She nodded. “Good night.”
They didn’t answer, just went out, and slammed the door hard behind them.
She looked over at the other two. “A part of me wants to go too.” She picked up some papers off the printer. “Here’s the schedule, and you can see Jude was here at the time of the accident.” She picked up a clipboard sitting off to the side. “This could very well be the list as everybody got off,” she said, flipping through the pages. Using a pencil, she went down line by line. “Here it says Jude left on the second round.”
“How did they all get off?”
“A couple ships nearby came in to help, and some helicopters came and got a bunch. Several went out on some of the lifeboats that were here anyway. Hopefully they were following the ships or being towed by them,” she said. “Looks like Jude left the afternoon of the first day.”
“And do we know that it was actually Jude? How do we know that somebody didn’t just put down all these names?”
“Good point. We don’t,” she said. “Lionel isn’t on here. That’s for sure.”
“I’d take that list with a grain of salt,” Axel said. “All kinds of shit can go wrong at times like that. It’s a list, but that doesn’t mean it’s accurate.”
“No,” she said, “but it’s all we’ve got.”
Axel nodded. “But, if the data isn’t complete or if it’s corrupt, it’s useless. It’s worse than useless because it gives you a false sense of security, and then you’re stuck believing that list, when it may or may not be valid. Especially on a screwed-up deal like this.”
She smiled. “So, what do you want to do then?”
“No idea,” he said. He looked over to Troy. “Maybe time for a rendezvous?”
They both looked back at her, and Axel said, “Why don’t we walk you to your bunk and lock you in. Then we’ll go check in with the rest of the guys.”
She hopped to her feet. “Works for me,” she said, as she picked up her coffee cup. “We should return these dishes to the kitchen.”
They made a detour and dropped off all the dishes for Denny, but the kitchen was dark, and nobody was there. “Is it out of power?” Troy asked.
“Denny always shuts it down,” she said. “As soon as the dishes are done and the kitchen is clean, you can’t find him again ’til morning.”
“That’s interesting,” Troy said. “Doesn’t he socialize with you guys in the evenings at all?”
“If he does, I’ve never seen him,” she said, “but I will admit that I’m not much for socializing at night either. However, I’ve heard of private poker games and all kinds of shit going on here that I’ve never been privy to.”
“Because you’re female?”
“That, and because I’m not regular staff,” she said. “I’m an outsider, and they like to keep it that way.”
“Any inclination to change that?”
She snorted. “Hell no. I’m happy the way it is. Although the rapists should all be in jail, and I would like to see this inequality and prejudicial shit change.”
“Well, it’s in for a change as soon as we can get the repair crews in.”
“True enough,” she said, as she put her dishes in the sink. They turned and walked back out again, her gaze flickering over the tables. “Seems so weird to see it empty like this. At the height of its day, it’s a massive group of people, and good luck finding a place to sit. Now it’s like a graveyard in here.”
“I think that’s a common sentiment,” Axel said, “with any large group that comes and goes. It’s like, all in and all out.”
She laughed, then smiled and said, “True enough. I’m more than ready for a hot shower, if there is such a thing to be had. I don’t know if the boilers have been working or not.”
“Well, you’ve got massive generators and backup generators,” Troy said, “so you might be lucky.”
She headed down, showing the guys where she stayed. “I have one of the female rooms,” she said with a sneer. “It’s a temporary room as well.”
“They shouldn’t have labeled it as a female room,” Troy said. “I get that nobody’ll stop anybody from tracking down one of the women if they want to accost them anyway, but this is just like a road map that says, This is where you guys are.”
“I never really thought about it,” she said. “I’m here so rarely that it never really mattered.”
“And now?”
“Now it feels like a target. Like this giant flashing neon sign that says, Hey, she’s in here.”
“Change your room,” Troy said helpfully. “Some 180 are empty now, right?”
She shrugged. “It won’t change anything now though,” she said. “Besides, the bathroom is right beside me, which is convenient.”
He nodded and said, “We’ll go do a rendezvous. Are you okay here alone?”
She nodded, pulled out her phone, and said, “But I wouldn’t mind getting your numbers.” They quickly exchanged contact information. “I’ll have a quick shower, and then I’ll go to bed.”
“Text me when you’re out of the shower,” Troy said, “and when you’re back in your room with the door locked.”
At that, she hesitated and looked at him. “Do you really think I’m in danger?”
*
“It’s not that I think you can’t take care of yourself under normal circumstances,” Troy said cautiously, “but obviously things are not normal here. I would rather that we hung around and waited until you’ve had your shower and get you locked in before we take off.” He watched the indecision on her face.
She nodded and said, “Well, instead of having a shower, can you guys wait here five minutes, while I use the washroom, get ready for bed, and then you can lock me in. How’s that?”
Troy gave her a pleased smile. “That sounds much better to me.”
She went into her room, grabbed her toiletries, then headed to the bathroom, while they waited outside in the hallway.
Axel looked at him. “She’s a nice woman.”
“She is,” Troy said. “She’s a unique mix of anger, frustration, and smarts.”
“We’ve often seen the smarts but not with too much common sense. I like that she’s practical.”
“Sounds to me like she had a rude awakening when her friend was attacked,” Troy said. “All women should be safe in the workplace. So to think that it happened to somebody she was close to and only later find out that it wasn’t the first time must have been quite a shock. The fact that this rig has been operating with that kind of underground atmosphere and God-only-knows-what-else is bad news.”
“Have we figured out if that company man, Gregor, knows about it?”
“He knows,” Troy said. “He showed absolutely no surprise when it came up.”
“Then again he’s management, so he’s probably making light of it all,” Axel said.
They waited another few minutes until the bathroom door opened, and Berkley walked out, her face pink from being scrubbed, the hair around her face damp. She walked past them, opened the door to her small bedroom, then turned to face them. “I’ll be fine from here,” she said. “Thank you.”