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Built for Adventure: The Classic Automobiles of Clive Cussler and Dirk Pitt
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Cussler, Clive, author. | Morrison, Boyd, author.
Title: Marauder : a novel of the Oregon files / Clive Cussler and Boyd Morrison.
Description: New York : G. P. Putnam’s Sons, [2020] | Series: Oregon files
Identifiers: LCCN 2020042842 (print) | LCCN 2020042843 (ebook) | ISBN 9780593087916 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780593087923 (ebook)
Subjects: GSAFD: Suspense fiction.
Classification: LCC PS3553.U75 M27 2020 (print) | LCC PS3553.U75 (ebook) | DDC 813/.54--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020042842
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020042843
Title page art: Balinese temple by Cocos.Bounty/Shutterstock.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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CONTENTS
Cover
Titles by Clive Cussler
Title Page
Copyright
Cast of Characters
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Chapter Forty-Five
Chapter Forty-Six
Chapter Forty-Seven
Chapter Forty-Eight
Chapter Forty-Nine
Chapter Fifty
Chapter Fifty-One
Chapter Fifty-Two
Chapter Fifty-Three
Chapter Fifty-Four
Chapter Fifty-Five
Chapter Fifty-Six
Chapter Fifty-Seven
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Chapter Fifty-Nine
Chapter Sixty
Chapter Sixty-One
Chapter Sixty-Two
Chapter Sixty-Three
Chapter Sixty-Four
Chapter Sixty-Five
Chapter Sixty-Six
Chapter Sixty-Seven
Chapter Sixty-Eight
Chapter Sixty-Nine
Chapter Seventy
Chapter Seventy-One
Chapter Seventy-Two
Chapter Seventy-Three
Chapter Seventy-Four
Chapter Seventy-Five
Chapter Seventy-Six
Epilogue
About the Authors
CAST OF CHARACTERS
THE CORPORATION
Juan Cabrillo—Chairman of the Corporation and captain of the Oregon.
Max Hanley—President of the Corporation, Juan’s second-in-command, and chief engineer of the Oregon.
Linda Ross—Vice President of Operations for the Corporation and U.S. Navy veteran.
Eddie Seng—Director of Shore Operations for the Corporation and former CIA agent.
Eric Stone—Chief helmsman on the Oregon and U.S. Navy veteran.
Mark “Murph” Murphy—Chief weapons officer on the Oregon and former U.S. military weapons designer.
Franklin “Linc” Lincoln—Corporation operative and former U.S. Navy SEAL.
Marion MacDougal “MacD” Lawless—Corporation operative and former U.S. Army Ranger.
Raven Malloy—Corporation operative and former U.S. Army Military Police investigator.
George “Gomez” Adams—Helicopter pilot and drone operator on the Oregon.
Hali Kasim—Chief communications officer on the Oregon.
Dr. Julia Huxley—Chief medical officer on the Oregon.
Kevin Nixon—Chief of the Oregon’s Magic Shop.
Maurice—Chief steward on the Oregon.
STRAIT OF MALACCA
Omar Jabal—Captain of the oil tanker Dahar.
Kersen—Terrorist leader.
Abdul Tanjung—Terrorist.
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
April Jin—Former intelligence officer in the Royal Australian Navy.
Angus Polk—Former commando and Australian Department of Defence analyst.
Lu Yang—Former stepfather of April Jin.
William Campbell—Lu’s attorney.
TIMOR SEA
Sylvia Chang—Scientist for the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
Roberta Jordan—Cook.
Lieutenant Commander Womack—Executive officer of the Ocean Protector.
BALI, INDONESIA
Sinduk—Terrorist leader.
Oliver Muñoz—Husband of Senator Maria Muñoz.
Elena Muñoz—Daughter of Senator Maria Muñoz.
Emily Schmidt—Wife of Senator Gunther Schmidt.
Kyle Schmidt—Son of Senator Gunther Schmidt.
AUSTRALIA
Leonard Thurman—Doctor at Royal Darwin Hospital.
Paul Wheatley—Electrician.
Harry Knoll—Electrician.
Sam Carter—Royal Australian Air Force airman.
Todd Wilson—Royal Australian Air Force airman.
Burt Gulman—Nhulunbuy harbormaster.
Sawyer—American hunter.
Bob Parsons—U.S. Marine and hovercraft pilot.
Renee Labelle—Friend of Parsons’.
Victor Ormond—Archaeologist.
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
Langston Overholt IV—The Corporation’s CIA liaison.
SHIP CREWS
Raymond Wilbanks—Captain of the Shepparton.
Gabriel Rathman—Captain of the Centaurus.
SHIPS
Salacia—Roman bireme.
Oregon—The Corporation’s flagship.
Dahar—Kuwaiti oil tanker.
