We looked and Mary had already put on a darling swimsuit. She is one gifted gal.
We flew over the docks and saw Tourey sitting in a boat with the CIA guy named Jimmy. We flew in so we could get an idea what was going on before Ellen got there. We kind of just hovered above them while they talked. I saw a box on the floor that was marked explosives and elbowed Teresa to look.
“Cool!”
Cool?
I also saw some sort of tool box and a canister labeled ‘hazardous material, dangerous’. This little job might get ugly.
I looked at Linda, “Do you think Tourey is going to blow something up?”
Ellen popped up, “Not Tourey.”
The Director had sent the transcripts of Donavan’s conference call to Roger’s email. While he waited for Roger’s call he dialed the Director of OSI. He was still trying to form an explanation for how he got the transcripts when the OSI Director answered.
“Congratulations on your money sting, the port raids, and I guess arresting Jessie Manio. This has been quite a ride, hasn’t it?”
The FBI Director answered, “I’m afraid it’s not over. If I send you an email of some transcripts, can you forget where you got them for a few hours? I need your help.”
The Director of OSI was surprised by the request. He and the FBI Director had formed a new friendship and trust during the last weeks, but very seldom was information shared in this manner between agencies. “I guess you are looking to avoid our normal channels. The obvious next question would be, who are we worried about?”
The FBI Director answered, “Everybody. LUCY has a Plan B. If they are successful, our bigger worry is who caves in to them, and why. I want you to help me assume the worse and develop a Plan B of our own.”
The Director of OSI said, “Send it over. Will this hell ever stop?”
Distant air horns from cargo ships and tankers filled the muggy, hot night air. The normal sounds of the docks masked the motor of the idling jet boat at the pier. The boat’s running lights were off, leaving the moonlight that peeked from passing clouds the only risk to the shadowy figures moving along the pier. All four men were wearing wet suits and carrying waterproof bags. Two of the men gingerly handed a large cylinder to the men on the boat. The cylinder was placed in a security harness and cinched tight. The remaining two men boarded, and the boat quietly sped away from the dock.
Roger, Paul, and John poured over the transcripts from the Director’s email. John threw his pages down on the table. “Those arrogant sons of bitches!” John was shouting. “Damn, I’m sick of this shit!”
Paul was hoping he was interpreting the transcripts wrong. “They plan to cause an oil spill in the gulf?”
Roger sighed. He was sick to his stomach. An oil spill from a live deep water well would be devastating to the gulf, the wildlife, the area economy. Some communities would never recover. These plans had been set into play hours ago. Core had already seen the blast team arrive. He had warned Roger that it didn’t look good.
Roger stood, “We can try to catch these guys before they arrive at the designated well.”
John practically shouted, “How? We don’t even know which well! There are six thousand wells in the gulf.”
Roger looked at the ceiling, “Ellen, we need you.”
Ellen appeared as a hologram. “Don’t worry. I have frozen everyone else in the building. You need to know which well? It’s number 3290 Lanitol deep well. It is the third largest deep well in the gulf and is actively pumping. The regular employees have been told to evacuate the site and are doing so now. They were told there was seismic activity that could compromise the well and their safety.”
John was incredulous, “They plan on blaming an earthquake?”
Ellen answered, “Initially. They have staged a malfunction of control equipment to make it look that way. Then they plan to blame the men being evacuated for not arming all of the security and safety features of the well.”
Roger asked, “Why isn’t all of this in the transcripts?”
Ellen answered, “I just got this from reading the mind of one of the men headed for the well.”
Roger asked, “We know where they are? Can we stop them?”
Ellen paused before answering, “The only way to stop them will risk other mortal lives. The gals and I are going to meet these men at the well site and do our best to stop them. We are prohibited from doing them harm. And we can only manipulate mortal environments within certain criteria.”
Roger was stunned. It sounded as if even the angels couldn’t really help. Roger said, “Thank you Ellen. I appreciate your candor and what you are doing.”
