Michael Beres - Chernobyl Murders

The technicians muttered among themselves, careful not to speak loud enough for the observers to hear. They spoke of the weariness of operating what they quietly called “the bitch” under manual control for so many hours. They spoke about the absence of the chief engineer on this special shutdown duty. Several wondered if “bitch number four” would be shut down soon so they could go home. Others joked about the chief engineer referring to each of the units not as bitches, but as toys.

“The chief engineer home asleep while we play with his toy,” whispered one operator.

“I’d like to be there,” whispered another.

“Playing with his toy?”

“No, in bed with his wife.”

Several laughed quietly.

“You wouldn’t know what to do.”

“I’ve got experiments to perform.”

“You’d have to do them on yourself. Like our experiment here, seeing how long we can keep the power in our system up after the orgasm is shut down.”

Several laughed again.

“Keep talking this way,” said one of the assistant engineers, “and the director will have you sent to a place where you’ll have plenty of time to play with yourselves.”

There were a few chuckles, but not the comfortable laughter of earlier.

The supervisor of the electricians walked out from behind the console and stood with his thumbs hooked into his tool belt. “I don’t understand. First it’s supposed to be down this afternoon, then this evening, now it’s already after one in the morning. Up-down.

On-off. Nobody knows what they’re doing around here.”

Mihaly Horvath, the senior engineer in charge, looked from the console to the supervisor of electricians. “Can’t you be a little patient? What’s all the noise back there?”

“We’re removing access panels,” said the supervisor. “How much longer before you shut down? Now? Or do we have to wait until Sunday?”

“Not long,” said Mihaly. “What’s the big hurry?”

“You should know,” said the supervisor. “You’re the ones who made us come in for this shift. My boss wants us finished with the lock-ons by the end of the shift, but we can’t start until you shut this damn thing down.”

Mihaly did not answer the supervisor. Instead he gave orders to the other technicians and told them to watch the panel indicators.

The shutdown process had been in progress twenty-four hours.

There were signs of boredom, technicians looking at the clock and yawning, something they would not have done if the chief engineer had been on duty.

During the slow process of lowering the control rods while maintaining steam and water flow, various valves and pumps in the system went through many cycles. It was an excellent time to watch for malfunctions. And, theoretically, it should be a safer time because if anything should go wrong, the reactor was already in the process of being shut down.

The effect of bringing down the power of unit four could be heard in the large room containing the turbine and generator. The sound was similar to a jetliner very slowly shutting down its engines, or to a long, drawn-out sigh of relief. But power was not supposed to drop this fast, and a signal was sent to a panel in the main control room.

“I’ve got a light!” said one of the technicians in a loud whisper.

Others tried to whisper back, but the whispering got louder and louder and eventually changed to shouting.

“What is it?”

“The power is dropping too fast!”

“Why?”

“How the hell do I know?”

“Pavlov, you dog! Where the hell is Pavlov?”

“Stop calling me a dog, idiot! Especially with visitors here!”

“Did you program the computer?”

“For what?”

“To prevent the bitch from dropping below the minimum!”

“I… I don’t know.”

“You don’t know? Mother of God! We already hit the minimum, and look how it’s falling! Do something! What happened to the alarms? How come there are no alarms?”

“I… We shut them off.”

“Tasha! Begin the manual procedure for reinserting the control rods!”

“Reinserting?”

“Yes! Now, before it’s too late! Someone run and get the computer printouts! You! Is your foot still in your mother? Run and get them!”

Several minutes went by, during which the technicians who were not at the console went to the console. Everyone was visibly shaken as they watched the semicircle of lights and gauges. Their expressions conveyed confusion, annoyance, fear, and everything in between.

“I don’t know what’s happening!” said one technician. “First the pressure is down, then it’s up!”

“Same with the temperature!” said another technician. “It’s the highest I’ve seen! Wait! It’s not going down! There’s something wrong with the cooling system! Core temperature up two hundred!”

“All right!” shouted Mihaly, stepping back from the console.

“Bring her under control with the backups! Open the primary cooling backup valve slowly! Sergei, call out the temperature changes!”

“But this afternoon…” said one of the technicians.

“What about it?”

“The chief had us turn off the backups so we could work on those first.”

“They’re still off?”

“Yes.”

“Sergei!”

“Up another fifty! It’s out of control! The fucking rods won’t go in! Do something!”

During this exchange, the supervisor of the electricians looked to the ceiling and shook his head. Then he went behind the console and could be heard cursing.

Amid the cursing and confusion at the console, more and more lights came on. Technicians began retreating from the console as a group, resembling children being told to line up in a hallway. Eventually, they gathered beneath the recessed ceiling lights above a conference table in the center of the room. The conference table was often used for meetings and discussions. Their automatic movement to the conference table was an indication that problem solving was needed, and in a hurry. As they gathered beneath the bright overhead lights, many began shouting at one another. No one sat at the chairs around the table. The few who did not shout stood about waiting for orders. Several demanded a solution from Mihaly, and he broke from the group to survey the entire console. When he turned back to the others, the determined look on his face silenced them.

“Everyone get back to their stations!” shouted Mihaly.

While the men returned to the console, Mihaly grabbed one of the technicians by the arm, and headed for the door at the side of the room.

While running, Mihaly shouted, “We’ll have to open the lines manually! I’ll get the intake valve! You take care of the steam valve!

The rest of you stay at the console!”

When Mihaly and the other technician were gone, the remaining technicians glanced alternately to one another, then to the lights flashing on the console. The supervisor of electricians came out from behind the console, followed by two electricians.

“What’s going on?” demanded the supervisor of electricians.

“Why have the visitors gone away?”

“We were too busy to notice!” shouted one of the technicians.

“You tell us why they left! You probably fucked something up back there!”

The supervisor of electricians ran at the technician with his fist raised. “All we did was remove a couple of panels! We didn’t touch a damn thing!”

The accusing technician backed away. “How did I know? I thought you might have started working on the circuits!”

The supervisor of electricians glanced at the lights flashing on the console, then shook his fist in the accuser’s face. “You’d better not try to blame us for this!” He turned to the others. “None of you!”