Red North!

by Mark Lemke

CHAPTER 61

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  The Old Man knew what he was talking about, Hays thought to himself, as they stepped inside containment, feeling as well as hearing the noise level increase dramatically.? Talking even face-to-face would be difficult.? The Old Man told them it would be hot and loud but didn't mention the vibration.? Hays had spent time in Iraq, and it was hot in the extreme there during the day.? This was similar, only manmade, which somehow made it seem worse.? Fans blew the air around, but that did nothing to make it feel any cooler to him.? Add the vibration, which seemed to be coming from everywhere, and the combination of all three has an eerie effect on him.? It upset his inner ear, which could trigger vertigo and nausea.? He didn't know how people withstood this, but then, people weren't supposed to be in here while the reactor was at power.? All Hays could do was focus on their mission and getting the hell out of there as soon as he could.? It occurred to him that the terrorist they were after would be suffering from the same effects.? That may slow him down a bit.? It would not slow down Hays or Henderson.?

  The interior space felt huge, towering more than 230 feet above them.? It was mostly open space, with all the equipment either on their level or below.? A huge crane rose up from the floor and extended over a hundred feet up into the dome.? Two large stainless steel pieces of equipment stood to their right.? A sign identified them as 'Hydrogen Recombiners.'? There were fire hoses on the wall, and the floor was coated in some epoxy coating that made it look shiny and clean.?

  Directly ahead appeared to be a very large opening in the floor.? Some sort of mechanical cover was in place over it.? Signs permanently attached to the concrete structures adjacent to the opening said 'Danger Very High Radiation Area.? Stay Clear.'? Below the signs were metal placards with a magenta-colored tri-foil on a yellow background. The team had seen similar placards before.? They were in various areas throughout the plant and were used to signify radiation.? Without knowing more, Hays and Henderson understood that going beyond that point was forbidden and clearly life threatening.

  The Old Man saw them looking at it.? He moved nearer to them and hollered, "That's a movable shield!? Below that is the top of the reactor vessel!"

  That was the heart and soul of the nuclear power plant.? As the Old Man reminded them, they couldn't see the radiation, taste it or touch it, but they knew it was here.? And they knew it could kill them. ?

  The Old Man gave them a few seconds to get their bearings and look around.? He knew how intimidating it was in there.? He needed them to get over it, though, and quickly.?

  He motioned to Hays and Henderson to take the stairwell he pointed to on the far side of containment.? Likely as not, the terrorist went down the near one.? He and Hector would take that one.? Hays nodded and moved off as instructed.?

  The Old Man motioned to Hector that they'd head down the nearest stairwell.? He stepped out to head downstairs when Hector suddenly grabbed his arm and stopped him.? Without words, Hector moved to the front, weapon up, and headed slowly and cautiously down the stairwell to the levels below.??The Old Man understood and followed Hectors lead.?

  Each of them carried a weapon.? Hector was carrying a semi-automatic rifle, similar to the military M-16.? He had it unslung and at the ready.? The Old Man had his Glock.? He didn't expect to have to use it.? That's why Hector was along.?But he knew how, and it just made sense to come armed.?

  It was to their advantage to get off the stairwell quickly, so they could take cover if fired on.? They didn't think the perp would be expecting them, so they had the element of surprise on their side.? But the perp knew where he wanted to go and they didn't. ?This was a huge building, and trying to find someone in there that you couldn't hear coming was a challenge.?

  They headed down the open tread, metal stairs, moving cautiously, looking all around them as they went.? The Old Man touched the handrail and pulled his hand back immediately, the ambient heat causing the handrail to be very hot to the touch.?

  The stairs were a typical switchback pattern.? Each level had the stairs go halfway down, then turn and double back the other way.? They went down one level, stopped, and looked around.? Nothing and nobody.? They were on a landing that headed off around the outside of the containment, allowing access to various pieces of equipment and valves.? Huge pipes and electrical conduit ran through the overhead because it was better for almost everything to be as far to the outside of this structure as possible.? Radiation affected metal and electrical components just as easily as it affected a human being.? The high-energy particles made no distinction.? The photons, gamma rays, and neutrons given off by the subatomic chain reaction inside the nuclear core would interact with molecules of any structure, and through the energy it imparted, would sooner or later destroy whatever it came in contact with.