Ellen said, “I must leave now, but I suggest you have a Coast Guard boat in the vicinity of the well. Not too close. But just in case. You never know when a miracle might happen.” She was gone.
John asked, “What did that mean? A miracle? I thought she said there wasn’t anything she could do?”
Roger had his phone out dialing the Coast Guard, “I have no idea but I’m getting the Coast Guard out there. I want to be there, too.”
Paul said, “Tell them they have three passengers to load before they take off.”
Zack and Core arrived at the pier and met Jimmy. Tourey had left. Core looked over the items Tourey had obtained and smiled. He got his whole Christmas list. Core asked Jimmy, “Any hint where this is happening yet?”
Jimmy shook his head. Core’s phone rang, it was Roger. “Yeah.”
Roger said, “Our Intel indicates this is out of our control now. It doesn’t look as if there is much we can do. I wanted to thank you for everything you have done Mathew.”
Core answered, “Give me some credit man. What’s the well number? I might know something that can be done.”
Roger wasn’t about to send Core on a suicide mission. “Let it go. Jamie and Lisa are waiting for you.” Roger hung up.
Jimmy’s phone rang, he listened a minute, hung up, and yelled over to Core, “Well number 3290 Lanitol.”
Core walked over and put his arm around Jimmy’s shoulder. “Thanks, man.” Then he punched Jimmy so hard he was out cold.
Zack glared at Core, “Don’t even try that shit on me. I’m going with you. One man can’t do this.”
Core frowned, “I don’t have time to argue. Stay here. This is a one way trip.”
Core jumped into the boat, turned the key, and twisted to full throttle. Zack jumped into the boat just in time. “What the hell! You think I’m going to let you get all the glory?”
Core frowned as he yelled over the noise of the engine, “I’m serious. I don’t expect to come back.”
Zack shook his head and yelled back, “At this rate we’re not even going to get there. Move it!”
The Coast Guard had the boat ready and took off as soon as John, Paul and Roger boarded. Roger told them there had been a seismic warning at 3290 Lanitol Oil and he was concerned about recovery of any employees should there really be a problem. It was impossible to come up with a viable story in such a short time frames. He knew the Coast Guard staff thought he was crazy. Thank God the martial law order was still in effect.
John’s phone rang, it was the Director of OSI. John pulled on his neck as he listened and gave worried looks to Roger and Paul.
John hung up. “My Director just got a call from the CIA. The undercover man with Core and Zack passed on the well number to Core. He didn’t know not to. Core slugged him and took a boat. Both Core and Zack are headed for the well.”
Roger cursed and slammed his fist on the side of the boat. It was a suicide mission. Roger asked for Ellen. Suddenly a black cat was sitting on the rail of the boat. Paul looked around nervously as John tried to shield Ellen from anyone’s view.
Roger said, “I’m sure you are very busy.” Ellen winked. “We have just found out that Mathew Core and Zack are heading for the well to stop these guys. Can you help them?” Ellen just stared at Roger. John and Paul were getting nervous. Roger felt sick to his stoma
ch. Roger said, “If these guys manage to stop this well from a spill it will save thousands of wildlife habitats and animals. Not to mention the human suffering. If they can’t stop them, I am worried they are going to die trying.” Roger didn’t know what else to say. Then it hit him that Ellen had rules she had to follow and that she had bosses, too.
Roger asked, “Is there a higher power you can ask to intervene?” Ellen winked.
Roger nodded his head. “Thank you, Ellen. I won’t take any more of your time. We are going to be near the well in case we are needed.” Ellen vanished.
“Where’d she go?” I was looking all over for Ellen. She had left us on a pier under a drilling station, watching four guys in wet suits. These did look like pretty rough dudes. They had what looked like big metal fish with handle bars they had unloaded from their boat onto the pier.
Teresa said, “I’ve seen those things on TV. They propel people through the water fast. See that fan thing in the back?”
Mary said, “I think that’s the front. They ride on top of them.” Huh, kind of looks like fun.
The men were putting on oxygen masks and tanks and slipping off the pier into the black water. Mary shouted, “I’m going in. We need to see what they are doing.”
