Holding the 200-kilogram nuclear warhead, Chen Jue quietly slipped back inside the Kashiwazaki Nuclear Power Plant.
It was afternoon. Outside, the summer heat blazed, while the plant's patrolling security inspectors yawned drowsily.
Since the plant had shut down more than a decade ago, most of its core technical staff had long since been reassigned. Those who remained were mostly older maintenance workers.
According to Chen Jue's senses, there were only twelve people in the plant, himself included, and all the others were elderly people with declining vitality.
Controlling these people would take little effort on Chen Jue's part.
Japan had a severe aging problem, and its retirement age was notoriously high among the countries on Earth. Under the pretext of putting waste to use, some elderly people who had reached retirement age would even take pay cuts to remain at their posts.
Besides, the most dangerous fuel in the Kashiwazaki Nuclear Power Plant had already been transferred and sold off, so it was understandable that only a dozen or so people remained in the vast complex.
If the Tokyo Electric Power Company had not still wanted to restart the plant and bring its heavily funded generating units back into service, even those dozen or so elderly engineers probably would not have stayed.
After all, in Chen Jue's recollection, some domestic businesses that had ceased production and stood idle for years would eventually leave just one old man guarding the entrance.
Still, fewer people was a good thing. It gave Chen Jue his chance to cause some trouble this time!
First, he found an empty room and set down the nuclear warhead. Then he slipped back into the technical department's office and quickly read through the archived operating procedures for the heavy water reactors and generator units, along with various precautions.