4.
Lex
“Good work again, boys,” he said as they pulled in to the parking lot at the shop. “Go grab some water and start reloading the truck with supplies. It’s going to be a long day.”
His men, a pair of brothers named Ronnie and Ryan, were good people. They worked hard, knew their trade, and weren’t afraid to get dirty. They also weren’t overly imaginative, so he had to ensure that he was clear with them what he expected. But to their credit, give them a task, and they got it done without stopping. He couldn’t ask for more than that.
But it was a good thing he was the crew leader.
“You going to get some more pinkies?” Ronnie asked, using slang for the work orders.
“Yep.” He started to turn the key when the radio switched over to a news broadcast.
“The Surrey sheriff’s office is asking everyone to keep an eye out for a missing woman. Leslie Mckay has been missing since yesterday morning. She was last known to be driving to work. Her normal route is along George Street and then on to East Avenue. She was driving a green four-door sedan, older model. Leslie is described as a redhead, five foot six, one hundred seventy pounds. If you see her or know her whereabouts, please contact the sheriff’s office.”
“Shit,” he muttered, killing the engine.
“What?” Ryan asked, following him out of the truck. “Did you know her?”
“No. But it sounds like we had the first casualty of the storm,” he said. “I was hoping that people would get to shelter and be okay, but it appears someone didn’t.”
Lex took it hard whenever someone in Surrey died of non-natural causes. He considered the inhabitants to be his friends. There were only two thousand or so of them in the entire valley. A very small number, many of whom he knew by name, or at least sight. While it was possible Leslie might still be alive, after the damage the storm had caused, he had his doubts.
“I just hope there aren’t any more,” he muttered, then shook his head and straightened his back. “Okay boys, get the truck cleaned up and top up all the parts we used, plus anything else we said we might need. I’m going to go see where we’re off to next.”
Leaving the brothers to it he headed inside, marching right to Vince’s office. It was closed. He tried the door handle, but it was locked. Lex wondered if perhaps Miss Olson hadn’t heeded his words to come back to the office and work from there. Frowning, he turned and headed down to the command pit.
The pit was the operations brain for Western Hydro. It was dominated by the huge map of Surrey and surrounding countryside, with all the known hydro lines, generators, transformers, property, etcetera on it. It was electronic and could be color-coded to show problems down to a single line between poles. Green was good. Orange was minor, red was major, and black was unknown.
His eyes scanned the map with practiced experience. Every morning he came in and looked it over, memorizing it anew and looking at the various sectors for usual culprits and new problems. By this point in time he was quite used to it all. Well, mostly. The map had never shown anywhere near this much red before. Whereas orange and red were usually a tiny minority, today they appeared to be the majority. A swath of green had begun to cut through it from west toward east, indicative of where the workers had been progressing. But overall there was still nearly as much red as there was green.
“Lex, what are you doing back here?”
He turned as Vince approached him.
“I’m done.”
Vince’s brow furrowed for a second, then he nodded. “Right. I have more for you, here.” He stuffed a handful of crinkled pink sheets at Lex.
Scanning them quickly, Lex realized the issue. “Vince, why is nobody working here?” He pointed on the map to the east side of town on the single trunk-line from the hydro dam to Surrey.
Vince worked his jaw. “There’s so much damage in town itself. It makes sense to work our way out there.”
“I’m changing my work order,” he said to his boss. It wasn’t a question or a request. It was an order. Lex rarely spoke that way, because he didn’t like ordering people around. But he’d long ago realized he had the blood of an Alpha in him, and that he could use it when necessary to his advantage. In this case, it would be to the advantage of nearly two hundred homes in Surrey.
“You’re changing it? We don’t even know what’s wrong out there,” Vince told him.
He was right; the map was colored black over a section, not red or amber. Which meant that his boss hadn’t even sent anyone out there to see what was wrong. Imbecile. Couldn’t he read the map?
“Vince, look. If you repair that section, whatever is wrong, and then these ones here, here and here,” he said, pointing in rapid succession, “then we can restore power to over two hundred houses, and the businesses in this area here. It’s not much, but think of the morale boost it would be to the town to show them that we’re starting to restore hydro to it.”
