Tobin uncrossed his arms in alarm and stepped forward in front of Gavin.
“Rustle up, my little Sparklers! We are heading out,” Daniels announced, her voice carrying loudly over the din in the room.
Tobin’s heart caught in his chest.
The storm!
“We’ve been called up. There’s an oil rig off the coast that’s caught fire due to a lightning strike. We are wheels up in five! Briefing is on the chopper. Let’s go! Let’s go! Let’s go!” she barked out, clapping her hands.
“Bye!” Tobin shouted over his shoulder, sprinting out of the room with several other men. Domino was running beside him, tongue lolling, as they gathered up their gear. When Daniels said ‘wheels up in five’ - she meant it!
Tobin wasn’t going to be left behind for this – even if he worried about being ready for this. Domino gave a loud bark as if he understood what Tobin was thinking.
Fires were one thing…
Oil rig fires were another beast all together.
Chapter 2
Life on a rig wasn’t for everyone.
But then again – being a Jenkins meant she wasn’t just anyone.
Jenkins Oil operated under several partner names and was a subsidiary to several oil giants in the industry. It was good to be ‘the big guy’ standing behind THE. BIG. GUY. It meant freedom, privacy, and no target placed on your back waiting for the next hostile takeover.
Sure, Claudia could have been the classic CEO’s daughter. Daddy could have bought her a Porsche or Lamborghini, but instead he bought her a rig of her own. She could have dressed the part with shiny pumps, stockings, a pencil stuck in her shaggy bun, and bright red lipstick… but that didn’t fit her.
She was… well… a tomboy.
Looking down at her steel-toed boots, her overalls, broken fingernails that had a black line under the nailbeds and knowing that her hair was matted under her hardhat from sweat, she fit in with her team. Being on a rig meant you were part of something greater. They were a community, a family, a group of acquaintances who knew the dangers of this life and what it could bring them all.
Money and security.
On a rig, you were thrown in the middle of the ocean to deal with challenges that others only dreamt about. Gently being rocked to sleep at night, siphoning flammable fluids out of the earth, dodging a storm here and there…
Life was never dull… definitely lonely… but never dull.
The phrase that ‘you could be lonely in a crowded room’ struck home. Here she was on a rig, doing what she wanted, where she wanted, and having fun with her coworkers as they cheered at a movie playing in one of the rec rooms. The rig was equipped with a cafeteria, movie room, a gym, and a tiny smoking facility away from everything. She never understood the urge, much less knowing the danger it could create that could affect everyone. Flammable material and a carelessly tossed match could be catastrophic. Her habit of biting her fingernails looked awful but wouldn’t get them killed.
“Hey boss, you gonna watch the movie or sit there and stew?”
Glancing up, Claudia smiled slightly. She hadn’t even realized she was staring off into space, or ‘stewing’ as her foreman said repeatedly. Nodding, she stuck a pencil behind her ear and swung her baseball cap around.
“Unlike you twerps, someone has to actually work around here,” she sassed playfully. “It’s my job to keep you tenderfoots safe.”
“We are fine and you know it. You run a tight ship.”
“Yeah I do, which is why I’m going to check out the trajectory of that hurricane for the seventh time today. I don’t like surprises and they don’t like me. Got it?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Claudia was always careful.
Her rig was one of the older ones, built in the nineties, and while it functioned just fine there was also a lot of upkeep. Rigs used to be forty feet above sea level and got decimated during storms. Her rig was seventy feet above the water, but the newer rigs were built upwards of ninety-one feet nowadays and reinforced to withstand the massive waves a destructive hurricane could create.
The tropical storm had just entered the Gulf and hopefully would pass them without strengthening. If things turned nasty, she was prepared to forcibly evacuate the crew if need be. Last time there was a storm, they rode it out, but every time lightning cracked, she jumped anxiously.
