62 pages 2 hours read

David Baldacci

Zero Day

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2011

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Chapters 80-89Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 80-81 Summary

Puller wakes Cole and shows her the pictures of the blueprints. The blueprints contain a warning that there should be no blasting within two miles of the site. Puller’s theory is that someone found out Bitner and Treadwell had told Reynolds about the blueprints; Reynolds must have taken the soil sample from near the dome, trying to find out why Trent Exploration might be interested in it. Puller concludes that since there was nothing in the sample, the report must have been planted to distract the investigators and that Dickie was killed because he knew something that would help with the investigation.

Puller and Cole investigate the bunker. Standing beside the dome, Puller studies the paper he found at the fire station. He thinks the numbers 92 and 94 refer to the atomic numbers of uranium and plutonium, which would indicate the possibility of nuclear materials on the site. Studying the blueprints, Puller realizes that the warning about blasting means there must be an old mineshaft near the site. If so, there’s a good chance Randy and his father came across that shaft while scouting for coal.