“I don’t think it was safe to begin with,” she said, her voice a little raspy.
“You could be right, but it’s definitely bad news now.”
She nodded slowly, took a deep breath, and said, “So, what’s next?”
“Let’s finish searching this area and then go up a level.”
It took absolutely no time to finish that search, and, when they went up a level, they headed back into the dining area. Almost everybody was gathered there. The three company men were here too, and the one real company man talked to the group of crewmen. Mason stood to the side, looking bored. But his gaze narrowed when the three of them arrived.
The company man, Gregor, looked at them, nodded, and said with a little relief, “There you are. I was wondering. We need to have a talk,” and he pointed at Berkley. “You missed your one-on-one meeting.”
“Sorry about that,” she said. “I wasn’t feeling very well.”
Daniel just rolled his eyes at that. And even Jonesy snickered.
*
Troy watched the climate around him and saw that the atmosphere was strictly a male-dominant one. He didn’t think any female would have it easy on this rig. He’d been on several rigs with plenty of women, and it was no problem. But, if this kind of climate were allowed to fester, all hell would break loose eventually. Apparently it already had. He crossed his arms over his chest and stood protectively at her side. Jonesy appeared to catch his movement and glared at him.
Troy just stared back. But Phil had him worried. Because he was openly glaring at Berkley.
“Women are bad luck,” Phil said.
“What? So you’re blaming me for everything that’s gone wrong?” she said in outrage.
Troy reached out, gently grabbing her hand with his. She looked at him almost glaringly too, and, when he gave a tiny shake of his head, she subsided.
Good thing, because this wasn’t the time for an all-out war. He understood her feelings on the matter, but it didn’t change the scenario they were in right now. Their subtle movements and silent communications were caught by everyone in the room.
Some of the men hid snickers, and the others just glared at Troy. He stared calmly back, daring anybody to say anything.
Gregor turned to her and said, “I want to speak with you next.”
She nodded. “Absolutely.” As she headed forward, she went to loosen her hand, but Troy didn’t let go. She frowned at him.
He smiled, leaned over, and gave her a quick kiss. He whispered, “Just setting the scene.”
She growled under her breath at him.
He chuckled and said quietly, “Worth it, if it keeps you safe.”
She stopped at that and then gave a grudging nod. “Okay,” she muttered, “but I still don’t like it.”
“Of course not,” he said. “Nobody does. But, the fact of the matter is, something is very wrong here.”
“Yeah, you think?” Her tone was caustic, but there was enough fight there to keep a smile on her face.
He glanced at Axel and said, “I’ll go with her to the meeting.”
“You do that,” he said, “and I’ll stick around here with the guys.”
Troy almost laughed at that because Axel was anything but one of the guys. Still, he was somebody to keep an eye on things, whether these guys liked it or not.
As soon as Troy got into the hallway, he looked behind him to see the three company men were still standing, talking business. But Mason watched them. His hands behind his back, he gave a thumbs-up sign.
“Let’s go,” Troy said.
“Was that really necessary?” she asked him.
“Maybe not,” he said, “but, as long as they think something’s between us, they’ll think twice about coming after you to run into me.”
“Will they though?” she said. “I’ve turned them all down.”
“Of course you have,” he said. “It’s the only safe thing to do in this environment.”
She laughed at that. “Yeah? But that’s what got my girlfriend in trouble,” she said, and this time her cry was broken, and her tears were close to the surface.
“I’m sorry,” he said quietly.
“We couldn’t believe it,” she said. “Who’d have thought that would be a problem here in the twenty-first century? In America—well, technically working with Americans, but we’re in international waters. Still, where we’re supposed to be a first-world country, the greatest place to live, blah-blah.”
“It shouldn’t have been. That’s on management,” he said.
“Right,” she said, with a snap of her fingers. “That’s who’s in the cooler.”
“Who?”
“I think those could be three of the management guys who are in charge of different divisions on the rig.”
He stared at her in shock and quickly pulled her off to the side. “Are you serious?”
She nodded.
“Were they known to be missing?”
She nodded again.
“Who’s the fourth one?”
She shrugged. “I’m not sure. He looked familiar, but just one of many faces that I’ve seen. A lot of men were on this rig. And remember. I’m not here full-time, and my focus is pretty narrow.”
He nodded. “Got it. But you know how this looks, don’t you?”
“Well, I wasn’t thinking it looked like anything, until we saw Lionel there,” she said, “but now I don’t know what to think.”
“Well, I do,” he said, “and none of it’s good.” Troy understood exactly what she meant. It was a shock to find out the world around you was happening when you weren’t paying attention.
Obviously there’d been so much chaos in the last forty-eight hours that something had gone on, and yet nobody knew anything. It was also obvious that the newcomers’ arrival was something nobody had expected. As such, whether the skeleton crew was trying to move the bodies now, to store them, or just hoped to keep everybody away from that section, the fact was, more bodies were there than should have been under any situation. And that was an issue of concern.
Finally the three company men stepped into the hallway to follow Troy and Berkley.
With her close at his side, Troy headed toward the office in command central. She walked through the command post, heading to her computer, checked her log, then nodded, and carried on. He raised an eyebrow. Under her breath, she whispered, “Just making sure nobody touched it.”
He nodded, and the three company men stepped inside the office, closed the door, and then drew the curtain, so that nobody outside could see them.
In a low voice she said, “Just in case you think this is private, it’s not. Anybody standing outside right now can hear us.”
At that, Mason sucked in his breath, then looked at her and said, “Where is a quiet place then?”
She shook her head. “There really isn’t one anywhere. Between cameras and nosy people, almost everywhere is suspect.” She motioned toward the room behind them. “But that storeroom is probably the best of them.”
They headed into the back storeroom, which was a tight squeeze for all five of them. Good thing Axel had stayed with the crew.