  Hector looked at the Old Man, who indicated they needed to go down yet another level.? What they were looking for was not up here.? Hector nodded and slowly headed down the next set of stairs.? He wasn't sure if it was getting hotter, but it surely wasn't getting cooler.? It had to be 115 or 120 degrees Fahrenheit, and he was sweating profusely.?

  They dropped down another level.? The stairs and the landings were made of open metal grating.? The effect of this was that you could see up and down through it, so there was no good visual reference other than the walls next to them.?Hector found that his eyes were constantly trying to refocus, first close in and then on something far away through the grating.? Maybe the vibration was getting to him.? Whatever, he started to feel a bit nauseous.?

  As they neared the bottom of the stairs, they exited the stairwell to a concrete floor, which Hector assumed was the bottom of containment.? It was, at least, as far down as they could go.? That's when they saw him, about 30 feet away.? A man, maybe six-foot-two, 190 pounds, wearing a black security jumpsuit, was coming out from inside the large concrete biological shield that surrounded the reactor, about where the Old Man guessed he would be.? The faux security officer saw them about the same time Hector and the Old Man saw him.? The man pointed his weapon at them and fired.? Even in containment with all the ambient noise, the sound of a shot being fired was very distinct.?

  Hector grabbed the Old Man and ducked off to one side, more out of instinct than to seek protection, as there really wasn't any.? They knew they were sitting ducks where they were.? Fortunately for them, the shot went wide, with the bullet hitting part of the metal support structure for the stairs and ricocheting away harmlessly.? Looking back, they saw the guy duck back inside the bio-shield, no doubt to get out of their way as he was sure Hector would return fire if given a chance.?

  Hector moved ahead, with the Old Man just behind.? They positioned themselves on the other side of the opening the guy had popped out of, so they weren't where they were the last time he'd seen them, in case he came back out.? They stood there, slightly bent at the waist, guns up and ready, waiting.?Nothing.? The man didn't show himself again.? They listened for him but of course couldn't hear a thing other than the deafening background noise from the machinery.?

  They waited for a full minute, not knowing what to expect next.? They knew they couldn't stay there just waiting for the guy to show himself.? Hector looked at the Old Man and motioned that he was going in, getting a knowing nod in return.? Rifle out in front, he moved slowly ahead, into the room the perp had come from.? The Old Man followed him in.

  It was something of a maze inside the bio-shield, with concrete walls that were over four feet thick, and it was even hotter and noisier than outside.? Radiation levels were higher too because of the proximity to the reactor coolant and the core itself.? The perp would have had to move fast to do what he'd come to do and get out of there before he received enough radiation exposure to cause blood changes and start breaking down his DNA-as would Hector and the Old Man.

  They moved forward into the labyrinth, as cautiously as they could, knowing that time was of the essence.? They didn't know where the man was and they were risking getting shot by moving ahead, but the con
sequences of not stopping him and what he came to do outweighed the personal risk they faced.?

  The ambient noise made sneaking around easier.? It was virtually impossible to hear them coming.? Hector and the Old Man only had a few feet to cover, and either the guy was in there waiting for them, or he was gone, looking for the other stairwell, which they assumed he must have known about.?They almost stumbled into the 1-2 reactor coolant pump seal room.? Hector looked around quickly and cleared the room.? Nobody was there.?

  A minute later, they heard the familiar sound of gunshots-two reports in rapid succession.? They instinctively ducked, but the sound came from somewhere else.? Somewhere distant.? They could only assume that Hays and Henderson encountered the perp trying to escape by the back stairwell.? Two shots.? No more.? It could have gone either way.? It was hard for them to believe that Hays and Henderson were killed, but Hector and the Old Man didn't know for sure.? It was possible the perp took them out to clear his back door and was coming back here to ensure his objective was achieved.? Or he was on his way out of containment, away from the blast site.?

