by Tom Stern
Kelley went to the bleeding pirate. Slid the knife from his gut. Blood spurted. Kelley knew a gut wound was one of the worst ways to go. Organs held fluids that were poisonous to the rest of the body. When released, they dumped into the bloodstream like a toxic oil spill. Only immediate medical attention could save someone with a wound like that from a slow and agonizing demise.
And this fucking pirate wasn’t even gonna get a band-aid, if Kelley could help it.
“Who’s your boss?” Kelley asked. The pirate hacked up blood. “I said who’s your fucking boss! You wanna live, you tell me. Are you one of King Pirate’s crews?”
The dying pirate nodded. Kelley pressed, “Who’s your direct superior? Dilip Gaur or Yap Chew?”
The pirate didn’t answer. Kelley shook him. Showed him the knife. “You want death quick or slow, asshole? Who’s your direct superior? Dilip Gaur or Yap Chew?”
“Dilip.”
“Thank you.”
His sea wolves found Kelley. They gathered around. The fight was over. “Anybody left?” They shook their heads. Kelley knew any wounded pirates had been finished. They looked down at this last one.
Kelley fished through the man’s pockets. Found his cell phone. This Kelley kept. Found a wallet. Money. This he gave to Tsung, who stood behind him. Found pictures of a family. Women and children. An old couple, probably parents. These he gave back to the pirate. The man clutched them with bloody hands to his chest. He wept, even as he winced at the pain knifing through his body at ever-increasing levels.
Kelley said, “Throw him overboard.” They did. Kelley listened to the splash. One more crewman for Davey Jones.
“Back to the pirate’s ship. We’re taking her and leaving.”
The sea wolves suddenly muttered, confused and upset. Kelley turned back. Tsung said, “What about the safe?”
“What safe?”
“The Chrysanthemum. Her ship’s safe.”
Kelley grimaced. “We’re privateers, not pirates. We’re only taking whatever’s on the pirate ship.”
The men became furious. Shouting at Kelley in a dozen languages. He held up and his hands and yelled: “Ho! Wait! What is it?”
Ping Leung, smallest of the brothers, said: “We signed up to become rich. You said we’d be rich!”
“There’ll be plenty on the pirate ship.”
A Chinese tong said, “Where do you think they got their cargo? Presents?”
Another man said, “We’ll take it all!”
Kelley opened his mouth, ready to shout these assholes down for insubordination. Tsung caught him by the arm. Said low in a furious whisper, “These men risked their lives. They want something to show for it. If you don’t give it to them, it’s as good as saying their lives are worth nothing to you.”
“I said they could – “
“No. Everything. If you stand in their way, even if they don’t throw you overboard, you’ll lose them the first time we call to port. Word’ll spread, and you’ll never get another crew together. You’ll be back at square one. And there’ll be no one to stop King Pirate.”
Kelley stared hard into Tsung’s face. Finally went back to the men and told them: “Get it. The safe. Everything.”
The sea wolves cheered their captain for seeing reason. They headed for the safe.
Kelley and Tsung were silent for a moment. Then Kelley said, “This is a slippery slope. This is only step one. I’m taking the easy way out of a tough situation. The next time the men will know I’ll give. And the next, and the next. Until, before I know it, we’re all working for King Pirate.”
“No, Kelley. You’re compromising for the greater goal. In a powerful wind, it isn’t the stiff oak tree that survives. It’s the reed that bends.”
Kelley smiled. “When did you get profound?”
Tsung laughed at that. “A guy can’t hang around you for long without picking up some of this haiku shit.”
Kelley slowly lost his grin. “It isn’t a hobby, Tsung. That ‘shit’ is the only thing keeping me sane.”
“You gotta relax, man. What the hell? You’ve just taken down your first pirate ship, without a single loss! Gotta count for something, huh?”
Tsung was right. But Kelley worried, anyway. Once fed, the beast in his soul would only want more.
…
“What am I going to do with twenty thousand computers?” Kelley was talking to Cuchulain over the satellite phone.
“What kind?”
“What difference, what kind? I want them off my ship.”
