Elliot
They redid the RipTide compound last night. It’s on the north stretch now.
I sat up.
Me
Define north stretch
Elliot
Past the high-tide line. They moved everything after the bird incident. They said the location had been “compromised.”
Compromised.
So mybrilliantplan had only made things worse. That was right on track for my life.
Me
Elliot thats where the nests are
Elliot
I know.
The hatchlings orient by light. They come up at night and crawl toward what’s brightest. It’s supposed to be the moon on the water.
RipTide’s compound has a forty-foot LED wall, playing the same damn commercial over and over.
I’d seen it. Seen a certain someone’s face plastered all over it.
If the hatchlings crawled the wrong way because of it, they were much more likely to get eaten or simply die of exhaustion.
Me
Ok so we file a complaint with the coastal preserve, they have to move
Elliot
I filed three weeks ago. I filed again on Friday. It’s “under review.”
Charlene at the county office says it got kicked up to a discretionary committee.
Selena, there has never been a discretionary committee. I’ve been doing this for eight years. The permit process is one guy named Walt.
I thought about the man in the white button-up shirt on the beach talking with Chase. About every other corporate employee I’d seen crawling around that compound.
This was about dollars to them, and moving the tents again cost money.
I also knew exactly how “efficient” our town’s bureaucracy was.
Me
What do you need?
Elliot
The compound moved. That’s all. Two hundred feet south and the nests have a dark corridor to the water. RipTide can have the entire rest of the beach.
