Geiger Counter

[Slam]

((Alex King and Cassandra Black continued from Now I'm radioactive! That can't be good!))

Alex led as she and Cassandra walked to the reactors. Even without a layout of the building in her head, as handy as it would've been to get one before they left, Alex was confident in her plan and confident in their odds. There was no guarantee of success, but fuck it, it was better than just sitting down and waiting to die.

Cassandra did not know what exactly Alex had in mind. Alex had just said they needed to find the reactor room. Cassandra had never been great with science, so she had no idea what Alex had planned. She did not even know how Alex knew that there was something they could do; the girl was not particularly academically inclined. Still, maybe Alex was on to something, and that was enough for Cassandra to follow along.

The two entered the smaller reactor building to the south. Thankfully, nobody seemed to be there.

"Yeah, so, we're looking for the reactor core, or whatever they put it in." Alex stated as she looked around the room, hoping that maybe the entrance would have a map or such. There was no such luck, of course, but it wasn't like the place was a maze or anything.

"All right, let's get looking," Cassandra said. She did not want Alex to say too much of the plan. There was no way the terrorists could not hear them; that would be way too much of a liability for them to take on. Running this game was a lot like investing in that regard; the terrorists were looking for a certain return, and they would try to minimize the risk in achieving that return. Not having microphones somewhere would be too idiotic of an oversight for Cassandra to believe they would have made it.

However, this meant that Cassandra was trying to indirectly push Alex not to reveal her brilliant plan, which of course would irk Alex. Alex must not have figured out the audio situation, or else she would have understood why Cassandra was pushing back on hearing the whole plan through. It also meant that Cassandra was following Alex around, not really sure what she should be looking for. However, there was not much lying around, so Alex was more than capable of finding whatever she needed.

However, as the two continued to look around the building, in spite of their best efforts, Alex could not find the nuclear reactor core. Maybe if they'd stayed behind to actually find a copy of the blueprints in the office building, they might've managed it, but no, Cassandra had to be in such a fucking hurry to get out of there. Maybe they could've worked with it, but unfortunately her plan of hiding in the nuclear fucking reactor core to stave off radio waves and thus figure out a way to get the fucking collars off hinged on funding that fucking nuclear reactor core.

Of course, they could just go back and look throughout the office block for a set of blueprints again. Adam and whoever the fuck he was hanging out with would probably be long gone, so unless someone else had moved in like a bunch of cockroaches crawling under the fridge where she had dropped her snack or something, they'd have free reign of the place. Hell, they could even just go and look in the other reactor.

But fuck it; she didn't want to do that. That would mean she'd have to give up on finding it herself as well as admit she should've looked for it back in the office in the first place. She wasn't stubborn, but she wasn't going to just admit she'd been stupid back then unless she had no reason to think she'd ever find the reactor core. Besides, the two reactors were probably identical anyway.

"Okay, look, this plan went bust, right?" Cassandra needed to placate Alex. She was getting angry, and angry Alex would eventually prove to be a problem. Alex had proven herself time and again to be all bark and no bite, but even that bark was frustrating to deal with. Cassandra could not help but wonder how Alex would have functioned in the workforce, given the necessity of teamwork.

"We can get moving, head over to the other place you wanted. Maybe that plan is more executable?"

"Yeah, fuck it, this plan's stupid. Let's just go with plan B." Alex spat out, brushing herself aside to avoid having to look at Cassandra. Even though it was her fault the plan had failed in the first place, it wasn't like a failed plan was the end of the world. She had alternatives, because she was smart enough to think ahead, and she could put them into action any time she wanted. So in spite of her frustration with how fucking maze-like something like a reactor could turn out to be, she wasn't going to let it ruin her day like finding the empty control tower had. Cassandra didn't need to see her get so pissy like that, and she didn't care to look so pissy in front of Cassandra.

Cassandra was pleasantly surprised by Alex's response. She was taking the failure well; Cassandra had expected to get an earful.

The pair left the building and the nuclear reactor site. Maybe the next plan would work.

((Alex King and Cassandra Black continued in Everything Here is a Small Cap Investment))