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Black Sky Four: The Cold Case of Silo Site Bravo and the Device That Silenced the Station

Chapter 5

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The woman in the burgundy blazer adjusted her cream tie with two fingers, perfectly composed in the center of the growing storm.“The credentials are not false, Sheriff Calder,” she said. “My name is Evelyn Vance. I am a Senior Inspector with the Office of the Inspector General, National Nuclear Security Administration.”The statement hung in the air like heavy smoke.Ortiz took a sharp breath through his teeth. Calder, however, let out a short, harsh laugh, though there was no humor left in his eyes.“NNSA?” Calder scoffed. “We don't have nuclear material in Oakhaven County, lady. This is a timber district. You’re lost, and you’re lying.”“You do not have active commercial power reactors, Sheriff,” Evelyn Vance replied, her tone as dry as bone. “You do, however, have three decommissioned Minuteman III missile silos along the North Ridge, designated Sites Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie. Constructed in 1964, deactivated under the START I treaty in 1995, and currently managed under federal environmental remediation contracts.”Calder’s jaw worked silently. His right hand twitched against his belt.“Those sites are empty concrete holes,” Calder said. “Fenced off and guarded by private security contractors.”“They were empty,” Evelyn corrected him. “Until forty-eight hours ago, when an unauthorized convoy of four heavy flatbed transports departed Silo Site Bravo carrying twelve lead-lined industrial storage casks containing depleted uranium tailings and unrefined yellowcake residues.”Ortiz turned his head slowly to look at Calder.“Sheriff...” Ortiz said, his voice dropping into a horrified register. “Last Tuesday... the heavy transport permit you made me file under agricultural machinery... the one for the contractor group from Idaho...”“Shut your mouth, Ben!” Calder barked, turning violently toward his deputy. “You don't know what you’re talking about!”“You signed off on those trucks!” Ortiz shouted back, his fear finally giving way to absolute disbelief. “You gave them an unescorted county transit pass through the North Ridge checkpoint!”“I signed an oversized load permit for farm equipment!” Calder roared, his voice bouncing off the cinderblock walls. “I don't check the inside of every crate that passes through this county!”“You didn't check because they paid you, Sheriff,” Evelyn Vance said calmly.The station went completely still. Even the hum of the fluorescent lights seemed to quiet down under the weight of her accusation.Calder turned back to face her, his eyes narrowed into two slits.“You better watch your tongue, woman.”“Five thousand dollars per transport,” Evelyn continued, referencing invisible facts with absolute certainty. “Wire-transferred through a shell account registered in Cheyenne under the name Blackwood Agricultural Services. The same account you used to pay off your farm mortgage three months ago.”Calder’s hand went cold. The color drained from his weathered face, leaving his skin looking yellow under the lights.“You’re guessing,” Calder whispered.
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Black Sky Four: The Cold Case of Silo Site Bravo and the Device That Silenced the Station

7 Part