***
“VINCE! Get your useless ass down here!”
The office was in full panic mode. The town had been hit again, destroying buildings and leveling trees for miles around. Some claimed that it had been a tornado that touched down, but if it had, Petal felt that it hadn’t lasted very long for how powerful it must have been. Plus, she’d never heard of there being tornadoes among the hills on the coastline like this. Occasionally a powerful storm would run itself aground from the Pacific, but by the time it reached this far inland it had usually lost much of its power.
It doesn’t matter what it was. That’s not your job. Your job is to deal with the result.
The annoying onsite manager came bustling over to her, looking beyond frazzled.
“What the hell is going on here?” she snapped, letting herself fall back into her work persona, but this time recognizing that she was doing it on purpose.
“Uh, well, we had another storm come through and—”
She cut him off. “I’m well aware of that. But that storm dissipated nearly five hours ago as near as I can tell. Why is everyone still running around with their heads cut off? Have you not organized your teams and told them what their priorities are?”
“Ah, um, well, you see Miss Olson, it’s more complicated than that and there are procedures that have to be followed.”
“Vince, this is a state of emergency. Surrey has been hammered for the third time in a week. People are going missing out there, and possibly dying, Vince. The search and rescue teams need power so that they can communicate better. With power, cell phones will have service, which means people can call for ambulances and police. That is your responsibility, Vince.”
He just stood there shaking.
“Go into your office, and if I see your miserable hide again before the day is done I’ll fire your ass. You are hereby delegated to secretary. Answer the phones and deal with the public. Got it?”
“Yes, Miss Olson,” he said, turning and scurrying for the perceived safety of his office.
She turned to survey the staffers all manning computers situated around the huge map of Surrey.
“Okay, people. You know your town better than I do. I need to know where the most critical areas are, and I need to know now. Who can provide me that information?”
A tall lanky man approached her with a list. She noted his limbs weren’t shaking. Good.
“I have it all right here, ma’am.”
“Okay, start dispatching the crews then. You have three, right?”
“Yes. I’ll get right on that.”
“Good. Then I want you and the others to start working on a list of other areas. I want it classified in five levels. Level one is the most urgent and critical—think hospitals, clinics, water stations, old folks’ homes. That sort of thing. Downward through level five, which is unused or redundant lines. Let’s go, people!”
All around her the room burst into action. Petal was stunned. She turned to the nearest worker. “Was all everyone needed just the command to get stuff done?”
The freckle-faced kid blushed red. “Vince is very particular about no one doing anything without his say-so, ma’am.”
“I see,” she said, waving him back to work. And she did. Glancing over her shoulder, she glared at Vince through the glass windows of his office. The little man saw her looking, swallowed so hard it was visible to her, and snatched up the phone.
Petal wasn’t even sure it had been ringing.
All around her Vince’s immediate subordinates were barking out orders to their teams, and the chaos was soon broken down into effective action. Petal couldn’t make sense of it all, but then it wasn’t her job to do so. Apparently everyone else in the office had been forced to be good at their jobs to make up for Vince. In minutes none of them were coming to her, simply finding problems and handling them on the spot. She was effectively worthless.
“Ma’am?”
She turned to see the same lanky male approaching.
“Yes?”
“I just thought you should know. Everything is being handled, but I had a question on how you wanted to proceed on one particular area.”
“Sure, what’s up?”
He guided her over to the map. “It’s this.”
Petal looked at the map. He was pointing out an area to the north of town. “What about it?”
“Well, we’re not getting any reports from the system. It’s not even registering the power being out to those lines.”
She frowned. “What does that mean?”
The man shrugged. He looked at a total loss. “I don’t know. I’ve never experienced it before. The system should be up there. It actually has an unbroken chain. So I can’t fathom why the system is doing what it is.”
Petal eyed the route. “Can we send someone over there?”
“All we have are our repair teams. It would have to be someone from here.”
Now she understood why he was approaching her. “And you are all needed here to coordinate things. But I’m not.”
He shrugged. “I know what happened the last time you went out, ma’am. Nobody will fault you for not wanting to. I certainly would keep my rear end parked right here if I were you. But I thought you should know.”
Petal sighed. She felt the same as him. There was no way she wanted to go back out in that. Not after what had happened the last time. And yet, she was the supervisor. The boss. It was her job to make sure that everything went according to plan.
“What’s the damage like out that way?”
“Minimal. It hit the town itself and curled southward. The north was mostly spared.” He hurried to continue. “And this is a main road. It goes right through Surrey from north to south, on flat land. Nothing like what happened the last time could happen there. It’s mostly farmland once you get past the north end of town, so very few trees either.” He shrugged. “It’s not critical, but I could see the look on your face that said you wanted to help. We’ve got it all locked down here, so…”
She smiled. “Thank you. I’ll look into it.”
Petal was amazed at how calm her voice sounded. She didn’t want to look into it at all. Not even in the slightest. But being the ranking member on site sometimes meant she had to do things she didn’t want to. In this case, that meant going out and exploring some funky lines.
I’m just going out to take a look I suppose, right? No harm in that. Just drive out there, look around to see what’s going on, and then report back. I can do this.
“All right, get me a truck. I’m certainly not taking the rental out. Not after what happened last time,” she joked.
He nodded and gestured at another employee who disappeared and returned a moment later with a set of keys.
“Thanks. I’ll call in when I have some more information.” She looked at the map once more, memorizing her route, and then she left the building, trying to calm herself.
This is not going to be like last time at all. This is a major road, with plenty of cell service and on flat ground. You’re fine.
She made a pact with herself that if she even saw a hint of nasty weather, she would turn around and head back for the shop immediately. There would be no pushing anything this time.