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Every family has its secrets. Every family tells lies to the outside world. Every family has those hidden truths communicated around the dinner table with a wink and a nod.
The Fentons had their secrets. The failed "swimming pool" in the backyard that dug far deeper than anyone expected. The thin lead sheeting rolled out in between the floors of the second story and the ceilings of the first. The unspoken ban on bedrooms on the first floor. Nobody even slept on the couch downstairs if they could help it. The men who would come by periodically on business, all of them introduced as "Uncle Frank". The strange shipments of materials, some of them made under armed guard. The rumors of Department of Energy loans numbering in the tens of millions of dollars. The huge power lines coming out of Fentonworks.
Yes, the Fentons had their secrets. Secrets that weren't held out of malice or out of spite but because nobody ever asked.
And the Fentons liked to keep it that way.
*****
Samantha Manson stood in the Fenton's living room, ranting and raving in front of any audience she could find: the Fentons, Danny, and Tucker. She was deep into her newest fad, environmentalism. Eighth grade it was punk rock and vegan cooking, ninth it was gothic subculture and recyclovegetarianism, now in tenth grade it was extreme environmentalism. She was holding her parent's power bill and complaining about the sources used by Amity Park.
"But this!" she ranted. "Coal is bad, sure, but this! Did you know that Amity Park gets almost a third of their power from nuclear sources?"
Jack and Maddie gave each other a wry look.
"Yeah, and?" Danny asked.
"What 'and'? It's horrible! The mining is bad for water sources, the radiation is horrendous and the radioactive waste never goes away!"
"You see, this is what's wrong with policy nowadays," Maddie said.
"See?! You agree with me, don't you, Mrs. Fenton?"
"If you'd let me finish, I was going to say 'that's what's wrong with policy nowadays'," Maddie said, this time a little more forceful and looking a little less amused. "'People pay attention to what they hear on reactionary websites instead of real science'. Nuclear power isn't safe simply because most people don't think it's safe. It's like saying someone set themselves on fire using gasoline so that means we have to ban all cars."
Sam looked like she'd just been told all the black in the world was replaced by pink. "You... you... But... You can use nuclear reactors to make bombs! And they're huge and unsightly! And they meltdown and blow up and poison huge areas of land forever!"
Jack nearly threw himself off the couch when he heard the knock on the door. Something, anything to distract him. He threw open the door to see a man in a white suit with a orange hard hat that had NRC marked on the sides. "Frank, you're here! Just in time."
'Frank' looked disturbed. "Just in time?" he asked. "Why aren't the kids upstairs? What's going wrong?"
Jack pointed to the girl in black who was still ranting about how nuclear power would be the death of the world or something. "Social issue," he said.
Frank visibly relaxed. "Don't scare me like that, Mr. Fenton," he scolded. He came inside. "So what's the problem here?"
Sam held up her parent's power bill and pouted. Frank took a cursory glance and nodded. "It's an electricity bill," he observed. "A rather large one. Have you considered basic conservation?"
"Not that," she snarled. "Do you have any idea how dangerous nuclear reactors are?!"
"Little lady, it's my job to know how dangerous nuclear reactors are. And I can assure you the reactor you're referring to is one of the safest I've ever come across."
"Wait, what?" Sam was confused and more than a little skeptical. She didn't like how this guy was talking to her. She wasn't a child, dammit, she was 15 years old!
"Why, the 100MW thorium reactor I'm here to inspect," Frank said, perfectly cheerful. "It's about 200 feet below you right now. It provides about a third of your town's power, I believe. So, Dr. Fenton, anything I need to be concerned about before we go downstairs to check out the reactor?"
"The graphite core needs replacing," Maddie admitted. "But the city council doesn't want us to take the reactor offline until Spring. I think they've just gotten used to being able to use all that waste heat in the winter. We've done the calculations and have a couple simulations ready but we wanted your advice before making a decision. And while you're here you could do your quarterly inspection!"
"Of course, of course," Frank said as he was led off downstairs by the two elder Fentons. "But I am glad you called for another reason. The DOE wanted to use your design for-" The voices cut off abruptly as the lead-lined lab door closed behind them.
Sam looked dumbfounded and betrayed. She turned on Danny, eyes flashing.
Danny went ghost. "I'm going to go watch," he said, teeth bared in an attempt at an innocent grin. He phased down into the floor, following the subterranean elevator shaft down toward the reactor and its bank of turbines.
Sam turned her glare to Tucker. Tucker just shrugged.
Sam threw herself onto the couch and pouted.