Ground Zero
Chapter One
Teller Nuclear Research Facility,
Pleasanton, California
Monday, 4:03 P.M.
X Even through the thick windows of his laboratory
building, the old man could hear the
antinuke protesters outside. Chanting, singing,
shouting--always fighting against the future,
trying to stall progress. It baffled him more than
it angered him. The slogans hadn't changed from decade to
decade. He didn't think the radicals would ever learn.
He fingered the laminated badge dangling from his lab
coat. The five-year-old picture, showing him with an awkward
expression, was worse than a driver's license photo.
The Badge Office didn't like to retake snapshots--but then,
ID photos never really looked like the subject in question,
anyway. At least not in the past five decades. Not since his
days as a minor technician for the Manhattan Project. In
half a century his face had grown more gaunt, more
seamed, especially over the past few years. His steel-gray
hair had turned an unhealthy yellowish-white, where it
hadn't fallen out in patches. But his eyes remained bright
and inquisitive, fascinated ... read full excerpt from: The X-Files: Ground Zero ebook
