A man named Troy wakes from a prolonged sleep inside a coffin-like box. Strangers help him out of the coffin and give him a bitter drink and pills. Troy is weak, and vague memories begin rushing in even though he knows the pills are supposed to destroy the past. In this room are many other coffins. Troy cries.

Donald Keene, a new congressperson from Georgia, waits with a group of other new congresspeople outside Senator Paul Thurman’s office. Thurman is a friend of Donald’s family, and Donald once dated Thurman’s daughter, Anna. However, Donald is now married to a woman named Helen. Thurman advises Donald to spin truth and lies equally, allowing the public to figure things out for themselves. He hands Donald a folder containing an architectural illustration Donald once drew for a senior class on biotecture. Thurman tells him that as part of an energy bill Thurman recently got approved, Donald must design a bunker to house the employees of a nuclear waste storage facility, the Containment and Disposal Facility (CAD-FAC), should an accident happen. Thurman wants Donald to design it as an underground structure.