Nothing like modesty, Bond thought. Aloud he tried to say 'Really?' with a convincing gasp.
'Let me tell you...' Murik launched into his own version of his brilliant career. Most of what he said corresponded with what Bond already knew, deviating only when the Laird started to talk about his final disagreements with the International Commission. In Murik's version, he had resigned out of protest. 'Those who fight for the abolition of nuclear power stations in their present form are right,' he said in a voice that had slowly been rising in agitation. 'Note, Mr Bond, I say intheir present form.They are unsafe. Governments are keeping the truth concerning their potential dangers from the general public. Government agencies have tried, again and again, to muzzle people like me. Now they deserve a lesson. They say that the only way out of the energy crisis is to use nuclear power. They are right: but that power must be made safe. How is electricity made, Mr Bond?'
'By turning a generator.'
'Quite; and the generator is operated usually by a turbine, in turn operated how, Mr Bond?'
'Water, in hydro-electric plants; boiling water producing steam in other types of plant.'
'Good; and the steam is produced through boiling the water, using coal, oil, gas or the core of a nuclear reactor.' He gave another little laugh. 'An expensive way to boil water, don't you think? Using nuclear power?'
'I hadn't thought of it like that. It's always struck me as being one of the few sure ways to produce energy and power without using dwindling supplies of oil and fossil fuels.'
Murik nodded, 'In many ways I agree. I do not go along with Professor Lovins when he says that using nuclear power to boil water is like using a chainsaw to cut butter though he does have something on his side: wasted heat. No, the problem, Mr Bond, is one of safety and control. Nuclear reactors, as they now stand throughout the world, put our planet and its people at risk...'
'You mean the problem of radioactive waste?'
'No. I'm talking about unavoidable accident. There have already been incidents galore. If you're an intelligent man you must know that: 1952, Chalk River, Ontario; 1955, Idaho Falls; 1957, Windscale, England; '58, Chalk River, Canada; '61, Idaho Falls; 1970, Illinois; '71, Minnesota; '75, Alabama; '76, Vermont. Need I go on? Or should I mention the Kyshtym catastrophe in the U.S.S.R. when an atomic waste dump exploded in the Urals? Spillage, partial fuel meltdown. One day, with the kind of reactors we have at the moment, there will be catastrophe. Yet governments remain silent. The Carter Administration almost admitted it...' He rummaged among some papers. There. 1977 "Between now and the year 2000 therewill be a serious core meltdown of a nuclear reactor; but with proper siting such accidents can be contained". Contained? Proper siting? Do you realise what a core meltdown means, Mr Bond?'
'Is that something to do with what they call the China Syndrome? I saw a movie with Jane Fonda...' Bond continued to play innocent.
Anton Murik nodded. 'A nuclear reactor produces its enormous heat from a core a controlled chain reaction, and as long as it's controlled all is well. However, if there is a failure in the cooling system a ruptured pipe, a shattered vessel, the coolant lost that's it. The core is just left to generate more and more heat; create more and more radioactivity...'
'Until it goes off like a bomb?' Despite Anton Murik's fanaticism, Bond found himself absorbed in what the man was saying.
Murik shook his head. 'No, not quite like the big bang, but the results are fairly spectacular. One of the great American-born poets wrote, "This is the way the world ends; not with a bang but a whimper." The whimper would be a kind of tremor, a rumble, with the earth moving, and one hell of a lot of radioactive particles being released. The core itself would become so hot that nothing could stop it, right through the earth rock, earth, metal nothing could stand in its way. Right through to China, Mr Bond; the Pekin Express and that could happen in any one of the nuclear reactors operating in the world today. The trouble is thatIcould make it safe for them.' He gave a long slow smile, then a shrug. 'But, of course, as usual, the money men won't play. My system is foolproof, but they won't allow me to build it, or show them how.' He paused again, looking hard at Bond, 'Can you blame me, Mr Bond? I'm going to demonstrate how unsafe the present systems are and at the same time show them just how safe they could be.'
Bond shook his head. 'No, I wouldn't blame you for doing that if your systemisas safe as you say.' For a second he thought the Laird of Murcaldy was going to lash out at him.
'What do you mean?' Murik screamed. 'What doyou know, Bond? If my system is safe?Ifmy system is as safe as Isay? I'm telling you, I have the only positively one hundred per cent safe nuclear reactor system; and because of grasping economists, because of contracts and profits, because of self-seeking politicians, they've tried to make a laughing stock of me.' He seemed to relax, drawing back into his chair.
During the long speeches about nuclear reactors, Bond had managed to steal two more glances at the large map.
The American targets were ringed in red chinagraph. Now he had managed to identify the English and French locations. Heysham One and Saint-Laurent-des-Eaux Two.
What was this man going to do? Was his brilliance so unhinged that he was prepared to expose governments or organisations he hated by sending suicide terrorists into nuclear reactor sites to manufacture disaster that might affect the entire world? Would his madness carry him that far? Meltdown of course.
Murik was speaking again. 'I have prepared a master plan that will do both of the things I require.' He gestured towards the map, giving Bond the opportunity to take another look, his eyes moving unerringly to Germany.
There it was, marked in red like the others.
Bond experienced a sinking deep in his stomach when he realised that there were two targets marked in the German area,onein the Federal Republic, the other in the East in the DDR. So, even the Eastern Bloc had not been left оut of Anton Murik's plans. In the East it was Nord Two-Two. The site in West Germany could be identified as Esenshamm. Now Bond had them all locked in his brain. The job would be to lead Murik on to reveal the bulk of his Operation Meltdown; though, even without further information, Bond considered the mission complete. If he could get out that night, M.I.5 would be able to track down and isolate Murik and with luck collar Franco through the American security agencies. Meltdown could be blown, and with it the instigator, Warlock: Anton Murik.
'My little plan will alert the world to the horrific danger that exists through the nuclear plants already built and working.' Murik gave another of his chuckles, rising to a full-throated laugh, 'It will also provide me with the necessary capital to build my own safe plant, and demonstrate to those cretins and profit-seekers that it is possible to use nuclear energy without putting the human race at risk.'