“Right now?”
“Yes, right now.”
Bullard looked at Dave, who shrugged. “I’ll head back to the launch. Obviously you’re staying here with Leia.”
“Obviously,” Bullard said, with a grin.
“Hey,” Leia said, “you’d be just as bad. I’ve seen you deliver babies in the clinic yourself.”
“Sure, but I had a full set of equipment.”
“Well, you get to learn new ways here,” Leia replied, with a smirk. “And, if everything goes well, it’s fine. When there’s no equipment and when we have big problems, then it’s a huge issue.”
“How long to the mainland?”
“Over an hour, and that’s only in ideal weather conditions.”
“Big cities sometimes have to wait that long to get an ambulance anyway,” he muttered.
She nodded. “Unfortunately that’s very true.” And she and the pregnant woman disappeared into a small hut off to the side.
Dave reached up, slapped Bullard on the shoulder. “Have fun.”
“Great. If I need an assistant …” Bullard let his words trail off.
“You are the assistant this time,” Dave said, with a big grin.
“That I am. That I am.” With a deep breath, Bullard headed toward the small hut and poked his head in. He spoke with Leia for a few minutes, then popped out. “Dave, we’ll be fine here. Maybe come back in an hour or two.”
“Will do.” Dave returned to the skiff.
What he needed to do first was figure out where the pathways were so they could make that walk. By the time he got to Leia’s corner, it would be almost time to turn around and check back with Bullard again.
As he made it to where Leia’s little corner was, he saw Fallon and Linny walking around the space, getting acclimated. He docked, hopped out of the boat, and saw Katie there too, once again with her tape measure. He smiled at her and said, “The old woman woke up, seems to be coherent. Leia is staying to help deliver the pregnant woman’s baby, and Bullard is staying to look after Leia.”
Katie grinned at that. “That’s perfect. The circle of life and all. It’s a cycle of life and death.”
“Let’s hope there’s more life than death,” he muttered. He looked at Linny. “And how are you doing, my dear?”
She walked over and gave him a big hug. “Better than you.” But then she stopped, looked at him. “Or not.” She looked back at Katie, who was busy muttering with her tape measure, then back at him again and grinned. “I am so happy.”
He rolled his eyes. “Everybody needs to get out of my business,” he muttered.
“No,” Katie said. “They all share the same sentiment as I do.”
“He’s slow, but he finally got there,” Linny declared. “I presume it was worth it.”
At that, the two women chuckled, and Dave felt the heat spreading on his cheeks. “Enough of that,” he said. “We have work to do.”
“I’m running security and checking up on the others right now,” Fallon stated from the side, as he put away his phone. “Bullard will be running security on Leia, and we have a bunch of stuff to set up. We’ve got a ship coming in with some prebuilds that we’ll put together.”
“What kind of a ship?” Dave asked.
“Not a fast one,” Fallon stated, with a big smile, pointing out in the distance. Sure enough, there was a low slower-moving vessel, almost like a barge, coming toward them.
“So, now what? We’re about to throw up a half-dozen huts or so?” Dave asked.
“That’s part of it.” Fallon nodded. “No reason not to, right?”
“No, none in the world.” At that, Dave said, “You want to head back to the other boat to meet them, or are they coming in here?”
“I was just looking at the water. I think they can come in.”
“That’s one of the reasons this area is perfect,” Dave stated. “It’s deep right here.”
Chapter 8
Katie heard the camaraderie between them, as the two men bounced ideas back and forth for building up a space for what they wanted here. She was only really concerned about food prep and a space to serve and eat, but they had to consider sleeping spaces as well.
Linny bounced all over the place, apparently just enjoying being here. “It’s so beautiful.”
“I know,” Katie agreed. “I’m struggling with the whole wedding-in-paradise setup though.”
“I just want to retire here,” Linny stated, “even though retirement would be severely premature, but, man, this would be an amazing place to call home.”
“I can’t argue with you on that,” Katie said. “It’s really stunning. We’ve slept on the yacht the last couple nights, and that’s been gorgeous too.”
“I think I’m jealous,” Linny said.
“Why?”
“Because I wanted to be here last night, and now that I’ve seen it, I just want to stay here for a couple weeks at least.”
“I think that’s what they’ve got in mind,” Katie said, with a twist of her lips. “Like a retirement or a vacation center for everybody.”
“What’s not to like?” she replied. “And Bullard’s very good at taking care of people.”
“That’s what I was thinking.” Katie smiled. “It would be nice to think that anybody in the company could use this.” She looked around and couldn’t help smiling. “I spend a lot of time on the yacht, depending on what Bullard’s got going on, with traveling and offshore communication centers and such,” she explained. “But, wow, I could cheerfully spend a week or two here every year.”
“We might spend longer than that too,” Fallon stated. “Depends on whether we end up setting up a center here or not.”
“I think that would be ideal,” Katie agreed.
“Well, now that we all think it’s a great idea, we’ll still have to convince Bullard of it,” Dave said, with a smile.
Katie looked at him, laughed, and added, “Plus, we all have jobs to do, and his jobs keep the rest of us employed.”
“There is that to consider as well,” Fallon admitted, “but a compound on a South Pacific island? Hell yes!”
As Katie got back to sorting out her inventory of food supplies, she saw the vessel in the distance getting closer and closer. She watched in awe, when it finally got close enough, a small boat came off it and soared through the water at high speed toward the shore. Soon she saw Kano and Ryland. She smiled and lifted a hand, as they drifted past her. It was like having brought the army in because, with this team, they had enough men to start mobilizing equipment off the ship when it arrived.
Pretty quickly, they had a floating dock emplaced that she was just stunned about, and, as soon as the rest of the materials were unloaded, the captain would bring the yacht in and dock here. It sounded perfect to her that they would have a gangplank to get on and off the island, which would make moving the food and the setups a lot easier.
As it was, she wanted to stay on board and just watch as the men moved at the speed of lightning. She realized a bunch of other guys had arrived as well and had probably stayed on board. But it looked like all of Bullard’s team was here now.