Linda yelled after her, “Read their minds while you’re down there!” Mary was already gone. “Dang it.” Linda jumped into the water and followed Mary down.
Teresa looked at me, “I suppose we should go, too.”
“Yup.” Sure wish I could think of something else that needed doing. Wet air, here I come.
Teresa and I dove in together and had to swim a long ways, straight down, before we saw Linda and Mary and the four guys. It was like an underground factory down there. The four men had docked their ‘fish’ things in what looked like bicycle racks alongside a huge iron pipe. We must have been at least a couple of hundred feet under the surface and it was pitch black except for the flashlights on the swimmer’s masks. We could see bubbles coming from their tanks.
Two of the men were turning a huge wheel that looked like a hatch in a submarine. The men opened the hatch and swam into what looked like a big control room. We watched them start flipping switches and pushing buttons. Mary was reading their minds.
“These controls are for backflow preventers on the main pipeline. These controls are supposed to keep oil from coming back through the pipe in the event of an explosion or something. These guys are shutting them off!”
Teresa had followed the other two men straight down the side of the huge pipe toward the floor of the gulf. She sent us her thoughts, “These other two guys are taking explosives further down the pipe to blow it where it will cause the largest leak but actually be the easiest repair later. You guys swim down here. You won’t believe how far down we are! Man, is it dark!”
I started swimming down to Teresa. Mary and Linda were still at the underwater control room attached to the main pipeline. It was amazingly easy to understand each other considering we were all underwater. I tried to talk with a gurgle just to mess with them. Teresa made me stop.
Mary suddenly screamed, “We have company! It’s Mathew Core and Zack!”
Mary and Linda were watching Core and Zack swimming toward the two men in wet suits that had entered the control room.
Teresa and I were about as far down as you could go. The two men we were watching were actually walking on the floor of the gulf. Teresa yelled to Mary and Linda, “These guys down here just set some kind of timer on an explosive canister. They are on their way back up to you.”
Linda yelled to all of us, “Core and Zack are here. They are trying to keep the two guys up here away from the backflow preventers. Zack is in the control room fixing what these guys messed up I think. Core is wrestling with both of these bad guys.”
Teresa and I swam as fast as we could back up the side of the huge pipe toward Linda and Mary. Suddenly Ellen was next to Mary and told us all, “Start pulling the air hoses of the bad guys. They will head for the surface for air.”
Easier said than done. They were screwed in or something. I was twisting and pulling and screaming at the stupid thing to come off. Teresa came over and showed me you pushed in and twist. Like a child proof medicine cap. I hate those, too.
The two guys that had been at the bottom setting the explosive charge were now at our level in the water and pushing on Core and Zack’s masks. One guy pulled out a long knife and pulled back to stab Core. Core twisted the guy’s arm for what seemed like three minutes, and managed to turn the knife all the way around. Core stabbed the bad guy in the chest. He slowly floated toward the surface leaving a wiggly trail of blood behind him.
Teresa managed to disconnect the air hose of the other guy Core was wrestling and that guy quickly swam for the top. Linda disconnected another guy’s hose and he left for the surface too. Core swam over and stabbed the guy attacking Zack. All the bad guys were gone now.
Zack swam behind Core in a race to the gulf’s floor to stop the timer on the explosive. Core was carrying his explosives. It was too late. The pressure from the blast shook the earth beneath the water and gushed rocks and debris toward us like a meteorite shower stuck in a tsunami. We could see Core and Zack being forced towards us in a frothy, tumultuous underwater wave. Ellen jumped in front of us and yelled, “Grab them as they get close to you. Take them to the top and hold them out of the water as far from here as you can.”
We could see Core and Zack being blasted toward us from the bottom of the gulf. They looked dead, and contorted. Mary and Linda grabbed Core as the force of the blast pushed him toward them. Teresa and I grabbed Zack. I could see Ellen and Granny standing just below us, in the center of a massive swirling tunnel. Their arms were spread wide. They had frozen the wall of debris and water from the blast. Ellen yelled, “Hurry, we can’t hold this very long.”
