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Grant leaned his head toward her. “He uses big words when he’s stressed. He just told Claire they didn’t have time forsuperfluousquestions.”
Molly held her clipboard over her mouth to hide her giggle. “High school English teachers everywhere are so proud.”
“Right? He’ll relax. He’s extra stressed because this is the first time he’s run point on a release.”
That made sense. Since Grant was less than a month from leaving, he’d started the process of handing the reins over to Mateo. But she could only imagine that this release, one that was a huge media event with the backing of the national Great Turtle Race and live internet coverage, was more complicated than most. No wonder he was breaking out the big words.
“Plus, there’s been some speculation that his sudden switch to decaf so he wouldn’t be jittery today is making him extra grumpy. I was going to have Kya swap out his cup with a double espresso, but now that you’re here, maybe you could start an IV and streamline some caffeine to his system?”
“I’ll get right on that.” It always took her by surprise how easy it was to be with Grant, not to mention fun. Their relationship was effortless, which was exactly the reason she’d been avoiding him. It was hard to contemplate walking away when being here felt so right.
Mateo paused his speech and turned his attention to the two of them, narrowing his gaze. “Is there a question?”
Grant shook his head. “Nope. Just filling Molly in on what she missed.”
“Right.” Mateo didn’t look like he thought it was right at all, but he returned his attention to the white board. “As I was saying. After a final visual check from the vet at T-minus two hours, the turtle will be loaded into the turtle ambo and transported to the release location.”
Molly raised her hand.
Mateo turned to her, all business. “Yes, Dr. Lawrence.”
Wow, so official. She wasn’t sure she’d ever heard Mateo call her Dr. Lawrence, and it took her aback. “Sorry, what kind of visual check will I be doing?”
“Just a quick visual exam,” Grant explained. “You’ve already signed off on her health, but we like to do a final look to make sure nothing has changed since you last saw her. I’ll walk you through it.”
Molly nodded once. “Great, thanks.”
“As I was saying…” Mateo went back to walking through the day, down to the tiniest detail. It appeared they’d carefully planned for every factor, but since Molly was new to this, she kept getting lost in the verbiage. Mateo was three bullet points down explaining the positions of the various jobs in the pre-release activities when Molly’s hand shot up again.
“Yes, Dr. Lawrence?”
“Transporters and carriers are not the same job, correct? And which one am I?”
“You can find a detailed list of who is assigned to each position on page three of your packet. It might be helpful to acquaint yourself with that information.”
Molly gave him a thumbs-up. “Oh, right. Thanks. I’ll do that.”
Grant leaned his head toward hers. “That would be a superfluous question.”
Molly gave him a playful nudge with her shoulder before she flipped to page three. “Excuse me, sir, I’m trying to acquaint myself with the information,” she whispered.
As a carrier, her entire job was to carry Hope from the turtle ambo to the water. Of course, there was more to it than simply walking, but knowing the different job titles gave her clarification as to what parts of Mateo’s walk-through she needed to pay the most attention to and which parts didn’t involve her.
“The final go/no-go will come from our offshore boats when the carriers are in position. No-go at that point will be restricted to an imminent wildlife threat.”
Molly’s head popped up at the word threat. She raised her hand again.
“Yes, Dr. Lawrence.” He still had the patient look of a kindergarten teacher talking to a child, but she could tell constant interruptions were starting to wear on him.
“What qualifies as eminent wildlife threats?”
“Sharks. The no-go will come if there are sharks within two hundred yards of the turtle.”
“Hold up. So you’re going to wait until I’m about ready to walk in the ocean to decide if it’s a shark free zone or not?”
“No,” Mateo said. “We’re going to make that call when you’re already in position, which, if you check your sheet, means you’re hip deep in the water with the turtle.”
Molly’s eyes got so large she thought they might pop out of their sockets. She’d come a long way getting more comfortable with ocean adventures, but she was far from the comfort level that would include swimming among sharks while holding their favorite snack. She turned to Grant. “We’re going to walk into water with sharks and just hang out to see if they swim closer to us?”
