Better said than done, I thought, as I tried that hatch wheel again. Trask must have wedged something in there.
“Fire axe,” Tony said, pointing to the other end of the room. There was another hose reel down there, this one for CO 2, and right next to it was an old-fashioned fire axe. There was also a glass-fronted locker with what looked like firemen’s oxygen breathing apparatus hanging inside. The windows of the control room were beginning to fog up outside from all the heat and humidity being stirred up by that stream of water blasting down into the moonpool. I looked at the depth gauge again: just under thirty-one feet. Baby was losing ground.
“Should we mask up?” I asked Ari, but he had drifted away again, his head lolling on his chin while he mumbled something incomprehensible.
We examined the main door, which indeed had no handles-but it did have hinges.
“I’ll get the masks,” I told Tony. “You’ve got two good arms: Take the axe to those hinges, see if you can get ’em off.”
Ari rolled over to the floor like a sinking ship while I went into the cabinet and pulled out four masks. They were attached to canisters, which were either oxygen generators or an air-mixture chemical, I couldn’t tell which. Tony was hacking away with the fire axe at the middle hinge with some effect. There were more red lights on the control panel, and I noticed one that was labeled STACK TEMP. Its needle was red-lined, and the indicated temperature was certainly high enough to boil water, which was probably why the windows were now totally obscured.
Tony had the middle hinge destroyed and was hacking away at the bottom one. The top one would be tough, as there was no room to get a proper swing at it. I donned one mask and adjusted the straps. Then I put another one on Ari. His eyes came back into focus and looked at me with a glare of apprehension. When I saw his cheeks puff out, I ripped the mask off and pointed his face into a trashcan as the ether displayed one of its more disgusting side effects. He puked his guts out for over a minute. I pulled the tab on my canister, and the air was suddenly much better. Then there was a serious bang from the door, and Tony stepped back away from it as a second bang hit the structure. Someone was hammering on it from the other side, and the bottom half of the door was slanting open from the top hinge.
“Here,” I yelled at Tony, pitching him a mask. As cops we were familiar with firefighting gear, and he knew how to don and activate the mask. The hammering on the main door continued, and we could see light from under the door.
“Gimme that axe,” I said.
Tony passed it over and asked what I was going to do.
“You stay here, handle the cavalry. I’m going after Trask.”
“Thanks a heap,” he said. “And what do I tell all those happy campers out there?”
“Tell ’em the moonpool’s boiling,” I said, standing back and taking a semi-mighty swing at the hatch handle. “Oh, and tell ’em Thomason’s still out there.”
I hit the hatch handle again, and this time I heard something metallic clanging down the ladder underneath. I tried the handle, and it rotated. I opened the hatch and snapped it back. The hole underneath revealed that the lights were still out, but I didn’t fear an ambush. Trask had done what he’d come to do: create pandemonium at the plant, and soon out in the civilian population if that big siren meant what I thought it did. His water-poisoning scheme might not work from an engineering point of view, but that had never been his objective. Breach plant security from the inside and cause a major radiation emergency in the moonpool. Create mass confusion, alarm the whole countryside with reports of radiation in the drinking water and a possible meltdown at the plant, and generate months’ worth of investigations and horrific publicity.
I went down the ladder, awkwardly because of the breathing mask, and pulled the hatch shut just as the main control room door came crashing down in a flood of white light and several figures in moonsuits came piling into the control room, all talking at once. I was relieved to see no one pointing guns. This was the technical staff.
I slipped down the ladder to the mezzanine level, went to the closed door, and listened. There was more activity out in the stairwell, but it still sounded more like technicians than cops. The emergency lighting was still on in the pump machinery room, even though the stairwell lights had been turned back on. I took down one of the lights and searched for the escape trunk, which I found at the back corner of the room. The hatch was open and waiting.
I turned around to go down and then hesitated. Trask would have been in a hurry, but would he have left the hatch open like this? I knelt down, shone the light beam down the ladder, and tried to see what was in the room below. The ladder went straight down at least fifteen feet onto a concrete floor.
