own abilities, but he didn't know me, and I could see that something was telling him to be cautious.? Yet despite his better judgment, and his guardian angel telling him to give me a wide berth, he just couldn't seem to let it go.
Turning back to Rob, Hector said, "You guys can do what you want, I guess. But I have to go back in there to my guys and explain to them that they got beat because they were following the rules.? Great."
Rob sighed.? He valued Hector, but he could see Hector was angry and he didn't need that right now. "Tell your guys they did good tonight and that we all learned something new, too."
Without waiting for a response from Hector, Rob turned back to me and said, "I assume you'll be in the meeting tomorrow when we debrief the vice president on the results of our drill tonight?"
I'd met Jeff Prichard in Washington at a meet-and-greet some time ago.? While I didn't know the man well, I knew the type-intelligent, confident, and bordering on arrogant-but it wasn't important for me to know him well.? My job was to evaluate situations and present solutions.? By beating Hector's team, I just opened the door to some executive ass-chewing-either my own or the Security Department's.? Either way, I did what I was hired to do.? Find and exploit vulnerabilities in a mock assault. ?So I wasn't too worried about it.
"I'll be there."? Sensing that there was little more to be gained from the discussion, and knowing that they'd want to discuss this more with me out of the room, I looked at Hector, gave him a slight nod, ignored Lynn altogether, and walked out the door.? I had some things to do and it was getting late.? I needed a beer.