Chapter 159: Emergency
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The Port of New York is the largest port in the United States and one of the largest ports in the world, with an annual cargo throughput of 1.6 billion tons and more than 4,000 cargo ships entering and leaving. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ļ½ļ½ļ½Uļ½Eć infoStewart is one of the 50,000 port crews on container, breakmass, ro-ro and oil terminals.
Stewart was lucky and unlucky.
A month ago, his wife gave birth to triplets, a son and two daughters, making him a father and adding huge expenses to his family life. Although he receives $3,000 a month in parenting subsidies from the welfare agency, Stewart still has to work hard.
For Stewart, a first-time father, feeding three children is no easy task.
The port was busy, but there wasn't much oil or water, and Stewart had to work overtime a lot. His busy schedule allowed him to earn more money on milk powder and also allowed him to avoid noisy households. It's not that he doesn't like children, but he is not mentally prepared to be a father, especially a father of three children.
When it came time to arrange the Easter vacation, Stewart took the initiative to take on the responsibility of working overtime.
Because only one freighter entered the port at night, except for Stewart, there were only a few stevedores in the port, and the others had already gone home from work.
As for the crews on the barges that guided the freighters into port, they were attached to the Port Authority and had little to do with Stewart.
By the afternoon, the LNG loaded with hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of liquefied natural gas had entered the lower New York Bay. Because there were still several bulk carriers and container ships waiting to dock at the port, it took more than two hours for LNG to slowly approach the oil terminal under the guidance of barges.
It is a very large cargo ship, with four spherical LNG storage tanks mounted on a huge hull nearly 300 meters long and 31 meters wide. In order to keep the natural gas in a liquid state, the tanks are made of alloy steel that can withstand high pressures, are completely sealed, and are covered with a foam insulation layer up to 30 centimeters thick, as well as several layers of anti-rust paint. With only thirty-three crew members on such a large freighter, the degree of automation is very high.
Stewart's job is to inspect the ship's safety features and connect the ship to the LNG pipeline.
When LNG docked, Stewart was on the dock. According to the procedure, he and four workers will board the freighter and, accompanied by the captain and chief officer, will inspect the facilities and equipment on board one by one. After confirming that there is no problem, organize dock workers to send the pipeline over.
Instead of being loaded directly into transport vehicles, the LNG is sent to a nearby processing plant, where it is piped to five gas distribution centers in the lost interior and eventually into the kitchens of thousands of households. Some of the natural gas tanks are also fed into storage tanks on transport trucks and supplied to citizens in the suburbs.
The inspection is just routine work, and the fact that the freighter from the Middle East was able to sail tens of thousands of kilometers across the ocean is enough to prove that there are no problems with the facilities on board. Besides, the vessel is only three years old, only one-seventh of its design life, and the vessel is in very good condition.
Even so, Stewart was careful and checked all the items one by one.
It is not surprising that the ship is loaded with hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of liquefied natural gas, and the energy contained is equivalent to hundreds of thousands of tons of yellow **. If something goes wrong and causes a natural gas leak to explode, no one within a radius of miles will be spared, enough to flatten half of Manhattan Island.
After completing the inspection, Stewart had the workers drive the pipeline transport vehicle over.
The pipes that infuse LNG are three feet in diameter and are also made of special materials. Because there is so much LNG on board, the entire infusion will last twenty-four hours. Fortunately, the indoctrination operation is automated and only needs to be supervised by four personnel.
At this time, most of the crew members on the freighter had already arrived at the dock.
Although they are all expatriate crew members and cannot leave the port, they can go to the expatriate rest area of the port to eat and buy some daily necessities at the duty-free shop to prepare for the next voyage. Of course, this LNG must be a few days away again.
After the LNG is unloaded, the LNG is loaded onto a liquid cargo, which is one of the most popular in the Middle East.
Due to the processing of LNG storage tanks and the much more complex loading procedures, it can take as little as a week to do so again.
Stewart doesn't care about what cargo the ship will carry out of the United States.
When he came to the dock again, the captain and first mate followed. There are five crew members on board the freighter, who will remain in rotation during the call.
It was at this time that Stewart saw the collapsed Brooklyn Bridge.
Just half a minute later, the Manhattan Bridge, which is adjacent to the Brooklyn Bridge, also fell.
Before Stewart could come to his senses, his hands were restrained. In his horrified gaze, the first mate plunged a syringe into his arm.
Before losing consciousness, Stewart saw that the crew members who had disembarked had subdued several other dockers.
The attack came quickly, and everyone's attention was drawn to the fallen bridge, and no one noticed anything unusual on the oil dock.
Several crew members quickly changed into dock worker uniforms and began methodically connecting the LNG pipeline.
