Hatcher opened his mouth to argue but couldn’t. “Jury rig it until we can actually fix it?”
Hank nodded. “Just a stop-gap. Make it look right until we can make it right for good.”
Hatcher groaned and threw his hands into the air. “What other choice do we have?”
“We could pull men off of the work details and have them stand guard?” Roger offered. “If you really think that somebody will see this portion of the wall and somehow know that it’s not real, then we’ll do that.” He stepped closer and lowered his voice. “But you were with us when we walked these grounds. We didn’t notice it and we were looking for faults.”
Hatcher nodded slowly. “How soon before they’re done with the scaffolding?”
Hank shook his head. “That’s a different work detail. You’d have to ask Cooper.”
“What are you thinking Hatcher?” Roger asked as he fell into step behind him.
“I’m thinking that if they’re going to reuse the scaffolding for a guard run, the first ones need to go on this section of wall.”
Carol crawled over or around all the crates of equipment sitting topside in the early morning sun until she reached the rear of the ship. She saw the crowd of people, some in uniforms, others in civilian clothes and her eyes searched for the older Frenchman.
She nearly jumped when a hand rested on her shoulder and she turned to see Broussard behind her. “Apologies. I saw you coming this way and tried to get your attention.”
“I was actually looking for you.” She sighed heavily and gave him a relieved smile. “I was afraid you hadn’t made it out.”
“I argued against this plan, but they said it was the only way to prevent the military from killing everyone on board. C’est la guerre.”
Carol rubbed at her arms and glanced out over the water. “Where is the fleet?”
“Miles away.” Broussard’s voice lowered to a hushed whisper. “They wanted as much room as possible between us and them.”
She nodded absently. “That makes sense.”
Broussard turned and pointed the way she had come. “They are preparing small craft over there. They called them RHIBs, but they are simply rubber dinghies.” He shook his head slowly. “I think I shall wait until they return before I volunteer to get on one.”
“What are their plans?”
He took a deep breath and sighed. “They plan to load as many people as they can into the craft and take them to the nearest ship. There, they will be inspected by some type of medical professional and then released. I have no idea if they have facilities that we can use.” He shrugged. “Not that it really matters now. With nobody infected with the virus, we have no real world test subjects.”
“Were you aware of Dr. McAllister’s experiments?”
Broussard shook his head slowly. “I do not know him.”
She nodded excitedly. “You need to hear his theory.”
“Perhaps I will.” He pointed at the sound of the first boat leaving. “This will take some time; I fear. The craft are far too small and there are too many people aboard.” He motioned around them. “Not to mention the equipment they hope to save.”
“Why not bring the other ship closer?”
He shook his head. “Perhaps they hope that if anybody is carrying the virus, they will become symptomatic along the trip; easier to get rid of them, non?”
She sighed heavily and sat down on the metal crate behind her. “Too bad we couldn’t save our material. We might have stood a chance against this thing.”
Broussard nudged her and smiled. She looked up and he slipped his hand out of his lab coat pocket. She spied what appeared to be vials of blood.
“Is that…” she trailed off.
Broussard smiled. “I have Dr. Carpenter’s and Dr. LaRue’s.” He bent low and whispered, “If they have any kind of laboratory equipment, we might still have that chance.”
Sinner pushed himself upright and grunted. “I need another pain pill. My shoulder is killing me.”
Stinky walked into the room and handed him a bottle of water and another pill. “We’re going to have to ration them out. There’s a limited supply.”
Sinner shook his head, his face sweating. “Simon has more. I seen ‘em.”
Stinky stiffened and glanced over his shoulder. “Did you see where?”
“Just tell him we need them.” Sinner tossed the pill back and bit it before swallowing the water.
Stinky sighed and sat on the bed next to him. “I don’t think we can count on our illustrious leader for anything besides tying on a solid drunk.”
Sinner raised a brow at him. “What are you saying?”
Stinky licked his lips and glanced around nervously. “Do you remember anything from last night? The trip back?”
Sinner shook his head. “Not really.”
“Simon wouldn’t even press a towel to your wound. He wanted nothing to do with trying to save your life; wouldn’t even let us use his bottle to sterilize your wound or our equipment. We did what we could.” He leaned closer and lowered his voice even more. “This morning he tried to shoot me in the chest for questioning his motives. Pulled the fucking trigger.”
Sinner’s brow raised. “You being straight with me?”
Stinky glanced back again then nodded. “If you don’t believe me, ask Shooter. He was there.”
Sinner lay back and eyed the smaller man cautiously. “So what are you saying?”
“I’m saying that if Simon has pain pills, you might should tell me where he has them stashed. I don’t think he’s in a sharing mood; not when it comes to drugs.”
Sinner glanced at the doorway then back to Stinky. “The crates he unloaded from his truck? There’s one with a black leather box.” He shook his head. “He’s got a pile of dirty pictures of the people who
