CHAPTER 2

The inlet was just over the dunes from the helipad. There was a well worn path thru the hills of sand and weed but, Tony was coming from Chuck’s bunker and had to take the route that was far less sure. His feet kept sinking and causing little avalanche’s and, as a result, his sneakers filled up with sand. It was one of the reasons that Tony usually preferred the whole barefoot on the beach approach. Today he was not surfing though. He was supposed to be working but, right now, that was just not going to happen.

It was no real mystery where their mechanic was. Tony knew that Calvin was at the docks and doing something to one of their boats. It was an easy and logical step to deduce that he had drafted Chuck for this endeavor. Tony was kind of huffy about it because Chuck was the aircraft mechanic. They didn’t even have a boat mechanic! Cal was supposed to do that crap and, besides, Chuck wasn’t even all that good at the job he was supposed to be doing. He had to be constantly supervised by Barbara or Tony!

When Tony reached the boat, at first, he only used it to steady himself so that he could dump the sand out of his shoes. Then he climbed up on the main deck and, sure enough, he heard Cal down in the engine spaces, talking to someone. Tony walked over to the open compartment and was almost hit by a thick, industrial sized, elbow joint that was made of synthetic carbon. It came flying up from out of the engine space at a pretty dangerous speed and Tony quickly ducked. It landed on the deck in a pile of similar boat parts.

Tony was quite huffy when he yelled down, “damn it Cal! You almost hit me with that thing.”

Cal’s head popped up out of the compartment, “oh, sorry. Didn’t know you were up here Tony. What’s up?”

“What’s up?” Tony groaned, “me and Chuck are supposed to be tearing down the engine on my bird. I don’t know what kind of damage that little accident caused.”

That did not seem to impress Calvin any, “yeah, well, so?”

Tony could not believe this guy, “well send him up Calvin.”

Another head popped up next to Calvin’s. The wild thinning hair, worn skin, and wrinkled face did not belong to their mechanic. Tony took a second to be confused before he said, “Harvey? What are you doing here? I haven’t seen you in a while.”

Calvin was the one that replied, “I called him. He used to pilot this boat so I figured there wasn’t anybody better to help me fix it.”

Harvey found that amusing and when he spoke to Tony he made it clear that the statement was really for Cal, “and like I told him. There’s no way we’re going to get this fixed without pulling her out of the water.”

Calvin was the one who replied, “and I told you Harvey. We can’t afford to the call the Sampson Brothers over here. It looks like we’re just going to have to be one boat down for a while.”

Harvey shook his head and rolled his eyes, “Calvin, you know what you have to do.”

That suggestion seemed to terrify Calvin, “that is not an option, Harvey. No way in hell.”

Harvey tossed out, “then why don’t you let Barbara do it? Better yet, I could call Idhitri and…”

“Guys!” Tony snipped, “where the hell is Chuck?”

Cal and Harvey simply shrugged to each other and then they both looked up at Tony. Cal then answered, “how should we know? I haven’t seen him all day.”

Tony huffed his way off the boat, down the dock, and decided he would take the beach back to the station. This situation was just not acceptable. Sure, Killian’s mechanic gave the chopper a thumbs up back at Valley Point. Sure, it flew all the way back without so much as a glitch. Despite that, it was still not good enough for Tony. He was not taking that bird up again until they did a real hundred hour maintenance on that engine. He didn’t care what anybody said.

Tony’s mind changed gears and he stopped in his tracks when he thought he heard something above the sound of the crashing waves. He looked around and after a few moments he was absolutely sure that was the sound feminine giggling coming from behind a nearby dune. Tony walked up to the top of it and found Shannon sitting in the sand, laughing at her phone.

“Shannon?”

The teenager screamed, turned off her phone, and rolled halfway to the next dune. When she snapped to her feet she and began dusting off the sand, her face was red and she angrily blasted, “what the hell, Tony! You scared the shit out of me!”

Tony was still a bit confused, “what are you doing way out here?”

Fire flew from Shannon’s eyes, “NOTHING!”

Tony waived the matter off and left without another word. When he reached the station he practically slammed the screen door on the way in. He stopped and looked around the commissary. He also listened and found the station surprisingly quiet. Even Rusty the dog was sleeping on his little pillow in the back corner. Sadly, Rusty had not been the same since he was shot. He even hesitated to come when you called him so Tony did not bother. Instead, Tony walked over to the pillow. Rusty just gave a short whimper and licked the hand that was rubbing his short hair. Then, Tony asked the dog, “where is everybody, boy?”

A voice did answer but it was coming from the stairs that led up to operations. The springy, energetic, footfalls were enough to tell Tony who it was but, when she spoke, it was confirmed, “if he answers, big boy, please tell me so I’ll know the right Doctor to call.”

“Ha and ha,” Tony said as he stood up and faced Leslie who was pouring herself another cup of coffee. Since she was new, she had been stuck on comwatch almost exclusively. The girl put away more than her fair share of coffee while doing it too. Tony put his hands on his hips and with no small amount of agitation he asked, “where the hell is everybody?”

Was it the coffee that kept this girl so perky all the time? Tony wasn’t really sure. Of course, he was positive that her abuse of caffeine had very little to do with the fact that everything she said sounded like a smart ass remark, “let me see. Ever since Jake and Norm’s little practical joke, I think they all quit.”

