“The house is a virgin?”
“Not for long. I want to de-virginize each room.” She pulled the tie on her bra, freeing her breasts. “Which room first?”
“This door seems good.” Noah pushed her thong aside and proceeded to devirginize the door with Erin’s enthusiastic screams.
Chapter 39
The following Tuesday afternoon, Cordova showed up unannounced in Noah’s office.
“We need to talk, sir.” He set a file on Noah’s desk.
“Couldn’t you have called me from 15?” Noah said.
“I felt this warranted an in-person discussion. The situation at Firehouse 15 is untenable. There are not enough people to make it work. I have some temporary solutions.”
“Firehouse 15 is one of our busiest firehouses.”
“Yes, I know, and that’s part of the problem. As of this morning the A-shift is down two lieutenants, their captain, and the rookie.”
“I believe Carver was discharged this weekend.”
“That is true.” Cordova sounded surprised that Noah had that information, especially since he hadn’t contacted Noah about it. Let him wonder how Noah found out. “But he called out this morning.”
“I see. And you can’t figure out how to fix the manpower issue?” Noah asked.
“Sir, I understand what you are trying to do, but I recommend we shut down Firehouse 15 temporarily and possibly permanently.” Cordova spread his papers out. “There are only four members of A-shift. Why try to find subs when we can use the whole firehouse to fill in our holes? Put them in pairs starting now with the other firehouses.”
“Now?”
“Instead of waiting for the two weeks of the holiday, we begin twelve-hours shifts tomorrow. Jones and Knight can go to Firehouse 19. They need some new blood with leadership skills. Hudgens and Jefferson go to 13. The pairs’ll stay in Battalion 2 and 3. We send the rest of the other shifts to the other battalions; we won’t have to worry about any of the women issues.”
Noah did not appreciate the term ‘women issues.’ Still, the numbers didn’t lie. “What happens after the holidays?”
“We leave A-shift at their new homes. If you reopen 15, I recommend a reduction in size. By not assigning a new ladder to them, they naturally become an engine and medic firehouse. They’d drop to six guys per shift. There are twenty solid guys on B and C who can stay on. We bring in a new captain from outside the battalion. I have a couple lieutenants who could benefit from captaining a small firehouse before moving up. Jim Formlin over at 43 is very promising, for example.”
“What about the officers?”
“Do you believe McClunis or Williams are coming back? They’re probably in rehab beds next to each other filling out their retirement paperwork,” Cordova said. “As for the lieutenants… Luna Rodriguez applied for transfer this morning.”
That was news to Noah. Erin must not have known because she didn’t say anything. Then again, they didn’t talk about work much. They focused on devirginizing his bedroom, shower, sink, hot tub, couch. Heck, she’d even dusted and cleaned the clutter up so they could hit the counters and all the walls.
“You didn’t mention Carver. We made a deal with MetroGen. He’s allowed to take a day off after a weekend in the ICU.”
“It’s not a sick day. I granted him an indeterminate amount of leave because his wife, Dr. Manika Gupta-Carver was admitted in a catatonic state to the psych ward last night. Our deal for Rescue Alpha is through her, contingent on him.” Cordova played his trump card.
“Fuck,” Noah swore. While he hoped Chief Gupta-Carver got better, he needed her. Dr. Steadman had shown how tenuous his support could be over Veteran’s Day.
“No kidding. We could lose Rescue Alpha if the ER drops out,” Cordova said. “I already made an exception for her husband. I doubt the next ER chief will honor Chief Gupta-Carver’s deal. We should drop the Fire 15 project and focus on salvaging the Rescue Alpha situation now that we can’t use Jacob Carver. He was struggling as it was.”
“You want me to destroy my flagship firehouse after I sold it to the city and the hospital as the future,” Noah stated.
“You sold the color-blind, gender-blind future, not Firehouse 15. In my plan, you keep the women in Rescue Alpha. Then you put Hudgens at 13, and she works with the Korean girl, Kwon. Jefferson is gay. You’ll hit the high points: Korean lesbo, Black girl, and gay guy. Even 19 will get a boost with their first female member and a new Black guy. Heck, if Knight is a good fit, she can be takeover captain at 19 in a few years.”
Cordova must have been taking lessons from Fitzpatrick.
Other than the comments about the minorities, everything Cordova said was true. They hoped the double-sized recruiting class would add new firefighters, forty instead of the usual twenty. Applications were still being processed, but more firefighters in June didn’t help in December.
“I authorize the temporary closure of Firehouse 15 for remodeling assessment and will table the final decision till January. You focus on doing everything possible to shore up Rescue Alpha. It’s too soon to tell with the Carver situation. If he comes back, put him on a Battalion 9 Medic.”
