To the right down the wall was a massive vault door, similar to the one she had seen outside in front of the waiting eighteen-wheelers. Though she had little sense of direction after entering the Mountain, she realized that she was looking at the other side of the giant entry she had seen earlier.
Directly ahead of them, on the chamber’s far wall, was a sealed guard portal that prevented unauthorized entry deeper into the Mountain. The tunnel leading off the main chamber stretched so far to the left and right that the passage shrank to a point in the distance. Every twenty-five feet, bright LED lights hung from a ventilation duct that ran along the ceiling. Obviously, the modern lights and bright metal air ventilation system had been recently installed. Back in the old Cold War days, she was sure garish bulbs had shone in these tunnels.
Dr. Garibaldi tilted his head back to take in the enormity of the place. “Well, well, so much for this being a decommissioned facility.” His voice echoed off the rock walls.
“Recommissioned and repurposed,” van Dyckman said. “Hydra Mountain is the perfect answer to our needs.”
“What needs?” Garibaldi asked.
Shawn interrupted in an even voice, “Now that we’re in this internal SCIF, we can brief you in greater detail.”
“The suspense is killing me,” Adonia said jokingly, but she was deeply curious to know how this project could be relevant to the members of this impromptu inspection team.
She knew that during the Cold War, the warren of tunnels deep inside Hydra Mountain had been filled with nuclear warheads, even though the storage facility was so close to the city of Albuquerque, just southeast of the airport. The public had no clue what was going on right under their noses. But the Mountain had been shut down for decades. What was van Dyckman using this place for now? And what did it have to do with her?
Shawn casually found a way to step close to Adonia, although he paid her no special attention as he addressed the entire group. “Ladies and gentlemen, I had exactly the same reaction the first time I visited Hydra Mountain, just after I started working at the White House. I haven’t been through all the levels here myself, but with today’s review, we’ll be seeing the entire facility.”
“My intent is to show you the whole complex, for completeness in your review,” Rob Harris said. “As required.”
Undersecretary Doyle frowned, suddenly wary. “Does that include the lower level?”
“Of course, everything,” van Dyckman said, brushing aside the comment. Adonia wondered how the Undersecretary knew anything about other levels. “Otherwise Dr. Garibaldi would accuse us of hiding UFOs.”
“And what, exactly, will we be seeing?” Garibaldi crossed his arms over his chest. “If not Martians?”
Van Dyckman looked at each one of them, his eyes sparkling. “You have been granted access to Valiant Locksmith, an unacknowledged, waived DOE Special Access Program — a SAP — established over twelve months ago by the President himself.”
Valiant Locksmith? Where do they get these names? Adonia wondered, without surprise.
Garibaldi kept looking around. “I may be out of the government now, but I still have my SCI clearances, and Sanergy monitors all DOE projects. If this is a DOE program, why haven’t I heard about it?”
Senator Pulaski spoke to the older scientist as he would to a child. “Just because you have a clearance, Doctor, doesn’t mean you have the right to know about every secret program in the government. Valiant Locksmith is one of the most highly classified SAPs in existence—”
Shawn interrupted smoothly, “Again, this is an unacknowledged and waived program, Dr. Garibaldi. A SAP is unacknowledged if its very existence is kept secret, and waived if it is immune to statutory reporting requirements. No one at Sanergy would have been informed.” He nodded to the Senator. “As Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Senator Pulaski is one of the few members of Congress who even knows about Valiant Locksmith. He both funds and oversees the work here, but the program undergoes a yearly review by the select Congressional Intelligence Oversight Committee, which is coming up in a few days. That’s why all of you are present today. I’m here as the President’s personal representative.”
Garibaldi did not look pleased. “Unless this is a matter of national defense, the public has a right to be informed and to provide input in all such programs. I was led to believe this had something to do with the nuclear energy infrastructure?”
Pulaski interrupted with an impatient sigh. “The government has conducted waived, unacknowledged SAPs for decades, Doctor. The National Reconnaissance Office running our nation’s spy satellite program was a SAP for over thirty-one years. All that time no one knew the Air Force Assistant Secretary was really the Director of the NRO.”
“Very few government programs qualify for that classification,” Shawn said. “Valiant Locksmith is one of them. You’ll see why very soon.”
“That still doesn’t explain anything,” Adonia said. “Just come out and tell us why we’re here, Shawn. What is Valiant Locksmith?”
He turned to van Dyckman. “I think the Assistant Secretary would like to explain.”
Of course he would, Adonia thought.
Wearing a pleased smile as if he had just stepped out on a Broadway stage, van Dyckman began to lecture. “This is a rather ingenious solution to a perennial national problem, and we’re very proud of—”
Before he could finish his sentence, a pulsating horn blared through the tunnels. Amber cautionary lights embedded in the rock flashed as the large vault door slowly began to rotate open, spilling sunlight into the cavernous stone-walled chamber.
Rob Harris raised his voice over the alarm as he ushered them to the opposite side of the chamber. “Good timing. This will answer some of your questions. Though it’s Sunday, the Mountain is about to receive a delivery. Please stay within the painted safety lines on the floor.”
As the others moved forward, Shawn maneuvered himself next to Adonia. “I told you we were going to keep crossing paths with our careers.”
Frowning, she nodded to Garibaldi. “What about him? One of his Sanergy nuts nearly destroyed my site.”
“I’ve read the classified report, and Garibaldi’s telling the truth. The pilot wasn’t one of theirs, just inspired by the rhetoric. Garibaldi’s clearance would have been pulled if we found any hint of a connection. And for some reason the approval for his appointment to this committee came straight from the DOE Secretary’s office. Somebody wanted him here, and badly. We’ll need his support, and I think we’ll get it.”
The others stopped against the far rock wall and watched as the vault door swung all the way open. He gave her a warm smile, and she found herself missing him again. “You haven’t begun to see the real surprises we’ve got in store for you. Just wait — I think you’ll approve.”
Adonia was intrigued. “I’ll take your word for it.” If van Dyckman had said the same things, she would have been skeptical. But Shawn wouldn’t lie to her.
She looked around at the others, trying to gauge their reaction. Rob Harris was cool and businesslike, preoccupied, not that he had ever been Mr. Charisma. Garibaldi looked curious, as though trying to solve a puzzle, and Undersecretary Doyle was keenly focused, maybe a little worried. Stanley, though, was practically giddy.