She could handle storms, swells, and irate big brutes… but fire scared her. Working in such a dangerous environment seemed like the challenge she needed to keep her content mentally, knowing she couldn’t let her ‘boys’ down. If she slipped up, someone could get hurt. Scanning the iPad, she frowned. The hurricane had turned and would be taking a path just south of the rig… which meant that the bands of the storm would hit them directly. As long as the storm didn’t reach category 4 or 5 – they would be okay.
Claudia sat in the office for hours on end, staring at charts and watching weather reports. The ominous clouds on the horizon looked like impending death and made her skin crawl. She could see the eerie dark line of storms as well as the occasional flash of lightning. Getting up, she refilled her coffee mug and watched horrified as the mug trembled in her hand.
Nerves, she thought before realizing that it wasn’t just her hand shaking. Her legs and body were shaking too. Shaking like this was a serious sign something was wrong on the rig. Dropping the cup, Claudia ran into the hallway just before she felt the percussion blast hit her, rattling the windows.
“HARVEY! MIKE! JASON! You three – on deck now!” she roared, flying into action and barking orders. Chaos was erupting everywhere. She stared, unseeing and darting fearlessly down the corridor, towards the exit onto the massive platform. Bursting out of the doorway, she halted and stopped the next man behind her with an outstretched arm.
“Sam – check the blowout preventer!”
“Tiny, Joseph, and Tito – get the gear and let’s move.”
The deck was ablaze. Drops of burning oil were raining down from the sky after being shot forcefully from the ocean floor beneath them. Sure enough, something had ignited the oil. An eerie fountain of flames was spewing into the air.
“Methane bubble?” Jason hollered.
“Could have been a spark?” Harvey countered, shrugging on gear.
“Doesn’t matter now,” Claudia bit out, feeling the heat from the geyser that looked straight out of a horror movie, “we need to cap it and put it out before...”
“Before the hurricane starts pounding us?” Tito interjected as he rushed by.
Claudia wished she could say that he was wrong…
Unfortunately, Tito was right.
If they didn’t get the fire under control they could have more problems. It was always possible to have a second explosion if methane was in the line. If there was a flaw with the equipment, then they needed to shut it all down and inspect everything. If it was the rig itself at fault…
Well, she didn’t want anyone to be on it when it sank.
Chapter 3
“Listen up, Sparklers,” Daniels said loudly as they rode in choppers ahead of the storm. The sea below looked turbulent. Whitecaps were everywhere and while the swells of the water looked tiny from a distance, Tobin could only imagine how massive they were right now. It wasn’t hard to pinpoint the location of the oil rig. A massive line of smoke reached up to the heavens as if pointing to the sky. He could see that there were still flames erupting from the base.
“You said lightning?” Tobin asked, studying the scene as they grew closer.
“What’s on your mind, Randall?”
“The storm is just barely out of range but will be here soon,” he began, looking at his instructor and feeling a little nervous at being in the spotlight among his peers. He was the quiet one… but no one was saying a thing.
“If it was lightning, wouldn’t there be more of it? The storm would still be going and we wouldn’t be flying a chopper out, would we?” Tobin finished, feeling his pulse race as he looked
at the platform coming into view.
“Excellent job, Randall,” Tex Daniels praised with a wide, knowing smile. That meant a lot coming from one of the instructors who was a legend around the campus and in the industry. He flushed and nodded tightly, turning to look at the upcoming fight they were about to embark on.
“Listen up, boys – we’ve got a live one today! No daredevils! I want you to go in, assess the hazard, and work on getting that fire out. Do you hear me?” she hollered over the racket as the chopper descended and then careened away.
Tobin swallowed hard and reached for Domino, who was whining near his leg. The Dalmatian’s spotted tongue quickly licked at his bare wrist above his glove as if to make human contact. The dog was a good judge of character and seemed to know when he was feeling tense or stressed.
He was REALLY tense right now.
