He dozed again.
Chapter 39
Saturday, September 8th
Hurricane Greta T+10 days
“Good morning.” Kip held the door to his office as his senior staff came in, each one shaking his hand as they entered. It was his first day back to work. The group settled around the boardroom table.
“Well. Where should I start? I owe each one of you a debt of gratitude. I abused my power by making that ill-advised trip into the storm. Troy and I had a long talk while I was in San Diego. He stepped up because he couldn’t send anyone else into that danger. When he recovered and became an executive director, he said the hardest part of leadership was making sure your people had the tools to do the job. His job was to have their back. I forgot that lesson. For that I’m sorry.”
The group around him remained silent. “Um, Boss, does it mean we get a bonus?” Tobey O’Mara asked.
“Smartass. Okay, let’s start. Hunt, we are ten days out from the storm and seven days to go to the ribbon cutting. What is our status of our health system?”
“The physical plant of the hospital is functional; the power company returned reliable electricity eight days post storm. The basement and the first floor are clean, mold-free and operational. The ER is functioning in its original location at a constant one hundred percent over capacity. The facility is sixty percent over capacity. We are utilizing any available space. We will freeze ambulatory surgery until the hospital returns to no more than twenty percent over capacity. University is working under similar circumstances.
“The building status is normal. The women’s health center will begin running on Monday. Supplies were low but were replenished before dangerous levels. We are experiencing staffing shortages due to family issues and exhaustion.”
“Thanks, Hunt. Sam, get with Elin and design a spreadsheet to give every staff member an additional day off per two weeks. Hunt, get your supervisors to perform a mental health check-in with every staff member. And Sam, Casey, Logan, and Kevin, check in with the supervisors,” Kip said.
“Tobey, ops?” Kip asked.
Tobey went through his report, then Kip continued with the rest of the staff. He turned to Mia. “Where are we on why our transponders died, and also, do you have anything on the drug trial?”
Mia pursed her lips. “On the transponders. There are five types of issues: identifier and/or location failure, secondary surveillance, a complete misread, partial loss, and finally, in our case, total signal loss. Rich packaged every transponder used on your crew.” She looked down. “All the transponders died over time, but not together. Yours disappeared from our screens at or around the time you stated you encountered the two women in the floating car. Examination after your rescue showed your transponder did not die; it was turned off.”
Mia’s words set off an emotional bomb around the table. “Mia, you are telling us someone deliberately turned off the transponder?” Tobey said.
“The transponder we use has a triple failsafe to avoid this situation. Kip, did you turn off your transponder?” she asked.
The group growled. Kip recognized another reason he was pleased she was one of his assistant executive directors. She assumed nothing. “No.”
“That leaves the two college students. We took copies of any paperwork incoming survivors had or, if they had nothing, photographs. The names we were given belong to two New Orleans residents who died in the late 1800s. That means, Kip, you were targeted,” Tobey said.
“I don’t get it. How would they know I was, we were even out there?” he asked.
Chad blew out a breath. “We were using our sat phone. We weren’t saying anything that required security protocols.”
“Our transponders pop up like airplanes do on an air traffic controller’s screen, and during that storm… It was us and Coast Guard aircraft.” Mia looked down. “The transponder in your watch lit up like a ping pong ball. The Coast Guard managed to lock on to your true location. Our radar, GPS all functioned in a foggy haze.”
“They were counting on me being out there?” Kip’s brows crunched, and he shook his head.
Tag frowned. “It’s only a theory. I think they made it irresistible for us to want to help. Triplets. They knew you were a rescue swimmer.” Tag opened his palms.
“I need to adjust my company bio.” Kip chewed his lower lip.
“I think they put those women in your path after you separated from the boat. I think they planned on taking all the rescuers out,” Tag continued with his theory.
“It was horrendous wind and torrential rain; how could they know the timing was right?” Kip paused and closed his eyes.
“Kip?” Hunt, sitting next to him, shook his shoulder.
Kip’s hands came up. “I was tightening the life jacket on one woman. She was saying all the right words—rather, screaming the right words. We were flying in a current. I saw we were heading toward an obstruction.” Reliving the moment, his breathing grew fast and ragged. “We scraped it sideways. But I went flying backwards. My head collided with something.” He shook his head. “I…was…pushed.”
He dropped his head to his chest.They almost won.
“Prove the theory. Find those women. Find out why,” Kip said through gritted teeth.
