In a post called Secret Base (March 24), we mentioned AUTEC. We’ve added a photo we took of it over the weekend. The place definitely exists, everyone on Andros seems to know about it, but when pressed for details, few are talking!
While we were at the airport waiting for our ride to the hotel, I struck up a conversation with an airport employee who used to work at AUTEC. I asked if she knew anything about ‘The Dome.’ She nodded, glanced around uneasily, and in a soft, conspiratorial tone said, “Only the high commissioned officers are allowed in.”
“But what’s going on in there?” I asked.
“I don’t know. There are rumors.”
“What kind of rumors?”
And then we were interrupted. Figures, right? Later that night, at one of the local watering holes, we talked to a Bahamian man who is married to an AUTEC employee. They’ve been married for a dozen years and he claims his wife has never talked about her job. He doesn’t have any idea how much money she makes or what, exactly, she does there, except that she’s in “communications,” and has the “highest security clearance possible.”
The next night, at the same place, the wife was there. I spoke to her, said I was setting a novel on Andros and wondered what AUTEC actually is. A kind of force shield of silence surrounded this woman. Her answer? It sounded like it came out of the tourist guidebook: “AUTEC means Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center.”
“But what’s that mean?” I asked.
She shrugged. The shield of silence slammed into place completely.
The US government leases the land from the Bahamian government for a reputed 10 million a year.
– Trish
The only reason I knew who she worked for was because her husband had told us the night before. I suppose I could have been less direct, but I suspect that it wouldn’t have made any difference. She radiated that vibe that says, “Get away from me, I have nothing to say.” But she smiled.
Your experience with the sudden shroud of silence reminds me of the incident when Valerie Plume’s neighbors were surprised her to discover that she had been a high level CIA operative for many years. When neighbors asked what she did for a living, she kept it brief and vague, usually diverting the subject back onto the person by asking something about them. After all, most people usually want to talk about themselves anyway.