Page 7 of Heat Force
“Engineering, actually,” he said. “Mining is only part of what we do.”
“Is that why you’re here?” she asked quietly. “You’re scouting the place for development?” Her question was punctuated by another clap of thunder, like an omen from the gods.
“Of course not,” he huffed.
“Really?” She arched an eyebrow.
“Look, Usala desperately needs funding. Your equipment is outdated, you need to hire more staff, and your facilities need upgrading. Robert has grand plans to get the community involved in the sustainability of the park, which I happen to think is a brilliant idea. I’d like to help him with that.”
Those witchy green eyes narrowed. “What’s in it for you?”
He hesitated. “My company needs to raise its corporate image. We’ve had some bad press lately, after… Well, after an unfortunate incident for which we took full responsibility. This documentary will help raise our profile and show people that we care about the environment—and the world around us.”
“You mean it will satisfy your shareholders?” she put in.
He gave a wry grin. “That too. The bottom line is we can help each other. It’s a win-win.”
“A win-win. Right.”
They hiked on. The rain felt like it was lessening, and the rolling thunderclaps were getting further away. After a while, she turned back to him. “So, what happened?”
“Huh?” He frowned, unsure what she meant.
“What was the unfortunate incident?”
“Oh, that.” He ground his jaw. What the hell… It had been in all the newspapers anyway. “The short version is, we were removing the drilling structure from a salt mine when it sprung a leak. The lake flooded the mine, killing five miners who were trapped inside.” He closed his eyes briefly, trying to stem the flood of guilt that always hit him when he thought about it.
“That’s awful,” she whispered.
“I know.” He didn’t need her to tell him that. He lived with it every damn day. “Thankfully, due to effective evacuation procedures, the rest of the men escaped. But five dead are five too many. We compensated the families for their loss, of course, but how do you make amends for something like that?”
She met his gaze. “You can’t.”
“No.” He looked away. “You can’t.”
The path widened, and Edmond stopped swaying his machete.
“Are we there?” Hawk called, breaking the silence.
Edmond didn’t turn around. “Soon.”
Soon turned into another half an hour. Edmond was seemingly guiding them by instinct alone. He had no GPS, nor even a compass.
“How does he know where the injured gorilla is located?” Hawk came up beside Lexi again. Staring at her cute, denim-clad ass was doing strange things to him. Making him think things that he shouldn’t. Thoughts that would just get him all hot and bothered.
“Robert gave us coordinates,” she replied. “A couple of rangers spotted the troop near the estuary.”
“Troop?”
She gave an amused nod. “Yes, but they’re mostly docile.”
“Except for the alpha male,” he remarked.
She eyed him, surprised. “Sometimes he can be volatile, which is why we have the dart gun.”
“I thought that was to subdue the injured gorilla?”
“It is, but it works well against a charging silverback, too.”