“I’m serious Leslie,” Tony told her.

“Me too, big guy,” she replied. “They sure as hell aren’t hanging out in here anymore.” When he got even more agitated she told him, “oh come on Tony. You haven’t noticed how scarce everybody has been lately?”

“They’re busy,” Tony told her bluntly.

“Oh yeah right,” Leslie quickly shot back. “Like they weren’t before? Come on Tony, I haven’t even been here that long and I can see it. When we were doing our little surfing thing, every time we came in here it was pretty obvious this was a hang out. So, where’s everybody now?”

Tony just fidgeted with his hands on his hips. She was right and he didn’t like it, so, he changed the subject, “right now, I’m only interested in where one person is.”

Without skipping a beat, Leslie quickly replied, “Amy called in sick.”

“That’s not who,” Tony stated in a very firm tone.

“Good,” Leslie replied with a smile as she walked back to the stairs, “cause that’s not who you really need to be looking for. Barbara wants to see you. She’s back in her room, hiding I think.”

Every time someone told Tony that, he always got this ‘oh shit’ feeling in his gut. He gritted his teeth, summoned his courage, wondered what the hell he did this time, and then just stood there fidgeting like a coward. He did it for a good five minutes until he heard Leslie call down the stairs, “she’s waiting.”

Tony walked down the barracks hallway and wondered the same thing he always did. Was this what a guy felt like when he was walking to a firing squad? Tony had to figure it was and he only got more nervous when he knocked on Barbara’s door. Barbara told him to come in and, it seemed, very ominous to Tony that she was pleasant and polite. She offered him a seat in the little wooden chair she kept next to her desk. It was the one that she kept for visitors like him and moments like this. Tony sometimes called it the electric chair.

Barbara sat down next to him in her roller desk chair then picked up her coffee mug. After taking a sip she asked in a pleasant tone, “how it’s going with the chopper?”

Tony just huffed and said, “it’s not. I can’t find Chuck. I need the cherry picker and he’s got the keys to the chain.”

That seemed to confuse Barbara, “he’s not up there?”

Tony shrugged, “I looked everywhere. If I’m going to pull the whole assembly mount I can’t do that without him and…”

Barbara reached out and touched Tony on the hand, “don’t worry about that right now. I’ll find him. I’m sure he’s around somewhere. Look, I need to go over a few things with you.”

That touch was the one she did when she was trying to calm you down and not burn you. Her voice sounded calm and rational. It only served to make Tony even more paranoid so he asked, “what did I do this time?”

“Nothing,” Barbara said in a calm voice, “at least not as far as I’m concerned. We may have a few problems with the Palace though.” A problem that Barbara did not want to yell at you about was a serious problem. Tony gulped. Barbara told him, “it would see that the Governor heard about our little incident up at Valley. I guess she wants to make an issue out of it. This morning I got an email from the Colonial Aviation Board. It looks like you and I are going to be sitting in a hearing for a few days.”

Yes, when you walked that hall it was definitely the same as a condemned man on the way to the gallows. Tony suddenly became frantic, “Barbara, there was nothing I could have done about that…”

Again with the damn hand! This time she put it on his shoulder and told him, “I know. I’ve also been going over the records and I don’t really think we have anything to worry about. This is just Crass blowing smoke and I can handle it. I’m not going to let them pull your ticket.”

“So…” Tony was at a loss for words.

Barbara was not. She opened a window of documents on her computer. Tony recognized them as his report on the incident. Then she told him, “that’s also not what I wanted to talk to you about.” She pointed at the screen, “like I said. I was going over all our statements.” Now she did seem to be at a loss for words, “there’s some holes here Tony. Some things that aren’t adding up.”

Tony went in to super defensive mode as he began rattling off everything that he had done to prevent the accident. He was even very adamant when he pointed at the screen, “I even recorded the stick levels, you can see them right there. The tank was not much higher than it was supposed to be.”

“No Tony,” Barbara shook it off, “you don’t understand. I’m not talking about anything that you did.”

He blinked, “you’re not? How come?” He stumbled around and said, “I mean, oh, of course not.”

Barbara crossed her legs and put her hands on her knees. She then seriously asked, “where did Danni get the gun from? The one that she shot Portman with.” When Tony winced in confusion at the name, Barbara explained, “that’s the name of the man that tried to kill us.”

“Oh,” Tony wondered how he missed that one. Then he realized that at the time, he just didn’t care. He wanted to beat the crap out of the guy and dump him in the wilderness from five thousand feet. Barbara would not let him of course. That kind of made Tony wonder about it all since, he was really the only person, in their crew, that Portman didn’t try and shoot.

It was also irrelevant. Tony just answered the question, “that’s easy. It was the gun I keep under the seat. Remember? I even went for it and thought Chuck had dumped it with all the other extra weight.”

Barbara nodded, “yes it was Tony. Now here’s the real question. The first time that Danni mentions the gun in her report is the sentence where she says she shot him.”

“So?”

Barbara opened her hands wide and asked, “so when did she get it? Why did she take it?”

Tony tried to be rational, “maybe we should just be thankful that she did.”

“Oh I am,” Barbara snapped right back, “it was my head he was aiming at and my life she saved. That still doesn’t answer all these questions Tony. The more I compare all the statements the more things are not adding up here. If we don’t want any trouble with this review board then we had best make sure they do.”