The fire was everywhere and if they couldn’t land, that meant evacuating would be near impossible if things went from bad to worse. Daniels shouted and pointed at a small platform off to the side before turning to them.
“Boys, we are going down quick and hard. When we touch, pile out. Murphy, gimme ten seconds and yank this bird off the platform. I don’t plan on anyone dying today – least of all my ride off this nightmare,” Daniels said harshly. Tobin was surprised at the tone and worried expression that was on her face as she looked at the pilot. There was something there; some sort of history. The pilot turned and the tight grimace on his face was enough to tell anyone that he wasn’t happy about Tex’s orders.
“Three… two… OFF!”
Tobin, as well as six other men and Daniels, leapt out the open doorway in full gear onto the platform. Domino appeared beside him and Tobin quickly ruffled his ears. He glanced up to see the men ascending a metal ladder up to the next level and had to steady himself against the swaying that he felt. It was weird, like a gentle feeling that something was rocking beneath him as the ocean pushed against the massive structure. He couldn’t help but take a look at the environment, knowing that this moment would be frozen in his mind. The black clouds creeping in, the horrific swells of the water – it was all a little overwhelming.
Shaking his head, he picked up Domino and draped the animal over his shoulder. They’d practiced this move several times and it was an easy fit for them to maneuver. The dog instantly cradled his body around his neck as if he was aware that he needed to hang on for dear life as they climbed upwards to the real task ahead… the inferno blazing out of control.
“Steady, boy,” Tobin muttered, taking the ladder as quickly as possible without risking Domino’s safety. He would never endanger his partner and friend. “Attaboy… a few more steps…”
Domino scrambled off Tobin and onto the upper platform of the rig. Tobin looked up as he came over the edge and nearly fell. There was a woman there attempting to orchestrate the attempts to bring everything under control. Her sooty and grimy profile was silhouetted against the fire that burned behind her… and she was more beautiful than anything he’d ever seen before in his life.
“Tito! What in tarnation are you doing, boy? I ain’t got no pregnancy tests on this rig! Are you makin’ love to that thing? Just stick the cover on, spin the valve, and pretend it’s your dang girlfriend on a Friday night! Geez!” the woman barked out callously.
Tobin’s mouth dropped open in stunned horror.
She might look like an angel… but the slew of lewdness and language that was flying from those delicious lips was anything but appetizing. He saw several other men were also gaping in shock at the petite woman that sounded like a general in a warzone.
Daniels actually laughed and walked up to the woman without a care in the world. The two shook hands and Daniels pointed at their group. The blond angel with the tousled hair and a greasy face walked right up to them.
“Don’t just stand there whipping out rulers boys – I don’t care what you’ve got, as long as you get that fire under control. Ya’ hear me?”
“Daniels?” Tobin croaked, unable to peel his eyes from her as his ears tried to recover from the verbal assault.
“And you? You brought a puppy to do your dirty work? Seriously?”
“Domino is my partner and a…”
“That handsome face sure looks puckered,” she blurted out, interrupting him. She thought he was handsome? he wondered, stuck on that word until the rest of what she was saying hit him like a ton of bricks as the others around him were laughing and walking off.
“You got your panties bunched up or something? Maxipad on sideways? Did it pull a hair or something? Just suck it up, Fabio, ‘cause that fire isn’t going to go out on its own!” she snapped, yanking a fresh tank onto her back and taking off heedless of the danger.
The woman had to be barely five feet tall and if first impressions were anything, he wasn’t sure what to think. She obviously packed a lot of vinegar into her petite frame! His mother would say she was a stick of dynamite… small but powerful.
Could be tiny and dangerous too, he mused, careening into the fray.
Tobin watched numbly as fire rained down all around them. The oil splattering out of the pipe was shooting up into the sky and then cascading around them like some terrible scene in a movie. If Sly Stallone or another famous actor showed up, the ground split open, or the ocean froze – he would have known it was cinema effects for sure!
This was crazy!
