The technicians stood next to one another, each holding a mug of hot coffee.  They were both looking up at a flat-panel TV mounted on the break room wall, listening to the latest news bulletin.  Both men had the dead eyes of those who have dwelled too long in the sterile environment of a lab.  As they watched the news bulletin, their detached faces showed little emotion.<br/><br/>“When did it happen?” said the first technician, the fatter of the two.<br/><br/>“About an hour ago.  The HVX plant outside Redmond.  Report said the wind is carrying that shit all over down there.  They’re telling everyone to stay inside.”<br/><br/>“You think we’ll get the call?”<br/><br/>“Don’t know.”<br/><br/>An aerial view showed a massive dust cloud over the southeastern edge of Redmond, covering a portion of the Iron Belt; through the cloud, bright spots of light highlighted where fires raged blow.   Half of the HVX plant looked like a crater from above.  Steel girders and live wires stretched out like fingers from walls blown apart in the explosion.<br/><br/>“What a nightmare.  They’re going to blame this on us, you know that, right?  Class action lawsuit, fines.  They’ll say it was one of the mixing units.  Maybe a containment unit.   What do you want to bet?”<br/><br/>The other technician did not respond.<br/><br/>An image flickered across the screen of a team of firefighters struggling to put out a chemical fire that had spread to one of the homes near the explosion; on the second floor of the house, a woman and child were standing by one of the windows screaming for rescue.<br/><br/>“There goes my bonus.”<br/><br/>The fat technician raised his mug slightly, “Amen, brother.”<br/><br/><div align="center">*****</div><br/>It was 10:30 and Cat had already been asleep for an hour when the phone rang.  She fumbled with the lights for a moment and made an unsuccessful stab at picking the receiver up.  A moment of silence passed before she heard the tell-tale beep of her answering machine from the other room.<br/><br/>“Rearden, it’s Ellis.  Pick up the phone.”<br/><br/>Silence.<br/><br/><em>This is my boss when he wants something.  This is my boss when he’s being nice.</em><br/><br/>She was terrified.<br/><br/>“Rearden, wake up and pick up the fucking phone.”<br/><br/>Cat rolled out of bed and stood; yawning, she rubbed her eyes and slipped back into her tank top.  It was so hot.  Barefoot, she padded across the bedroom floor and into her living room, picking up the receiver.<br/><br/>“Hey Ellis, sorry about that.”<br/><br/>A pause.<br/><br/>“When?  They’re here now?”<br/><br/>She took the receiver with her to the window and opened the curtains.  Parked out in front of her building was a black armored van, the sort the corporate security teams used for field operations.  Walking back to her bedroom, she snagged a shirt and pair of jeans off the floor and started to get dressed.<br/><br/>“I’m getting ready now.  Tell them I’ll be right down.”<br/><br/><div align="center">*****</div><br/>The gas mask itched.  Cat tried to adjust the straps at the back of her head, but no matter what she did, it itched.  She sat pinched between two other lab geeks in the armored van; seated on the bench opposite them were the black-and-yellow armored corporate security forces.  The van’s engine roared as it rumbled down Redmond’s pothole-covered streets at breakneck speeds.   Since they’d reached Redmond, she hadn’t been able to see more than a few feet outside the van’s heavily tinted rear window.  Every so often she caught a glimpse of shell-shocked men and women making their way along the streets.<br/><br/>“How much further is it?” she asked the fat little technician on her right.<br/><br/>“Not far,” he said, “I haven’t been down here since we opened the plant though.  I think it’s about a mile outside Redmond, on the Iron Belt.”<br/><br/>“Did they tell you what happened?”<br/><br/>He grimaced irritably, “Maybe a mixing unit malfunctioned.  There was a small explosion in the east wing of the plant that might have damaged some of the containment units.  After that, we think the chemicals did what they do best.”<br/><br/>“What’s that?” she asked, adjusting her mask.<br/><br/>“They mixed.”<br/><br/>The van pulled onto a gravel road and stopped; the security team opened up the back of the van and waved everyone out into a massive courtyard outside the accident site.  Cat slipped out and was hit immediately by the sheer amount of activity; further back along the road, where they’d come from, there were corporation guards shoving back first responders; firefighters and police had formed around the gates, but no one was being let in.  She could hear them barking at each other.  The security teams had their weapons up and were openly disobeying the police.<br/><br/>The plant itself was still partly intact; the explosion was not as bad as some of the news bulletins had made out; accidents and fires weren’t uncommon on The Iron Belt.  This one might be a little bigger than most, but it was likely that people in the rest of the city had only heard bits and pieces of what was going on.<br/><br/>“Well, we better get started.”<br/>