Assignment: San Francisco

The train screeched to a stop at Montgomery Station. Fred wedged his way through the humanity gathered at the exit doors and, as usual, just made it through as they closed hard behind him. He hurried up the escalator and jogged to his high-rise office building in time to jam his way into the elevator with the other �cattle� headed for work.

He knew he was running late, but he made his usual stop at the coffee vending machines before he headed for his desk. As he watched the cup overfill he grabbed it and burned his hand before he could retrieve it from the filling station.

�Damn! Did it again,� he muttered as he made his way to his cubicle. Hope they won�t notice I�m late again, he thought as he dropped in his chair and began digging through the stack of paper that littered his desk. Contrary to what the yokels in the business tabloids like to think, there is no paperless society in this world, at least not yet, he thought.

�You ready for the meeting?� Jeff Sanders asked from his next-door cubicle.

�What meeting?� Fred shot back.

�The one they just called to get an update on our progress.�

�Don�t the bastards know we�re busting our ass to get this damn report out of our here and get on with some real engineering?�

�Doesn�t matter,� snorted Jeff, �got to show the bosses we care about this thing, old man.�

The �report� was another Environment Impact Report concerning a project that everyone knew would probably not be built in its present form but could not be funded until all the environmental approvals were obtained. Most of the data presented in the report was �estimated� usually without a great deal of study to back it up. In fact, Fred himself had ginned up many of the numbers based on brief telephone talks or emails from company �experts� who had neither the time nor interest in the whole damn thing.

�Lets go Jeff,� Fred groaned as meeting time approached.

�OK buddy, you got your shit together?� Jeff asked as they met in the aisle.

�No, but I�ll come up with something.�

Fred knew the meeting would be a waste of time that would set back his progress at least half a day, but what the hell could he do. If he missed it, he would be asked to come up with an explanation, which would lead to more lost time. So, like the rest of the herd, he went to the damn meeting.

He knew that these sessions were important to the boss because it was one of the few times he felt he was contributing to the effort. And, as he expected, the boss, Al Connetti, was his usual congenial self, congratulating everyone on the great job they were doing. Most of this praise was not taken seriously as it was common knowledge that Al was quick to take full credit for the group�s accomplishments in his reports to management.

The usual people who enjoyed hearing themselves sound important made the usual boring reports and all was going according to schedule as the adjournment (lunch) hour neared.

Just as he was about to head for the door, Fred heard the dreaded words from Al, �Funtley, we haven�t heard from you yet. We all would be most interested in your current progress.�

Oh, oh, he thought as he perked up and tried to look serious. �Well sir, I�m ahead on the work you�ve assigned to me. I hope to finish the chapter on construction manpower this week. Hopefully, I can start on the expected emissions in the next few days.�

�Good, because I want you to tackle something else, if you would. We need a summary of our progress for the guys upstairs. By next Monday at the latest. I know you can do a good job. Meeting adjourned�

Fred�s jaw dropped as he left the room.

How the hell could he get this new assignment completed in time without working through the weekend? Impossible! To make matters worse, he knew that it was another administrative task that had nothing to do with engineering and should have been given to a non-tech person. Certainly not him!

What burned him the most was he wasn�t given the opportunity to state his case. This job is going to kill all my incentive to work for this company, he thought. That is, if it doesn�t kill me first.

Back at his desk, he checked his email, and as he waded through the usual company announcements, writing assignments, schedule updates, and management b.s., something interesting caught his eye.

It was a curious message from Brad Blazer, a fellow engineer he had worked with on previous nuclear processing projects. He had heard that Brad was now assigned as the company�s Project Manager for a range of projects at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, the local Department of Energy lab. The message asked if they could meet the coming Friday for lunch in the city. He knew the lab was involved in state-of-the-art government work including laser research, nuclear fission and fusion projects, nonproliferation studies, and nuclear weapons development and �stewardship� programs.

He immediately sent off a reply saying he would definitely be there, as he knew this was an opportunity to get assigned to a project that was actually challenging.

To say that Fred Funtley�s life was typical of a normal, eight-to-five suburban commuter would be an understatement. In fact, it was so routine that he sometimes felt as if it was originally scripted by some nerd in heaven who was seeking revenge for his own non-eventful stay on earth.

His daily schedule was set in stone; rise at 5 am, shower, shave and attend to his bodily needs in half an hour, drive to the local Bart train station, squeeze into the half-awake mass of humanity on the train, arrive at work in time for a quick cup of coffee before the boss arrived, startup his computer and begin the tedious task of completing the latest part of the project environmental report.

Chapter 11

The Straight POOP

"page 94, 'Michio described their primary goal is to restructure the world order by giving power back to the people by any means possible, including force. He left no doubt in my mind that they would use the threat of nuclear weapons to accomplish their goals."

Chapter 20

Getting Inside

"page 180, And by the way, I was instrumental in planning our operations here at the Yellow Sky Project and am told that the information we've gathered so far has greatly accelerated our weapons program. And since we now have the Taepodong-II missile, we'll be able to strike the major cities of Japan and the United States at any time."