Chapter Eighteen
Wednesday, October 22
2:45 PM
Yucca Flat
Nevada Test Site
After a cafeteria lunch, Craig was anxious to return to the DAF to begin going over the mounds of paperwork Nevsky had left behind. Time was wasting, and he had gathered about as much background as he considered useful. But he had to accompany the Russian inspectors as they were shown the NTS down-hole testing activities.
The van trundled along a dirt road on Yucca Flat where hundreds of nuclear tests had taken place underground. Craig could see the dimpled ground, weirdly symmetric circular depressions laid out like a bizarre gardening plot.
“Moon craters,” said Nikolai Bisovka, an amateur astronomer and stargazer back in Russia. He fumbled with his pack of Marlboros, sucking on an unlit cigarette, since Pai
