The Nuclear Option

You are standing on top of an atomic bomb.

No one at orientation believed the director at first.

We all just chuckled and waited for him to shoot us a playful smile.

He was talking about the anomalies, of course, but his face never changed.

He was serious.

You are standing on top of an atomic bomb, and one day you might be the one to detonate it.

By the end of orientation, after hearing the emergency procedures and protocols for activating the warhead, I thought I understood.

[alarm sounding] Klaxons blared, and the emergency lights splashed a deep red across the tunnel walls.

I turned a corner and found the torn body of the director, eyes fading as his blood poured through the spaces in the metal floor.

Director, what, what happened? His hand, bloodied and broken, placed an envelope in mine.

It's labeled authorization codes, and I can feel a heavy key inside of it.

it.It's up to you now.

[coughs] Don't let us down.

I can only watch as his body falls limp and the light in his eyes fades.

That's when I knew I was wrong.

[tense music] Last resort fail-safe protocol for anomaly containment sites.

By order of the O5 Council, all major Foundation sites are to be outfitted with a thermonuclear warhead.

This warhead is to be detonated in the event of an irreversible containment breach, preventing anomalies from making contact with the human population en masse.

This fail-safe is necessary to maintain the integrity of the veil of secrecy and to ensure the continued success of the Foundation's mission as outlined in the Veil Protocol.

Each warhead is to be outfitted with remote detonation capabilities.

Given the proper authorization codes, a given fail-safe can be activated from any major Foundation site.

The decision to detonate the nuclear warhead must be unanimous among the following individuals: one, the site director; two, the lead on-site containment specialist; three, at least three O5 Council members.

The O5 Council may order the unilateral detonation of a fail-safe by minority vote.

There is to be no countdown.

[alarm buzzing] I sprint down the stairwell, practically leaping down flights of stairs into the breach, deeper, deeper.