Zac didn’t realize at first that he was smiling. The thought of heading someplace where he’d be living on the edge made the blood course through his veins double-time. The fact that Liliana Castillo was there, on the other side of the world, was just a dream come true. For if he were honest with himself, on some level, he had compared every girl to her since the day they met and no one came remotely close to the silken haired serious Yalie.
What he hadn’t realized was that maybe he and Lily were actually kindred spirits of a sort and that her irrepressible adventurous soul had created a situation for them to explore what he knew in his heart was that elusive something he yearned for, dreamed of and in his most private thoughts, prayed could eventually be his.
Finally speaking, “I think it would be the coolest thing. I would love to do this.”
Schooner Moore sat back and smiled. Clearly pleased with his son’s decision.
Over a quarter of a century before, Schooner had been asked by his own father and Mia’s father to watch out for Mia, as she was only a sixteen year old college freshman, three thousand miles away from home and he was a few years older. Now, in a scenario somewhat similar, many years later, history was about to repeat itself as he asked his son to take on the same commitment to which he had agreed.
“Zac, I want you to watch out for Liliana. Make sure that she’s OK. We need you to take care of her.” Schooner’s serious sapphire eyes bored into his son’s nearly identical eyes.
Nodding, “I will, Dad,” and looking at Dr. Castillo, “I’ll look out for Lily. I’ll be there for her.” As much as she’ll let me, he thought, thinking of her tenacious personality and how she would probably let him know, in no uncertain terms, that she was more than capable of taking care of herself.
Zac knew, as he made the commitment to both fathers, that he would protect Lily. Whether she wanted him to or not, his decision had been made the moment he knew she was in a dangerous place - he would protect Lily. And the very first thing he would protect her from was this Brit.
Chapter Eleven
Project Hydrate Base Camp
Congo, Africa
Zac Moore arrived at base camp in the Congo with quite a splash, or one might say, in typical Zac style. The young American, ever the entrepreneur, showed up with a container full of LeBron 11 basketball shoes and he planned to make a killing selling them to both teammates and locals.
Starting their TDYs the same day as Zac was fellow American, long-haired Matt from Michigan and burly Australian, Jake. Sizing them up quickly, Zac’s first impression was that neither one of them would be competition for Lily’s affection and that they’d probably both make good wingmen in furthering his agenda du jour, whether that be getting closer to Lily or selling the LeBron 11s.
Located on the outskirts of a small village, base camp consisted of five buildings; administration, mess hall/general gathering area with satellite TV and internet, male dorm, female dorm, and living quarters for those in charge. The buildings were rustic and the necessities barely basic. At his cot, Zac unpacked his gear, stowing the LeBrons in his locker. The final thing he pulled out of his duffel bag was placed on the small nightstand next to his bed, a photo of Nathaniel and Portia in a frame they had made themselves. Under their smiling faces, the edge of the frame said “Heckle + Jeckle” in ceramic paint. Placing it by his bedside, he felt too far away from them, a pang of sadness rushing through his chest.
Hoping to catch a glimpse of her before being ushered into orientation in the main lounge, just the thought of Lily felt like home and he knew seeing the sheath of her hair would in an odd way help him from missing Natie, Po, Liz, Brian, and his dad. His life. The life he gave up to come halfway around the world. For what? he wondered. An adventure? A chance with some girl who really wasn’t his type? What the hell am I doing here?
Staff started to come in from the field, excited to meet their new teammates. Zac first saw them from the corner of his eye. Dressed in cargo shorts and hiking boots, his first thought was, Holy shit, they’re hot and foreign and they were openly checking him out, devouring him with their eyes.
Anneliese and Katje were on Zac in a New York minute. Speaking in heavily accented English, the two German students were making claim to the tall, handsome blonde boy, promising him they’d show him around and help him get acclimated.
Wanting to ask about Lily, but not ready to reveal his hand to anyone, he kept scanning the room, checking out everyone that entered. Small groups arrived every few minutes. Katje explained they were the teams from the different work sites. Listening, to get the lay of the land, he couldn’t wait to get to a work site and see what needed to be done.
The glint off her silken sheath of hair under the florescent lights made his heart skip a beat. When had she entered? he wondered.
Excusing himself, he made his way across the large room. Several feet away, with her back still to him, Zac stopped dead in his tracks. The familiar scent hit him like a ton of bricks and for the second time in just a few minutes, he was slammed with a visceral response. He had not anticipated this particular sense to become overwhelmed, activating memories that had lingered on the edges of his consciousness, vacillating between hope and devastation.
Approaching from behind, with the lithe grace of a cat springing from a ledge, his lips were right next to her ear when he whispered, “You still smell like a Piña Colada.”
Spinning around to face him, her eyes were filled with surprise. He’d clearly caught her off guard and it appeared as if she had momentarily stopped breathing.
“Remember me?” Zac couldn’t control his heartfelt smile. He was wearing his heart on his sleeve for this girl and she had no clue.
“Of course I remember you. I saw your name on a list but I didn’t know if it was the same Zac Moore.”
“The one and only,” he kidded.
