SEALs of Honor: Troy Read online

  “Don’t you have tag scanners or something so that, as they leave, they’re all counted?”

  “In a perfect world, yes,” she said simply. “In this case, not so much. We do have a bunch who have been tagged as out but not everyone.”

  “So then, how is it that Daniel knew four were missing?”

  “You’ll have to ask Daniel that,” she said, shaking her head. “I don’t really know. And, of course, his information was wrong anyway, so it’s not likely we can count on that.”

  “Maybe that’s something we should go back and ask him.”

  Only they didn’t have to, as they looked up just moments later to see Chucky and Winslow walking in. The two of them had their heads together and their voices low. When they saw the three of them in here, they froze. She smiled at them and asked, “You guys okay?”

  “Nothing about this is okay,” Chucky said, shoving his hands in his pockets.

  “How did you determine the four were missing?” Troy asked them bluntly.

  “I had a clipboard,” Chucky said. “Once I did the calculations and a roll call check, four were missing.” He looked over at Winslow. “But what I didn’t know was that three of the managers were already in the cooler downstairs.”

  “Right,” she said in surprise. “That makes sense.”

  “Never thought to check.” And his tone was morose.

  “So then how many are missing?”

  “No one apparently. They are now all accounted for,” he said.

  At that, nobody said anything.

  Chucky walked farther into the room and sat down at his desk on the far side. “I don’t even know what I’m doing here,” he said. “The power’s flickering all over the place.”

  “I heard there’s talk of several engineering teams coming in to do the repairs,” Axel said.

  “Can’t happen soon enough for me,” Winslow said. “Like I said, we’ve got just ten days to go.”

  “Well, it’s almost bedtime anyway,” Berkley said. “I’m tired. All this stress has been pretty rough.”

  “I hear you there,” Chucky said. “I’m just a little worried that I won’t get to live out my ten days to even get off here.”

  “In what way?” Troy asked curiously.

  Chucky shrugged. “All kinds of shit is going on.” He reached up and tapped his head. “Somebody put me in that freezer,” he said, “and I don’t know who.” He glared at the three of them. “For all I know it was you three.”

  “Well, for that matter, you don’t know that it wasn’t Winslow either,” Berkley said in exasperation. “We have no reason for locking you in, and, if we had locked you in, why would we have let you back out again?”

  “Unless you wanted to scare me,” he said, “or maybe you were hoping I was frozen already by then.”

  Axel shook his head. “I get why you are probably looking at everybody with an accusing eye,” he said, “but don’t waste your energy on us. We just got here. We had no reason to do anything to you.”

  “And the fact that you’re even here is bullshit,” Winslow blurted out. “I don’t get it.”

  “Just the company, man,” Axel said.

  “I don’t understand why all three of them are here either,” he said. “The one is always here. Gregor. He’s a pain in the ass too.”

  “But you’ve got to admit, the food is better when he’s around,” she said with a smile. The two men grumbled off in their corner, and finally they stood and said, “We’re heading to our bunks.”

  She nodded. “Good night.”

  They didn’t answer, just went out, and slammed the door hard behind them.

  She looked over at the other two. “A part of me wants to go too.” She picked up some papers off the printer. “Here’s the schedule, and you can see Jude was here at the time of the accident.” She picked up a clipboard sitting off to the side. “This could very well be the list as everybody got off,” she said, flipping through the pages. Using a pencil, she went down line by line. “Here it says Jude left on the second round.”

  “How did they all get off?”

  “A couple ships nearby came in to help, and some helicopters came and got a bunch. Several went out on some of the lifeboats that were here anyway. Hopefully they were following the ships or being towed by them,” she said. “Looks like Jude left the afternoon of the first day.”

  “And do we know that it was actually Jude? How do we know that somebody didn’t just put down all these names?”

  “Good point. We don’t,” she said. “Lionel isn’t on here. That’s for sure.”

  “I’d take that list with a grain of salt,” Axel said. “All kinds of shit can go wrong at times like that. It’s a list, but that doesn’t mean it’s accurate.”

  “No,” she said, “but it’s all we’ve got.”

  Axel nodded. “But, if the data isn’t complete or if it’s corrupt, it’s useless. It’s worse than useless because it gives you a false sense of security, and then you’re stuck believing that list, when it may or may not be valid. Especially on a screwed-up deal like this.”

  She smiled. “So, what do you want to do then?”

  “No idea,” he said. He looked over to Troy. “Maybe time for a rendezvous?”

  They both looked back at her, and Axel said, “Why don’t we walk you to your bunk and lock you in. Then we’ll go check in with the rest of the guys.”

  She hopped to her feet. “Works for me,” she said, as she picked up her coffee cup. “We should return these dishes to the kitchen.”

  They made a detour and dropped off all the dishes for Denny, but the kitchen was dark, and nobody was there. “Is it out of power?” Troy asked.

  “Denny always shuts it down,” she said. “As soon as the dishes are done and the kitchen is clean, you can’t find him again ’til morning.”

  “That’s interesting,” Troy said. “Doesn’t he socialize with you guys in the evenings at all?”

