INFRASTRUCTURE PROFILE: CONDUIT NINE // THE SUPREME CONTINUITY SPINE
BUILT: 1944 // US NAVY CORPS OF ENGINEERS & STRATEGIC AIR COMMAND
ORIGINAL RECORDED MASTER SURVEYOR: CWO ARTHUR BENNETT
PURPOSE: HARDENED ANALOG RETALIATORY CIPHER CONDUIT // NUCLEAR TRIAD CONTINUITY
SURFACE ANCHOR: THE WEST MARBLE SUB-BASEMENT // ONE FIRST STREET NE
LEGAL DEED OF RECORD: THE ARTHUR BENNETT SOVEREIGN LINEAL CHARTER (1944)
CUSTODIAN OF RECORD: CLARA ELEANOR BENNETT
“Conduit Nine is not an auxiliary municipal utility tunnel, Clara,” Vice Admiral David Mercer explained, his four silver stars catching the amber cabin downlights as he leaned forward, resting his calloused forearms against the table:
“During the restructuring of the strategic deterrent forces in nineteen-eighty-four, your grandfather, Arthur Bennett, and my brother, Admiral Arthur Mercer, recognized that the nuclear triad was vulnerable to civilian executive decapitation. If an adversary compromised the National Military Command Center or assassinated the President, the digital targeting networks for the Air Force’s strategic missile wings and submarine fleets could be blinded within eight seconds.”
