The Captain's Baby Bargain

Gabe knew that meant getting a hazmat team on-scene ASAP. Spilled aviation fuel was not just a fire and explosion danger, but also a potential environmental disaster. The FEMA Emergency Management course he’d attended after being elected mayor had offered some excellent tips on exactly this kind of crisis.

Tucking the sheet around his waist, he waited while Suze yanked on her desert-colored BDU pants and shirt, then plopped down on the side of the bed to pull on her socks and boots.

“I went to the FEMA Disaster Response course in Baton Rouge last month. They’re recommending a new sorbent for fuel spills that...”

“Sorry, Gabe, I don’t have time.”

She stood up, grabbed her phone and a leather trifold he knew contained her ID, her driver’s license, a credit card and some cash.

“I’ll call you when I can.”

He was still sitting in bed with the sheet bunched around his waist when the front door slammed behind her.

Chapter Three (#u8e7b309c-768b-5299-ac40-8d796f459d12)

The spill was even worse than Suzanne had feared.

As the designated training base for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, Luke AFB had awarded a multi-million-dollar contract to a civilian construction firm to modify the aviation fuel bulk storage tanks, feed lines and manifold system. The intent was to improve the new fighter’s refueling turnaround and thus increase the number of sorties that could be flown during a training cycle. Suzanne had participated in the multi-organization review and final approval of the contractor’s construction plan. She’d also assigned one of her troops to monitor the construction on a daily basis.

The project had gone smoothly to date. Or so they’d thought. When she arrived at the coordination point, the quick briefing she got from Hank Butler, the Base Fire Chief, in his role as acting on-scene commander, told another story. An experienced civilian with more than thirty years of firefighting and disaster response under his belt, Butler had shared valuable tips with Swish and her team during their training exercises. He’d also worked with her on several smaller spills.

“You’re gonna have your hands full with this one, Captain.”

According to the chief, the contractor had breached an underground fuel line. That was bad enough. What made it worse was that the breach hadn’t been detected until a ground-water monitoring well more than half a mile from the storage facility recorded significant levels of contamination. Her mind clicking a hundred miles an hour, Swish took both mental and physical notes as the chief ran through the actions taken so far.

All personnel evacuated from the fuel tank farm. Check. All feeder lines shut down. Check. All refueling and flying activity within a designated radius halted. Check. Fire and explosive potential from leaked fumes being monitored. Check.

Relieved that the most immediate danger to both people and facilities had been addressed, Swish geared up for the long, tough job ahead. Although Logistics procured and stored the fuel, the loggies shared responsibility for containing and cleaning up spills with the civil engineers. In close coordination with the EPA, of course. And the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. And the Staff Judge Advocate. And a half-dozen other agencies and concerned parties.

Right now her most pressing priorities were to first locate the breach in the underground line, then block further flow into the groundwater. Thankfully, every member of her Spill Response Team had trained for just such emergencies. Several had experience with similar incidents. One, thank God, had been part of the Luke AFB team that identified hazardous waste sites resulting from disposal methods that were approved back in the ’50s and ’60s but didn’t meet modern EPA standards.

Mike Gentry was a bioenvironmental engineer and key member of her Spill Response Team. Almost as senior as the fire chief, Mike had been talking retirement. Swish could only murmur a fervent prayer of thanks that he’d held off—although this mess might well convince him to put in his papers sooner rather than later.

“Okay, Mike, with the feeder line shut down, we can use reports from monitoring wells along the line to help pinpoint the leak, right?”

“Right. I’ve already requested immediate status reports from wells eleven and twelve, Captain.”

* * *

Using hard data from the monitoring wells and on-site samples, they pinpointed the probable point of the leak. Swish’s heart twisted when she drove out to the site and surveyed the greasy oil slick on the long, narrow lake. The scorching May heat didn’t help the situation. With the afternoon temperature nudging close to a hundred degrees, toxic fumes danced with heat waves to form shimmering, iridescent clouds above the water’s surface. Breathing heavily through her respirator, Swish knew a single spark could set the whole damned lake on fire.

Sweat poured down her temples and stung her eyes, making each breath she sucked in through the respirator a Herculean chore, but she didn’t remove the mask until the booms were in place, the skimmer operating.

* * *

It was midafternoon when Swish grabbed a few minutes to scarf down the sandwiches and chips that Food Service personnel delivered to her and the rest of the team. Close to seven in the evening, she finally took a long enough break to call Gabe. Stepping away from the dig area, she thumbed her contacts listing. His cell phone number was still there. Even after all this time apart, she hadn’t been able to bring herself to delete it. She had no idea if it was still good but tried it anyway.

“Hey, Suze,” he answered after a few rings. “Got everything under control?”

“More or less.” Puzzled, she cocked her head. “I’m hearing a funny buzz. Where are you?”

“Cruising along in Ole Blue.”

A figure waved to her. Holding up her index finger, she pantomimed “Be right with you” to the EPA rep who’d been sweating alongside her and her team all afternoon.

“Cruising where?” she asked, her gaze on the excavation in progress.

“Home.”

The succinct reply jerked Swish back to the conversation. “Home, like in Oklahoma?”

“Roger that.”

She tried not to feel hurt. But she did, dammit. She did. “Nice of you to take off without bothering to say goodbye.”

“I left a note.”

Now she wasn’t just hurt. She was pissed. “Oh. Well. That’s okay, then. A note makes you rolling out of my bed and hitting the road without a word just fine and dandy.”

“Christ, Suze!” A matching anger rolled back at her. “What the hell did you expect me to do? Sit around for two or three days, twiddling my thumbs until you remembered you left a husband in that bed?”

“Ex-husband.”

“Yeah,” he snapped, “and that’s pretty much the reason why.”

She couldn’t believe he was ripping at her for doing her job! Okay, she should’ve called sooner. But she was damned if she’d apologize or, worse, grovel. She’d done both often enough in the past.

“Drive safe,” she snapped back.

He didn’t bother to reply. She was left with a dead phone in her hand and another ache in her chest.

* * *

The note was right there, propped against a coffee mug, when she finally got back to her condo a little past two in the morning.

Maybe we’ll pull up at the same intersection again sometime.

That was it. No It was great seeing you again. No Call me. Not so much as a hint that they’d reconnected in the most elemental, mutually satisfying way. And it was mutual, Swish thought as she crushed the note in an angry fist. He’d wanted her. As much as she’d wanted him.

Still wanted him.

The realization was as unwelcome as it was irritating. They’d tried the happily-ever-after once. It hadn’t worked then. It wouldn’t work now. Nothing had changed.

* * *

The next few weeks kept Swish up to her eyeballs with work. As busy as she was, though, she couldn’t seem to regain her usual energy and equilibrium.

The spill containment and recovery efforts proceeded on track. Reps from the EPA and the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality fully endorsed her team’s efforts. The booms contained the oil slick on the lake and the skimmers removed the surface contaminants, while the soil vapor extraction system scooped up and vacuumed the contaminated subsoil.