Daryl blew out a sigh and leaned back in his chair, running a hand through his hair as he was finis.h.i.+ng some of his task. He was in his usual tent in the bridge and was in the process of planning out other alternatives to continue his bridge. Their operations halted two days ago and until now, he had not come up of a good plan to get a consent from the Chieftain to continue his bridge."Engineer I"m sorry to disturb you," He was pulled from his tasks by the gravelly voice of his foreman who stayed on the site with him to finish some reports. Although their operations halted, some of the Lagdameo heir"s employees were still on site with him to finish up some doc.u.ments and reports.
"What is it?" Darryl replied, spinning his chair to face his foreman. The latter was on the tent"s entrance cautiously waiting for his response. He knew his boss was busy but something important came up.
"Come and see," He replied hastily and went on leaving Darryl with so much curiosity. The Lagdameo heir knew his employees knew when to disturb him and when no to and so he was sure the things was something that cannot be postponed to some other time.
With haste, Darryl get up and went out of his tent to follow his foreman. Few minutes of walking through the unfinished bridge and he realized that his foreman was leading him to the edge where the bridge met the par line. They both reached the edge but Darryl saw nothing unfamiliar and so he frowned as he turned to his foreman.
"What do you want to show me?" He confronted his employee. In the edge there was nothing but a black canva.s.s as it was almost midnight. Darryl could see nothing but the few small lights from the other side and nothing else, the Manggan Island itself was covered by the night.
"Look down below," His foreman pointed and when Darryl followed his fingers he noticed that there was a small flicker of light at the ocean beneath the bridge. It was like somebody was there but because it was night time he couldn"t see clearer.
"What is that?" Darryl kneeled down to check what"s below but his effort was useless. The first thing that came to his mind was a firefly but the thing was moving down there like some human was maneuvering it. The bridge was very tall, about a thousand meters above the surface water and so it was hard to check the thing without any aide.
"I heard them asking for help," The foreman said as he directed the flashlight that he had with him. He saw a flicker of light coming closer to the edge of the bridge earlier and so he went to check on it only to hear a tiny voice asking for help.
When the flashlight hit the intended spot, Darryl saw a little boat loaded with three people. The tiniest among them was a girl and she was the one screaming for help. When she saw that they were given attention, she waved her hand fast as if she had an urgent need.
"Pull them up!" Darryl commanded right away. "Ask the team to put back the manual elevator we used previously"
"But engineer can"t you see? It looked like they came from the island," The foreman expressed his protest. He still had reservations when it comes to people from the Manggan Island as they had been described as a hostile tribe "What if this is a trap?"
"Have everyone on guard," Darryl further instructed when he heard his concern. "Besides, we can"t just leave a child on the open sea in the middle of the night. They must be in trouble and we must help them"
"Okay, I"ll go and fetch the team," The foreman went on. Despite his concern, he knew he cannot disobey his boss and since he was the Lagdameo heir, he kind of trust the latter"s instinct.
Soon, the edge was filled with the employees left on site and they all helped one another in setting up the manual elevator they needed to pull the people from down below. With everyone"s help, it didn"t take time when the three people from the boat was pulled to the top of the bridge.
Darryl welcomed them immediately by giving them coats as their clothing appear to be not enough to s.h.i.+eld them from the evening cold. However, when he stepped closer to them, the tallest and probably the oldest among their visitors pointed an arrow at them. Everyone immediately stepped back and aside from Darryl.
"Engineer, stepped back!" his employees called on him but when Darryl looked through the person eyes—the one who was pointing arrows—he sensed that he was merely protecting the two children he was with.
"Were here to help," Darryl said hoping that one of them can understand him. Enoch told him that not everyone from their tribe can understand English, only the royal bloods. He raised his two hands in the air in surrender as the coat he intended to give them hang on his arms.
"Help!" The girl who was with the new comers repeated his last word. "Help..help…help" She said continually but no one stepped forward to acknowledge her plea. Darryl on the other hand was confused as to what she wanted.
Maru cannot speak English fluently as she was still in the process of learning it. Nevertheless, she knew some of the words like "help" and that was why it was the thing she kept on saying since earlier. However, when Suma raised his bow, everyone stepped back as if unwilling to extend some hand. Only Darryl stood on his ground and so he was the one where she ran to.
"Help! Help" She clung to Darryl"s legs and tilted her head up to meet his confused gaze. She kept repeating the word help hoping that the man she clung in to can understand her.
Darryl knew by the way the girl was acting that something was wrong and so when she clung to him, he bended his knee to level her gaze. "What help do you need?"
Maru cannot understand him but she knew that he was somehow curios as to what she wanted. Instead of continually saying help, he ran back to Baruk Tam and undress the part of him where the snake bit him.
"Snake…snake..snake…shhhhhh…" She showed Darryl the Baruk"s wounds. When Darryl saw it, he ran to where Baruk Tam was ignoring Suma"s arrows and checked the wound thoroughly. He also recognized the boy when he came closer as he had meet him previously.
"He was bitten by a snake?" Darryl asked the girl as his face flashed a concerned look. He understood right then why they came to ask for his help since he was very aware of the fact that they might not have an antidote for it. Advance science was needed to make a snake antidote which the tribe don"t have.
"Help…snake…my love…" Maru nodded her head as if to confirm Darryl"s words. She cannot still understand his words but she knew he had communicated her concern.
Without haste, Darryl pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed some numbers. Only a second past and someone from the other line answered.
"Send a chopper here immediately," he instructed right away.