The rest of the morning passed surprisingly peacefully.
The refinery had become a different place entirely after the arrival of the second engineering team. Every section of the complex seemed to come alive. Men in hard hats walked along catwalks carrying clipboards and tool cases. Others inspected valves, checked electrical panels, and disappeared into buildings that had remained abandoned for years.
At one point, Chandrika watched an engineer hug a control console.
No one questioned it anymore.
By noon, even the soldiers had accepted that engineers simply behaved differently around infrastructure.
Ramos sat beside her on the hood of a Humvee while eating lunch from a ration pack.
"I've learned something today."
She looked up from her own meal.
"What?"
"People can apparently fall in love with pipes."
She laughed.
An engineer several meters away suddenly looked offended.
"They're not just pipes."
Ramos pointed toward him.
"See?"
The engineer sighed.
