Chapter 9: Nuclear Drawings
Somehow, amazingly, she was managing to keep her breakfast down. After waking to discover that Lucas was gone – not too surprising – she had gone about the rest of her morning with a numb sort of detachment. This was it – the big day.
The drive had so far been mostly silent. He picked up her in a nondescript four-door car and the countryside was passing too swiftly for her taste. She wanted more time to think about their route to and from the vault. The full-time security escort required for vault access would make their exit tricky. But maybe after getting Illya there, she could tell the guard and use the vault to corner him. It seemed simple enough. Maybe that would be enough.
"You didn't tell him?" Illya's voice, after so much silence, took her by surprise.
"No." She couldn't bring herself to admit to anything more. The low chuckle that rumbled in his throat drew her gaze from the window, sparking her anger.
"You must really feel something for that man…surprising, and sad for you."
"There's nothing sad about it." She snapped, glaring at him. "If you have someone that you love, Lucas will find out – maybe not before we have finished what we're planning to accomplish today, but I do know this – you won't make it out of the plant alive, and he will find those you care about." She didn't really have any clue if Lucas could lean on any of Illya's potential loved ones, but it sounded good. A smug smirk flashed on Illya's face.
"Your homeland cop will not find anyone that I care about living on British soil."
"Then why are you doing this?" It was the one big question that she was dying to ask. "Why are you making me prove my love for him by breaking you into Windark?"
"You are not so stupid – you know the value of the information in the vault. Further questions will get you nowhere." She chewed her lip in mounting frustration. Yes, she knew the contents of the vault – all the security information that, in the wrong hands, would bring the plant down, disable safety systems, and result in a nuclear meltdown. It wasn't a good scenario.
"Pull over." She suddenly said. "We need to switch places." He didn't even bother to cast her his incredulous glance.
"Give you control of the steering wheel, only to drive the other direction and fuck your man over? I don't think so."
"Wrong," her voice left no room for debate, "it's gate security on the inroad– visitors are not allowed to drive a car on plant property without advanced vetting. They will ask to see our badges before letting us drive on site, and since you don't have one, we won't get far." He frowned, but kept on driving, considering her words. Her lips lifted in a hint of a victorious smirk. It was evident that he knew quite a bit about operating nuclear facilities and their practices, but it was rewarding to throw out something he didn't already know about.
"Very well," he mumbled begrudgingly, easing on the break and pulling over to the shoulder, "but if you so much as sneeze and the wheel twitches off our current course, I will make the call to London."
"Agreed."
They exited the vehicle, switching seats and continuing on the road. Within another fifteen minutes, the dome of the reactor building became visible in the distance, growing ever steadily bigger as they continued to approach. Never before had she been so anxious to see it.
At the inroad security gate, she slowed the car to a stop, flashing the guard in the booth her badge and what she hoped was a convincing smile. Without incident, the guard lifted the bar across the road and they proceeded into the plant. Her heart started racing. This was it. No going back now.
"Just follow my lead." She said, parking the car in the nearly-full lot.
"I know what happens for visitors. I show them my license, they give us each a nice lanyard and then we go through airport security, yes?" Illya sounded utterly bored and disinterested, looking around the parking lot. "Don't think I know so little."
"Sounds like you'll be just as much to blame if this doesn't work, then."
"No. Consider it more incentive for you to make this work." He reached for the door handle. "Come on, I won't have you stalling."
They emerged into the early morning sun and chill still in the air. It wasn't a long walk to the door of the Main Security Building, but each step felt like a step towards the gallows.
As they finished up at the desk, talked with the sergeant on duty, received their instructions and their escorted visitor lanyards, it scared her how well this was going. Somehow, he passed everything – the explosive detector, the badge scanner. It helped that he was dressed innocently enough in cargo khaki pants, forest green polo and black blazer. And as they cleared the turnstiles, exiting the building back into the sunshine, everything in the plant was now within arm's reach.
X
"We should grab then now." Haynes' voice was tense with displeasure as he watched the video feed from the surveillance camera on the back of the Main Security Building. "She brought him into my plant and that's reason enough to stop them."
"You can't yet," Lucas countered, watching them walk across the yard to another building. "If they don't reach their intended target, she has been threatened with consequences."