Vince nodded. “What are you proposing?”
He considered for a moment, then laid out his plan. “I’ll go check out what’s wrong up there in the black zone. In the meantime, my crew will start work on the red zones. We’ll get that work done, and then start to branch off from there. Have Jay’s crew start working out from where you’ve had all the crews to come and meet up with us. Any luck, and by tomorrow morning we’ll have restored power to nearly fifty percent of Surrey, if not more.”
He neglected to mention that if they’d started out by the dam and worked their way inward, they could have already had power to ten or even fifteen percent of the town. It wouldn’t do to insult Vince, when he needed him to not resist his change of plans.
“Agreed.”
Both of them turned to see the speaker Petal walk up to join them at the map. Lex managed not to sigh in relief that she didn’t shut his plan down, but he suspected she wasn’t quite finished.
“Thank you. I’ll go get things organized.” He turned to go, but Director Olson held up a hand, stopping him in his tracks, much to his astonishment.
Lex looked down at his chest, half-expecting to see a physical barrier there, so abruptly had he come to an unexpected halt. He tried to bully his way through the resistance, but his body just seemed to ignore every command he sent it. Reluctantly, but still confused, Lex backed down and waited for Director Olson to speak.
“I’m going with you.”
“What? I thought we’d established that you’re better suited here in the office.”
He regretted the words the instant he said them. There was no way she was going to stay at the shop after that. It was all but a challenge to her abilities to be useful to the recovery efforts.
“Perhaps. But I refuse to let any employee go on their own after a disaster like this. Like Vince said, you don’t know what it’s like out there. Nobody has been out that way yet. Your plan is sound, but you’re not going alone. Vince can handle things here while I accompany you.”
Lex forcibly stopped his teeth from grinding together. “I’m in charge out there. I’m not going to have you second-guessing everything I do.”
“Agreed.”
There was exactly zero hesitation in her voice. Either she expected to overrule him once they were away from others, or she had suddenly developed an understanding of the seriousness of the job and his professionalism. Somehow Lex didn’t think he was that lucky.
He turned back to Vince. “I’ll check in before we pass Sonnett’s Creek. After that, I have no idea whether we’ll be in contact. I’ll keep in touch as I can. Make sure it’s all relayed to Ronnie and Ryan.”
“Will do,” his boss replied, clearly anxious to have both of them out of his hair for a while.
Lex nodded and then motioned with his chin at the director. “Well, let’s go. No time to waste.”
This time his body responded when he told it to walk away. Behind him he could hear her shoes hurry across the floor to keep up. Feeling somewhat spiteful, he lengthened his stride, forcing her to race to keep up with him. It was petty, but just then he didn’t care. She was coming with him just to try and demonstrate that she wasn’t useless.
Why did it have to be with him?
“What’s so important about Sonnett’s Creek?” she asked as they walked. Well, he walked, she half-jogged.
“There’s only one cell phone tower between there and the Surrey dam. Reception is notoriously spotty, and if the tower went down in the storm, then there is no reception. So, we may have to investigate and then double back to report in.”
He walked out to the motor pool and snagged the keys for the truck that Vince and the director had been using earlier in the day. Then, with the director in tow, he went over to his crew, told them where they were to go next, and gave them the associated pink sheets. They didn’t put up a fuss, simply nodding and then having a brief argument over who got to drive. Inevitably Ronnie won by decree of being older.
That settled, he hopped in the truck and waited for the director to join him.
“Okay, Director. Last chance to back out.”
He desperately wished she would. If he could go alone, Lex could use his wolf to survey the area, covering the ground much quicker than the truck.
“No, I think not. Come on now. Get this thing moving, will you?” She pulled her door closed and buckled up, emphasizing her point.
Lex sighed and turned the key. She was being an idiot, but he had to give her credit, she wasn’t willing to back down from heading out into the unknown. Hopefully she just remained quiet for the drive, so that it didn’t become any more painful than it already was.