Zero Day

They find Randy and ask him whether he and his father ever found a way into the dome. Randy says they once found a mineshaft that ran underneath it, and after his father’s death, Randy found a way in where the concrete floor had cracked. Inside, he saw some barrels but didn’t investigate closely. Exasperated, Cole tells him the barrels might have held something toxic that could be the cause of his heaaches.

Randy remembers having once told Dickie Strauss what he found inside the dome. Puller concludes that Dickie must have told someone else, and whoever it was killed Dickie and everyone else to stop the information from getting out. Puller realizes that Mason is the only person he told about Dickie’s involvement in the case. He keeps the fact to himself.

Puller calls his brother. Robert confirms Puller’s suspicion that 92 and 94 are the atomic numbers for uranium and plutonium, respectively. Puller asks about the gold foil and tungsten carbide found at the meth house. Roger says they would both be used in a nuclear implosion weapon. Based on what Puller tells him about the bunker, Robert agrees it is almost certain that someone is building a nuclear weapon.

Next, the Department of Defense puts Puller in touch with retired colonel David Larrimore, who was an engineer and production supervisor at the Bunker. Larrimore confirms that the bunker was working on a nuclear super-fuel that could be used to obliterate a country. The government should have dismantled the site. The fact that they sealed it in concrete means the nuclear material is still there. Larrimore tells them they might be able to get in through the ventilation system. The access is under the firehouse.

Puller and Cole arrive at the firehouse with a reel of phone cable and an old-fashioned SAT phone. Dressed in hazmat suits, they find the hidden access to the ventilation system and follow the air shaft, unreeling the phone cable as they go, until they emerge into a building under the concrete dome. Puller finds the barrels of uranium and plutonium. The last barrel in line is empty. The plutonium has been removed, and he sees rings on the floor where there were six other barrels. On the walkie-talkie, Cole tells Puller she has found Roger Trent.

Trent is unconscious and tied up, surrounded by boxes of financial records and flash drives. Puller suspects Strauss is responsible. They see a light come on in another part of the building. They find a stainless steel box four feet long and four feet wide. Puller picks up the phone attached to the cable that reaches all the way back to the firehouse and calls his brother.

Few people know more about nuclear weapons than Robert Puller. It wasn’t easy to convince the Army brass to go along, but Puller held his ground all the way up the line until the Defense Secretary approved his plan. Following Robert’s instructions, Puller opens the lid of the box and finds the timer counting down from 62 minutes. Based on what Puller describes, Robert tells Puller where to position a single stick of dynamite. It will cause the bomb to fizzle rather than detonate. It will destroy the concrete dome but not much more than that. A full detonation would crater West Virginia and spread radiation over at least six states. Puller tells Cole to leave, but she refuses.

When Puller places the dynamite, the timer on the bomb jumps from 47 minutes down to five. Puller sets the timer on the dynamite to go off just before the bomb itself, then he and Cole grab Roger Trent and run.