  “If he does, I’ve never seen him,” she said, “but I will admit that I’m not much for socializing at night either. However, I’ve heard of private poker games and all kinds of shit going on here that I’ve never been privy to.”

  “Because you’re female?”

  “That, and because I’m not regular staff,” she said. “I’m an outsider, and they like to keep it that way.”

  “Any inclination to change that?”

  She snorted. “Hell no. I’m happy the way it is. Although the rapists should all be in jail, and I would like to see this inequality and prejudicial shit change.”

  “Well, it’s in for a change as soon as we can get the repair crews in.”

  “True enough,” she said, as she put her dishes in the sink. They turned and walked back out again, her gaze flickering over the tables. “Seems so weird to see it empty like this. At the height of its day, it’s a massive group of people, and good luck finding a place to sit. Now it’s like a graveyard in here.”

  “I think that’s a common sentiment,” Axel said, “with any large group that comes and goes. It’s like, all in and all out.”

  She laughed, then smiled and said, “True enough. I’m more than ready for a hot shower, if there is such a thing to be had. I don’t know if the boilers have been working or not.”

  “Well, you’ve got massive generators and backup generators,” Troy said, “so you might be lucky.”

  She headed down, showing the guys where she stayed. “I have one of the female rooms,” she said with a sneer. “It’s a temporary room as well.”

  “They shouldn’t have labeled it as a female room,” Troy said. “I get that nobody’ll stop anybody from tracking down one of the women if they want to accost them anyway, but this is just like a road map that says, This is where you guys are.”

  “I never really thought about it,” she said. “I’m here so rarely that it never really mattered.”

  “And now?”

  “Now it feels like a target. Like this giant flashing neon si
gn that says, Hey, she’s in here.”

  “Change your room,” Troy said helpfully. “Some 180 are empty now, right?”

  She shrugged. “It won’t change anything now though,” she said. “Besides, the bathroom is right beside me, which is convenient.”

  He nodded and said, “We’ll go do a rendezvous. Are you okay here alone?”

  She nodded, pulled out her phone, and said, “But I wouldn’t mind getting your numbers.” They quickly exchanged contact information. “I’ll have a quick shower, and then I’ll go to bed.”

  “Text me when you’re out of the shower,” Troy said, “and when you’re back in your room with the door locked.”

  At that, she hesitated and looked at him. “Do you really think I’m in danger?”

  *

  “It’s not that I think you can’t take care of yourself under normal circumstances,” Troy said cautiously, “but obviously things are not normal here. I would rather that we hung around and waited until you’ve had your shower and get you locked in before we take off.” He watched the indecision on her face.

  She nodded and said, “Well, instead of having a shower, can you guys wait here five minutes, while I use the washroom, get ready for bed, and then you can lock me in. How’s that?”

  Troy gave her a pleased smile. “That sounds much better to me.”

  She went into her room, grabbed her toiletries, then headed to the bathroom, while they waited outside in the hallway.

  Axel looked at him. “She’s a nice woman.”

  “She is,” Troy said. “She’s a unique mix of anger, frustration, and smarts.”

  “We’ve often seen the smarts but not with too much common sense. I like that she’s practical.”

  “Sounds to me like she had a rude awakening when her friend was attacked,” Troy said. “All women should be safe in the workplace. So to think that it happened to somebody she was close to and only later find out that it wasn’t the first time must have been quite a shock. The fact that this rig has been operating with that kind of underground atmosphere and God-only-knows-what-else is bad news.”

  “Have we figured out if that company man, Gregor, knows about it?”

  “He knows,” Troy said. “He showed absolutely no surprise when it came up.”

  “Then again he’s management, so he’s probably making light of it all,” Axel said.

  They waited another few minutes until the bathroom door opened, and Berkley walked out, her face pink from being scrubbed, the hair around her face damp. She walked past them, opened the door to her small bedroom, then turned to face them. “I’ll be fine from here,” she said. “Thank you.”

  Troy nodded. “Listen. Don’t open the door unless it’s one of us.”

  “Got it,” she said. And gently closed the door. They waited until they heard the click.

  Once she was locked in, Troy turned to Axel and said, “Let’s go.”

  Chapter 10

  Berkley lay in bed but couldn’t sleep. Of course she couldn’t sleep. So much was going on in her world. She waited a good half hour, battling with herself on whether she should contact Troy. Finally unable to sleep within the next half hour, she gave up and sent him a text, asking if he’d found anything.

  Nope came back the answer. You’re supposed to be sleeping.

  She smiled at that and tucked the phone up beside her pillow. She had just pulled the blanket up over her head when a light knock came on her door. She froze but didn’t answer. When the knock came again, she wished a small peephole was in the door that she could look out.

  The third time it was almost a pounding on the door; then she heard a male voice. “Open the door, you bitch.”

  She froze and pulled out her phone and put it on video. But all she heard were footsteps walking away.

  She quickly texted Troy.

  Someone was just at the door. Knocked lightly, then not so lightly, and then pounded on the door and called me a bitch.

  The response was immediate. Who was it?

  I don’t know, she responded. Now sleep was the furthest thing from her mind.

