Chapter 11

Once everyone was finished eating, they all went back together, with Pixy and Mei joining in. John looked at Pixy and asked, “Are you here to work or observe?”

“I’d rather work” she replied. Looking at Mei, she was nodding her head in agreement.

“For now, find Gunny and tell her you need a weld test coupon.”

Turning to Mei, “We are going to need help in the lab. I seem to recall you had some background in that?”

Mei replied “Yes, it was my primary training. Everything else branched off from there.”

Thinking about it, he flagged Henrik down. “Henrik, last time they wanted ten percent for a sample. Are you adverse to us getting started on that?”

“Not at all, in fact I was going to suggest it. Especially since there will be people in the way tomorrow” he replied.

John replied “Do you want to designate where the samples come from?”

“It would be better if I did.”

John nodded then looked at Tess and said “Grab some paint markers and something to take notes with. Follow him around and mark up where the samples are to come from, then come see me when you’re done.”

She nodded, disappeared into the trailer, then came back out the door with a work bag in her hands.

John looked at Alba and asked “What does Pat have you doing?”

“She sent me out here to ask if you needed help with something.”

John shook his head and said “Go stick with Pat for now, Mei will need help later.” After that, he entered the building with Mary to scan some more welds.

There were only two welds left to scan for completion of the UT when Tess tracked him down. John left the remaining two to Mary, then retrieved the boat saw.

As he cut the samples out, he would fill them back in while Mei was busy running the sample. By 1700, there were only ten samples left when Pixy found him. Her weld test was completed so she followed behind him filling in the sample locations. After getting two ahead, he once again started filling, but then Gunny found him. There were no more weld repairs left, so he went back to sampling with Gunny began filling as well. John pushed forward completing the sample list and carried them to the trailer.

By this time, Mary was scanning the fill areas with UT.

Getting into the trailer, he found Mei hard at work prepping samples. John said, “Go ahead and start running what you’ve got, I’ll start doing the prep work.”

She turned and hugged him, “I’ve missed you.”

John returned the hug and smiled wiping a tear from her cheek, which is where Alba found them. She cleared her throat and asked “What can I do?” John had her maintain the traceability log as he prepped and Mei burned the samples. By 1900 all the samples were complete, as was all the UT rescans.

John led everyone up to the UT room for the tree slaying party. Combined, it took another hour to get the paperwork finalized and ordered. After making copies, both dead tree and electronic, he handed the original to Petra, who passed it on to Henrik.

Henrik looked at them and said “That mobile lab idea has saved four days of back and forth with a normal operation. This should be everything we need to be back on track.”

Petra said “We will arrange a conference call in the AM with the mill to close this loop.”

Henrik looked at John “Can we could get you and your crew for further work on some other issues we have later?”

John pointed at Pixy “That’s up to PWI’s CEO, but I’m game depending on what it is.”

Pixy spoke up, “I believe it would be better to complete the current effort before considering the next one.”

Petra relaxed when she heard that. Her father had given her instructions to attempt to get John in on another problem they were having. He would not be happy if Henrik pulled John away first.

John looked around and said “There isn’t anything more to be done tonight. Therefore, I propose we shelve any more business until tomorrow. I for one am very tired.”

John looked at Petra, and went on to say “Tomorrow we will need to meet and seriously reconsider the in-house NDE techs. I’m very much concerned with the fact some or all of them let the department get to the state it was in without comment.”

The meeting broke up after that.

Gunny came up to John and asked “Would you have a problem with myself and Alba staying in the truck sleeper tonight?”

“No, that would be fine. But I think we need to order in some pizza for dinner tonight.”

Everyone agreed with the choice. Gunny and Alba pulled their bags out of the pipeline rig and loaded them into the 1070.

Pixy snagged one of the shop carts to pick up the pizza at the gate.

John looked at the guard placement and noticed there were far fewer of them tonight. He stopped one and asked why that was.

“We are all off-duty officers, unfortunately most are on-duty tonight.”

“Did something happen tonight” John asked?

“Local gang activities, apparently two of them knifed each other, so there is an expectation of attempted reprisal.”

John asked “Was this near here?”

The guard replied, “Two blocks down actually.”

Thinking about it, John said “Well if you need help, let me know.”

Pixy got back with the food and John handed the extra pizza he’d ordered to the guard.

“Thanks, we usually go out to eat, but being short handed we couldn’t leave tonight.”

John just nodded, then helped Pixy carry the rest of the pizza up to the living space.

All four of his women were present as were Gunny and Alba. John repeated what the guard had told him.

They began to eat as they rotated in and out of the shower.

John finished eating before it was his turn. By the time he got out, Gunny and Alba had left.

After he sat down, Mei crawled in his lap. She had been crying and was shaking like a leaf. Pixy gave him a look like ‘You better not fuck this one up’. John didn’t have a clue so he just hugged her tightly. Judging from the looks he got, he realized he’d inadvertently done the right thing in keeping his pie hole shut.