Fire

Chapter 26

It had been more than a week since Chief Boden had visited to alert Herrera, and everything had remained eerily quiet.  Andy was walking into the station with his coffee cup and several folders in his hand that he was trying to read as he walked, when he bumped into someone who obviously should have known this wasn't his place.  The weirdest thing was that she didn't know who he was- "Are you looking for someone?"  -Obviously it was a firefighter, since he was in uniform.

"I'm new here at the station. You must be Captain Herrera. My name is..." -Andy interrupted the boy before he could finish introducing himself.

"What do you mean, new to the station? I didn't get anything saying someone new would join my team, and since I'm the one who picks the members here I think this was a complete mistake."

"Chief Padilha asked me and my team from the academy to come here to replace your team, Captain, since they are in another station."

"What?"  -only now Andy noticed that there was no member of her team, just a bunch of boys she didn't know who they were.  She left the boy talking to himself and went to her house.  Once there, she left her things on the table, grabbed her cell phone and called Maya.  She answered after a few rings- "Where are you, Maya?"  -Andy hoped that was just a joke.  Before the blonde could answer the question, Andy saw a report on her desk that said station 19 was under budget cuts.  They wouldn't get any money at all that year- "This has got to be a joke!"  -she knew that things like that would happen, she just didn't expect it to be so soon.

"Andy? What's going on and why are we assigned to another station?"  -only then she realized that her friend was still on the other end of the line.

"Cutting of funds... 19 will not be able to function for a while. While you are relocated to another station, 19 will only function as a training center for the new probies... I really don't know what to do now ."  -while talking to Maya, Robert walked through the door.  He had gone to the city hall to see if he could reverse the situation on 19. Maybe even have the action Andy was filed considered void so he could resume full station activities- "Maya, I need to get off. I will try to keep you informed.

"Apparently you already know what happened... and I warned you."  -Robert said walking calmly through the door.

Andy was incredulous that in the midst of the situation, Robert could say that- "Look, Robert. All I don't need right now is you exalting your reason. If you won't help me, don't disturb me."  -she said turning to finish reading the documentation.

"I was with my superiors at City Hall. I was trying to find a way out for 19. They are willing to go back with the decision but with one condition."  -it was strange that they decided to give up that decision, as they wouldn't benefit.

"And what condition would that be?"

"You would have to close this process. As if it never happened."

"What? Of course not."

"They're going to commit to keeping everyone safe first... Come on, Andy. Take it... It's a good deal. The station would be back and any irregularity will be fixed."

"Do you think I'm some kind of idiot?"  -she knew that the moment she accepted whatever the deal was, she would never step on the fire department again.

"Andy, this is crazy! You can't get anywhere with this bullshit!"

"Bullshit? Is that what you think about the safety of your friends? Your family?"  -she didn't want to lose control, only that Robert wasn't helping.

"Don't twist my words!"

"You don't care! You're not inside the fires, you know absolutely nothing about what's going on. You think I don't know that you just want to make a good impression on those people? Everything in your life revolves around pleasing these people. They don't care about our security and neither do you. I won't make any deals with anyone, if he wants to send the cadets here, there's no problem. I'm not giving up and you can't convince me of that. I will finish and bring my team back, with or without your help.. I sent everything I had to the fire department, that's their business now, and you can be absolutely sure that no one will let him keep putting lives at risk just to stay in office. They know they can die at any moment from the negligence of their superiors. I expected you to support me in this, Robert, only as always you would rather have the approval of others than do the right thing."