  She had her laptop with her, but, outside of logging in to work—if and when she could get on the system, given the storm—she couldn’t do a whole lot but monitor systems and track the hacker. But needing to do something, she sat cross-legged on her bed, with the blanket wrapped around her shoulders.

  She started typing out the little bits and pieces that she knew. She wasn’t very good at handling all these multiple threads in her head, and none of them were making sense. She knew the guys would tell her that they would make sense at some point in time, but she’d always been a note-taker and a list-maker. She always needed to put everything down in order to make clarity happen for her. She loved puzzles for that reason, but, at the same time, this wasn’t her type of puzzle. And with the guys heading down to look and to meet up with the rest of their team, she just wished she understood what was going on.

  Three rapes? Were they connected? How could they not be? But were they connected to the sabotage of the rig?

  Lionel’s body missing. Seven bodies in the cooler. Sabotage or accident? Were the skeleton-crew guys left here on their own?

  Chucky and Winslow—was the freezer an accident or deliberate? The latch was wonky, so it could easily have been an accident but …

  Next she started to plot out who was around when Chucky had gotten locked up. The trouble was, everybody was accounted for. The same as whoever had been hacking into her computer. Everybody had been at dinner. Except for the pilot. The only conclusion that she could come to was the fact that somebody else had to be on board that they didn’t know about. And that was one hell of a scary thought.

  She sat here, writing down names and wondering if the connection with the C-4 was really a connection or if it was just another nebulous thread. Would any of these threads weave into a pattern?

  It occurred to her to question whether Lionel was dead. What if he’d been in the body bag, and he’d been unconscious but not dead? Had anybody checked?

  She pulled out her phone and quickly sent Troy a text asking him.

  Not sure anybody specifically checked if Lionel was dead. We knew he wasn’t cold like the others, but we didn’t check his pulse. Why?

  She added, Wondering if he could still be alive.

  Interesting thought. He left it at that.

  But she continued her notes on her random thoughts. Troy and Axel had been the ones who had picked up Lionel and had put him into the freezer because they wanted to take his body back in the helicopter. Would he have woken up in there? Or had Chucky seen him, realized he wasn’t dead, woke him up, and maybe an altercation ensued, and somehow Lionel had locked Chucky in? But why wouldn’t Chucky have said anything? No, that wasn’t making any sense either. She sat here, trying to work her way through all this, when another text came in from Troy.

  I’m headed your way.

  Fine, but you better identify yourself, or I’m not opening that damn door.

  She got a happy face emoji in return. She smiled and grabbed a sweatshirt and put it on atop her pajama top. At least now she was wearing bottoms and a sweatshirt.

  When a rap came on her door, and she could hear Troy’s voice calling out, she opened it up and let him in. She stepped out in the hallway, looked in both directions. “Where’s Axel?”

  She came in and shut the door behind her to find Troy standing in the middle of the room, trying to keep a smile off his face at her outfit. She shrugged. “I didn’t exactly feel like sleeping, and I was too cold to sit up and do nothing.”

  He nodded. “Axel’s downstairs meeting with Mason.”

  “Right. Has anybody found anything?”

  “No, not yet,” he said. “So far, even after a top-to-bottom search, we haven’t found any extra personnel on board.”

  “And that’s just stupid,” she said. “It has to be somebody else.”

  “And why is that?”

  “Because th
ere’s no other way. Everybody was having dinner at the same time, but somebody was hacking into my system.”

  He nodded. “That’s one of the questions I wanted to ask you,” he said. “Could somebody do it remotely?”

  She froze and looked up at him. “Oh, my God,” she said, collapsing on her bunk. “I didn’t consider that.”

  He sat on the opposite bunk, his hands held loosely together in front of him as he studied her. “A lot of guys had phones at the table.”

  She nodded slowly. “It’s a real problem sometimes,” she said. “Hell, I think phones have destroyed the family dinner system.”

  He cracked a smile at that. “So, is it possible?”

  She frowned, thinking about it, and then slowly nodded. “I could do it.”

  “Right,” he said, “but what good would that have done?”

  “I don’t know,” she said. “They didn’t get into where they were trying to go.”

  “But that’s because you had extra safeguards in there, correct?”

  She nodded slowly. “Yes.”

  “How would anybody know your log in?”

  “I don’t know,” she said, with a shrug. “It’s possible somebody was somehow recording my keystrokes.”

  “If that was the case, wouldn’t they have recorded any keystrokes as you worked to get through the rest of the blockages you had?”

  “In theory, no,” she said, “because I type it manually, so, unless somebody wants to go through a ton of data to find those particular keystrokes and to see that they were different from the code I was working on, it’s not like they would have noticed.”

  “Right,” he said. “Because, if nobody else is on board, we have to consider the fact that everybody was there in the mess hall at the time of the hack in question.”

  “And, of course, you’ll vouch for all your guys, correct?”

  He gave her a gentle smile. “Absolutely.”

  “Anyone seen any sign of Daniel yet?” She sighed. “And the pilot? Which side is he on?”

  “Well, there’s a big question mark over the pilot. That’s for sure,” he said, “but he’s also been injured.”