Deke’s nostrils flared. “I do trust you, Dr. Smithers. But you have to find his report.”
She nodded, looking back at her computer. “With our new clearance level, who knows what we could read? I wonder if there’s information on Marilyn Monroe in here.” Her voice quickened. “Or information on the royal family.”
Hugh grinned. He’d forgotten how much she liked reading about the royal family. It was a cute oddity, and he’d thought so even back in college. “I guess some things never change,” he mused quietly.
Her smile showed a very small dimple in her right cheek.
“Later,” Deke said, sliding his gun back into place. Apparently, he figured somebody else could shoot Hugh if necessary. “We have more immediate concerns. What have you two found regarding nuclear threats?”
Hugh hadn’t ever been much of a talker and saw no reason to start now. “Ellie?”
She looked up, her intelligent eyes focusing behind the glasses. “We used an algorithm to determine the greatest nuclear threats on our soil. Factors included vulnerability of facility, number of potential casualties, and proximity to a major Scorpius outbreak.”
Connor leaned in. “Why proximity to outbreak?”
“Because resources will be stretched thin,” Ellie said, her voice reminding Hugh of their college days when they’d discussed common ion effect and buffers. “People will be concentrating on staying healthy or healing ill family members. Security guards will be away from post—either infected or concerned with more personal matters. Mostly.”
“That was the easier part,” Hugh said, glancing at his papers. “Best three nuclear power plants to hit at the present moment are in New York, Pennsylvania, and Arizona.”
“Great,” Nora said, shoving thick hair away from her face. “So a terrorist could just attack a facility and let off a nuclear bomb?”
Hugh shook his head. “No. The fuel for uranium reactors isn’t enriched enough to explode like a bomb. The concern is meltdown or attack, which would release radiation in copious amounts or theft of the materials. It wouldn’t be the first time a terrorist group tried to get its hands on uranium to make a dirty bomb.” The idea rolled bile through his stomach and up his throat.
Ellie nodded. “A group could also target spent fuel, which are the pools where nuclear waste is kept. They could plant bombs there.”
Connor sighed. “What happens then?”
“Boom,” Hugh said grimly. “It would cause a catastrophic fire that would be worse than any nuclear meltdown. The radiation would be swept up in the smoke, which would carry far and wide. It’d be a disaster of unimaginable proportions.”
Ivan had kept quiet for the entire interchange. “You’re the expert, Hugh. If you were going to attack, how and where would you do it?”
Hugh rubbed his chin. The guy got right to the point, didn’t he? “Unless I had contacts in New York, I’d go for Arizona or Pennsylvania. I’d take out the computer system and bring down the cameras, which would have to be from the inside, and make sure the cooling system stopped working.”
Ellie cleared her throat. “You’d need one of the best hackers in the world to do that. There are safeguards upon safeguards in place for coolants.”
Hugh nodded. “Yeah. If I was going to attack a nuclear power plant, I’d have the best in the world in my pocket.” His body started to ache and he released each muscle to try uselessly to rid himself of tension. “Then I’d plant explosives around the spent fuel.”
“It’s nice you’ve planned this out,” Connor muttered.
Hugh flashed a grin, amusement filling him. They were truly suspicious of him. “It’s my job. At least, it was my job.” He had a feeling everything had just changed.
“Suspects?” Deke asked.
Ellie pressed a button, and faces started filling the wall screen. “We’ve narrowed it down to five organizations in the states. Two homegrown and three Hugh has been watching for a year. They have the skills and means.”
“It’s one of these?” Ivan asked, leaning forward.
Hugh ran through the data. “Maybe. We don’t know who else has shown up the last month as we all concentrated on Scorpius and the outbreak. There could be players on our soil that I haven’t tracked.”
“Just great,” Connor said, eyeing the screen. “What now?”
Ellie set her papers down. “We go to the sites and look for anything out of the ordinary. I can only get into the computers onsite and not remotely.”
“Affirmative.” Deke shoved away from the table. “As of right now, you all have top-level clearance. There’s nothing you can’t request or see.” He assisted Nora from her chair. “I think you’re right about New York. Resources have been sent to the bigger cities for protection, and it’d be too hard to hit.”
Man, Hugh hoped he was right. “Or that’s what they’re expecting we’ll think.”
Deke nodded. “Aye. That. For now, we check out the other two plants. Nora, Ivan, and I will fly to Pennsylvania since private planes haven’t been grounded yet. Ivan has expertise here as well. Eleanor, Hugh, and Connor? You guys fly to the Arizona plant. I’ll ask the new president to grease the wheels for you.”