"And you have nothing on their intended target?" Haynes cast Lucas a disapproving glance. Ever since Lucas North had arrived two hours ago, flashing his MI-5 credentials and demanding to see the security shift lead, Haynes had been wary. And as security shift lead, it was Haynes' job to be wary of all threats posed against the facility.
"No. We only know that this man is using her, coercing her, to gain access to the facility." Haynes shook his head as they watched them enter the engineering building.
"I keep trying to run through the various scenarios of what they could actually accomplish." Haynes mused. "The reactor building is inaccessible during normal operation, and they would not be able to sabotage enough equipment to cripple the plant before we could take them out. And with the detectors, we know they don't have any explosives."
"At least none that your detectors could pick up."
"I don't like that line of thinking, North." Lucas shook his head to bite back a sharp reply as the CCTV monitor flashed to the feed from a different camera.
"You don't have to like it, but that doesn't rule it out as a possibility."
The pair had now reached her desk and she was dropping off her backpack, reaching for her hard hat. They watched as she picked up her phone, punching in a four-digit plant ID. Both Lucas and Haynes' heads snapped up as the security coordinator's phone started ringing. It was a short conversation, the coordinator's "Name?...Yes, at Access Control….Goodbye" reaching their ears as they walked over.
"Bernard," Haynes asked as he and Lucas approached, "who was that?"
"Gordon, Celia – ACAD 7489. She's requested a security escort for the safeguards vault."
X
"Both of you have been briefed on the handling of Safeguards information? Both of you are aware of the radiation work permit requirements?"
The security escort's questions were standard as they walked down the stairs from Access Control, all fitted in hard hats and radiation monitors. From here, it would be another couple of corridors and down some more stairs into the bowels of the Control Building to reach the vault. She had been down to it enough that rattling off the answers was second nature. Even more so fortunately now in her anxious state. Luckily enough, if she did look panicked, the security escort failed to notice.
The corridor leading to the vault was non-descript, lined with several unassuming doors along the way and several more on the other end. She supposed that's why the door to the vault stood out like an eyesore. It was a hulking structure of bright blue steel with a turn wheel and several lever handles, designed as a submarine door to withstand the strongest explosion in the plant's design parameters. Her heart was thundering so loud in her chest as they came to a stop, it was a wonder it didn't echo in the otherwise empty corridor.
At the card reader next to the vault door, the security escort scanned his badge first and she followed, letting Michael-cum-Illya scan last. After the repeated swipe of the security escort's badge, the heavy steel lock disengaged and the access light started flashing. With a grunt of effort, the escort pulled a lever on the thick door open, admitting the musty smell of the vault within. The lights flickered on as she and Illya entered the cramped space, the guard following and securing the door behind him.
She blew a sigh, the nervous adrenaline heightening her senses as she glanced among the piles of boxes and papers and rolled up drawings. It was always a shock to new vault visitors how disorganized it really was. For such a secure installation, it had every indication it was no more than a storage closet where every box or folder or cabinet that might contain something important was shoved and summarily forgotten about. A dusty computer sat in the corner for those pesky electronic documents that could only be worked on here, isolated and free of any network or outside hacking connection. She had known engineers to lock themselves away from hours down here on assignment; such a dreary prospect.
She had never looked for countermeasure information before. In fact, she wasn't even sure exactly what all he wanted, but she couldn't really ask. A sharp impact, the sound of bone snapping, and the slump of a body on the floor filled the small space. She turned with wide terrified eyes, horrified to see the guard on the ground, motionless.
"What did you do?" Her voice trembled, suddenly terrified for her life as Illya drew the firearm from the guard's holster.
"Followed the plan." He tersely replied, shedding his blazer to revel the polo shirt that he wore was emblazoned with the plant's name and logo. Her stomach sank as he started to strip the deceased guard of his bulletproof vest and firearms. It was then she realized – once he donned the guard's equipment, he would look just like a member of the plant security force, down to the uniform.
"That wasn't part of the plan." Her words were firm despite her pounding heart. "You are only here to find drawings…they will see us leave the vault without our escort and another security guard will be sent."
"This was always the plan – the security detail only gets in the way. And you will get us out before security finds us." He adjusted the vest and the holster on his right leg, sheathing the gun. "Now, we find those plans."
X
There were no cameras in the vault. It had been seventeen minutes since they had watched the three people disappear behind the solid door. And the wait was near maddening.
"What's the average length of time people spend in the vault?" Lucas asked, more to break the tension then any real reason. The camera outside the vault would show them when the door reopened.