  On the off chance he might be returning, the Old Man shouted at Hector to keep an eye out, while he looked around to find the explosive.? Hector looked for some sort of cover but found none.? The only thing he knew was that the terrorist hadn't left the way he'd come in.? So it stood to reason that if he returned, he'd come in the only other way possible.? Hector crouched down on one knee and took aim on the back entry to this area, hoping they wouldn't be there long.?

  The Old Man looked around inside the bio-shield and located the mechanical seal on the shaft of the 1-2 reactor coolant pump.?? The three-stage seal assembly kept 500 degree, highly contaminated water from leaking past the shaft and coming out into the containment environment.? If the seals were damaged, the resulting leak would eventually lead to a 'loss of coolant accident' and reactor core uncovery.? With nowhere for the heat to go, the core would literally melt itself and the metal vessel containing it.? The damage to both the plant and to the nuclear industry would be catastrophic. ?Not to mention, if this happened while the men were still inside, the water coming out of the seal package would instantaneously flash to steam and they would be burned to death-immediately.?

  The perp apparently hadn't expected anyone to find him in here, because he hadn't tried to hide the explosive device he'd planted on the seal package.? The Old Man saw it sitting there, in plain sight.?

  It was a small cylindrical device about the size of a bottle of wine cut in half.? The top had what looked like a piece of copper covering it.? He assumed this contained C-4 military grade explosive or something similar.? He could see a PETN detonator attached to it, with wires leading off to some kind of detonation device.? By the contours of the thing, it looked like a shaped charge.? The amount of C-4 was probably less than a brick-maybe 1.25 pounds.? If simply strapped onto the side of the seal, the force when detonated would blow out, away from the target area.? But if the C-4 was placed in a shaped charge, when detonated the heat and pressure would cause the inverted cone at the bottom of the small canister to melt and push outward, focusing the force of the explosion in one small area and yielding catastrophic results.?

  Because of the constant vibration on the pump and seal assembly, the Old Man assumed there was no tamper device on the explosive.??Jansen, or his man, wouldn't want it to go off until it was time.? With so much concrete and steel in containment, no radio transmitter would be able to set it off.? That meant a timer.? He couldn't see any det cord or other short-term fuse, but as he approached the bomb, he saw a digital timer counting down.? It was set to go off at 0700, still a couple of hours away.?

  The Old Man recognized this as marginally good news.? Because the bomb had a timer, he knew how much time he had to get it out of there and disarmed.? But he didn't want to waste any time.? This was a highly dangerous place.? The heat and vibration were intense and perhaps more than the bomb-maker had anticipated.? In addition, the radiation field might cause the timer to malfunction and detonate earlier than expected.? He doubted that the device was specially made for this application or shielded against the radiation.? Whoever had made it was probably not a nuclear physicist.? By the looks of it, the bomb-maker knew something about bombs but probably not about the effects of radiation on timers.? All in all, the Old Man had a number of worries.? Not the least of which was that he and Hector didn't know the status of the terrorist.? He could come back their way if he was still alive.

  The Old Man moved in as close as he dared and looked at the device.? The heat being given off this close to the pump was overwhelming.? He couldn't stay there for long.? He had no protective gear on, no gloves or eye protection.? He saw that the device was tie-wrapped to a nearby stanchion, held in place against the outside of the seal package.? It would be easy enough to cut the nylon tie wrap and remove the device.? But how stupid was it to use a plastic tie wrap!? The damn thing could melt and the bomb would fall to the floor.? Maybe it was meant to detonate sooner rather than later.? It didn't really matter.? It needed to be removed.? It was then he realized he didn't have a knife.? Shit!? He stepped back from the device and moved over to Hector.

  "Hector!" he shouted.? "Do you have a knife?"?

  "What?"

  "Knife!? I need a knife!" he shouted again.?

  Without looking down, Hector removed his left hand from his weapon, reached down to his pants and pulled out a small pocket knife with what looked like a three-inch blade.? He handed it to the Old Man and put his hand back to his rifle, still watching the back entrance for the perp.

  The Old Man took the knife and moved quickly back to the seal package.? Sweat was literally pouring off his forehead and into his eyes, stinging them.? His shirt was soaked and sticking to his body.? Even his hands were sweating, and he needed to be careful not to let the knife slip.?