“Did you get money?”
“Yes.” Kelley left out the fact that a lot of the money had come from the safe of the ship the pirates were attacking. “The computers, Cuchulain.”
“Where are they?”
“On the pirate’s ship. We took it.”
A long pause. And: “That was stupid.”
“I wanted to leave as little behind as possible, Cuchulain,” Kelley said. “The whole fucking crew was dead. I didn’t want anything there but a ship.”
“What’ja do with the crew’s bodies?”
“Left ‘em there. The ShipLok activated. Someone should be on the way, right?”
“Aye, lad. Now, this booty.”
“Don’t call it that – “
“Your ‘extra cargo,’ then. Keep an eye on your phone. I’ll send yeh coordinates in a text file.”
“Coordinates to where?”
“An island. Out of the way, like Pulau Malak. Ah’ll check IPC’s satellites and make sure no one’s there to greet you. Though I’d be surprised if that were the case.”
“Why there?”
“All these questions!”
“Yeah, and I’ll have a fuck of a lot more until we’re through,” Kelley said. “Just tell me.”
“I’m sending someone to pick it up. The ship, the booty, everything.”
“And then what?”
“And then nothin’. You don’t even have to wait for ‘em. Just dump it an’ go.”
“What happens to it?”
“Ah’ll take it into IPC custody. We’ll use the pirate ship’s computers and lading to find out where everything came from,” Cuchulain said. “There’s more’n one way to fight King Pirate. The more we know about his patterns, where the crews go, what they take and what they do and why, the closer we’ll get to shutting down his operations for good. Me’n Anastasia hit ‘im legal, you hit ‘im extra-legal. We’ll squeeze him to death. No safe harbor. Nowhere to run.”
Kelley was silent.
“What’re you worried about, brohim?”
“Nothing,” Kelley lied. “I’ll drop off the ship, all the shit on it. But, uh… not the cash. I have to give that to the men.”
Cuchulain chortled. “Of course yeh do. Don’t let it concern you. I’m well aware you need a certain kind of man on that ship.”
“How’s Anastasia?” Kelley didn’t want Cuchulain knowing he was calling her on this phone.
“She’s fine, Kelley. Don’t worry about her. She’s workin’ off her debt. When this King Pirate business is in the past, yeh both’ll have my blessin’.”
“Warms my heart.”
Kelley hung up.
Tsung drifted into the room, pretending he hadn’t been eavesdropping. “Where’re we going, skip?”
The phone beeped. Kelley checked the LCD. Held it up for Tsung to see. “Make for these coordinates. We’re ditching the evidence.”
…
They pulled into the dark lagoon. Three in the morning. Moon shining off water black as an oil slick.
It was an island just northwest of Pulau Karimunbesar. From the air, it would look like a laughing Easter Island statue, with Kelley and his ships in its mouth. Close enough to Singapore’s waters that Kelley wondered how far Cuchulain’s influence really reached.
The untrusting animal in Kelley expected to see IPC raiding choppers crest the forest at any moment. Was it an elaborate trap? For what possible reason?
His se
a wolves weighed anchor on the pirate ship. They wanted to take some of the computers. Kelley drew the line. They were traceable. He wouldn’t let them loot the cargo hold. They had plenty of cash, and that was enough.
Between the Chrysanthemum and the pirate ship, they’d netted several hundred thousand worth of ringgit, yen and dollars, both U.S. and Singapore. It was a good haul. Kelley didn’t take a share, despite the protests of his crew. He wasn’t in this for the money. And he was nervous about where he would go if it ever did become about the money for him. Besides, Cuchulain was taking care of the financial angle.
Kelley kept a sharp eye and ear on the maritime news. The Chrysanthemum had been found. All hands dead. The media correctly assumed it was a pirate attack. They were stunned at the carnage. It was rare for pirates to kill more than was necessary; too much death cut into their ransom profits.
Kelley had been wondering the same thing. He asked Tsung about it, who told him, “Word’s getting around the ports about what happens if King Pirate doesn’t get his ransom. These men know if their family can afford it or not. If they can’t, they’ll fight to the death.”
