As he ascended into the granite ceiling, he struggled against the increasing airstream. Rung after rung, he climbed straight up. He was well clear of the knockout gas, so his head was clear, but he still worried about falling. Once inside the ceiling, he felt much more claustrophobic than when he could see the expansive cavern.
The rock around him muffled the ambient noise, but he heard a rhythmic throbbing high overhead. The string of dim lights that ran up the shaft showed him a little detail, but the shaft looked the same, and endless. He moved on, rung after rung, deeper and deeper into the grotto’s ceiling.
Eventually, van Dyckman glimpsed light coming from the side — another tunnel, perpendicular to the vertical maintenance shaft. He reached a horizontal air vent that crossed into the shaft. Far above, he could definitely see rotating blades — a fan pulling outside air down into the cavern. That made sense, but it would block his way out from that direction if he climbed higher.
A constant, gentler stream of air flowed into the horizontal duct, and he considered what he knew of the ventilation channels inside the Mountain. He must have reached the upper level, where the storage tunnels and the operations center were located.
The choice was obvious. Van Dyckman could follow this horizontal vent until he found a place to get out. Now he was thankful for the health and safety regulations that required retrofitting this place under the new DOE stewardship.
Squirming, he pulled himself into the horizontal shaft, sliding against its cold metal surface. He crawled forward on his stomach, smearing a path through the accumulated dust. At last, he had an escape plan.
37
Shawn hung on the crane boom as he studied the water spraying from the breach in the pool. “We’ve got to plug the leak. It’s the only way to keep the wall from collapsing and exposing the rods.”
Adonia knew what a collapse of the pool would mean: radiation burst. A scattershot of billions of neutrons interacting with the Velvet Hammer nuclear pits… criticality, multiple detonations.
“The water level is dropping already, and there wasn’t much clearance above the rods in the first place,” Garibaldi said. “With all that water pressure at the bottom of the pool, the breach will rip soon, and then we’ll have a catastrophic failure. It’s simple engineering.”
Adonia said, “We’ve got to patch the wall at all costs, but what can we use to plug the leak? Do we lower ourselves down there and press some metal up against the side? Or maybe use those plastic slabs on the floor? Would that be enough?”
The water sprayed out as if from a high-pressure hose, and the force of the water would blast away anything they tried to apply from the outside. They couldn’t stand there and plug the leak with their thumbs, like the Dutch boy did with the hole in the dike — it might undergo a catastrophic failure at any moment.
“You couldn’t possibly adhere it well enough,” Garibaldi said. “And we’d fall unconscious in seconds in that swamp of halothane gas. How would we get to the materials? We’d never finish the job before we were overcome.”
Shawn started working his way back down the crane’s boom. “You can’t patch it from the outside. The water pressure is too great. The only way to stop the leak is from the inside. The water pressure would hold a patch in place, form a seal.”
“Like a bathtub stopper,” Adonia said. “But how do we apply a patch from the inside? The leak is twenty feet down, and the rod that caused the breach is in the way.”
Shawn stated the obvious, sounding grim. “Somebody has to go down there. A lot of people will die if we don’t fix this.”
Gray-skinned, Garibaldi looked exhausted and fatalistic. “When we swam across before, we were safe because the rods were set in the center of the pool, the water level was higher, and we stayed near the side, but now the situation has changed. When the rods toppled together there’s a good chance their cladding was damaged.” Somehow, he still managed to sound professorial. “As I’m sure you’ve guessed by now, anyone who moves the rods out of the way and patches the breach will surely receive a lethal exposure.”
Shawn took a deep breath. “Not a good way to go.”
Adonia swallowed hard, and the water continued to spray out. “A thousand violins, but we’ll all be dead if that plastic fails.”
“No time to lose,” Shawn said.
Adonia didn’t bother to think, didn’t hesitate. “It’s got to be me. The breach is twenty feet down, and I’m the best swimmer.” She looked at Shawn. “You know it. Don’t argue.”
He scrambled down the boom’s metal framework to get to her. “Not a chance. I’m not letting you.”
Garibaldi reached up to block Shawn. “Stick to your climbing, boy. She’s right — she’s a much better swimmer than you.” He looked up at the ceiling and the catwalk that led to the communications shaft up above. “We can’t afford to wait three more hours for a rescue team. We’ve got to let them know now, and they’d better have the right emergency equipment when they finally get in here.” His brow furrowed. “Whatever we do, you know the patch on that pool will be only a temporary solution, but it may buy enough time.”
Adonia nodded. “Harris doesn’t know that Victoria’s vault is open and the nuclear cores exposed, and he’ll need special equipment to secure and shield those warheads. There’s a Nuclear Emergency Support Team on base, stationed at Sandia labs. The NEST team can take care of the nukes, and Rob’s emergency crew can close down this pool.”
She swallowed again, realizing the consequences of what she had volunteered to do — but it had to be done. What happened in the next few minutes might well affect the lives of millions of people.…
Garibaldi stared down at the pool, his eyes darting back and forth. From above, Adonia could see the fuel rods toppled near the breach in the pool wall. Even in the deep, rippled water she could see the Senator’s body trapped by the rods, deep underwater, and she felt sickened.
“I’ll climb down to the floor, hold my breath against the gas,” Shawn said. “I’m sure I can push some of the construction material into the pool. If I collapse after that, you’ll still have what you need to make a patch, Adonia.”
The cavern floor was a soup of marker smoke from the halothane, now five or six feet deep. Even if he got safely down to the floor, she knew Shawn could never make his way to the construction material, carry it to the top of the pool, and dump it into the water before the halothane rendered him unconscious. “You’d never make it.”
His face was flushed. “We have to try!”
“Your effort would be irrelevant, Colonel,” Garibaldi said. “I doubt even a strong swimmer like Ms. Rojas could pull it down twenty feet to the breach.”
Adonia held on to the crane boom, feeling her desperation increase. “Then what are we going to use as a patch? If we don’t do something—”
Garibaldi kept peering into the pool. “One must use whatever resources are available.” His smile reflected a moment of black humor. “And it’s about time Senator Pulaski finally made himself useful.” He pointed down at the corpse trapped under the water near the dislodged rods. “Human skin is waterproof and pliable enough to conform to a leak. Press the Senator’s body up against the tear, and it would form enough of a plug to stop the flow of water and temporarily prevent the wall from rupturing.”
Adonia pulled back. “You want me to use his body as a patch?”
“It’s already in the pool and down at the depth we need. It could be maneuvered in place without too much difficulty, and the water pressure will seal his body against the leak, acting as a plug. It would serve the purpose of keeping the water from draining and the side from collapsing, at least for a while. An emergency team can make permanent repairs as soon as they get in here.”