Hector was no longer as confident about the odds of success as he had been just seconds ago. “Get the Rover up there NOW!” The Rover was a security officer that has no pre-designated place to be. He was available to be dispatched to wherever he was needed most.
Ted said, “I got Video Capture up, Boss. Looks like the two guys heading toward containment are carrying large knapsacks.”
“Copy that,” Hector acknowledged.
More knapsacks! Hector turned to the section in his procedure for protecting containment, quickly scanning the first page, then picked up a phone and dialed the number for the control room shift manager. The phone was answered within three rings.
“Shift Manager Dave Street.”
“This is Security Watch Supervisor Gonzalez. We have a security event in progress on the north side of Unit 1. Looks like they’re headed for the containment emergency airlock. We have officers down. My procedures say to recommend you take actions for ‘Imminent Security Threat’ and shut down Unit 1!”
“Understand, Imminent Threat, security event in progress, Unit 1. You have casualties and are recommending we take Unit 1 off-line.”
“That’s correct. Notify whomever you need to call, and I’ll get in touch with local law enforcement. I’ll call back in a few minutes with more info.”
With that, Hector hung up the phone, not waiting for a reply. He knew the shift manager would want more information, but this was either going to be over in a couple of minutes, or they’d all have more serious issues to consider.
Just then, the secure door to CAS opened and Lynn, the watch commander for the shift, came in. Even though she had overall charge of the security personnel for the shift, she knew better than to interfere with Hector and what he was doing. She opted to stand back and observe — for the time being.
John spoke up without taking his eyes off the monitors, “Boss, looks like we got the two guys out back. But they didn’t go down without a fight. They took out Delta 7 and 8.”
“CAS, this is Rover. Two confirmed intruders down by containment. I got ‘em!”
Just then, Ted shouted, “What the…! Incoming aircraft from the northeast! Looks like a helicopter!”
Hector turned and yelled, “That can’t be! Are you sure?”
Ted replied, “Helo is already over the roof of the fuel handling building and appears to be hovering. Boss, they came out of nowhere. Wait… two guys fast roping down. Looks like they have weapons and satchels with them!”
Hector, a former Marine, had seen his share of action in Iraq. He recognized professionals when he saw them. That helicopter appeared from nowhere, and the two men fast roping down were on the roof of the building and heading for the stairwell before he could do anything about it. He shook his head, pissed, recognizing that the two others they’d been chasing were sent in to clear the way for these guys. And now his forces are spread too thin to provide effective coverage. He also now knew the target. He didn’t have to look it up in the book. The fuel handling building was adjacent to the emergency airlock of containment. If they got in the airlock, they’d have access to containment, and he wouldn’t be able to get them out — at least not before they did what they were sent there to do. It was clear to him now. Containment was their target! His Rover would not be able to stop them. He knew that within a minute they’d be inside containment and out of his reach.
Just then a cell phone rang behind him. Having a cell phone ring in CAS was unusual. Cell phones don’t work in CAS because of the hardened nature of the building. Yet this one did, startling everyone. Hector just turned around and glared at the man holding the cell phone, who’d been standing there silently for the last half hour, watching events unfold.
I took my phone out of my pocket, pressed a key to answer it, listened to a brief message, acknowledged it, and hung up.
“Hector, my men are in the airlock. You just lost Unit 1. Secure from the drill. Assemble your men in the auditorium in 15 minutes for a critique of your performance. When you’re done with that, I’ll be in your manager’s office.”
Hector looked at me, eyes brimming with anger. I held his gaze for a moment, not to challenge him, but to make sure he didn’t react in the heat of the moment. Or if he did, that I was ready to respond.
Without breaking eye contact with me, Hector said, “Ted, tell the team to secure from the drill and assemble in the auditorium in 15.”
Ted did as he was instructed. In a monotone voice, he put the word out over the radio.
The tension of the moment over, I broke off with Hector and walked out of the facility and into the cool night air for the short walk to the security manager’s office. It was going to be a long night.
CHAPTER 4
My name is Nick Connor. I’m the head of NeXus, a private consulting company that specializes in security evaluations for domestic commercial nuclear power generating stations. I had to have a name for our ‘company’ to make it look legitimate, so that’s what I came up with. I existed in the netherworld between the military and private-sector security firms and provided ‘private evaluations’ for nuclear power plant executives who wanted to know just how good their security really was. I’ve got a Web page, as most businesses do, though mine revealed very little about NeXus or the work I do. It’s barely one page — has a title and some contact information — but the phone number goes to an answering machine where the only thing people can do is leave a callback number. I pick up the messages from time to time. The e-mail address on the Web page goes to a secure server that would be hard for even the most aggressive hackers to trace, though it doesn’t really matter, because I don’t use it anyway. I really only do work for those who are recommended to me. These recommendations usually come through governmental agencies whose names were comprised mostly of letters. People rarely approach me directly — few people know how to. In some cases, though, people have heard about work that I’ve done at one of the power plants in the country. Discrete inquiries are made, then screened, evaluated, and funneled to me. If I decide I want to take the job, I make contact with the executives in charge of the power plant and take it from there.
I’m very expensive and, as I’d just demonstrated at The Headlands, very good at what I do. I have to charge something for my services. Besides, people believe they’re getting a superior product if they pay a lot of money for it. So I accommodate them and charge them a lot of money. There are companies out there who are very public and who provide paramilitary-type services, mostly for war-torn areas of the world. They also provide bodyguard services for foreign diplomats; protection for traveling dignitaries; and, some, more aggressive services, which sometimes landed them on the front pages of newspapers. They too charge a lot of money for what they do and employ a lot of ex-military guys with talent and skills that you can’t find in the phone book. Good men, all. I ought to know… I’d worked with many of them in Special Forces: Green Berets, Rangers, SEALS. Those I don’t know personally, I know of by reputation. The Special Forces community is small so it isn’t uncommon to be known by a lot of people. Special Forces operatives value their reputation almost above all else. And word gets around. So on the surface, NeXus looked similar to some of the more public security companies. In reality, I’m anything but.