The ladder.
I felt the top rung and tested the ladder’s strength. The top fixtures came right out of their sockets, and the whole thing began to lean backward into the room below. I had to pull hard just to hold on to it.
Nice try, Colonel, I thought. If I’d jumped onto that thing in a hurry, I’d have gone over backward onto the concrete and whatever else down there. I wedged the top of the ladder frame against the top sockets and went to look for some substitute pins. The best I could come up with was some pieces of electrical wire until I remembered the ladder coming down into the mezzanine room. It had pins securing the bottom fixtures. I removed these and set them into the next ladder, clambered aboard, and went down as fast as I could, my feet hitting every other rung. I was glad for the mask, because the oxygen-enriched atmosphere was giving me a real energy boost, which I sorely needed.
At the bottom I shone the emergency light around the darkened room, which had no battery-operated lights of its own. This room was much smaller than the equipment and machinery rooms above, and held nothing other than four steel clothes lockers. Three were locked; one was not. I opened that one and found four bags of dry cleaning hanging in clear plastic. Each bag contained a uniform, the same ones worn by all the contract cops. One looked big enough, so I went to the door, listened, and heard two men arguing out in the security anteroom about the best way to get more fire hoses up to the moonpool.
I shucked my wet clothes and put on the largest uniform, which fit well enough. I rolled my clothes into a wet ball and stuffed them behind the lockers. There was one well-used blue ball cap on top of the lockers marked with the word SECURITY. I retied my boots and went to the door.
What I needed now was to get out of this building and acquire a weapon on the way out. I tried the door handle from my side, twisting it in slow motion. It seemed to be working. I released it back to the neutral position and tried to think. One guy out there sounded like he was on a phone while the other was feeding him information. If I stepped out of here with the mask on, they’d assume I was one of them, at least for a moment. Then I heard a crowd of people come into the anteroom and lots of voices. The voices sounded muffled-were they in masks? I cracked the door and discovered an entire crew of suited-up technicians, all wearing masks similar to mine, and all carrying various pieces of handheld test equipment. Now was the moment.
I stepped through the door, behind most of the people crowding the anteroom. The two security guards, who were not wearing masks, were overwhelmed checking everyone in. I walked as casually as I could over to the front door and stepped out into the night air. Unfortunately, there was another security guard out there, incredibly, given all the alarms, smoking a cigarette, and he was one of the original two guards we’d chained up under the desk. He was wearing a Colt M4 strapped over his right shoulder now, and he blinked when I stepped out. I saw recognition flare into his eyes, so I didn’t hesitate-I stepped into him, punched him once in his overlarge gut, and then put him out with a medium-strength rabbit to the base of his neck. I let him down easily onto the concrete steps, dragged him around to some bushes by the door, took off the breathing rig, and very happily relieved him of that lovely Colt and the spare clip of ammo.
Then I began trotting down the walk toward the tailrace,
suddenly very aware of that big-voiced siren blaring into the night air, telling the citizens of Brunswick County that there was trouble, big trouble, right here in River City. The good news was that I didn’t see anything, vaporous or otherwise, spewing out of the spent fuel storage building, even though there were now big red strobe lights going on all four corners. I hoped that calling it a containment building wasn’t just a PR expression.
I crossed the perimeter road and headed out into the open space between the industrial area and the perimeter fences. I went through the cask storage area, stepping into the shadows to look behind me for any signs of security forces. More vehicles were pulling up to the moonpool building, but the only blue strobes I saw were all the way out around the main gates to Helios. I wondered if they were inside or outside the perimeter.
And where was fucking Trask? He’d talked as if he was going to stick around for the inevitable fun and games once the problem with the moonpool was contained. If that was so, there’d be an awful lot of loose ends. Me, to start with, and then Tony, Ari Quartermain, Pardee, and Thomason, assuming he survived his radiation bath. He’d acted like he was going to stand up and testify against everyone. I wondered when the adults at Helios would begin to see what they were dealing with.