"It's impossible to say – some engineers will spend a whole day down there; while others just five minutes. It depends what information they are looking for. And there's a wealth to choose from. Just a couple of drawing sheets from that room would be worth several million to a terrorist group."
"And yet no camera inside." It was a bit of a snide dig, but Lucas couldn't help it. It seemed positively asinine to him that there were no cameras inside the most secure room in the facility.
"The vault is surrounded by 0.75 m thick concrete in all directions with the exception of the steel vault door, and two ventilation shafts protected by welded metal grating. The vault is considered a single-point access room and those are not equipped with cameras." Haynes explained tersely as they both watched the monitor, just waiting for the vault door to reopen. Lucas crossed his arms over his chest, blowing a light sigh. He was trying to run through scenarios, trying to plan for what might happen next. This was always the worst part – the waiting before taking action. The sooner that Celia was out of danger, the better. Never mind the trouble she will face in the aftermath. The thought sent a pang through his heart, but he would have to contend with it later. Right now, he had a job to do.
"Ok, here we go." Haynes' voice was soft as the hallway lit in flashes from the vault access light and the heavy metal door started to swing open. Celia emerged first with the security guard behind her…but that was it.
"Hold on….," Lucas stepped closer, squinting at the screen as the vault door was maneuvered shut. "That's not the guard. That's Illya."
"Where's the guard?" Haynes asked, grave concern on his face.
"Still inside. Hopefully still alive – but look, he's taken all the escort's gear."
"Must be where all the paperwork and drawings they lifted are stashed – guard's vests are covered in pockets for all kind of tools." Haynes nodded as he continued to talk. "They wouldn't need the majority of those tools to affect a clean escape. The guard was rendered neutral, robbed and his pockets were emptied to stash the paperwork." They both just stared at the screen, watching the man and woman stand there, talking. Eventually, the woman started walking towards the other end of the corridor.
"Where is she going? That's not the door they entered from." Lucas looked to Haynes curiously, noting the pensive look on the security shift lead's face.
"She's leading him to the Fuel Building, via the south stairs." Haynes said softly. "There's nothing else resembling escape by taking those stairs. Everything else would just lead them back to the Control Building." Something of an impressed smirk lit Haynes' face. "She knows that someone will have seen three people going into the vault and only two coming out. It's a very clever move." He shook his head with a half smirk as Lucas met him with a serious gaze.
"The Fuel Building?" Lucas had to ask. This was their world, not his.
"The Fuel Building is not manned regularly – the guards do a round per shift, but most of the time it's a dark, humid concrete box. There's only one exit door to the yard, not counting the truck bay. All the other exit doors lead into the Control or Auxiliary Buildings. There's no critical equipment for reactor operation in the entire building, and if something is damaged, we have 71.3 hours until the fuel pool boils. Plenty of time to effect repairs." Haynes turned back to the screen with a nod. "If we're going to move, this is the time."
"Right," Lucas agreed, following Haynes' gaze to the monitor. "I'll go after them. Send a security team through the yard entrance after me in 5 minutes."
"10 minutes." Haynes countered. "It'll take you 5 minutes to reach the building. Clark will go with you and we'll greenlight all the doors on your route."
"Very well." Lucas tried not to grumble the words. The Windark security force was being remarkably accommodating given the circumstances, but he couldn't help the anxious restlessness was simmering just beneath his controlled exterior. For after hours of waiting and watching, this was finally his chance to be useful. He'd spent eight years feeling useless and he'd had enough of that for a lifetime.
"You should leave your coat. It a balmy 30 °C in there." Lucas turned from the screen on Haynes' word, hefting his firearm from his pocket before shrugging out of his coat. "She's leading him to the door on the midlevel. That'll be your best point of entry. Security backup will deploy in 10 and enter through the yard door on the refueling deck. That's where they will be trying to go."
"Right." Lucas met Haynes' eyes with a nod before glancing down to the safety of his gun, checking the safety was still engaged. For now.
"And one more thing, North." Lucas paused, a hint of frustration breaking through his gaze as he stopped at the door beside the other guard – Clark, presumably. "Discharge your firearm with the utmost discretion. This is still a secure facility and if I so much as suspect your intentions are otherwise, I will rain down hell on you all with the push of a button and no additional force." Haynes met Lucas' icy glare, the calm authority their positions demanded thick in the room. "Am I understood?"