Uncontrolled Force: The Burlington Antimatter Disaster

The maintenance worker watched the reactor of the massive facility slowly begin to melt down. He had just managed to slip the wrong sort of coolant in the wrong sort of place, and now it was too late. The reactor was on the brink of exploding, and he knew it would be a catastrophe. He stared at his work, but there was nothing he could do to stop what he had set in motion.

He had been recruited for Soviet intelligence years ago, and he knew that his job at this research facility was a test of his loyalty. He worked in the maintenance department here, but was actually part of a rogue KGB department that stole secrets from America and Britain. They were few in number, and were scattered about many places like this one. Their mission was to observe and report back on anything that might help the Soviet Union win their arms race against the West.

The American spy at this facility wasn't as old as Lloyds, but he had already worked for 15 years to steal secrets right under the noses of everyone else around him. He didn't have much time left before they'd retire him, so he had been working overtime trying to get as much information as possible before that happened. His most recent assignment was to find out how far along they were on this project, which they called "Project Antimatter." It sounded like science fiction nonsense to Lloyds, but apparently it wasn't too much different than real science. They wanted whatever they could find out about it so they could figure out if it would be useful for their own weapons program.

In fact, based on what little information he'd managed to collect so far, it seemed like Project Antimatter might even be more advanced than what his superiors believed. But stealing more information from them would be much harder now that they had installed all these new security measures since last month's breach by an English spy posing as a scientist interning here. Now they kept scientists inside their office or lab spaces pretty much all day long, with guards posted outside their doors every night when everyone else went home. There wasn't any way for anyone to sneak a peek at their notes without getting caught nowadays.

But then Lloyds' luck changed when he got assigned some light janitorial duties in Dr. Ivanov's office earlier that week. As soon as he saw the scientist's desk littered with papers and notebooks full of scribbled data it sparked an idea in Lloyds' mind: Why not simply copy down some stuff from those? Surely Ivanov wouldn't miss whatever notes were laying around on his desk for a few minutes? After all, who would want to take something off someone's desk without asking?

So Lloyds took advantage of his janitorial duties each day after lunch hour to sneak into Ivanov's office and snatch up whatever notes he could find lying around on desks or tables inside or outside Ivanov's lab space over the next several days while Ivanov was busy with other things inside or outside his lab space.. He'd then smuggle those notes back out of the facility each night with him after work when everyone else had already gone home for the day, hiding them away under his uniform until he could make his way out of here and deliver them back to Moscow once everything blew over.

The only problem was that he got sloppy one day when he slipped some notes into an empty glass container marked "nitrogen" in order to smuggle them out of Ivanov's lab space unnoticed by anyone else walking by who might otherwise see him taking them off Ivanov's desk without asking for permission first if they noticed him doing that instead.. And now everything was ruined! The resultant explosion should destroy enough of this facility alone to make sure no one ever discovered why this happened! Even if someone did discover a motive behind what caused this disaster within hours after it occurred, there wouldn't be anything left here anymore for them to investigate further! The cause would remain a mystery! No one would ever know!

But there was one thing in particular Lloyds didn't know himself: He didn't realize that today happened to be exactly one day after Dr. Ivanov installed a brand new glass container labeled "nitrogen" onto his desk in preparation for some experiments tomorrow afternoon.. And even worse than that: That container happened to contain nuclear-powered artificial atoms designed specifically by Dr. Ivanov himself and entrusted only into his care.. A trusted colleague whom everyone knew considered himself loyal only to Russia and anti-Americanism.. Who also happened to have been recently fired from his position at Red Square University by none other than Joseph Stalin himself just last month because Stalin suspected Ivanov might be more loyal to America than Russia instead.. A suspicion which may well prove true very soon indeed now that Ivanov has begun experimenting with uranium isotopes liberated from America's Manhattan Project during World War II.. A suspicion which might lead Stalin or others within Soviet intelligence investigating this event later tonight to conclude that Ivanov is probably responsible for causing this event intentionally now.. Which may eventually lead them all straight back here where they'll discover exactly where Lloyds has secreted away those stolen notes from Dr. Ivanov's table inside one small glass container marked "nitrogen" sitting innocently upon another table inside Dr. Ivanov's lab space!*