Chapter 15

Out of the corner of his eye, John noted Gunny turning on her body cam. She then positioned herself to catch John and Petra in frame. He soon found out why.

Petra lost her cool and started berating John in front of everyone. “You work for me, not him. If you and your company expect any further work from Rodriguez Energy, you will not go through with that trip.”

John looked at her and said “You don’t dictate who or where PWI works for or at. You need to get that clear in your head.”

He turned to walk away but Petra grabbed his arm and said “I wasn’t done talking to you.”

Pixy reached over and grabbed Petra’s wrist and said “Yes, you are done, and we are done as of this moment! No one lays their hand on one of our employees. You got that Bitch?”

John spoke up and said “Let’s get loaded, we are done here.”

Mary, Tess, and Mei grabbed bags out of the truck transferring them into the semi cab, while John opened the rear door to store the Ford. Gunny hopped in and drove it into the back, then put the straps on the wheels.

John said “Gunny, give that cam to Tess so she can download it. I’ll be needing that video very soon.”

They exited the back and secured the door. John said “Petra will be off cussing us to her father by now.”

John’s phone rang, it was Raul’s number. When he answered, Raul said “I wanted to get your side of the conflict if you don’t mind”

John replied, “I’ll do you one better, give me a few minutes and I’ll forward a video of it to you and let you be the judge. I’ll call you back after it’s been uploaded to your email.”

Hearing this, Gunny hurried forward giving the camera to Tess. It didn’t take her long to get it uploaded to John’s email. Using his phone, he forwarded it to Raul along with the final report from this contract with all relevant files on their activities.

A few minutes later Raul called John. John answered “Señor Rodriguez, I was just about to call you.”

Raul responded, “I’ve had the chance to review the video, but I’d like to know who shot it and why?”

John replied “It wasn’t my idea, but if I can put you on speaker, everyone involved is here with me.”

Raul sighed “No, never mind. It doesn’t matter why; the fact is Petra was out of line. You’re not the only one that has had a problem with her. I don’t know what the problem is, she wasn’t raised that way.”

“Lack of real-world experience.”

Raul asked “How do you mean that?”

“The social rules of academia are different. People in the wild simply don’t react nor behave the same outside that protected circle. It has to be very difficult for her to synchronize those two realities.”

“With all due respect Señor Rodriguez, we’ve bent over backwards to help you and her. We don’t deserve to be treated like that. She totally dismissed Alex as anyone important even though she is the CEO of PWI. It’s bad form to summarily dismiss even the lowest level employee, much less the CEO. It will be up to her how we go forward.”

Raul responded “Does this mean you’re canceling the rig contract?”

“Like I said, it’s up to the CEO. She’s on speaker with us, so let’s ask.”

Alex spoke up “We only go forward if Petra has zero involvement in it.”

Raul replied “We are in agreement then. I’ve recalled her to Vegas for the time being after this.”

Raul then asked “John, you know Henrik, do you think he was serious about his response?”

John responded “Let me fill you in on some background for Henrik. I first met him down in the Lago refinery on Aruba. He was a representative of the Netherlands government overseeing the Lago refinery refit.

He was born and raised on the Island when it was still a Dutch territory. His father was part of the transition from a territorial government to the nation of Aruba. Unfortunately, his father died in a car wreck before he could see the transition. His Mother was a native of Netherlands, so when his father passed, he was brought back to the Netherlands. We’ve kept in touch since then. If you know anything about the area, you know it wasn’t unusual for young teens to be found working in Lago back then. Henrik was one of them.”

John switched gears then said “If I’d not directly answered him without referring to Petra, he would have assumed I and PWI were stooges of Rodriguez Energy and any independence was subject to scrutiny. Petra doesn’t realize how close she came to eighty sixing the contract when she pulled that stunt of cornering me in front of Henrik. The culture on that island and site was at play. Instead of playing power games like it was a debate team in college, she’d been much better served to talk to me first. You can rest assured he’s going to pull a few of us over there on some pretext or another, just to see if we go. Rodriguez Energy can forget any further work from them if we don’t go after the scene Petra pulled.”

Raul replied “Shit, I wished we had known that first.”

John said “You would have if it had been handled properly.”

Raul switched gears and said “Alex, will PWI still be taking this contract?”

She looked at John who nodded and said “Assuming the weather cooperates, yes.”

Raul replied “Good, ABS is already on the rig recording the lift. I will instruct them that you are our representative and to share their findings with you.”

John asked “What time is the flight?”

Raul replied “Seven A.M.” The line went dead at that.

Gunny looked over at John and said “Like I said brass ovaries. She’d have made a good Marine.” John smiled at that, there was no higher compliment coming from Gunny.