Page 29 of Fighting Fate

“It really is,” Jace said, laughing. “Retirement absolutely sucks.”

“Retirement?” The word piqued Adam’s interest. He was pretty sure Jace was around his own age, maybe even younger.

“Of a sort. More a change of lanes, really. When Dad and I sold our majority interests in Hunter Enterprises, I kept Sunfish as part of the deal. I don’t interfere with the day-to-day running of the place, but the bigger strategic plans - well, there’s plenty to keep me busy there. Like this.” Jace pushed a large sheet of paper down the bar towards Adam, and he glanced down, tilting his head curiously as he realised it was a map, showing a cluster of islands.

“What am I looking at?”

“This is Sunfish, here.” Jace tapped a finger on one of the islands, roughly in the centre of the cluster. “Up here is Hamilton, which is our nearest airport, though about fifty percent of our guests come in off the mainland, along this route.” He traced a dotted line which ran off to the left of the map.

“Right.” Adam nodded.

“These three islands immediately to the south of us are locally known as Chapel’s Folly. A businessman called Charlie Chapel bought them about a decade ago, wanted to turn them into the premier resorts on the Reef. He built a fancy golf course first on West Chapel, spent a shedload of money on that and some premium resort facilities on Little Chapel, and broke ground for a runway on Big Chapel which would have set the Chapel group up as a genuine rival to Hamilton Island, and benefited Sunfish hugely too, I should point out. Unfortunately, he ran out of money before he finished it, the resort was losing money hand over fist due to mismanagement, and for the last three years the whole place has been almost completely abandoned, except for yachties using the anchorage facilities at Big Chapel Island to avoid paying fees elsewhere.”

“They look pretty close,” Adam said when Jace fell silent, studying the map.

“Oh, they are. In fact, if you lean out to your left there and look to the south, you’ll see West Chapel. It’s ten minutes by boat from our marina.”

“And you’re thinking about buying it?” Adam guessed astutely.

“Lock, stock and barrel,” Nessa confirmed. “Charlie Chapel’s run afoul of the state government on some of his other ventures and needs to raise some quick cash. He’s selling the islands off cheap.”

“But not just anyone can buy them,” Jace pointed out. “They’re actually on a long leasehold and the state government have to approve intended usage. If I presented a plan to finish the runway, re-open the golf course, invest in finishing it all off…” He trailed off, fingertip tracing a slow loop around the cluster of islands. Sunfish was close enough to make the four islands almost a diamond shape, Adam thought. “It could be huge, but it’s a heck of a big project.”

Nessa snorted. “You’d enjoy the challenge, admit it.”

“I would. And I’m probably the only person with enough interest in this to take it on, who wouldn’t have to take out a bunch of risky loans to pull it off. I just don’t know about West Chapel.” Jace tapped a finger on the western island again, a crescent-shaped sweep. “The golf course wouldn’t take that much to re-open, but the rest...” He sighed, brow furrowing. “What the hell was Charlie Chapel thinking?”

“The rest of what?” Intrigued now, Adam hunched closer. “What’s on West Chapel?”

“What isn’t? There’s an Olympic-sized swimming pool, for starters, with a fully-equipped diving pool and hydrotherapy pools. A state-of-the-art medical facility, with a couple dozen treatment suites. Indoor courts for basketball, tennis, squash…”

Adam blinked, and as Jace kept talking, the idea came to him in a blinding flash of inspiration. “It’s a sports training and rehab facility,” he said.

“Say what?” Jace looked up, arrested.

“I just spent six weeks in a place very much like that, except without the spectacular weather and scenery and not as many facilities. Full of elite athletes recovering from surgery, rehabbing from various injuries and prepping for major tournaments under the watchful eye of specialist sports doctors and physiotherapists.”

“Bloody hell, that’s perfect,” Nessa said when Jace didn’t speak. “That must have been what Chapel intended, but he never got it open. Shit, I bet you could actually get the state government on board with that, Jace. Maybe even the Australian Institute of Sport.”

“I dunno,” Jace said doubtfully. “It’d need a lot of specialist medical staff, wouldn’t it?”

“Maybe not as many as you’d think,” Adam said. “If you’re aiming it at the very, very elite level, a lot of those guys actually have personal support staff they’d travel with, physiotherapists and the like. Yes, you’d need at least a couple of top physios, an elite sports nutritionist maybe. If you could get the AIS on board, they’d probably send a couple of conditioning coaches up here. Make it a joint venture facility and you’d have plenty of custom, believe me. Hell, with a 50-metre pool, you might well get them holding training camps up here before major tournaments. Like a holiday but without actually taking a holiday from training…”

“Would you like to come take a look?” Jace said suddenly.

“Me?” Adam blinked.

“I showed you this on impulse, but you obviously know what you’re talking about, and I doubt there’s anyone else on the island who has direct experience of what professional-level training and sports rehab facilities should actually look like. I could fly in an expensive expert, and I probably will… but since you’re here, why not come take a look and tell me what you think?”

Why not? Adam shrugged. “Sure. When?”

“We could go now. Plenty of daylight and I have my own boat. Nessa can send out a search party if we’re not back before dark, won’t you, darling?”

“Of course.” Nessa had been listening to them with obvious amusement, leaning on the bar as they chatted. She shook her head at Jace as he leaned over the bar to kiss her. “Only you could have an expert just wander in and sit down next to you as you’re mulling over a problem.”

“I’m not an expert,” Adam disclaimed hastily.

“Probably the closest thing to it within a couple hundred miles.” Jace’s smile was easy. “Don’t stress, I’m not gonna make a billion-dollar decision based on your say-so alone.”

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