"Operation Thunderclap", Page 2

wear the whole time she was in the facility. Probably her outward way of saying to everyone else, 'I'm in control and don't have to wear a hard hat if I don't want to.'

  Phyllis didn't even try to play it off. She had the look of defeat on her countenance. There was no one else around in the modern control room. It was an indicator that the director knew about her and Andrew and figured they were no threat to anyone.

  "I'm --" the young woman started, until Phyllis jumped in.

  "Tanya Ash, the director of the facility...one of those genius kids who got their doctorate in their twenties, blah, blah, blah..."

  The director smirked, more for the way Phyllis expressed herself. "Well, you're not so dumb yourself, Ms. Lund. Top of your class at Yale, started your own practice without any money from rich parents...I only question your judgement and politics."

  "So where do you keep it all," Phyllis asked; helping herself to a nearby office chair.

  "You mean the spent nuclear materials?"

  "Of course..."

  Director Ash sighed. "Ms. Lund, what we are doing is not evil, nor is it illegal."

  "Guess not; the energy industry paid off some of those in Congress so they would blow holes into environmental laws, just so they could justify opening up Yucca Mountain to all your radioactive filth!"

  Just then, the door opened and a security guard escorted old man Andrew into the room. The guard nodded and left after a look from the director.

  "Sorry I'm late to the party," he said as he, too, helped himself to a seat next to Phyllis.

  Surprisingly, the young woman grabbed some papers from one of the consoles and handed them to the duo. Phyllis and Andrew took some time to read through them--government papers on the re-vamped Yucca Mountain project. It was filled with diagrams, outlines, budgets, and paragraphs upon paragraphs of info.

  In a couple of minutes, both Phyllis and Andrew looked up from the papers and stared at each other...then back at Director Ash.

  "Yes," the director said as she found her own chair, now, "Operation Thunderclap actually works! No one in Vegas felt a thing!"

  "They sure as hell felt it in Kingman," Andrew threw back.

  "They were supposed to--they were the test subjects...no one was killed; no buildings fell. We achieved our goal of pinpointing the weapon to one particular building in Kingman. You see the results in that report from a couple of days ago."

  Indeed, there were several photographs of a razed structure that had a before and after profile. The five storied, abandoned farm structure was a heap of bricks and concrete.

  "Now," Director Ash continued; her voice in victory, "imagine doing that to ISIS, or Al-Qaeda operatives hiding in cities, using civilians as human shields...all we'd have to do is zero in on the very ground each man stood on and zap them! No more worries--or excuses, I might add--about not sending in our military to conflict zones and have to deal with collateral damages!"

  "So..." Phyllis was, now, thinking out loud, "all this--the focus on Yucca Mountain, the fracking...all that was --"

  "Just a cover story. Yes, I don't mind telling you." Now the director got up from her chair and went over to one of the terminals and turned on one of the wall-sized computer monitors. She logged on and brought up more pictures, graphs, and info on Operation Thunderclap.

  "All this...all this is legal, per the US federal government. We are not obligated to tell the public when national security is at risk or is the main objective," she said while highlighting various government official signatures captured in the video. "And you know what that means for you, don't you?"

  Phyllis, the lawyer of the duo, dejectedly nodded her head. Furious, Andrew threw the papers he had in his hands onto the floor.

  "We're citizens and pay for all this with our taxes, like everyone else! We have every right to be here!"

  "Then why did you sneak in here without permission, Mr. Stahlman," Director Ash put to him.

  "Andy..." Phyllis gave a look of, 'Stand down.'

  Indeed, the old school investigative reporter leaned back in his chair and looked toward the floor; barely able to stand to look at the government official.

  "Now...you two have actually trespassed on federal property but have done no damages. As you can guess, I did my homework on both of you and I think we can all come out of this without anyone going to jail."

  That got the attention of Phyllis and Andrew. Both sat quietly, waiting for the director. She nodded with satisfaction and walked over to the same console she had gotten the other papers. This time, she brought with her two folders; one having Phyllis' name on it and the other having Andrew's. Director Ash leaned against a nearby ledge and waited for them to open and read the files.

  Again, after a few minutes, the duo looked up from the papers and glanced at one another.

  "You're crazy," Phyllis simply said.

  Ash shrugged. "Either that or you go to prison for several years with no early let-out. Makes no difference to me; I'll continue Thunderclap while you'd both be in prison for years...oh, and that little 'Team' of yours--all those hackers and enviro-vigilantes? We know about them, too."

  Phyllis and Andrew looked at each other somberly, and back at their folders.

  "You both either work for us from now on--Mr. Stahlman, we could use you on the tv news shows; Ms. Lund, you can go to court for our cause--or you both retire in federal prison...what's it going to be?"

 

  ~~fin~~