“How did he get in then if nobody knows he’s here?” she asked.
“I’m sure he’ll tell you later,” Dave said, trying to hurry her along. “In the mean time, he needs to see you.”
She felt her heart pounding in her ears. “So just where is this package boiler room?”
“Go over to the Unit 1 turbine building and exit outside on the 85-foot elevation by the main transformers. Walk east and you’ll come to a set of stairs that go up toward the ventilation area. You know where I mean?”
“Yes, I think so. I don’t go out there much.”
“Okay,” he continued. “Just before you head up those stairs, there’s a door on the side of the building. It’s not labeled. That’s the package boiler room. Go inside and you should see an old boiler — cold iron and shut down.”
“But what if…”
“Just go, and try not to talk to anyone on the way. I have to go.”
With that, Dave hung up the phone. He wasn’t so sure about any of this. He didn’t know what Nick wanted with the senior resident inspector. He didn’t know Marti well other than the occasional inspection hours she’d logged in the control room and the periodic meetings they were both in at the same time. But this was out of his hands now. He had other things to worry about and was already moving.
Marti’s heart was pumping as she hung up the phone. She jumped to her feet, grabbed her gear and headed to the elevators. Turning a corner on her way down the hall, she glanced out the windows. Something she saw struck her as strange. She instinctively went closer to the window to get a better look. She was looking out over the back of the facility toward the warehouse. It was lit up to dispel the darkness outside, which was perhaps why she could see them so clearly. Coming down from the warehouse were six men, dressed like security officers, and all carrying rifles and satchels. They were walking purposefully, not fast and not slow. It just struck her as odd that six armed responders would all be together at the same time. She normally saw them one at a time. And what are they doing at the warehouse? The hair on her arms stood up. Perhaps it was the way they were walking? More likely she was just edgy because of everything that was going on. She shook her head as if to clear it, turned, and headed to the elevator to find the package boiler room — and Nick.
As she got on the elevator and pressed the button for the ground floor, she suddenly felt trapped. There was only one way in and one way out. She’d never considered that before. Why would she? And even though no one was on the elevator with her, she shivered at the thought.
When she got to the ground floor, she felt relieved to exit the elevator. God! Was she up for any of this? She couldn’t believe how all this was affecting her. She wasn’t usually this jumpy. Get a hold of yourself!
She exited the admin building and headed through the Unit 1 turbine building, out to the transformer area, as instructed. She looked to the east and found the stairs that Dave had told her about. She saw the unmarked door near the bottom of the stairs that she assumed was the one she was looking for. She started for the door when a security officer came up from behind, startling her.
“Excuse me ma’am. Can I please see your key card?”
She turned with a start and looked at a security officer in a black jump suit, wearing a black turtleneck under his uniform, black highly polished jump boots, with a communications device in his ear, and an M-16 slung over his shoulder. She felt she must have looked guilty by the way he was studying her before he looked carefully at her badge.
“Mind if I ask what you’re doing out here at this time of night?” he asked.
Marti froze in place, shrinking from his penetrating gaze, not knowing quite what to say.
Because she wasn’t moving or responding to his inquiries, he reached out to take hold of the badge hanging around her neck, lightly grazing the space between her breasts with his hand as he did so. He turned the badge over and saw the initials ‘NRC’ on it. He looked back at her face for a moment, and then let go of the badge and watched it fall back in place on her chest.
His touching her, shocked Marti into action. She pulled back slightly and in a defiant tone, said, “I’m the NRC resident inspector and I’m inspecting the plant!”
The security officer maintained an expressionless face and tone. “At this time of night?”
“Do you have a problem with that? Or should we get the vice president and your boss on the line… right now?” Marti was breathing hard now.
The security officer just looked at her again for what seemed to Marti like a very long time, and then said, “Just doing my job Ms. Callahan. You have a nice evening.” With that, he turned and walked into the turbine building electrical switchgear room.
Marti’s heart was racing and her hands were trembling. She slunk back into the shadows for a moment so she could get out of sight and collect herself. Her heart told her she was being watched. Her intellect said that’s absurd! Nonetheless, she waited another minute, trying to slow her breathing down. She looked around, and seeing no one else, she took a deep breath and continued to walk toward the unmarked door, feeling exposed under the bright lights flooding the transformer area. She hurried to the door and walked inside, quickly shutting it behind her. She saw what must be the boiler Dave had told her about, which was obviously not in service and probably hadn’t been in quite some time. She didn’t even know it was here or what it was for.
She stood still for a moment, not seeing anyone inside and not really knowing what to do next. Maybe she was in the wrong room. She was flustered by her encounter with the security officer and still breathing hard when Nick came out from behind the boiler. She felt relieved and moved over to him, just wanting to be close to someone right now and feel safe.
I heard the door open and hoped it was Marti. I felt vulnerable just standing around and was getting antsy to get moving. With only one way in and one way out, this room didn’t leave me with a lot of options. Carefully peeking around the corner of the package boiler, with one hand on my weapon, I was relieved to see it was her, though I couldn’t help noticing how upset she looked. I stepped out from behind the boiler and headed over to her. As she saw me, she appeared to relax.
“Hey, Marti!” She was obviously uneasy about something. “What’s wrong?” I asked as I approached her.
“A security officer just stopped me. I’m not sure I handled it well and I don’t know if he believed me that I was just out doing a tour at this time of night, but it was all I could think of.”
She said all this in a rush, speaking quickly. I reached out and put my hand on her shoulder to calm her down, which stopped her from talking. I could feel her trembling slightly. I assumed it was from her encounter with the security officer.
“I’m sure you did just fine.”
More slowly this time, Marti said, “I guess I’m a bit flustered because he touched me inappropriately. He took hold of my badge to look at it.” She looked down at her chest as she said this.
I, too, looked down and notice where the badge was resting on her blouse. To take hold of it would result in some contact with her. I tried not to show any emotion.
“He was probably just trying to intimidate you,” I told her, hoping to calm her down.
“Well, if that was his intent, it worked!”
I found myself starting to feel protective of Marti. Perhaps her slight build had something to do with it. My first thought was that I’d have to have a short discussion with that security officer. It would be a discussion he would not enjoy in the least. But then I checked myself and said, “Hey, Old Man, come on over here and meet Marti.”