With one final glare, Christian started running up the beach.
“Not bad for a man my age,” Mason said. “I don't think he likes you, though.”
“I don't think he's the only one.”
“You never were very good at making friends, Angus.”
AJ nodded. “You never were very good at keeping them.”
He wiped the sand out of his mouth, then headed off without waiting for a response. Nicholas seemed to be the only one pleased with the whole affair, and the kid gave him a thumbs up.
“You done playing games?” Kate asked when he got within earshot.
“Yeah, I think so.”
“Good. Now if you don't mind?” She pointed towards the shore.
“Are we flying?”
“Yeah,” Mason said, coming up behind him. “Greg Marten and I are on the Delta chopper. You and the stragglers will be riding with Alpha. They're both fueled and ready to go, so let's get moving.”
Kate groaned. “I thought we'd be taking the boat.”
“Not so lucky,” Mason said. “But we'll get there fast. It should take just under two hours.”
“Why are you two the only ones flying in the first chopper?” she asked.
“It's over three hundred miles out to the platform. On the outside chance their fueling station is incapacitated, we want to make sure at least one bird has the fuel to get back.” Mason smiled. “And it will be a tight thing at that.”
He walked off, and Kate groaned a second time. AJ could almost see the fluids in her stomach churning.
They marched off as a group, following the flux of mercenaries as they headed to the shack serving as a fueling depot. A few of them whooped as they went, slinging their shirts overhead.
“You look grim.”
AJ turned and realized Kate was talking to him. All he could do was nod towards the men. “Bunch of idiots.”
He'd seen the same thing a dozen times — guys getting worked up right before shipping out. He and Mason never did, but then again, he and Mason had been alive longer than all of these yahoos. When the dying started, that cavalier bullshit went fast.
Probably just an accident and a downed radio tower, he thought. Easy clean-up, and easy money. Even if it wasn't, he had nothing to complain about. He was tired of sitting on his ass in the middle of nowhere. When he had first left, he had needed to get away from everyone and everything in his life. That was over a year ago now, and things had changed. And here was this girl offering him… what, a second chance? He didn't believe in second chances, but it was something.
The pilots hit the ignition switches and the choppers roared to life, the blades spinning up from standstill to whirlwind. Mason stood between the two, watching as his men climbed on board. By the time they got in, they were fully outfitted and dressed.
Two hours with Melvin and that cowboy Mason was using as his second in command. AJ couldn't wait.
He lifted one mud-splattered boot and placed it inside. As he climbed in, he looked over his shoulder and caught a glimpse of the priest up the hill. The padre was standing against the sun, skeletal in the afternoon light, watching.
3
On land, Kate considered herself a fairly diplomatic person, but two hours into the flight, she found herself unable to wipe a look of disgust off of her face.
AJ sat strapped into the seat across from her. “Something wrong?”
“I'm just thinking how much I hate the man that got us into this.”
Michael had seemed a little too eager to let her come hadn't he? No… no, she supposed he hadn't. Had, in fact, tried to stop her. Of course, when you find yourself in over your head thanks to your own big mouth, you tend to overlook the niceties.
“Well, you're here now,” AJ said.
Next to him, Dutch looked half asleep. How anyone could sleep with the racket, she didn't know. The chopper blade was spinning with such force that she expected it to fly off at any moment. She put a hand to her mouth and put her head back, trying not to get sick.
“You don't like air travel, huh?”
“What was your first clue?”
“The vomit, probably.”
She flushed. Her mother had always hated air travel, even in a private jet. Kate figured that she must have inherited the same problem, because she got physically ill every time she was airborne. Her father hated showing weakness in front of other people, and she'd inherited that aspect from him. When you put those two traits together, it was bad news.
“It's no big deal. My wife used to get sick, and she loved to fly. Well, at least she loved to go places. She doped up on Dramamine whenever we traveled. You ever take it?”
Kate shook her head.
“She used to say it was a histamine reaction, but I guess that doesn't do you much good now.”
She'd read AJ's file, but she still couldn't picture him married. Bouncing from place to place, living out of the country, working six days a week and sleeping at the job site — those weren't the characteristics that endeared you to a spouse. “You were married?”
“Three years. Gave it up about the time Valley Oil gave up on me.”
“Was it the same cause?” she blurted.
“They didn't like my recommendations. Especially when it came to policing the geography near the drill site. Too expensive. I guess I wouldn't shut up about it.”
“No, I meant your wife.”
“Oh, that.” He gave a wry smile. “Let's just say it ended badly.”
Somehow, Kate wasn't surprised. “I'm sorry I asked. It's none of my business.”
“No harm. Anyways, by the time it was over, I had the offer in Chile. It seemed like a good a time as any to change things up.”
Dutch had come awake when the two of them started to talk, and he patted his buddy on the shoulder. “Check it out, you two.”
Kate turned to the window and saw splash of foam. A school of creatures swam beneath them, darting in and out of the water. She could just make out their black and white bodies as they broached the surface.
“Killer whales?” she asked.
“Hourglass dolphins,” Dutch said. “Rare as shit.”
She looked again. One of them jumped ten feet into the air, spun, and then dove back into the water. She had never been to Sea World as a kid, but she imagined that's what the animals in captivity were trained to do on command. It was strange to see it here in the wild, strange and oddly beautiful.
“We're coming up on the platform,” the pilot called. “Sit tight.”
The S-70 slowed to a halt and hovered in mid-air. Kate looked out the opposite window and saw Mason's chopper doing the same. A few seconds later, she heard a bunch of radio chatter from the cockpit. It all sounded like gibberish.
The team around her, animals on the beach, were now sitting with their equipment in their laps, as docile as sheep. The tension was palpable, and they were all feeling it. Kate herself never did like sitting still when she was anxious. She unbuckled her seat straps and stood up, able to balance more easily now that the chopper was hovering. AJ put a hand on her wrist, but she shook it off and stepped forward, moving between the ceiling handholds. She reached the flight deck and the pilot turned.
“Ma'am?”
She looked past him out of the front windows. “That's it, huh?”
The platform was still two miles out, but she could see it on the horizon, a clenched fist rising from the water. She wasn't sure what she had been expecting, but she thought anything would have surprised her equally. If its current state held a surprise, it was how normal it looked. There was no smoke rising from the structure, and she could make out at least one crane still intact. There seemed to be something wrong with the bottom of the platform, but at this distance, she couldn't tell what it was.