Yet as Toptunov and Akimov entered the plant infirmary, the water they had worked so hard to release gushed uselessly from shattered pipes around the smashed reactor. It spilled through Unit Four from one level to the next, running down corridors and staircases, slowly emptying the shared reserves needed to cool Unit Three, flooding the basement and the cable tunnels that linked them both, and threatening further destruction. Many more hours would pass, and other men would sacrifice themselves to the delusion that Reactor Number Four survived intact, before Director Brukhanov and the men in
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