While Jack stared agog John headed over to a small compartment set just inside the bulkhead and grabbed one of several large wireless bolt drivers from the charging brackets inside. “There,” said the Agent to the major, handing it to Jack, “now, let’s go on up to where the SLAM missiles are stored up top and I’ll show you how to start unbolting the nose cones.”

John and Jack climbed onto a small removable lift platform at the bottom of the shaft and John pressed a foot pedal that sent them up through the core of the missiles. Jack felt small next to these billion-dollar death bringers, like an ant climbing amongst bullets in a Titan’s handgun. At the second of three levels of missiles, John stopped the lift and Jack noted that he could easily step to either side and plummet thirty feet to a painful death below, but he stayed calm as he watched John Hunt step expertly onto a set of rungs mounted on the side of the brackets holding one of the SLAMs. Jack noticed that all of the brackets were designed so that a lone man or woman could stand on their sides and it would place them exactly level with the nose cone of that missile. Smart.

John took the bolt driver and placed the bit against one of the bolts.

“Now,” said John Hunt, holding the bolt driver steady, “you must start with this bolt here with the small yellow arrow next to it. You will notice there are also red and blue arrows next to some of the other bolts. It is a small security measure, but unscrew the wrong bolt first and you will set off a small explosive device inside that will disable the missile and almost certainly kill you at the same time. Just our little way of stopping people tampering with the equipment.

“There are other failsafes inside the warhead, but we aren’t going to even touch the actual warheads themselves so don’t worry about those. Yellow, remember, the yellow arrow.” Jack nodded to the Agent and John nodded back, then he expertly removed the first bolt and handed it to Jack.

“I’m assuming the driver is magnetic.” said Jack, putting the bolt into his pocket.

John glanced down at the floor far below and nodded, “Yes, it is, you wouldn’t want to drop anything in here.”

With that John handed the driver back to Jack and stepped back onto the lift platform. Jack in turn took his place on the missile frame and went to the next bolt. After he lined it up, a little nervous about the explosive, he turned to John, who nodded.