“Well, when it comes to mobilizing, accessibility is something we’re specialists at.” Dave walked down the ramp and called out, “Hey, Ry, have you got empty tables there for us?”
Ryland took one look and hopped up from what he was working on at the edge of the deck. “We will in just a second.” And, just like that, they opened up four tables. Three trips later, Katie and her two helpers had everything she thought she needed for dinner. “What about Bullard? Where is he?”
“I haven’t heard from him,” Dave replied. “I should go see if I can get an idea of how far along they are with the birth.”
“Did you ever find a path that leads directly through to the main area of the village?”
“Kano headed to the village right after we returned and located a decent-sized path, something we can all traverse.” Dave turned and looked at Ryland. “Where is he?”
“He went to check on Bullard and Leia himself. He should be back soon.” Ryland pulled out his phone, frowned. “I haven’t heard anything from him.”
They all looked at each other, and Katie felt her stomach knot.
“That could be a problem,” Dave noted.
“Yeah.” Ryland looked to Dave. “You coming with me?”
“Hell yes.” Then he hesitated and turned to Katie.
“Oh, no, you don’t.” She raised one finger and shook her head. “Go. Lots of us are here.”
He nodded, looked around at the rest of the team, all on alert. “We’ll go check on Kano and Bullard and the progress with the baby. Everybody, keep your eyes and ears open, okay?”
“Keep in touch,” Garret replied. Eton, Quinn, Cain, and Fallon all nodded, working nearby.
“Yeah, will do.” With that, Dave took off with Ryland, as Katie stood here watching. Garret came over and looked at dinner. “Will this keep?”
“It will, for an hour or so. But we could always put it back on the yacht.”
“Or not,” Linny said, coming over. “I’m getting really hungry.”
“Like, seriously hungry?” Katie asked. “Or like the food is now in front of you, so you’re hungry?”
Linny laughed. “I can wait for Bullard to get back.” She turned and looked in the direction Dave and Ryland went. “Maybe I can. Didn’t they say it was a forty-five-minute walk?”
“Ryland got it down to about half an hour,” Fallon noted, “but it’s still a distance.”
Linny nodded. “I hope we don’t have to do that too often here, whether now or later as a vacation spot. Otherwise we might want to find a way to make it even faster, other than the skiff obviously. Especially when dealing with more people and transporting goods of any kind.”
“What do you have in mind?”
“I don’t know,” she said, “but we should take a look at the area and see if there’s a faster way to go on foot.”
“I’ll do that right now.” Garret brought up an aerial view on his phone.
Linny smiled. “My laptop has a bigger screen. Let’s go take a look.”
Leaving them to deal with that, Katie walked around the deck, seeing several of the other men still finishing off bits and pieces. She marveled at the engineering that had brought this in so fast. She stood in front of a huge stack of what looked like prefab building walls and shook her head, realizing these were for the cabins that would go up almost as quickly.
Was it safe to leave the cabins behind after they left, she wondered, or would the islanders take them over, like squatters? Or would that be another issue? She didn’t really know. She knew the locals marched to a different drummer here, so maybe it would be just fine. And Leia was well loved and even now was helping out the locals, so maybe that would keep all of this protected.
Smiling happily, Katie headed back to the kitchen on the yacht. What she really needed was to finish off the last few things, like the desserts, before everybody got back. Then they could all sit down at once and eat. And, if there was one thing that she really appreciated, it was food being served promptly.
She had gone to a lot of work to prepare all this, and it was always nice when people were considerate and showed up on time. But somehow she figured that today, all bets were off.
*
Dave followed Ryland as they headed past Leia’s cabin to the pathway that showed years of use. But it wasn’t very wide, and it was dark as they headed into the thicket of trees. “I wonder if this is a straight-through path.”
“Yeah, I was wondering about clearing it out some, making it easier for walking,” Ryland stated. “If this will be a path we take on a regular basis, we’ll want something that’s wider, more stable, and sure-footed.”
“That we can actually see too, yet we don’t really want to impact the environment either. So, if there’s no reason to cut down trees, then I don’t want to do it.”
“Exactly. According to Bullard, it’s about a thirty-minute walk, and it’s—”
“I thought Leia said forty-five,” Dave interrupted.
“A forty-five-minute stroll apparently,” Ryland said, with a chuckle. “A thirty-minute walk if you’re heading from point A to point B.”
“Got it.” And Dave did because a lot of people strolled in life, when they didn’t have a certain place to be at a specific time. And walking with purpose could eat up the miles a whole lot faster.
They approached the midway point, as near as Ryland could tell. “Looks like a whole bunch of trails split off in here.”
“I know the locals root around in here for nuts and berries and things too. I’m sure they have their favorite spots.”
“Makes sense.” Ryland nodded. “And if we knew which one of these was the faster route, we could make better use of it.”
“I still don’t think we’ll get it much faster,” Dave said. “It’s a pretty direct trail, considering.”
As they carried on, they never saw another soul. “Is that weird?” Ryland asked. “You can walk for this long in this place and not actually come across another person.”
“I like it though,” Dave admitted.
“Oh, me too,” Ryland agreed. “But it’s amazing just how different this island life is. It must have been quite a culture shock for Leia coming from New York to this.”
“And yet I think her soul probably craved it. She encountered so much destruction for her in New York.”
“It’s good that has all been taken care of now.”
“They’re clearing her name and reestablishing her medical credentials. She’s apparently been getting requests to consider stepping back into the medical world. But I don’t know that she’s made a decision on what she wants to do.”
“It can’t be easy,” Ryland murmured. “She probably lost a lot of faith in the system. And in people.”
“True, but she still has a lot to offer.”
“Maybe. A lot of doctors are out there in New York.”
“No, listen,” Dave said. “It’s more than a maybe. Leia was one of the most talented surgeons they’d ever had. She was pioneering new techniques, which is what sparked so much jealousy.”