Red North!

by Mark Lemke

CHAPTER 37

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  Just before midnight on Friday, Jansen drove onto the plant site, sitting among four of the six men who months earlier had established themselves as contractors for the outage.? Heading onto the plant site for the graveyard shift, they were running a bit late because of a slow driver up ahead.? There was no passing on the road and tempers sometimes flared when people drove so slowly.? Finally, the slow driver pulled off to the side, rolled down his window, and waved the cars by.? Everyone, including the truck Jansen was in, sped up to get by him.??

  Shift change always involved a number of people coming and going, which made it much easier for Jansen to be able to go where he needed to go, unnoticed.? The security guard at the front gate didn't pay much attention to how many people were in the truck, so long as the vehicle they were in had a car pass.? Theirs had one.? So Jansen headed onto the site with his team.? He smiled to himself at how easy this was so far.?

  As they got closer to the site, he could see the upper lot, which was on a small hill overlooking the back of the plant.? This parking lot, for contractors, was not close to the plant like the ones used by and reserved for the plant staff.? Contractors were temporary employees and didn't qualify for the perks the permanent plant staff enjoyed, like close-in parking.? So they had to park in these overflow lots.?

  But tonight this was exactly what Jansen wanted.? He'd be up the hill behind the plant.? From this remote parking lot, he had a natural command post in an area that was not well patrolled by station security people.? They'd be focused on the activities and equipment inside the protected area, as well as the gates in and out of the plant.?

  Just before the men got to the plant site, they took the side road that led uphill to these lots.? Once there, Jansen made sure his man parked the truck in a corner, away from the few lights set up to provide minimum illumination for the lot.? It didn't really matter, though, as they'd all be turned off soon enough.? That's standard protocol during certain types of security events where the station didn't wish to be seen from a distance.? It was assumed the plant staff's defensive posture would be enhanced by darkness, so the first part of the response in the event of an attack would be to contact operations and have them open several key electrical breakers and turn off non-essential lighting.? Parking lots were obviously not essential lighting.? This strategy was outlined in Nick's report.? Tonight, this tactic would work against them.? So easy, Jansen thought to himself again.?

  Tucked away in the corner of the lot, he stayed in the truck and watched as the men with him grabbed their lunch pails and walked through the maze of parked cars, down the wooden stairs to the lower lot, through the security building, and into the facility.?

  At the same time, he knew the other half of his team should already be in position.? Nick had identified the best place to attack from, so that was precisely where Jansen sent them.? It took them several hours to hump in from the rugged hills behind the plant and get into place outside the fenced perimeter.? The hills were steep, filled with brush and thickets, and it was dark as pitch.? It was easy to lose their footing, and someone had more than once.? But they were all rugged men and had done similar things in the past.? Besides, for the money they were being paid, they just sucked it up and did it.?

  Things were coming together nicely and about as Jansen had expected.? He'd give those of his guys heading into the plant a couple of hours to get in place.? The plan he put together some time ago wasn't complicated, but it required access to the various buildings that housed the turbine and reactor auxiliary equipment.? That hadn't been particularly easy to do, but once that had been solved, the rest was fairly simple to arrange.?

  Rob was the one who figured out how to get weapons and explosives inside the protected area side of the warehouse.? He suggested they use the cover of an outage when lots of bulk crates, boxes, and parts were coming in.? With hundreds of deliveries being made, some loss of concentration could be expected, despite an attempt at increased surveillance.? He could then enhance the lack of attention by buying off someone in Security who needed the money and knew enough to do what he was told and keep his mouth shut.?

  It was actually Jansen's idea to get Rob to plant the seed of an idea with the vice president that they needed to do a security evaluation.? Jansen knew that it was common in the industry for outsiders such as NeXus to come in and do these assessments.? They would no doubt have someone who was an expert in urban assault and target acquisition write a detailed report. ?Industry executives were in fear of the regulators shutting them down for lack of a workable security plan, more than they were of actual intruders.? So, once the idea was established in Prichard's mind to go to Washington and meet with the intelligence community, the odds were good NeXus would be hired.? Then all Waxman Industries had to do was get the report in Jansen's hands and he'd have excellent inside intelligence.

  The takeover of the facility and the plan to generate terror was based on the ability to infiltrate the plant, have the inside men hide their remote controlled explosives in specific locations, and then stand back where they could control the situation with relative ease and impunity.?

  To make this more effective, they needed a disturbance to take the security officers' attention off the real threat inside.? So the team outside could mount a breach of the plant from their position in the hills, which would serve to distract the armed responders.? Then the group on the inside would move in behind them and finish the job.?

  The plan wasn't supposed to involve killing people such as Brenda Williams.? In fact, it had happened before Jansen could stop it.? It was a stupid move and one that took away the element of surprise.? Jansen was, in fact, furious with Stone because he didn't feel the risk had been necessary.? As it turned out, the body washing up on shore validated Jansen's concerns.? He was working with idiots and he didn't like that.?It was too dangerous and exposed him to failure. Perhaps the notion that this could be done without casualties had been na?ve.?? Before he was done he vowed to himself there would be one more.? He'd make sure Stone paid for his arrogance.?

  Rob probably knew that too, but chose to overlook it until it was too late and he was committed.? Just look at how easy it had been for him to set this in motion.? His justification was that he was serving a higher good.? These plants weren't safe and he would get this plant shut down, which was better for the people of California-and he would make a significant amount of money for himself in the process.? Money he would need as he would sooner or later lose his job if the plant shut down.?

  Jansen looked at his watch.? It wouldn't be long now.