“It’s on the other side of the control room,” he said. “But that should be okay. Once inside, you’ll be behind some instrument panels that’ll shield you from view of the control room operators. You can slip around behind them and get very close to the shift manager’s office without being seen. Go to the right and it’ll bring you right up to Dave’s door. The operators may hear the door open but will likely not think too much about it. But move quickly, in case they do. Once inside, you’re on your own.”
I checked my Glock and made sure the magazine was fully loaded — something I already knew, but checked anyway.
“Hector, while Jerry is compiling the list, I need you to brief Prichard. I imagine he’s in his office. Tell him what you know and what we’re doing. He needs the information. Tell him I’ll talk to him later.”
“Okay,” Hector acknowledged. “But we don’t have any extra key cards just sitting around for you to use. I’m going to need mine. No way I’m sending my guys out in the field on this without me.”
Jerry pulled his off his lanyard. “Here, use mine. I’m not going anywhere. And it’ll get you in anywhere you need to go.”
Hector frowned at yet another security violation but nodded his head in agreement. He was way past worrying about the many rules already broken tonight.
“Thanks, Jerry,” I said as I took the badge and key card and put them in my pocket.
Then I got out my cell phone and dialed a secure number.
“Red Two, this is Red One. You are go for intrusion. North end of Unit 1 as planned. Once inside, take up positions outside containment airlock Unit 1.”
“Copy that, Red One. Does the security staff know we’re the good guys?”
“They’re being briefed, but no guarantees. There are six, say again, six bad guys inside, dressed like armed responders, and carrying weapons.”
“You’re not making this easy on us, boss,” the Red Two leader said.
“Hey, if it was easy, the FBI would be doing it, right? Give me five minutes, then go.”
“Copy that, boss. Five minutes… hack. Red Two out.”
I looked at everyone, giving them all a moment to provide any last input. Hearing none, I gave a short nod to the Old Man and turned to leave SAS.
The Old Man grabbed me by the arm. “That back door to the control room is heavy and is NOT quiet. Someone will hear it open. They may not see you but they will hear you. You won’t have much time once you open it.”
I looked at him and a moment passed between us.
“Understood.”
With that, I left the confines of the secondary alarm station. It was time to engage the enemy. And God help them. Now it had become personal.
CHAPTER 56
I literally ran out of the SAS building, found the stairwell outside the main control room door as Hector had described, and went down a flight of stairs. A secure door was on the landing. I used Jerry’s key card, and the door clicked open. Inside I found a maze of conduits and wire runs hanging from the ceiling. This must be the cable spreading room that Hector had described. I hurried to the other side of the room, trying not to hit my head as I went, and found the door out, leading to the other stairwell. I bounded up two stairs at a time to the back door of the control room.
As the Old Man had said, it looked heavy and well reinforced. I wasn’t familiar with the control room layout, so I had to go with what the Old Man had told me. I usually did more planning than this, but it couldn’t be helped. Speed and surprise were my best assets right now.
Just outside the door, I saw a hand geometry station near the keypad for the door. I had a key card but my hand would not be the one associated with it. Damn it! I immediately got out my cell phone and called the number for SAS.
“Jerry, Nick. We’ve got another problem. There’s a hand geometry station on the door to the control room. Can you override it?”
“Yeah. Things were happening so fast, I forgot that. Wait one…” Jerry said.
As I stood there, I flashed back to a previous mission. No time. No time. My team was in trouble. I had to move and I had to go in the door where they were and count on the fact that the enemy wasn’t expecting me. Only this time it wasn’t Eric, it was Marti. I had a visceral reaction to the flashback and almost threw up. Part of my post-traumatic-stress-disorder. At least, that’s what the doc thought. Get a grip! Fuck it!
I heard Jerry talking to me again. “Nick? Nick, are you there?”
“Sorry. Yeah, I’m here…”
“I’ve disabled the hand geometry station. You should be able to get in with just my key card.”
“Good work. Thanks!”
“Yeah, but you better hurry. This isn’t something I can hide from CAS. They’re going to be calling me in a minute to find out what’s going on.”
“Copy that,” I said and hung up.
Gun in hand, I closed my eyes for a moment and slowed my breathing. This barely took a few seconds, but it was time well spent. I felt my muscles relax which was what I wanted right now.
I opened my eyes and swiped the key card. The control room door clicked open. I pushed the heavy door open and slipped inside the nerve center of the nuclear station. Despite my best efforts, the door closed with a dull thud, which sounded like a clap of thunder to me. I looked to my right and saw the 10-foot-tall instrument panels that the Old Man had described. I ducked behind them and worked my way round to the end. It only took a few seconds.
I peered around the corner and saw I was just outside what I assumed was the shift manager’s office. The door, which had a window in it, was closed and I couldn’t see inside. If I poked my head out too far the control room operators would surely see me. I looked at my watch. The five minutes I gave Red Two was almost up. I waited, hoping none of the operators on watch would need to come behind these instrument panels for any reason.
Red Two was in position. Each team member had a target he needed to get to once inside the perimeter.
There were cameras in strategic locations designed to allow the station security force to observe intruders and direct their forces to intercept. In Nick’s evaluation, he found that an assault force could shoot out those cameras, which would blind the CAS operators. This was precisely what Red Two was planning to do. It should allow the team a few extra seconds to get to where they needed to be.
The team members had on their lightweight Kevlar body armor, but only ball caps and no helmets. They’d anticipated hostile fire and believed it was prudent to take some precautions. It made them heavier and a bit slower, but nothing they weren’t used to.
The Red Two team leader looked at his watch. Five minutes was up. With a wave of his hand, he gave his team the signal to initiate the assault.
One man activated a switch, which triggered a small charge attached to the five-gallon gas tank used to feed the outboard motor that Nick left in the launch at the intake structure. The resulting explosion created a forty-foot-high fireball with dense black smoke and a chest-thumping shock wave. That would redirect Security for a few minutes. Misdirection and confusion — the fog of war.
CHAPTER 57
Hector used his radio to contact the five men he knew he could trust. He told them to rendezvous with him at SAS ASAP. He had no choice but to do this over an open radio channel. He then called Lynn, the watch commander, who’d taken up station inside CAS while he was gone. Standard protocol. He told her what little he could in a few short seconds to get her on his side. Again, if he was going to help Nick’s team, he needed to get his security force to back off. He knew this was going to be a challenge because it went against the grain of their training. Lynn sounded incredulous and started asking questions, but she was interrupted by the report of an explosion at the intake.