“What are you doing here?” She appeared suddenly nervous, as if she’d gotten caught doing something she wasn’t supposed to be doing.
Zac could feel Lily’s defenses going up. This girl had personal force fields which she could activate with an immediate flipping of some internal switch. It’s me, don’t hide from me, he wanted to yell, but knew that she had probably never given him a second thought after his dad’s wedding, while she had affected him in a more than slightly obsessive way.
“I’m an engineering student. Civil engineering. This is the kind of stuff I love.”
“Really?” She cocked her head, “I never would have pegged you for the engineering type.”
He sidled up to her, possessively slinging an arm over her shoulder in a casual manner, but there was nothing casual or spontaneous in the move.
“I see you’ve met one of our new recruits, Liliana,” his accent was British and the hairs on the back of Zac’s neck stood at attention.
It was time to greet the enemy.
Taking control, Zac stuck out his hand, “Zac Moore,” his voice was strong and clear, his gaze piercing and cold. He towered over the slight man by at least four to five inches and Zac’s muscular bulk made the difference more dramatic.
“William Bray, project director,” he took Zac’s hand.
“Nice to meet you, Bill.” Zac smiled, as if he were just a friendly American boy.
“It’s William,” the older man’s eyes narrowed slightly.
Zac nodded his acknowledgement, but made no attempt at a correction or apology. Smiling at Lily, “I have a picture back in my dorm that you’ve gotta see. It’s of Portia and Nathaniel, you’re not going to believe how big they are.”
At the mention of Portia’s name, Lily’s eyes lit up. She had been with his father and Mia in Zambia when they first met the endearing toddler in an orphanage. “How are they?”
“They’re devils,” he laughed, his smile revealing his love for his little siblings. Score one, she and I have a history, Billy-boy. And although it’s not extensive, you don’t need to know that.
Strategy was flooding Zac’s
brain. Leaning down, he kissed Lily’s cheek, “So good to see you. I need to head into orientation.” He nodded at William, before turning around and heading straight back to Anneliese and Katje. No need to antagonize any further the man who had the power to give him shit jobs and keep him away from Lily. Let him think that Zac’s interest lie in nailing the hot German girls and let Lily think the same.
“You know the American Ice Princess?” Anneliese was curious.
“Ice Princess?” Zac laughed. “My father and her father are involved in projects together.”
“She’s a bitch,” Katje muttered. “Oh, sorry,” she then apologized to Zac, but it was clear that she was anything but sorry.
Zac took a seat at the back, flanked by the Germans. Right up in the front row, Liliana sat front and center. Zac silently laughed, thinking how the seating structure was already emulating high school. Cool kids in the back, teacher’s pet up front. The thought of Lily being Billy-boy’s pet made a wave of nausea roll up from Zac’s gut and unconsciously his legs spread a little farther apart, touching the thighs of the adjacent blondes. Look back at me, Lils, he willed. Look. Back. At. Me.
As if feeling the eyes boring into the back of her head, Lily turned around, her expression visibly souring at the sight of the girls hanging on Zac. His smile was slow and knowing and as their eyes locked, Zac winked at her. Lily’s eyes widened, and she whipped her head around to the front of the room, hair swishing with the sudden movement.
No more following you around like a little lapdog, Lils. That’s not how I roll. I’m not fighting for your attention anymore. Come get mine.
William stood at the front of the room, facing them, his small, wiry frame taking on a surprisingly authoritative stance.
“Good evening, everyone,” he began with a self-confident smile.
“Good evening,” the room returned in unison.
“Tonight we are welcoming the newest members of our team, Matt from the United States. Matt please stand.”
Matt stood and waved to the room and was met with a chorus of “Hi Matt.”
“Jake is joining us from Australia.”
Jake stood, receiving a hearty greeting that rendered a deep blush on his fair complexion.
“And finally, yet another American, Zac.”
Standing to his full height, Zac hit the room with his bad boy smile, “Hey everyone.” He didn’t bother to look at Lily.
“After a short orientation with our new teammates,” William began, “We’ll all reconvene for a group meeting. Please be back here at 19:00 sharp.”
Zac was again surprised at William’s commanding presence and wondered if that was part of Lily’s attraction to him. He possessed an unlikely charisma and Zac’s keen sense for quickly summing up people was working overtime, gathering data on the man he viewed as his opponent.
“Why don’t you come sit up front,” William was giving Zac a polite order.
Smiling, with affected genuineness, Zac made his way up to the group. He’s threatened by me, he thought. He sensed something in Lily’s reaction to me and I’m a threat. Maybe Liz was right. Maybe she felt it, too, the first time we met.
The numbers were staggering. Over 70 million people had lost access to water over the past twenty years due to a failed source. 70 million. Over eight times the population of New York City. So hard to fathom, impossible to visualize and the numbers just grew — one to four billion people without safe drinking water.
Billion.
With every stat William threw at them, devastating death rates from water-borne disease, harrowing infant mortality numbers, Zac became more and more convinced that he was in the right place and even if he could only make a difference for a few people at a time, he would be part of the solution.
