“I think you can probably make that happen faster than we can,” she said to Mason.
“It’s already in progress,” Mason said with half a smile.
She frowned at him.
He shrugged and said, “Some things you’re better off not knowing about.” He looked over at Gregor. “And who were the two just fired?”
“James Baldwin and a buddy of his.” He stopped for a moment, frowned, and then said, “Oh, right, Stephanopoulos Canker. They are good friends, but they’re feisty, and they get into trouble all the time. They had three warnings each, and we decided that, this time, we were done.”
“Could they be behind this damage to the rig or the recent rapes?” Mason asked.
“I don’t know,” he said. “It’s possible, I suppose. The managers who died would have been in conflict with them and could have been blamed for them getting fired. But I don’t know if James and his buddy were violent or just troublemakers.”
“Got it. And it really is a far stretch for somebody who likes to have a good brawl,” Troy said, “to creating this sabotage that would hurt these men.”
“Exactly,” Gregor said.
“Anybody else on the troublemaker list?” Mason asked.
Gregor shook his head. “Not according to any notes I have. We have multiple rigs that we oversee,” he said.
“Winslow ID’d one of the men in the cooler as the medic,” Troy added, “which then stopped the others from getting any decent medical aid.”
“We always have two medics on-site,” Gregor said, “and sometimes we’re lucky enough to get doctors. But, of course, all we’re trying to do is stabilize the injured or sick and get them shipped out right away.”
“Of course,” Mason replied.
“But damn, if that’s Dr. Ramos in the cooler, that’s not good, since he had a lot of military field-surgery experience. We were quite happy to have him come on board.”
“I’m sure you were.”
“Dr. Ramos? Military?” Berkley said, as all the men turned to look at her.
Troy watched as she worked away at the question formulating in her mind.
“What if some of this has nothing to do with the rig itself?” Berkley asked. “What if this is old history, like, you know, with the medic? An old enemy from the military days or something.”
“It’s possible,” Troy said with a nod. “But why now?” He turned to look at Gregor. “Do we have any idea whether there was a problem with him? Was there any objection when he came on board? Did anybody have a hard-on—you know, an argument with him? Any complaints about lack of care or his abilities?”
“No,” Gregor said. “Nothing on record.”
“Where the hell is Daniel anyway?” Mason said. “These are questions we should be asking him.”
“But still, he’s a foreman, not a manager,” Gregor stated.
“I thought three of the dead were the missing managers,” she cried out.
“Yes,” Gregor said. “The three missing were found dead. And one of the other dead men is the fourth manager as well.”
“So, does Daniel even know about all these dead people? Seems he should because one of them is the medic.”
“He was also a manager, our fourth manager,” Gregor said. “Sorry, his position was a dual one because of his extensive medical background, but also because he was very good at what he did in managing one of the teams.”
“So, by taking him out,” Troy noted, “it doubled up the confusion among the crew. Management and medical assistance.”
“Possibly, yes,” Gregor said. “But I still don’t see a motive, if this is a man-made issue.”
Still thinking hard on an issue she had yet to bring up, Berkley walked over and pulled up one of the chairs and sat down.
Troy could see the fatigue at the corner of her eyes and the slump of her shoulders. He wanted to give her a hug, but, at the same time, he knew he’d already been a little too overprotective as it was. And, even if there was a zing between them, as Idiot had pointed out, it wasn’t necessarily something they would follow up on. As soon as things were wrapped up here, he would be off on another mission assignment, and she would be bouncing around between here and her other contract jobs.
“Uh-oh,” she said suddenly. “Denny said, if we want any food, we better not be late. And he means it. Trust me.”
“Well, it would be interesting to see him try and not feed me,” Gregor said, as he strode toward the door. “Denny is a bit of a different case himself,” Gregor added.
“In what way?” Mason asked.
“He’s a convicted felon,” Gregor said. “Two counts of murder.”
Everybody froze. He looked back at them, smiled. “Right? Who would have thought? But everybody gets their second chance to be integrated back into society. And often they become camp cooks. In this case he learned to cook in prison.”
“And you trust him?” Mason asked Gregor.
“He has worked for us for over twenty-five years,” Gregor said. “So, yeah, I do.”
“You didn’t mention him when we were talking about your staff,” Mason said, anger threading through his voice.
Gregor looked back at him and shrugged. “We don’t see him as a problem. He’s been good to us, and we’ve been good to him. End of story.”
“But what if somebody recognized him from prison or something?” she asked quietly. “Or what if somebody from the families of the people he murdered recognized him?”
Gregor turned and looked at her in surprise. “He’s worked for us twenty-five years now, and he did fifteen years hard time before that. So his crime occurred well over forty years ago. Who cares now?”
Troy shook his head. “Everybody cares,” he said. “In some cases these people never forget. What if a son or nephew here grew up without a family member because of Denny? And now he’s in the same place and that anger just took over?”
“Wait. … What?” Gregor raised his hands in frustration. “Blow apart the rig, shut down one of the drills, and blast two of the other drills so they’re inoperable? What’s that got to do with Denny?”
“It’s hard to say,” Axel said, stepping up as they walked toward the door. “But just think. Who else is left behind? We’ve got eight dead, the eight-man skeleton crew working here already, not counting Berkley, excluding those of us who just arrived, plus our pilot, so one of those original eight crew members is Denny.”
Gregor stared at him. “You think all this was just to isolate Denny so he could be taken out?” He shook his head. “That’s garbage,” he said. “Come on. Let’s go eat. The one thing I do know is that Denny is one hell of a cook. I’d travel this distance just to have one of his meals.” He slammed his way through the doors out to the hallway.
The five of them stopped and looked at each other. Troy shook his head. “I’m really not liking too much about any of this mission at all. What the hell are we even doing here?”
Mason slid a glance toward Berkley.
Troy sighed. “Of course I get that,” he said, “but it still has to be official.”