"All vital installations are under guard, Dick. So they say. It's all supposed to be hush-hush-"

"Then how do you know?"

Nelson smirked in reply. Then: "We might as well just ignore them. It's their job, all that Defence of the Realm stuff."

"What are they going to do if we don't meet the deadline? Shoot us?"

Nelson's expression suggested he thought this wasn't beyond the bounds of possibility.

"I just never expected to be doing my job at gunpoint. If the powers that be don't trust us, why should we trust them?"

"Desperate times, Dick."

McShay looked at Nelson suspiciously. "I hope you're on our side, William."

"There aren't any sides, are there?"

A rotating red light suddenly began whirling in the room outside, intermittently bathing them in a hellish glow. A droning alarm pitched at an irritating level filled the complex. The Special Forces troops were instantly on the move.

"Shit!" McShay closed his eyes in irritation; it was a breach of a security zone. "What the fuck is it now?"

Nelson was already on the phone. As he listened, McShay watched incomprehension flicker across his face.

"Give me the damage," McShay said wearily when Nelson replaced the phone.

Nelson stared at him blankly for a moment before he said, "There's an intruder-"

"I know! It's the fucking intruder alarm!"

"-in the reactor core."

McShay returned the blank stare and then replied, "You're insane." He picked up the phone and listened to the stuttering report before running out of the room, Nelson close behind him.

The inherent farcical nature of a group of over-armed troops pointing their guns at the door to an area where no human could possibly survive wasn't lost on McShay, but the techies remained convinced someone was inside. He pushed his way past the troops on the perimeter to the control array where Rex Moulding looked about as uncomfortable as any man could get.