Namaka—American research vessel.
Empiric—Australian research vessel.
Ocean Protector—Australian Defence Force vessel.
Marauder—Trimaran.
Shepparton—Australian cargo ship.
Marsh Flyer—Hovercraft transport.
Centaurus—Cargo ship.
Thai Navigator—Ore carrier.
ONE
STRAIT OF MALACCA
Captain Omar Rahal tracked the small boat racing across the placid waters of the narrow strait. It was approaching his California-bound oil tanker from dead ahead, and far too quickly to be a fishing boat. He’d tried to raise them on the radio, but there was no response. It meant only one thing.
Pirates.
Using his binoculars, he could see that the boat was full of men armed with guns, but there was nothing he could do to avoid them. The Dahar was more than 300 meters long, and the strait between Malaysia and the Indonesian island of Sumatra was barely three kilometers across at its narrowest point. The ponderous ship would be impossible to turn around, and the speedboat would easily outmaneuver any attempt to ram it.
“Increase to full speed,” he nevertheless told the executive officer. “We’re not going to make the Dahar an easy target.” Such high velocity for a ship as big as theirs was risky in these tight confines, even with calm seas, but he couldn’t let them hijack his ship without doing something.
As the XO ordered full power, Rahal activated the shipwide intercom. “Now hear this, men. We have hostiles off our bow. They are armed and mean to board us. Initiate emergency lockdowns and go to your action stations. Do not, I repeat, do not attempt to fight them.” He didn’t want any crew members to die on his watch.
The boat passed behind the bow of the Dahar so that Rahal could no longer see it. He went to the port bridge wing so he could watch for it over the side of the ship.
They came back into view, and he could now make out seven men clad in T-shirts and armed with automatic rifles. There had to be an eighth driving, hidden by the roof of the tiny wheelhouse. The boat circled around so it could match the tanker’s speed. Rahal spied a man holding an extendable ladder.
He called to the XO. “Activate the SSAS alarm.”
The XO flipped open a safety cover and pressed a large red button. The Ship Security Alert System was a silent alarm that contacted the ship’s base of operations to inform them that a hijacking was in progress. It ensured that the hijackers would not be warned that help had been summoned.
A few seconds later, the bridge phone rang. Rahal picked it up.
“This is Captain Rahal on the Dahar.”
“Captain, this is operations headquarters. We are calling to verify that you have an emergency in progress.”
“Affirmative. This is not a false alarm.” Rahal recited the code sequence verifying his identity. “Seven or eight armed men are preparing to board us.”
“Understood. We have your position and will contact the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency and the Indonesian Sea and Coast Guard. Stay on the line as long as you can. Are there any ships in your vicinity that could render aid?”
“What do we have on our
radar?” Rahal asked the XO.
The XO peered at the radar screen and shook his head in dismay. “The closest vessel looks to be a freighter thirty kilometers behind us.”
“Even if we stop, it would take her two hours to get here,” Rahal spoke into the phone. “What’s my ETA on the Coast Guard?”
“The MMEA is scrambling a helicopter in Johor, but the soonest they’ll make it to you is ninety minutes. Stay calm and do not resist the hijackers. Help is on the way.”
Rahal smirked at the XO. “‘Help is on the way,’ he says.”
“We’re going to need it,” the XO replied, pointing down at the deck.
The top of the ladder poked above the railing. Rahal dropped the phone and ran out to the bridge wing again. While some of the hijackers had their weapons trained on the railing in case anyone tried to push it away, others began climbing up, several of them carrying large backpacks in addition to their weapons. When seven of them were on deck, they ran toward the superstructure at the rear of the ship.
Rahal got back on the phone. “Headquarters, I have to hang up now. The hostiles are approaching the bridge.”
“Good luck, Captain.”
Rahal tried to calm himself for the sake of the rest of the bridge crew, but his insides felt like pudding. He hadn’t been this shaken since the Iraqis invaded his native Kuwait when he was a teenager working on a fishing boat.
A few moments later, he heard feet pounding up the stairs.
“No sudden moves,” Rahal said to his men.
The door was flung open, and three Southeast Asian men burst onto the bridge with their weapons at the ready.
“Don’t shoot,” Rahal said in English with his hands in the air. “We’re unarmed.”
A lean and wiry man with scarred flesh where his left ear should have been stepped forward with a menacing grin. He didn’t have the rotted teeth of a drug-using robber. This man was a trained professional.
“You are Captain Rahal?” the man said in Indonesian-accented Arabic.
“Yes,” Rahal replied in the same language, surprised that the man knew his name. “What do you want?”
“I want your ship. Now I have it.”
“And my crew?”
One of the hijackers went to the controls and set the engines to full stop.
Marauder (The Oregon Files) Page 1