  When he got back to the device, he glanced down at the timer again and froze as a sudden chill raced through his body.? It wasn't counting down anymore!? It read gibberish, as if it's brain was scrambled from the heat.? He didn't know if it was going to go off in a minute or an hour.? He needed to get it out of there now!? Being careful seemed irrelevant now.? He opened the knife, cradled the device in one hand, and cut the tie wrap holding it in place.? It didn't come free.? Something else must be securing it.? He needed to back away for a moment so the skin on his face didn't burn, but he could only go so far because he was holding onto the device with one hand.? With his free hand he wiped the sweat around his face, providing some relief.? He took a deep breath and moved back in, tilting his head so he could see around it he saw a second tie wrap hidden behind the C-4 itself.? He quickly cut that one, too, and the device came loose in his hand.? He immediately pulled away from the pump, his skin already red and showing the signs of first degree burns.?

  He looked at the timer display again.? It appeared to be changing but still reading gibberish.? He hoped that meant it was still counting and that only the display itself was malfunctioning, but knew that he couldn't count on that.

  Holding the device as carefully as he could, he shouted at Hector to get his attention.? Hector looked over at the device the Old Man was carrying, gave the barest of nods, and motioned to him to follow as he led the way back out of the labyrinth to the stairwell, and out of this man-made hellhole.?

  Still unsure who they might find on their way back, the two moved up the stairs with Hector taking the lead.? As they approached the last flight of stairs before the top landing, Hector paused.?

  "What are we stopping for?? We've got to get this out of here!" the Old Man shouted at him.?

  Hector gave him a look that conveyed he didn't need to be told the flapping obvious!? He moved up the last set of stairs to the main floor, when something caught his eye over toward the airlock.? He turned and saw Hays and Henderson standing there.? From their relaxed posture he assumed the shots they'd heard were two slugs lodged in the perp's chest, or perhaps his head.? Right now all he knew was that
they needed to get the bomb out of containment.?

  As it turned out, Hays had encountered the perp trying to flee up the back stairwell and shot him twice.? The guy fell backward down the stairs and came to rest with his neck in an unnatural position, his eyes looking out with a dead stare.? Hays opted to leave him there for the time being and get out of containment.? The radiation wasn't going to do any further damage to the terrorist.

  The four of them exited containment the same way they'd come in, one door at a time, with the Old Man carefully carrying the explosive device.?

  Outside the airlock, Hays called Pak to take over the bomb.? Pak was an expert in ordnance, so the job of disarming the device fell to him.??He looked at it before he took it from the Old Man.? He wanted to make sure there were no hidden booby traps that would be triggered for whatever reason.?Seeing none, he reached out and gently took the bomb.

  "What's with the timer?" Pak asked.? "Was it doing this the whole time?"

  "It was reading numbers when I got there.? It looked like it was set to detonate at 0700.? But then this . . . " the Old Man pointed to the constantly changing gibberish.?

  Without looking up, Pak said to Hays, "Get the boys out of here.? Get them out now!"

  Hays looked at Hector, who said, "This way!"

  "Wait!" shouted the Old Man.? Looking at Hays, he asked, "Can we assume he only brought one device with him?? What if he had more?? Could he carry that much?"

  Hays furrowed his brow.? "It's possible he could have taken two in, but doubtful that he could have carried more.? They're too big and bulky.? Besides, he wasn't in there that long."? Then almost as an afterthought, he said,? "Did any of you see a backpack?"

  They each looked at one another and shook their heads.?

  Hays said, "He would've had to carry them in there in something.? If you guys didn't see a backpack where you were, that tells me there's probably a second device and the guy left the backpack at the other location.? Two separate targets.?

  "I've got to go back in," the Old Man said.

  "You can't," Pak said.? "This thing is unstable and may go off at any time.? If there's another one in there it's probably in a similar or worse condition.? If you go back in, you may not get back out.? I'll go!"

  "You don't know where you're going or what you're looking for.? I can move fast now because we know the bad guy is down.? I need to be the one, and we're wasting time discussing it!? Hector, get everyone out of here."

  Without waiting for anyone to respond, argue, or even agree, the Old Man ran back and disappeared inside the emergency airlock.?