William was describing the team structures. Each team was led by an engineer. The group was working on over three dozen water systems, at any time, in neighboring villages. Short on vehicles, projects within a thirty minutes to an hour range were accessed on foot, others that were in excess of an hour to an hour and a half away were reached by jeep.
At the end of the orientation, William handed the three new recruits a piece of paper with information on each of their projects, outlining the issues and current status. Zac devoured the information, 05:00 couldn’t come soon enough. His assignment was a village of several hundred people with a non-operational hand pump that had been installed in the late ‘70’s.
Katje and Anneliese reentered with the rest of the group at 19:00. Eager to see if they’d be working alongside the handsome American, they both grabbed at his paper, successfully snatching it from his hand. Scanning the paper, a wide-eyed look passed between them.
Zac didn’t have to wonder for long what the look had meant as they viewed his assignment at the Ngamouni work site.
“Who did you piss off?” was all Anneliese said.
Chapter Twelve
Ngamouni Work Site
Congo, Africa
The Ngamouni site had been dubbed the “cursed” site. Not only was it a circa 1978 well and pump in serious disrepair, the town had previously suffered multiple waves of the Ebola virus and lost twenty-five percent of its population. Prior to going out into the field, Zac and the other new recruits were given a crash course on staying healthy and surviving.
The other large, and it was a very large factor, which had made Ngamouni a dreaded site for project workers, was that it was one of the sites under the management of a 6’5”, 300 plus pound, wild red-haired, bearded British engineer named Niles Cross. Given to foul temper and an even fouler mouth, Niles’ reputation for reducing staff to tears was legendary.
For every facet of the water system that was fixed at Ngamouni, three more would fail.
Giving Zac a once over, the assessment was clear on Niles’ face, coddled pretty boy American. Inwardly, Zac laughed, knowing Niles would be surprised at the muscle and brawn hidden under his shirt and the smarts and engineering knowledge hidden under his perfect bad boy hair.
“Nice shoes,” the Englishman snickered, checking out Zac’s LeBrons.
“What size are you?” Zac didn’t skip a beat. He’d met dudes like this, they loved to intimidate and the moment you showed weakness they grabbed you by the balls and sautéed them for lunch. If you didn’t respond to the bullying, they’d immediately back down.
“Thirteen,” there was bragging rights in that one word.
Zac laughed, “You’ve got some wake boards there. But no prob, I can hook you up.”
Clearly not the response he was expecting, Zac already had him off balance.
“Oh. Ok, cool.”
That very night, Niles was sporting his new LeBrons and laughing heartily with his new boy, Zac Moore, in the dining hall. From other tables, workers looked on, amazed. How had the new American gotten into Niles’ good graces? No one got along with Niles and very few lasted for any length of time on his projects.
A very astute engineer, Niles Cross quickly learned that Zac Moore was much more than a pretty American, proving daily that he was highly capable in multiple areas and willing to take on whatever was thrown his way. Niles soon began tasking Zac with assessing problems of the existing system and teaching him about installing the latest technology which had been developed at Oxford University.
Using a system very similar to text messaging, the smart water pump information system measured the pump’s water flow and the movement of the pump’s handle. Zac quickly mastered installation and repair of the devices, as well as had a natural knack for training the parties responsible at the village level.
Within weeks, Zac was traveling to multiple sites working on the messaging systems. Because of his physical strength and strong problem solving skills, the young American often ended up doing a lot more than the job he had been sent in to do, and anyone who had judged him right off the bat, quickly learned that he was the first person to get his hands dirty on a site. Female team members were often treated to his shirt coming off
as he labored, and they had a joke about putting together a project fundraising calendar featuring pictures of him.
With his first shipment of LeBrons almost sold out, Brian had another case coming to Zac, who had sold them to teammates and villagers alike. In some cases, he used them to barter for goods and often for Ngok beer, which was available only in the Congo. Multiple pairs of LeBrons were used to fund parties where Zac procured cases of the beer. His entrepreneurial skills were just something he couldn’t seem to leave behind.
With a boom box blaring down by their small lake one Friday night, the full moon with its ring of haze shone through the canopies of the trees, casting ethereal shadows on the makeshift dance floor near the water’s edge. Beer in hand, Zac was leaning against a tree trunk talking to Niles and watching Katje and Anneliese dirty dance with one another and with anyone who strayed near them. As the beer continued to flow, more and more of the men enjoyed the beautiful blondes rubbing themselves along their bodies. For men stuck out in the wilds for months at a time, this kind of attention and stimulation was the stuff of wet dreams and had been the impetus for more than a few.
“I’d love to do them together,” Niles growled.
Zac choked on his swallow of beer. Laughing, “Well, then stop scaring them and maybe they’ll treat you to a little two on one action.”
“They’re hot, huh?” The burly man nudged Zac.
“They will rock your world,” Zac smiled knowingly.
They stood in silence for a few minutes watching Katje and Anneliese do their stuff as they grabbed more and more of the staff, male and female alike, to dance with them. The staff let loose with abandon under the night’s full moon.
“Damn, here comes El Capitan and the Ice Princess,” Niles remarked.
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