"Rough morning?" Morgan asked. He had finished eating lunch and had decided to take a quick walk around the farm's buildings where he had encountered a worried looking Wayne Hayward, who was also taking a break.
"Not the worst I have ever had, but also not the best," the man replied. "As you can imagine, no one here was happy to learn that for over one hundred years they and their ancestors have been the victims of a scam. Between you and me, I would hate to be Freddy Jewell if they ever manage to catch him. And now there is so much that needs doing!" He shook his head sadly.
"I understand that you spent this morning working with our security people helping to secure the island's perimeter," he looked over at Morgan. "I want to thank you for that. We need to make sure that this place, this island, stays under the radar. These people deserve their privacy and they need to be allowed to continue with their lives unimpeded. That is our first concern."
"We will be notifying the Coast Guard to keep an eye on this area," he continued. "And we will also be training the locals at all the farms on how to deal with any intruders that may show up."
"What about the farms themselves?" Morgan asked. "Are you planning on allowing them to continue operating?"
"The initial idea is to set them up as four independent co-ops," Wayne Hayward explained. "That way everyone who lives and works on a farm will be entitled to benefit from their work. There are details that will need to be worked out, but the basic bookkeeping is already in place at all four farms. So, that just needs to be refined."
"And then there is medical care," George Hughes, accompanied by with Matt Cruz, had joined them. "Although there don't appear to be any people out here in need of immediate medical attention, I doubt if many of them have been immunized. They are going to be exposed to a lot of germs from now on and they need to be prepared for that. Plus, DNA samples need to be taken for identification purposes. We have to find a group to come out here and do all that while still keeping it under the radar."
"I may know several someones," Cruz offered. "He is a professor at Harvard Medical School and has worked with Doctors Without Borders. His wife is a linguist who has worked with us in the past and I suspect she will be delighted to do some research here on this island. I am sure that between the two of them they can put together a team and get it out here without raising a lot of red flags. Let me see what I can do."
"You mean Alex Blake and her husband, James?" Morgan guessed with a smile.
"That's right," Cruz said. "I think they should be able to handle the situation out here and we know they can be trusted."
"You would do that?" George Hughes asked, surprised. "We would really appreciate it."
"That would be big Thank You," Wayne Hayward added. "That would take one item off our ever growing list."
"What about communications with the outside world?" Morgan questioned. "Is your team still on the way?"
"As far as we know," George Hughes assured him. "And the equipment they are bringing has worked in the past when we were developing remote sites so it should work here."
"So Hotch will be able to talk with his family?" Morgan verified.
"He should be able to," George Hughes confirmed. "Actually, that is our first priority. To allow anyone who wants to to contact their family and/or friends on the mainland to let them know they are okay."
"What about anyone who wants to leave the island?" Morgan questioned.
"They will be taken to the hospital in San Juan, given a complete medical exam, and then sent to wherever they want to go," Wayne Hayward immediately assured him.
"At OUR expense," he emphasized.
"It sounds like you have things under control," Morgan observed.
"We didn't create this mess, but we are dedicated to getting it cleared up," George Hughes assured him. "Although what we really need to do is locate Freddy Jewell."
"I have a feeling that is a lost cause," Cruz sighed.
"But that doesn't mean we stop looking!"