Chapter 8 - Murky Depths
The water hit Mark’s legs like liquid ice. Even through the thick rubber of the containment suit, the sheer weight and freezing temperature of the runoff pressed against his skin, squeezing his joints. He took a deep, rattling breath through the suit's regulator, the synthetic rubber smell filling his lungs as he lowered himself completely into the submerged chamber.
His powerful headlamp cut through the murk, illuminating swirling particulates of rust, shredded insulation, and floating bits of decayed structural blueprints.
"I'm at the bottom," Mark radioed, his voice distorted through the suit’s internal microphone. "Water is up to my chest. Where is the valve assembly?"
"Move forward twelve paces," Sterling’s voice crackled through the ear-piece. "You will feel a raised steel conduit along the right wall. Follow it to the primary heat exchanger. The valve wheel is painted high-visibility yellow. It is pinned by debris from the collapsed drainage grating."
Mark waded forward, his heavy boots fighting the drag of the thick water. The conduit was where Sterling said it would be—a thick, vibration-humming pipe that radiated a faint, unnerving warmth against his gloved fingers. Every step stirred up clouds of black silt from the floor.
He reached the end of the line. The yellow valve wheel was completely wedged beneath a massive, bent steel I-beam that had buckled under the weight of the shifting concrete foundation above.
"I found it," Mark panted, his breath fogging the lower half of his visor. "The ceiling collapsed on it. A steel girder is pinning the wheel shut."
"You have twenty-four minutes, Mr. Vance," Sterling replied, his voice chillingly detached. "The water level in the sump is three inches below the nitrogen discharge sensors. If you do not clear that obstruction and open the valve to drain the cooling jacket, the reactor will scram automatically."
"Shut up and let me work!" Mark growled.
He wedged the four-foot breaker bar beneath the twisted girder. He planted his feet wide into the slippery silt, gripped the cold steel bar with both hands, and threw his entire body weight downward. The metal groaned. His shoulder muscles burned with agonizing fire, the tendons in his neck straining to the point of tearing.
The girder budged half an inch, scraping against the yellow wheel.
"Come on... damn it, come on!" Mark roared, putting everything he had into the leverage.
With a deafening CRACK, the concrete anchor holding the other side of the girder gave way. The heavy beam slid sideways, crashing into the water with a massive splash that knocked Mark off his feet. He plunged completely beneath the surface, the murky, radioactive fluid swallowing his light.
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He thrashed upward, his helmet breaking the surface, gasping for air inside the enclosed mask. The wheel was clear. But as he reached out to grip the spokes, his headlamp beam caught something floating just beneath the surface of the water, wedged between the pipes behind the reactor housing.
It was a skeleton. Wrapped in the remains of a tailored business suit, a bullet hole cleanly punching through the center of its decaying forehead.