I finally made it down to the fence itself, near the tailrace. The whole time the siren had been going, the two big jets of cooling water had never stopped. I remembered what Ari had said: The moonpool was separate. It had nothing to do with the reactors, and Helios was firmly on the grid. I kept looking for the shepherds, hoping against hope that I’d see two bounding, sharp-eared friends coming to join me in the next adventure, but there was no sign of them anywhere. I tried not to think of that insidious rotor at the base of the cooling jets’ impact area. I squeezed away images of my two loyal companions rolling around in that for eternity.
Where was Trask? Running to his boat? Had Billy moved the boat around to the inlet canal for easier access? Not possible-that would take too long. So where was Billy? He’s busy, Trask had said. Busy doing what?
Behind me I sensed lights. When I turned to look, I saw two security vehicles coming full tilt in my direction. Okay, someone in the control room had pulsed the system about one of their people down at the tailrace. What people? We don’t have anyone down at the tailrace. It’s them.
I hit that hole in the fence and struggled to get through. It was easier without my vest. Once through, I ran as fast as I could as the two vehicles came screeching to a halt inside the fence. I was into the trees before they had a chance to climb out and position their weapons. Just in case, I hit the deck as soon as I was out of sight, and a good thing, too, because some eager beaver cut loose with a burst, which showered bits of trees all over me. I was tempted to shoot back, but these were still just security guys doing their jobs. I crawled diagonally through the weeds until I was pretty sure they’d lost interest. Hopefully they hadn’t brought any dogs, and would now be asking Control if they had authority to go outside the fence.
I trotted through the woods, which were getting darker the farther I got from all the lights at Helios. I swerved to my left to regain the towpath along the canal, swatting branches out of my face, and unlimbering that Colt as I went. After five minutes, I stopped to regain my breath and check out the gun. It was an M4 6920, a law enforcement model, and a beauty of an assault weapon. I made sure it was ready to work, and then resumed my advance through the woods to where we’d left Trask’s boat. I wondered if it was smart to be running out here in the open area of the path. About the time I thought maybe I should divert back into the woods, Billy the Kid stood up in the path, pointed some kind of short-shoulder weapon at me, and told me to stop right there. One of his eyes was swollen shut, but the other one radiated true rage.
If that guard hadn’t said something about Billy shooting my dogs, I might have reacted properly and stopped in my tracks. Instead I looked at him and then said, “Hi there, short-eyes, fucked any little boys lately?” As his one working eye widened, I screamed to further distract him and then ran full tilt into him, the butt of the Colt held at face level. I stabbed the stock into his forehead before he could even think about pulling his own trigger, and then, as he staggered backward, a waterfall of blood blinding him, I kicked him in the crotch. Hard. Fourth-down punt hard.
He gave a mortal grunt of pain and pitched forward to his knees with a gagging sound, and then I struck down with the butt of the Colt and put his evil young ass firmly on the ground. It was all I could do not to shoot him. Instead, I took some deep breaths, and then I delivered four precise kicks to the so-called charley-horse points on his arms and legs. That would ensure limb paralysis when and if he came to.
I took his weapon and pitched it into the canal.
Trask, I reminded myself. Find Trask. You can’t know what this is really all about until you take Trask.
I started trotting down the towpath, into increasing darkness, now that Billy had been neutralized.
Big mistake. What had Trask said when I asked him where Billy was?
Busy.
I hit the tripwire at full tilt and went flying, legs ensnared in something wiry and my body arcing through the air until I was hanging upside down from a tree limb above the towpath. As I twirled in the air, I looked around frantically to see who’d come to gloat.
Nobody came. I could see the lights of Helios from over the treetops, but the ground spinning below remained dark and silent.
I unlimbered the M4, got it into shooting position, even though I was upside down. Come on out, sumbitches, and see what happens. But nobody came out of the woods to declare victory.
Okay, I thought. Engage brain and get your ass down.
