A standard commercial truck with a shipment of reactor-grade plutonium approaches the Versailles tunnel, 15 km (10 miles) outside Paris. The driver, who makes the North-South run every ten days, sees nothing unusual as two tanker trucks carrying fuel oil pull into the passing lane alongside his Gendarme escorts. They never see it coming. As the nuclear convoy moves into the centre of the tunnel, the tanker trucks jackknife into the right-hand lane, crushing the light police vehicles and creating a wall on either side of the plutonium shipment. A third vehicle empties quickly; young men with metal cutters and automatic weapons run toward the truck.
