Chapter 1144: Safe and Sound
At first, Besnova thought that the players were bandits who had appeared out of nowhere. However, the other party didn’t rob any of her belongings, and although they secretly pry open the doors of several shops during the night, they only took some emergency change. Most of them were daily necessities that could be used, and they did not take too much either.
In addition, they all looked Ukrainian or Russian, but strangely, none of them could speak the language. Besnova had initially thought that she could infer their identity from this.
This was most likely a group of Americans or Europeans who lived in the Western world but had Russian and Ukrainian blood. They were specially selected to carry out secret espionage activities by infiltrating the Soviet Union. However, Besnova thought about it again, and the more this didn’t seem to make sense. How could a spy infiltrating an enemy country not learn their language? What kind of infiltration was this? Moreover, this group of people didn’t speak English. She didn’t know which country’s language it was.
However, they were indeed particularly interested in the nuclear power plant. They even disguised themselves as experts to talk to its engineers. That being said, Besnova soon discovered that they didn’t seem to be interested in the technology of the nuclear power plant, but the accident that happened last night. In other words, these people who pretended to be experts were indeed doing what the expert group in Moscow was supposed to do.
Thus, Besnova was completely confused. She had no idea where the players came from. She even had the illusion that they were standing together with the residents of Pripyat.
On the contrary, the nuclear power plant seemed to be hiding something.
Although Besnova knew next to nothing about nuclear physics, she was a nurse in the medical center after all, and she knew a little about radiation sickness. Seeing that the players had all been exposed to different doses of radiation, she recalled the scene when they first met. The players had rushed into the ward wearing the clothes of the nuclear power plant staff.
It happened to be shortly after the Chernobyl accident. Besnova remembered very clearly that because of the huge fire at the time of the explosion, the nurse on duty with her even pulled her to the window to look. They were guessing what happened to the nuclear power plant at that time, and not long after that, they were all captured by the players.
In other words, they were most likely at the scene when the nuclear power plant exploded last night. Did they discover something? Was that why they started to investigate? However, Besnova did not know what would happen even if they found out the results. She could tell that some of the players were not in good condition. Although the doctors could provide some treatment, they basically only focused on alleviating pain.
Coconut, in particular, was in an even worse condition than some of the nuclear power plant workers who were sent to the hospital. Right now, what she needed the most was to receive proper treatment, not forcing herself to carry out some investigation here.
However, Besnova also knew that her words would not have any effect on the players. She did not forget her current identity, that she was still a captive.
Besnova followed Coconut’s request and called Akimov after Katarov. Akimov was the foreman on duty at reactor No.4 last night. Aged 33, he wore glasses and had a head of thick curly hair. He looked quite strong, but now he was extremely weak. His skin had been completely burned by the radiation and had turned dark brown. His face and hands, and even his tongue were swollen. Even speaking seemed a mighty chore.
His radiation situation was much worse than Katarov’s because, according to his own account, after the accident, he had run with Toptonov to the reactor to try to restore the water supply.
When he said this, he was interrupted by Besnova, who, as she had once confronted Jartlov, confronted the foreman on duty. “Are you sure the reactor is still intact?”
Akimov obviously hesitated. He began to tremble. At the same time, he kept repeating what he had been repeating when he first entered the room, “Everything we did was right. We followed the rules in the operating manual. We didn’t make a mistake, really…”
“Calm down, Comrade Akimov. We are not here to hold you accountable, at least not now. We just want to know the specific situation of the reactor to provide a scientific basis for the next decision of the higher-ups. So, you just need to tell us what you saw.”
“I…” Akimov opened his mouth. “We experienced a serious radiation accident… but fortunately, the reactor is still safe and sound.”
It took a lot of effort to say this, but he obviously felt better after saying it.
“What was the radiation value at that time?”
“1,000 microroentgens per second.” Akimov adjusted the glasses on his face. “After the explosion, the most important thing was to inject water into the reactor to prevent the reactor from melting due to the high temperature. Therefore, we prepared to open the No.2 emergency water pump and began to inject water into the reactor according to the request of chief engineer Fomin.
“However, because we lost the power supply, the gate valve could only be opened manually. So, Toptonov and I rotated the handle along the line. We spent a few hours opening the regulating valves on the two branches, but for some reason, the reactor seemed to be leaking. At that time, we were completely exhausted and were sent to the medical center by ambulance. Our replacement was Smagin.”
Akimov’s account sounded as if it was full of guilt and self-blame.
Besnova could see that the man in front of her had become really upset about the trouble he’d caused, but he didn’t seem to know what he’d done wrong. He could only repeat that he didn’t do anything wrong. Everything was in accordance with the rules and so on to try to make her conscience feel better.
At one point, Besnova didn’t even have the heart to ask any more questions. She continued to exert pressure on the poor man, forcing him to recall all the details of the incident. All she knew was that this wasn’t a matter she could decide—Zhang Heng and the others had no intention of interrupting or pausing the conversation at all.
However, they did learn something. At least, from Akimov’s answer, they discovered something different from what Katarov said. For example, when the power went down, according to Akimov, Katarov was also in the control room at the time. He was so angry that he scolded Toptunov. He then rampaged on a senior reactor control engineer before demanding that Toptunov increase the power, only to Toptunov’s refusal.
Thus, Katarov brought up the safety regulations, saying that if the power levels dropped below 80%, it could only be increased after 24 hours. Now that the power was below 50%, nowhere in the safety regulations was it stated that the power couldn’t be increased immediately.