On the Coast Guard boat the first sign something was wrong was what sounded like a large burp, then a rumble. It felt as though the oxygen was being sucked out of the air. A tremendous pressure preceded an earth shattering, earsplitting blast! The entire top of the oil platform launched itself in an explosion of flames that shot as high as you could see. Black toxic smoke billowed and mushroomed above the rig. Every few seconds another explosion rocked the air. Finally one huge blast actually blasted the glass out of the windows on the Coast Guard boat.
Roger covered his face to shield it from the flying glass. His arms were bleeding, his heart pounded. He turned to see if Paul and John were okay. Paul had been thrown to the deck floor and John was wiping blood from his neck.
Roger grabbed Paul’s arm and helped him up, “You guys okay?”
Paul nodded. He looked at Roger with empty eyes. John said, “We have two men in that hell fire.”
Another, smaller blast sent white flames shooting horizontally across the surface of the gulf waters, igniting the fuel on the water’s surface. It was a sea of fire. Roger turned his head from the blazing light.
Then there was only the sound of the roaring flames and sirens.
Roger, Paul and John were speechless. The Coast Guard alarm horns were sounding and their rescue lights of blue and red flashed above. The deck hands loaded into the rescue boats in case survivors could be found. The waters were black and the debris had fallen as far from the platform as the Coast Guard boat. It was as if hell had risen out of the center of the gulf.
Roger, Paul and John watched helplessly as the rescue boats raced toward the platform.
At least thirty officers scanned the surface of the water with their high powered night vision binoculars. They were looking for signs of life. Nothing.
Tourey had circled back to the pier and found Jimmy nursing his jaw. The explosion lit up the docks like an atom bomb. Ambulances and emergency vehicles swarmed the docks. Everyone was hoping to assist survivors.
Jimmy looked at Tourey, “Core knocked me out. They knew it was a suicide mission.”
Tourey had felt the blast ten blocks from the dock
s. He knew no one could have survived that explosion. Even if they had been able to stop the deep well blast with the backflow preventers, they wouldn’t have had time to get out of there in a boat.
Tourey dialed John, “Not lookin’ good. LUCY will let this leak ‘til they get what they want. Where are you?”
John answered, “I’m with the Coast Guard recovery boat. No luck so far.” John had hung up. Tourey knew that tone in John’s voice. He had heard it before. Like before, it had been LUCY.
Wet air my foot. Geesh! Mary had Mathew Core, Linda had Zack, Teresa had one of the bad guys, I had one of the bad guys, and Ellen had a bad guy in each hand. We were swimming under them and holding them up for the Coast Guard to see. We couldn’t even see Mary and Linda but they had told us they had no idea what kind of shape Core and Zack were in.
A bright light swept across the surface of the water above me and someone lifted the bad guy away. Whew. Talk about water sports.
Roger, Paul, and John anxiously identified the men as they were lifted on board. They were dead. Roger told the Coast Guard Captain, “These four are all criminals. Our guys are still out there.”
The Captain said something in his radio and then looked at Roger, “We’ve got two more!”
Roger asked, “Are they alive?”
“Yes.”
Roger moved to the side so Kim could walk down the tunnel first. Once they reached the tarmac the warm Hawaiian breeze blew her hair across his face. He swiped it away and chuckled. “Is this beautiful or what?”
Roger gave Kim a big kiss, picked up their bags and said, “Let’s get my business over with right away. Should only take a short while, and then we don’t even have to leave the beach if you don’t want to.”
Kim smiled. It was so nice to see Roger relaxed. He said it was the shirt she made him wear. A big Hawaiian print. They hadn’t even talked that much on the flight down. Roger kept dozing off. Then waking up to ask her what she was reading. She answered the same every time, “Same book I was reading when we took off.” Roger smiled every time she answered, rubbed her arm, and fell asleep again.
Silent Crickets: A Shallow End Gals, Trilogy Book Three Page 27
