Chapter 17

Raul replied “You’re not suggesting Petra did this are you?”

John said “That’s exactly what I’m suggesting, unless you have another female with executive authority working for you. In fact, if your process is true to standard practices, somewhere there will be a recording of the call.”

Raul was silent for a moment. John could hear a keyboard clicking, then Raul said “Shit.”

John said “I’m guessing you just found the call log.”

Raul responded “Unfortunately yes, and it’s as you suggested.”

John was very surprised Raul would fess up like that. Something was off here.

John said “Well we’re beating a dead horse here, it’s done with no going back, so I need to get back to Alex.” Both of them signed off at that.

The rig boss then held out his hand, and John looked at him with confusion written on his face. The man said, “I want the phone back, we may need it later.”

John now knew why Raul would fess up so readily. He looked at the rig boss “You’re mistaken, this one is my personal phone.”

The guy looked at him and said “Well, you’re not leaving this room with it regardless, hand it over.”

John put it in his pocket as two of roughnecks behind the rig boss stepped forward.

John looked at them and said “You must really want to give some money away.”

He flicked on his body cam at that, then took a defensive stance. The two idiots up front rushed him and went down in two moves.

The rig boss was looking nervous about then, and ran out of the room with John hot on his heels. He ran into an office and palmed a code into a wall safe then jerked out a revolver. Turning on John, he found himself pressed up against a wall with John applying crippling pressure to his gun hand wrist. After knocking the guy out, John walked out the port door on the other side of the room, then flung the gun into the water below making sure the camera caught his action.

He walked back in the room and checked the now open safe for any more weapons. He then opened a third door finding a bunk that was personally decorated. John figured this was the rig boss’s bunk so he searched it for a safe and more weapons, not finding either.

John was aware of maritime law. Specifically, that of mutiny. He used the platform radio to call in to the coast guard. After explaining events, he was told he was in the clear as long as no one was killed. If anything, the company was in jeopardy for leaving him and others stranded. They also gave him an update. The storm was now a Category Three and this location should be hit anytime with the outer bands.

After signing off, he went back to the cabin where a nervous pair awaited him.

He gathered them up and walked down the row of bunks looking into each finding one by the outside door with no evidence of anyone having stayed there recently. They went back and gathered their things and moved to the new location. After making note of the designated lifeboat location for this bunk, he saw it was the same as the previous bunk which happened to be just outside the door. When they came back out of the cabin, they ran into Ralph in the corridor. John gave Ralph an update then told him they were headed to canteen to pick up food for the duration. This sounded good to Ralph so he joined them.

John and crew ran into the crew boss and his men when they got there. John looked the crew boss in the eye and said “I’ve already been in contact with the coast guard so they know what’s happening out here. I think you have bigger problems though. The storm is already a Cat 3.

The guy’s eyes bugged out at that and took off running with his men.

Pixy hopped the counter with Mei and started rummaging around in the freezer and cabinets. They gathered some bread and sandwich meat, bottles of water, and an assortment of snack food. John made some coffee and sat with Ralph while he phoned Mary. There was some minor panic from her as the news was predicting a Cat 5 when it made landfall somewhere on the border between Alabama and Louisiana coastline.

After reassuring her these rigs could survive a Cat 5, he told her to watch her email. He was going to upload some files to it through the Sat phone. After he hung up, he connected his body cam to the Sat phone and began to uploaded the video file to it. He left it to transmit as he knew the transfer rate was a snail’s pace compared to his normal phone.

Pixy walked up to them and handed them a sandwich each and sat to eat her own.

John looked at her and said “When this thing starts kicking off, we all need to be strapped in. As sturdy as this rig is, it’s going to kick like a brahma bull when it gets hit by the full force of the storm.” John was recalling an experience in his first year as a Marine riding out a Hurricane on an aircraft carrier.

The Sat phone dinged signalling completion of sending the file. John asked Ralph if he needed to call anyone. Ralph nodded, so John handed the phone to him. He called his wife telling her to spin up their attorney and told her what had happened. John kept his mouth shut, even though he was certain that was a bad decision on Ralph’s part.

John stood and walked out the door to the outside with his coffee. Pixy followed him snuggling under his arm staring out over the water at the approaching ugly skies. Looking at it, John said “Thirty minutes tops before it hits here.”

He felt her shiver. Looking down at her he smiled reassuringly and said “We’ll be alright. Come on, we need to be getting back to the bunk.”

When they got back inside, Ralph handed the phone back to John with a “Thanks.”

John wrapped a large Styrofoam cup with aluminum foil, then stuffed it into another cup of the same size. He then filled it with coffee. Pixy looked at him with puzzlement written on her face. John said, “It’s not a thermos, but it’s better than nothing.”

By the time they made it back to the other end of the rig, the winds were howling among the steel rigging of the platform. Ralph stopped at his bunk and said “If y’all decide to abandon ship, come get me please, I don’t trust those asshats.”

After agreeing to the request, John, Pixy, and Mei got to their new bunk room. Instead of settling in, they went outside to the open-air stairwell. Facing them was a low hanging canopy of dark teal clouds with repeated lightning flashes buried in it. Underneath the cloud canopy John could made out two water spouts twisting around each other in a deadly dance.

Mei and Pixy were busy snapping photos, when John felt the hairs on his body standing up and saw Saint Elmos fire arc dancing on the Derrick and flare stack. He then said “Inside Now!”

As soon as the door closed it sounded like a bomb went off just outside of it as a blinding flash obscured everything outside of the door glass.

Getting the pair inside the cabin, he strapped them both down in their bunks. Pixy looked at him and said “Now that you have me all strapped in what are you going to do to me” then licked her lips.

“Nothing right now, but when we get home, I’m going to strap you to the bed and everyone is going to gang bang you, how’s that sound?”

“Sounds delicious” she replied while moaning and licking her lips again.

John thought to himself ‘Danger must make her horny.’ He made a mental note to watch for that in the future.

A memory occurred to him. He dug out a permanent marker from his bag. Taking one of the bottles of water he downed half of it, then stripped the wrapper. Setting it on the desktop he made a line with the marker at level, then made a 45° line. The 45° mark was easy enough, but it was too sharp, so he took out a calculator and figured the distances need for a 30° angle then drew the line.