Silo 49: Going Dark by Ann Christy

group of smart people who do nothing but think about this stuff. We don't dose all the water over here and haven't for a very long time. Anyway, the last question is easiest to answer," he said and Graham could hear him moving around on the other end of the radio, probably getting comfortable.
    Graham decided he might as well get comfortable too. While John spoke, he started water to boil for a cup of tea.
    "So, why all the complicated stuff, you ask. The simple answer is we don't know what more they can do. Whoever is the first to go is really the test case for everyone else. We're taking the biggest risk so we need to gain as much information as we can when we do it. For instance, we don't know if these two kill switches are the only ones they have. We think so, but we don’t know so. We've gone over every single place where a pipe or conduit or anything else breeches our silo walls. We’ve checked schematics and so on. But the cold deep truth of it is that we just don't know. They may have some other way to do us in. We'll be the ones to test that theory."
    "You're taking all the risk, then," Graham replied and let the sentence hang.
    They both knew what it might mean. He wondered if they shouldn't switch around this order. His silo was the one in trouble and contained only a weak population of potentially dying people. He knew they were the most expendable if anyone in this horrible situation could be said to be so.
    As for the lines that led back to Silo One, he had certainly checked his schematics too. Especially after making contact with these others and learning of what they had done. He agreed that it looked like just two big trunk lines led to Silo One, one just under the surface and another at Level 72. If there were others, they weren't on their schematics.
    "Eh, yeah, and I know what you're thinking. Don't bother even talking about it. You don't have the population to do this. An uprising from you guys wouldn't raise the same stink it would over here. They already know they are going to lose you, but us not so much. That will be yanking the treads from underneath them," John replied so matter-of-factly that it was almost like he wasn't talking about the lives of everyone he knew. To Graham it seemed like John almost relished the possibility of tweaking the noses of those others.
    "Okay, sorry, go on and tell me the rest," Graham said and finished making his tea, balancing the steaming hot metal cup on a wad of rags as he took it to his chair and sat.
    "Basically, this is a test of their system and their backups. If they think that our problems are too big to control then they'll try to wipe us too. We've got signal traps on all the lines, including the one up top that is already cut. Once we cut the lines below, there's no turning back. We'll cut the ones for the remote detonate, but not the communications. We already have a watch set in that area and that will be doubled and go round the clock once we actually do the cutting. When the traps indicate a signal is coming through for destruction, they'll cut the communications lines and that will take out most of the cameras. The only ones that won't go are the ones that show our view of the outside. We might have to take care of those some other way, but I don't actually think those are critical.
    "But no matter what, that should make it so they think the cameras went out because the silo was destroyed.  If nothing else gets sent our way, then we'll know that is the best way to go about it for everyone else. The safest way. If they send something else—and who knows what that might be—then you all know what will happen and can alter your plans accordingly. But no matter what happens everyone will have their destruction lines cut and that will increase your safety margin a little."
    "John, we will owe you a great debt. We'll all owe everyone in that silo," Graham said. He wondered if John's perpetual energy and happy way of speaking was genuine or simply his