“Sorry,” Bonnie said again. “You’re right; it’s none of my business. I’m just worried about you, that’s all. We all are.”
Again with the “we.”
“Tell everyone I’m fine,” Lara said.
“I know you are. That’s why we trust you with our lives.”
Maybe you shouldn’t, because I don’t know what the hell I’m doing.
“We’re behind you,” Bonnie said, apparently taking Lara’s silence as approval to keep going. “We know every decision you make is because you’re looking out for us. Everyone on the boat believes that. We have a lot of faith in you, Lara, and we care about your well-being.”
“Like getting me a boyfriend?” she said, and this time smiled at the ex-model.
“Something like that,” Bonnie smiled back. “Baby blue eyes, Lara. Baby blues.”
“Yeah, yeah,” she said as they reached the landing at the top of the stairwell.
The door in front of them was a thick metal airtight structure with a round wheel instead of a traditional lever or knob. Bonnie gripped the wheel and spun it with both hands, then pushed the heavy door open.
They stepped outside and onto a staircase that overlooked the Ocean Star’s top deck. Lara tugged at her jacket’s collar as they made their way down and over to one of the edges overlooking the western part of the platform. They leaned against a chipped yellow railing with the water sloshing below them while signs around them warned of the importance of hard hats and holding onto the railings at all times.
She had no trouble locating the Trident anchored nearby, swaying slightly back and forth against the waves. It was only about a football field’s length from them, and if she stared hard enough she could just make out Blaine’s outline on the bridge and Carly pacing behind him.
“Carly’s going to burn a hole in the bridge’s floor,” Bonnie said.
“She’s worried about Danny,” Lara said.
“Hopefully he radios in soon. I’d hate to lose him, Gaby, and Nate.”
If we did, it’d be my fault for sending them out there in the first place.
“Yeah, me too,” she said instead.
There was a white tube connecting the Trident to an old gray refueling ship that was about a quarter of the yacht’s size. The vessel had been attached to the other side of the Ocean Star when they first approached the rig, so they hadn’t seen it before. For a while she wasn’t sure if Riley could live up to his promise of fuel, but he’d proven her wrong. The more she learned about the rig’s importance to Mercer’s war efforts, the easier it was for her to believe that Riley’s mutiny was not going to be well-received. The fact that Riley planned on taking the refueling boat with them, along with the inventory and armory, would only add to the insult.
He’s risking a lot.
No, that’s not true. He’s risking everything.
Two men wearing black tactical gear and carrying rifles walked past them. They were part of Riley’s security personnel and were back at their stations now that he didn’t need to hide them from her anymore. There was also someone on the crane in the background. Lara had seen the man’s silhouette every now and then, but never for too long. That would be the oft-mentioned, never-seen Peters.
She unclipped her radio and pressed the transmit lever. “Blaine, come in.”
“Blaine here,” the big man answered. “Everything good over there?”
“We’re on schedule. Faith’s taking Bonnie back to you with the first of the supply runs in a few minutes. Depending on how close Mercer’s men are from us, there might be one more, at least for now.”
“What about the refugees?”
Lara and Bonnie exchanged a grin.
“He’s not wrong,” Bonnie said. “They are sorta like refugees.”
Lara said into the radio, “They’ll come over later once Mercer’s people are gone. Missing civilians would be a huge tip-off that something’s not right on the Ocean Star.”
“Good point,” Blaine said.
“How long before the tank’s topped off?”
“Ten more minutes, give or take. Has Riley told you where we’re taking him yet? It’d be nice to know now so I can get started figuring out the best route there. It’d also give me something to do other than watch Carly wear out the carpet back here.”
“I’ll let you know when he tells me. Until then, be on the lookout for Bonnie in a few.”
“Roger that,” Blaine said.
She put the radio away. “You should get going,” she said to Bonnie. “They’re probably finished loading the supplies by now.”
Bonnie took out a notepad from her back pocket and scanned it. “That’ll be the cooking oil. He’s giving us half of his stock. Hot and generous.”
Lara rolled her eyes. “Get going.”
“Yes, sir, ma’am, sir,” Bonnie said.
She gave Lara a mock salute, then pushed off the railing and headed down the nearby stairs, her boots clanging off the steps after her.
“Where did you get that thing, anyway?” a voice asked behind her just before Riley appeared next to her a few seconds later, taking over the spot Bonnie had just vacated.
She knew Riley was only in his early thirties, but he looked so much older than that. It wasn’t just the lack of sleep either; there was a heaviness about everything he did and said. In another place, another time, he would be handsome and she might have gotten weak in the knees if they had met in a bar or at a party, but now, watching him staring at the Trident, she could only think about the burdens of leadership and the choices he’d made. Not just for him, but for forty-seven other souls.
I wonder if I could make that kind of choice in his shoes?
Will could have. But then, Will could do a lot of things…
“I guess you could say it sort of just showed up when we needed it most,” she said.
Riley chuckled.
“Did I say something funny?” she asked.
“The boat showed up when you needed it most, and now it’s here. I needed a way to get my people off the Ocean Star, and you showed up. There must be something special about that boat.”
Its previous owners would beg to disagree, she thought, but said, “I never asked you how you spotted us in the first place.”
“Peters.”
“Peters?” she said, and reflexively turned around and glanced up at the crane, though this time she couldn’t see anything that looked like a man up there.
“He’s got one of those amateur telescopes up there,” Riley said. “It’s supposed to be used for astronomy, but he’s adapted it for terrestrial surveillance. The damn thing weighed close to twenty pounds and it took forever getting it up there in one piece, not to mention welded into place. He spotted the Trident when it was still twenty miles away — even before you guys anchored — otherwise we’d never have met.”
“Lucky you.”
“Lucky us,” Riley said.
“Lucky you I didn’t give the order to shoot last night.”
He smiled. “Definitely lucky me, then.”
Neither one of them said anything for a while, and they were content to lean against the railing and let the cold wind whip around them. A fishing boat had already left the Ocean Star while they were talking and was now maneuvering toward the back of the yacht, where a couple of figures were waiting for it. Faith and Bonnie would be on that boat along with the first stack of supplies from Riley’s inventory.