It was harder than getting under that fence. The blood was pooling into my head, and my brain resisted doing anything useful.
I took another look around, still saw no one in the dark woods, and started bending myself into a U-shape. I finally got ahold of the wire, which had been thoughtfully greased for my climbing enjoyment. Busy Billy, indeed. But where was Trask? Watching from the woods? I didn’t think so. And the fact that Billy was lurking on the trail leading back to the boat told me that the boat might still be there.
Get down, get to the boat, and wait for Mr. Trask.
Sounded like a plan to me.
A wire noose had my right foot in a tight vise. I was bent double, holding on to my right foot, since the wire was slipperier than owl shit. I couldn’t climb the wire.
Swing. Swing until you can grab the branch, I thought.
And that’s what I did-I induced a broad swing, doubled up in the shape of a climber’s carabiner, until I could reach out and grab the branch from which the wire was suspended. After that, I could release the noose, and then use the noose to swing myself back down and drop to the ground.
My arm hurt, and now my ankle hurt. My pride hurt. I was no closer to Trask. That big siren was still wailing at Helios, and I had a fleeting vision of Tony facing off with the cast of thousands dealing with the moonpool. I think I was the one better off.
I tried to remember where Trask’s boat had been anchored, how far down the outlet canal. I decided to walk, not run, and this time stay inside the woods line instead of on the path. I became more careful of what else might be waiting for me. Trask had thought ahead of me all the way here, and it probably wasn’t over.
Twenty minutes later, I caught a glimpse of the Keeper, still anchored out in the outlet canal. There was a bow wave visible at her stem as the current from the condenser jets pushed downstream toward the Cape Fear estuary. I’d forgotten to check to see if that partially deflated dinghy was still in its tree.
No matter. There was the boat. Still no lights. Still no signs of life, and no Trask. Okay, then: What’s the plan? Billy wasn’t going to be able to come out and play anytime soon, so: Swim out there? Or play AT amp;T, and reach out and touch someone?
I settled down on the dark bank of the canal. It was cold now. That was
good. Evil reptiles were still dying upcountry. I unslung the M4, leaned against a tree trunk, and waited. The siren was not as loud down here in the woods. Surely they’d found a way to refill that pool by now. So why was the siren still going?
It was late and I was one cold, weary bastard.
What in the world had Trask been thinking? That he was going to get away with this? Cause chaos at a nuclear power plant and then casually stroll into work the next day, see what was shaking? Hi, guys, I need to make a statement?
Technically, it didn’t make sense to me, even if I was technically ignorant when it came to nuke power plants. On the other hand, he’d rolled a terroristic bowling ball into a clutch of bureaucratic tenpins: the NRC bureaucrats, who loved nuclear power but had to live a split-personality life in their regulatory personae; the power company, providing the only source of totally nonpolluting electricity, except when something went wrong; the FBI, suspicious of everybody, painfully aware of past failures in intelligence and counter-terrorism, and now seeing wild-eyed, virgin-obsessed rag-heads under every truck; Homeland Security, at war with the terrorists, the flying public, and the FBI; and don’t forget the benighted local cops-state, county, city-trying hard to live right while the federal host maneuvered all around them, often creating as much chaos as they were untangling.
Trask may have had it right. Don’t execute an actual terrorist plot. Ignite a bureaucratic calamity. Make it seem as real and scary as possible. These days, in a complacent country, the perception of terror would be indistinguishable from the real deal, at least until the pregnant lady in the headscarf walked into the day-care center and pulled the wire hidden under her burkah.
I looked out at that boat. For some reason, I was convinced that he was there. He was probably sitting on that comfortable screened deck, having a drink, and smiling in the dark. His Billy Boy was taking care of business out there in the woods. His primary antagonists were in custody at the plant, trying to explain to a bunch of outraged nukes what they were doing there. The locals were cowering in their houses as the plant siren proclaimed that there was an invisible Destroyer abroad in the countryside. As he figured it, all he had to do was wait until daylight, and then appear back at the plant and add to the confusion.
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