“Most people would have,” Troy said. He studied her face as she looked up at him, gave him a small quirk of her lips.
“I know, but that’s not me.”
He smiled, really appreciating who she was. The fact that she had made a bold move and had done something in the face of an emergency, then stuck around to see if she could help, said an awful lot about her character.
She looked around and said, “I still don’t understand where Lionel is,” she said. “And what about everybody else? Are they all accounted for?”
“Yes, the pilot is staying with our other two guys,” Mason said, “and they’re covering sentry duty across the whole platform. We’re still looking for Daniel.”
“Making sure there are no more attempts at sabotage?” she asked. “Daniel’s disappearance is disconcerting. I figured he was finally catching up on some sleep or grieving for his brother. It’s not like him to disappear like this. But then there’s not much he can do and he’s got a lot to deal with right now so avoiding us almost makes sense.”
He nodded.
“That’s a lot of area to cover, with just the two of them, and trying to stay in the shadows too,” she noted.
Just then a huge blast sounded, crashing into this area, and they were all picked up off their feet and thrown across the room.
Chapter 12
Berkley sat up, groggy and disoriented, only to see Troy leaning over her, his hands reaching down, helping her to her feet. She gave him a shaken look. “What was that?” she cried out.
“I don’t know for sure,” he said. “I want you to stay here though.”
She glanced around the room and found the dead bodies had been forcefully ejected from their drawers and were now on the floor with her and shook her head. “Oh, hell no.”
He gave her a frustrated look and said, “I don’t want you coming into the blast zone.”
She stared at him. “Blast zone?”
He nodded. “We’re pretty sure that was probably more C-4 explosions happening.”
“Then let’s go,” she said. He hesitated. She nodded and said, “I get that you want to keep me safe, but that’s not the point right now. We need all hands to see if anybody else is injured too.”
Nodding, he relented, and they headed off after Mason and Nelson. When they got to the main blast area, part of the platform was damaged, the steel twisted and torn to the side. Mason’s team stood in a circle, staring at the area.
“How much damage did it do?” Troy asked Mason.
“France’s initial assessment shows structural damage to the rig and less to the drills and the operational equipment this time. Our skeleton crew is running more analyses on the stability and the safety of the rig as we speak,” Mason said. “Two field inspectors for the company are supposed to be coming in ASAP. It’s the storm stopping them from being here right now. The initial report says no one has been seriously hurt though, and the blast impact didn’t hit the actual operations of two of the main drills on the rig,” he said.
Just then one of their men, supposedly in hiding, joined him.
“I found C-4 along the rig earlier,” France said, pointing where the wall was still intact. “We’d been through here once, and there was nothing. Once I realized that somebody had gotten in here to plant this C-4, I called Dane to help search this whole area again, and I had just headed back to meet him when it blew.” Dane approached from the shadows and stood by France.
“And, if you hadn’t headed back to meet him,” Mason said, his voice rigid with anger, “you’d have been ripped apart in this.”
“Do we know for sure that nobody else has been injured or has been tossed into the ocean?” Troy asked. He walked over to the side, testing the metal as he went. Everything appeared to be solid, from what he could see. Nobody was visible in the waters below.
Axel appeared here suddenly as well. “I don’t know how many others saw Dane and France,” he said, “but, if they need to be kept hidden, we need to keep our numbers down out here.” With that, Dane and France disappeared. Axel stood here, staring at the platform, and swore. “So France did his checks, then somebody came back and planted the C-4, obviously knowing that France had been here. Then France spots the one C-4, disengages it, and goes to call Dane for somebody else to give him a hand with the full sweep. And that’s when another C-4 rips?”
“Exactly,” Troy said. “Now we must search the rest of the platform, especially the area around that one working drill. I don’t know how much C-4 the saboteur may have, but this is a little ridiculous.”
“We found a bunch, right?” Mason asked.
“Yeah, we did. A locker full of it. But we moved that,” Troy said, turning to look at Axel.
“That’s all still right where we put it,” Axel said. “I checked before I came here.”
“So, somebody has another stash,” Mason said. “Dammit.”
“How much was used here?” Troy asked.
“I’m not sure what size the pack was that they found,” Mason stated, “but we need to see it.”
With that, they headed inside and met up with Dane and France, who showed him the small pack of C-4. “This is the one that I took off the side, with these wires,” he said. “I didn’t give it another thought. I removed it immediately, but then, like I said, it’s a big area, and I couldn’t search it all without help.”
“Hey, it would have been much worse if that wall had blown too,” Mason said. “We might all be swimming in the ocean now. It was the right call.” Then he addressed all the men. “I suggest that a full sweep of this floor happen in groups of two,” he said. “One starts at the north end and heads south, while the other starts at the south. We’ll meet at this latest blast site.” Mason turned to his secret team. “Dane and France, take any level that’s dark and do your best to scour it without being spotted. Report back to me after you’ve done each level. Avoid the lit levels. We’ll handle those ourselves.” The two men left with a nod.
Troy turned to look at Berkley.
She shook her head. “I’ll run my tablet and track anything you find,” she said calmly. “Don’t even think about sending me back to my room.”
He planted his hands on his hips and glared at her.
She planted her hands on her hips, shoved her chin toward him, clearly mimicking his actions.
He raised both hands in mock surrender and muttered something about women.
“You love us,” she shot back.
He glared at her. “Maybe,” he said, “but there are times and places.”
“Both times and places are right now,” she said. “Remember that dating thing? Deal with it now, or forget it.”
“I didn’t say I wouldn’t deal with it,” he groused. “And you’re the one who brought up the dating thing.”
“Sure, after we already agreed.”
When somebody cleared their throat, she turned to find Axel standing there, a huge grin on his face.
Her frown deepened. “Don’t you start,” she warned.