Could you help me with this phrase?

Question

I'm from Ukraine and I neen to translate this text.

So, woman came to the firm's library and asked a librerian: I want everything the firm has on him, the whole case file.
And make it fast. The boys upstairs are at defcon like - a thousand."
Woman: "Sure thing, Miss Morgan. Just a sec."

And I can't translate this #The boys upstairs are at defcon like - a thousand.#

I know that DefCon is short for Defensive Condition used by the United States government but I still can't understand. Could you help me please? What did she mean?

Answer 1

sure the term is based on a scale of 1 to 5 so 1000 is way beyond severe. In this instance the asker is inferring urgency. Good luck to you.

Answer 2

DEFCON is short for:
Defense Readiness Condition

DEFCON 5 Normal peacetime readiness
DEFCON 4 Normal, increased intelligence and strengthened security measures
DEFCON 3 Increase in force readiness above normal readiness
DEFCON 2 Further Increase in force readiness, but less than maximum readiness
DEFCON 1 Maximum force readiness.

The nuclear bomb threat put us in Defcon 1.
so # 1000 is just arbitrary number showing unknown threat, or no threat at all thus=lazy, time wasting boys (maybe military bureaucrates?).
I hope it helps.

Answer 3

Hi there.

It's an idiom or phrase it means it is really urgent. It is a matter of priority.

Good luck

A defCon is an American national security alert system which lets those who need to know the level of threat there is to the United States from possible terrorist/nuclear attack. In England where I write to you from the situation is critical nmeaning there is imminent likelihood of terrorist attack (we've had three already this month)

Regards

Michael Cavanagh

Answer 4

This means that the country's leaders, such as the President and staff and the top generals, about 1,000 on a scale of 1-100 need the information on that person. It's extremely urgent.