At this time, the whole of New York was awakened by the sound of explosions one after another.
Within two minutes, thirteen bridges and tunnels had been blown up or blocked, and Manhattan was an isolated island, but most New Yorkers didn't realize what was happening.
Nicholas was lucky because he escaped from Manhattan Island and avoided the fallen piers.
But he didn't think so, because he knew that the night would certainly not be peaceful, and that his carefully arranged family gathering would definitely be in vain.
The crowd was in disarray, both men and women, desperately trying to leave the bridge.
Nicholas did not rush to leave, the Brooklyn Bridge had already collapsed, and it was impossible to collapse again. As the crowd poured under the bridge, Nicholas walked to the abandoned police cars.
It was indeed a police car from the Brooklyn Police Department.
After jotting down the license plate number, as well as the number of the police car, Nicholas took out his cell phone and prepared to call his counterparts in Brooklyn.
Although he was an agent for the Port Authority of New York, Manhattan was across the river from Brooklyn and often went to work with agents in Brooklyn.
It's a pity that there is no signal on the phone!
There is no doubt that this was a premeditated and well-planned attack. The terrorists not only blew up the bridge, but also destroyed cell phone base stations and cut off communications.
Nicholas did not hesitate and immediately left the bridge, stopping a Cadillac sedan on the road.
After showing the badge, Nicholas dragged the driver down and threw it on the side of the road, then drove to the nearest police station despite the driver's swearing.
By the time he arrived, a large number of officers were leaving, and quite a few others were arriving.
"Nicholas ......"
Hearing the greeting, Nicholas parted the crowd and walked towards the agent in civilian clothes.
He is Inspector Lewis of the Brooklyn Police Department and a classmate of Nicholas at the police academy, and the two have worked together to solve several big cases and have a very good relationship.
"Why are you here?" Lewis looked anxious.
"I was about to go home, but I had an accident on the way. Know what's going on outside? ā
"I know, I just got more than a dozen phone calls, and I'm afraid all New Yorkers know about it."
"What the hell is going on?"
"I don't know, I just got the news too. You're coming from the scene? ā
"Yes, I almost got crushed to death by a fallen pier. The Manhattan Bridge is also finished, and there are several explosions in the distance, and I'm afraid other bridges have been blown up. ā
"It's not just the bridges, it's all the tunnels, and the ferry terminal."
Nicholas was startled and looked at Lewis in disbelief.
"It was definitely a terrorist attack, and it was a large-scale terrorist attack. The emergency mechanism has been activated, and the National Guard will arrive within half an hour. ā
"I saw a couple of policemen, maybe your men." Nicholas pulled out his phone, which contained the license plate number and police car number that he had begun to photograph.
Lewis took the phone and glanced at it, and said, "Is it really our police car, did you take pictures of those people?" ā
"No, I didn't expect this to happen."
"What do you mean?"
Nicholas smiled wryly and told what had happened before.
Lewis had already picked up the attendance sheet on the table, quickly looked through it, and said, "It's strange, a few of them took their turn to take a vacation yesterday and have no tasks today." ā
"What!?"
"I'll call them." Lewis picked up the telephone microphone on the table, "Maybe they changed shifts on the fly, and they noticed something unusual at the time, so they ......"
"They're all Asian police officers?"
"No, of course not, only ......"
"Where do they live?" Nicholas had already thought that the policemen were impersonating.
Lewis was stunned for a moment, then understood. "Two of them live in Brooklyn."
"Send someone over immediately."
"Now there are no manpower, you can see it." Lewis pointed to the door, "All the officers have been dispatched, and there are only some civilians left." ā
"Give me the address." Nicholas didn't think much of it.
"You're ...... Alone"
"Can you send more people?" Nicholas glanced at his old classmate, "This is a clue, and it's the only clue we have at the moment. Anyway, I had to figure out what was going on. ā
"Need I do something?"
"If you have someone, remember to send me backup. If this had been a premeditated terrorist attack, the terrorists would certainly not have left this trail. Nicholas smiled and said, "I need some firearms as well." ā
"I'll arrange it for you, and I'll send it to the car later."
"Call Emily and tell her I'll be back later." Emily is Nicholas's wife.
Without further ado, Lewis picked up the telephone and called Nicholas' home.
Nicholas didn't say much and left the police station. When he got into the "requisitioned" Cadillac car, a civilian brought in the guns and equipment he needed. Nor is it advanced equipment, just an MP-5 submachine gun, a couple of spare magazines, and a walkie-talkie with a range of twenty kilometers. The mobile phone network has been paralyzed, and the only way to contact the police station is to use walkie-talkies.
At this point, there was already a mess outside.
By the time Nicholas drove away, the first National Guard had entered the city and was on its way to the blown Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges.
(To be continued)