Secunario

Thc police thought that there was an easy answer to

these questions. Karen was tired after a long day, so she

tell asleep white she was driving. It could happen to

anyone very easily. I hey took the ear ro a garage and they

took Karen's body to a hospital.

Hut some people were not happy about the accident,

hirst or" all, her boyfriend, Drew Stephens. Also a

newspaper journalist from the New York Times and a

Union official from Washington. 'These three men were

waning tor Karen on the night of the accident. She was

bringing them some papers and some photographs in a big

brown envelope. The papers were very important. The

men were waiting for Karen in a hotel room a few miles

from the accident. But she never arrived. When they heard

about the accident, the men looked for the brown

envelope at once. They looked for it inside the white car.

They lookedfor it at the hospital and at rhe police station.

The next morning they looked ail around the wall and in

the river, but they never found it. Nobody ever found that

brown envelope.

2

2

The new job

The srory of Karen and her brown envelope began in 1972

when she rook a new job ar a nuclear factory in

Oklahoma. Before that, she worked as a secretary, but in

1972 she was really tired of a secretary's life. She looked

in the newspaper and saw that there was a job at the

nuclear factory. The pay was much better than a secretary's

pay, and the work was more interesting. She went to see

Mr Bailey, rhe manager of the factory, and she was

surprised and happy when he gave her rhe job immediately.

He asked Karen to start work the next day.

On her first day ar the factory Karen learnt a lor, Mr

Bailey told her that she had ro wear a special white coat,

some special shoes and a white hat.

'These clothes protect you from radioactive dust,' he

said. 'There isn't really any danger, of course. Everything

is safe here. We cheek everything all the time.'

'I see,' said Karen.

'You need an identity card to get into the factory every

morning. Just give me a photograph of you and I'll give

you a card. A pretty picture of a pretty girl.'

He smiled. Karen didn't like that smile.

3 There were holes in the side - just big enough for hands.

5

glass box. There were holes in the side of the box - just

big enough for hands. Everyone looked at Karen.

'What's in the box?' Karen asked Susan.

Everyone laughed.

'Not chocolate,' said one worker.

...