“Well,” grinned Remy, “you look the part of a roughneck. Most drillers are big guys, strong. They have to be. But why don’t I give you a bit of a lesson?”
“I’d appreciate it,” said Bodhi. “I don’t like going in blind.”
“The easiest way to put it is that offshore drilling is simply drilling into the ocean in hopes of hitting pockets of oil and gas that are beneath. About fifteen percent of crude oil in our country comes from offshore drilling. There are a lot of stages to the process, and because we’re always worried about the environment, usually it takes years to build a rig. I suspect our friend won’t wait years.”
“What actually happens when the drilling starts?” asked Cade.
“Well, first, you gotta find it,” smiled Remy. “We’ve done seismic testing, which is pretty successful. You basically blast air guns behind ships into the ocean. The air guns cause these loud booms to go off about ten seconds or so. It’s kinda like a bat finding its prey. Once you locate what you want, you decide on what rig or platform is right for the area.
“If you’re in a place like Alaska or the North Sea, you gotta have something that’ll last through the storms, and that ain’t easy. Used to be, we’d drill a mile or so. Now, we can go as deep as two miles down.”
“That’s amazing,” said Bodhi, shaking his head. “You enjoy that?”
“Some,” nodded Remy. “It was a job after the Army, and I was grateful for it. Uncle Matthew was good to me and Robbie, and we made plenty of money. I enjoy what we’re doin’ here more, but I’m always glad to help out.”
“Much respect, Remy,” said Magnus. “I don’t know that I could do that job full-time.”
“You could if you were hungry enough,” said Remy. “We got a lot of boys from south Louisiana, Alaska, and Texas that didn’t have college degrees but were hard workers, smart men. They needed the money to support their families, and this was good money. Dependin’ on how long they’re gone on the rigs, they can make a killing.”
“I think I’ll stick to guns and knives,” smirked Cade. Remy laughed at the big man, slapping his back.
“Brother, you don’t need guns and knives. If I see you comin’ at me in the dark, I’m goin’ the other way. Which reminds me, make sure your work boots are dirty, scuffed. Roughnecks don’t dress in high-dollar clothes usually.”
“I wish we could just kill this guy and be done with it,” said Bodhi.
“It would be ideal,” nodded Remy, “but we want this to stick, and we want everyone to know what this man has been doin’. Besides, we keep killin’ all the bad guys, the gators are gonna be too fat to want dinner.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
“So, these coral trees will help the reef to revitalize?” asked Pikut.
“That’s right,” smiled Patrick. “We’ve been in touch with a number of agencies who are working to restore reefs in Australia and the Galapagos Islands, and what’s working for them is planting these coral trees. It’s going to take some time, but it will happen. All of the coral trees were sent to us by our friend, Lindsay, and they were, uh, blessed by an old woman we all know. Now, we can’t do a damn thing about climate change or warming waters, but at least we can start with this.”
“We’ve safely removed the pouch that contained the blue asbestos,” said Christopher. “And now your people know that it wasn’t because of the idol disappearing.”
“Yes, but we still don’t have it back. We have our beloved stone, but not the idol,” said Pikut, frowning.
“About that,” smiled Ham. “Come with us.”
Taking the small boats toward Nan Madol, they pulled up at the area where the idol had once stood proud. The stone faces carved so intricately with designs of their native culture. Ham smiled at the other men in the boat. Sadie nudged Temuk, nodding toward the edge of the entrance.
“He’s back,” he whispered. “He’s back!” Pikut stared straight ahead, seeing the large totem-like idol standing in his rightful place.
“Even if they don’t believe that the Americans have helped to fix their reef,” smiled Ham, “they’ll believe that their idol has come home to protect them.”
“H-how? Where? Where did you find it?” he asked.
“When my brother and I were trying to plant the coral trees, we saw something at the bottom of the ocean floor. It wasn’t very deep, but the shape was intriguing. The storms must have blown sand over it, but once we cleared it, we knew what it was.
“We think that Myer and his men tried to get it onto a ship and must have lost it. It was too big for them to move, so they left it.”
“How did you get it up? It’s impossible!” said Temuk.
“Not impossible,” smiled Thomas. “Even a stone has buoyancy if you do the right things. We placed dozens of large inflatable bladders around it and then, using helium tanks, filled them, floating the idol to the surface. Patrick and Christopher were able to guide it close to shore, where the team was able to tie ropes around it and, using a hoist, lift it out of the water and onto the shore.
“Once we did that, it was simply a matter of putting it back in place. Although, that was the harder part of the process,” he laughed.
“This is a miracle. Truly a miracle,” said Pikut, hugging each of the men.