Regular fires had a way of climbing walls, spreading out in a fanning motion, and eventually the flames would lick the ceiling overtaking every destructive inch, cannibalizing the structure in its wake. Glass would melt or shatter, pipes could burst, nothing was safe.
This was just different.
There was nowhere to hide, nowhere to take shelter.
“We need to evacuate!” Tobin screamed out, watching the chaos around them. This was ridiculous! He understood they were all trying to help but even in his suit, he could tell the temperatures were going up. Dashboards on cars melted at five hundred degrees Fahrenheit… he didn’t really want to know the melting point of the platform they were standing on that was being buffered about with the turbulent waters below.
“What’d you say, Fabio?”
Tobin turned to see the little woman in overalls behind him. Her face was streaked even more and he felt bad for her. This was obviously something that meant a lot to her.
“We need to evacuate so we can move about more easily and no one’s lives are at stake. It’s not safe here.”
“Ya’ don’t say?” she gaped, and then a deep crease appeared between her eyebrows. Tobin realized that the fire before him in her eyes just might be a little more dangerous than the one behind him.
“Listen here, beauty queen,” she snapped, her cheeks puffing angrily as she jabbed a finger onto his chest. There must have been some real force to it because he could feel it under his thick jacket. “Ain’t nobody running from this!”
“Then put a mask on and get your people to a safe location!”
“A mask? What mask?”
“Get back,” Tobin growled angrily, pointing down. “This is no place for cheap steel-toe boots! Your soles are melting!”
Sure enough, the black marks on the metal platform were not only oil, but the rubber from their shoes. His own boots were designed to withstand higher temperatures but hers were for safety from impact or debris - not fires.
Her eyes met his and he was taken aback by how blue they seemed to be against her filthy face. He could see the fear, anger, and denial in her eyes – but there was also a sense of understanding. She knew what he was saying was true, but hated to believe him.
“Get a mask and get back… please?” he said more gently.
“I don’t wanna evacuate.”
“I know – but you need to get everyone away from danger.”
Tobin stared at her and saw the internal warring in her eyes. Finally, she nodded tightly and turned to shout at the others running around crazily. He walked off to find Daniels.
> “They need to evacuate,” he ordered, as Daniels looked at him. “They can’t stay here if we use H25 to put out the flames.”
“And why is that, sparky?” Daniels said with a grin, nodding.
“Asphyxiant,” Tobin said immediately. “Stays close to the ground and they don’t have the equipment needed to stay safe like we do. This isn’t my first rodeo,” he reminded her.
“It’s not mine either,” she retorted. “ETA is five minutes on evac.”
“You already called in an evac?”
“I didn’t care what she said,” Daniels shrugged. “My job is to stop that fire, not give in to some billionaire’s spoiled daughter.”
“Do what? She’s who?” Tobin gaped in shock.
“You heard me – this rig is owned by Jenkins Oil. That foul-mouthed, little woman is none other than Claudia Jenkins. I’m willing to bet this is her daddy’s rig. You noticed everything else, but missed the sign on the side of the main building?”
“I guess I did.”
“Missing things in a fire is dangerous, Randall. You can’t afford to miss a beat,” she reminded him. “Now, let’s find the H25 and make sure our gear is ready before we snuff this bad-boy out! Hurricane Dottie isn’t going to wait and I don’t plan on being here all day.”
Tobin walked over to the group of men all huddled protectively around the mysterious Claudia Jenkins. As they parted, he could see the anger and betrayal in her eyes. She turned to face him and he knew he was in for a battle – but he would win the war.
“You suck, Fabio,” she blurted out angrily. “You think I don’t hear or see those choppers coming?”
“Everyone down onto the platform,” Tobin said forcefully, looking over her head at the men around her. “We are going to be using a gas that will asphyxiate anyone within a mile radius. You’ve got to leave.”
“I’ll hold my breath,” Claudia snapped.
The Oil Tycoon Rescue Page 2
