Finally, she said, “Why an oil rig?”
“Probably the same reason you’ve been living off the yacht,” Riley said. “The Ocean Star has the benefit of being isolated. You would have just cruised right past us if I hadn’t pulled my idiotic stunt last night.”
She smiled and hoped he didn’t see it.
“These things were built to withstand time and anything Mother Nature can throw at it,” Riley continued. “And while it’s not exactly halfway between the Texas shoreline and The Ranch, it’s the next best thing.”
“You mentioned The Ranch before. Where is it, exactly? Or is that something else I don’t need to know yet?”
“Have you ever heard of Black Tide Island?”
“It doesn’t ring any bells.”
“It’s a U.S. government-owned piece of real estate in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. The military uses it for war games, and it’s equipped with a base big enough to have its own accompanying landing strip.”
“That’s where your planes took off from.”
“No. I mean, yes, the planes Mercer’s using during R-Day have the range, but the logistics made it impossible, not to mention all the fuel they would burn just getting from point A to point B. The ones they’re flying out there were already sitting in Texas air bases, gathering dust. We only used Black Tide to train the pilots.”
“You mean people were flying around out here all this time and no one noticed?”
“Like I said, Black Tide is in the middle of nowhere, on purpose. How many other people have you run across before us?”
She thought about the dead body they had fished out of the ocean, then later, the voice on the radio begging her for help but that she had chosen to ignore…
“None,” she said.
“It’s a big ocean,” Riley said. “Anyway, after the pilots were trained, it was just a matter of sneaking them back into Texas with the main force. We already knew where to get everything we needed for the operation. Of course, it took the teams weeks to get the planes working, but Mercer is blessed with men who know their way around machines.”
“Blessed,” she said, unable and unwilling to hide the derision in her voice. “Not quite the word I’d use to describe what’s happening out there right now.”
“They’re only doing what he asked of them.” He leaned closer against the railing, as if he were trying to make himself small. “I’m not proud of any of this, Lara. I wish I could say I was braver, but I wasn’t.” He looked over his shoulder as the same two guards she had seen earlier passed them by again on their rounds. “When all of this is over, I’ll take the blame.”
“The blame for what?”
“For not putting a stop to this nightmare before it ever got started. But I didn’t. None of us did. We could have done so much more—I could have done so much more — but we didn’t, and we’re going to have to live with that.”
She thought about the voice on the radio again, asking for her to make contact, asking for her help…
Lara closed her eyes and counted to five, then opened them again.
“The plan was always to bail once we got out here,” Riley was saying, “but my transportation never arrived.”
“What happened?”
“At the last minute, Mercer decided to reroute it to help with the war effort. I think he’s planning to attack Port Arthur from two sides — land and sea.”
“So you needed a replacement transportation, fast.”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
“What about that refueling ship?”
“It’s not exactly designed to haul people around, Lara. And definitely not forty-eight people and all of our supplies.”
“How did you convince everyone here to abandon Mercer’s war, anyway? That must have been one hell of a discussion.”
“It didn’t take that much convincing, actually.”
“No?”
“As the CO, I was able to handpick everyone here with us right now. So I only took the ones that I knew could be convinced. Most of them are friends, and some are known acquaintances.”
“So you only selected people who were already pro-mutiny.”
“Exactly.”
“Smart.”
“One of the few smart things I did, I guess you could say. It took a lot of work and vetting, but I had help.”
“Hart.”
He nodded. “Hart, Faith, Terry, and a few others. I never told you this, but the Ocean Star, in terms of staff, is the smallest FOB out here. It’s not because the rig can only accommodate forty-eight people. These were just the ones I could be sure of.”
“Are you sure about that?”
He looked over at her. “What do you mean?”
“You said you handpicked everyone here, but how can you be absolutely sure everyone sees things the way you do?”
“I don’t understand…”
“Fine. You only chose the ones you thought would be the most open to your mutiny. But how can you be absolutely certain every single one of them didn’t just say yes when you revealed your plan, not because they agreed with you, but because they had no choice?”
“No choice? Of course they had a choice.”
“What if some of them are just going along with you because they’re afraid of what will happen if they say no? You said it yourself how difficult it was to do what you’re doing because of everything Mercer’s done for you. He saved your life. He saved all of your lives. What if not everyone is quite as willing as you to cross the line from having doubts to full-on mutiny?”
Riley didn’t say anything for the longest time, and she found it difficult to read his face. Was the notion that he could have miscalculated even registering? Maybe he really didn’t understand the possibility that one of the forty-seven people he had brought onboard so they could all escape Mercer’s insanity together might not actually want to escape after all.
She felt a little sorry for him for introducing all of these doubts, but she pushed through the guilt (You’re getting really good at that…). She was getting involved in something that could cost more than just Riley and his people, but also the lives of everyone on the Trident, and she’d be damned if she didn’t face it head-on.
“I’m assuming you’re 100 % sure about Hart and the other soldiers,” she asked.
He nodded. “I am.”
“That leaves the civilians. What are the chances they’re just going along with you because they know you have the full backing of the guys with guns? Don’t you think in that situation it would be a little intimidating for them to say no? After all, they know you’re the one who came up with this idea.”
He shook his head. “I didn’t pick these names out of a hat, Lara. I looked into the eyes of each and every single one of them when I told them what I was planning. The things Mercer is doing out there in the name of saving humanity…” He shook his head and she could see him growing with confidence. “Trust me, I know every single person on the Ocean Star right now, and they all want to wash their hands of this bloodbath.”
Lara didn’t know if she believed him, but Riley seemed to embrace it as the truth, and she didn’t know any of these people — hell, she barely knew Riley — well enough to question his (absolute?) certainty.
“All right,” she nodded. “They’re your people. I accept that you know them better than me, but I just wanted you to consider the possibility you could be wrong. All it would take is one mistake, Riley, and there’s more at stake here than just your people.”
“I didn’t make any mistakes, Lara. They’re all on board. I would stake my life on it. Hell, I am staking my life on it.”