“Seems foolish to put civilians on a death ground for a few extra dollars.”
“We’re not talking about a reasonable man. We’re talking about King Pirate. He’s as evil as evil gets.”
They left behind the pirate ship and the computers. Kelley directed the Yurei out to deep sea. It wasn’t until they were well away from the scene that he finally let his men celebrate their victory.
Out came the sake. Kelley had made sure there was plenty in the stores. His crew also brought out their stashes of weed and hash. Within moments, a sweet cloud hovered over the Yurei’s decks. Every time a sea breeze blew it away, Kelley’s men reformed it.
Kelley dove in with the rest of them. He wanted to kill his lingering doubts and concerns, at least for a little while. It was difficult. Always before, he’d been just a hand, with no responsibility beyond his given duties. Now he was captain. He had to keep the ship and the crew in mind at every moment. It prevented him from indulging in the wild abandon he was used to, and craved. At the same time, he felt a pleasure in himself he’d never quite encountered before.
It was self-respect.
Even more than his philosophies and iron will, respect held his demons in check. It was a civilizing force, inside and outside. Kelley squinted through the haze at his crew. Already knowing he’d give his life to protect these men who had followed him into hell’s jaws and come back alive based solely on their belief in him.
Dao Jia came to sit by him. “You’re a million miles away, Kelley.”
“Just thinking.”
“About what?”
Anastasia. Instead, Kelley said, “The next raid.”
“You shouldn’t be worried. The first one went off without a problem. No men lost. Only one man wounded. I hear the men wanted to keep the computers, but don’t worry about that. The cash is more than enough, for now.” She guided his face to meet hers. “You did good, Kelley.”
They were face-to-face. Both drunk and stoned, high on adventure and success. For the first time, Kelley could tell Dao Jia really wanted him. He saw it in her eyes, her come-hither grin.
“I’ve never seen this side of you.”
She knew what he meant. “I couldn’t bring my husband and baby back, so I held onto them. In my heart. There was nothing I could do. What I am besides Dao Jia? But now, you’ve given me a way to strike back and get revenge. Every step we take against King Pirate is another step away from my past. I still love them, but you’ve finally given me a way out of my own grief. My life is finally worth living again. I can move forward. I have a future.” She moved closer. “And I want to thank you.”
He couldn’t do it with Anastasia on his mind and Tsung in shouting distance. Kelley smiled and kissed her forehead and got up to get another drink. She watched after him. Kelley got twenty feet away. Stopped. Wrestling with temptation. He turned around.
She had pulled the mask back down over her face. She was gone. On an emotional North Pole. Kelley went away.
…
In the southern quadrant of the Malacca Strait, closer to Singapore than KL.
Kelley was back on the satellite phone with Cuchulain. “We’ve been chasing blips for a week, and nothing. I need some info. I need you to gimme some leads.”
“Leads?”
“Don’t play stupid. I’ve seen the intel on his patterns. King Pirate’s the best there’s ever been. You know he’s paying for inside info on cargos, ships, departure times and routes. His guys aren’t hitting a ship just to get surprised. They know who has what, and where the ships’ll be.”
“Don’t see yer point, Kelley.”
“I need to know the same things. If I’m going to hurt this guy, I need to hit the raids he’s counting on. Otherwise, I’m just wandering around with my dick in my hand, hoping a pussy falls in my lap.”
“What you’re asking for is proprietary corporate information.”
“Don’t gimme that shit! I know you’ve got a finger in every pie. Are you telling me you don’t have guys on the inside of the shipping companies? Blow me. What the fuck did you send me out here for, if you’re not going to help?”
“You’re forgettin’ I’m still the head of the IPC, a law enforcement agency. I’m willin’ to do what needs doin’, but I’m under a set of eyes. There’s only so much I can pull at any one time.”
“Then get someone in your network to help you,” Kelley barked. “I need this intel, or I’m coming back in and walking away. You got that?”
Cuchulain laughed. Kelley hung up on him before he said anything he would regret.
Tsung came in, eavesdropping again. Kelley spun on him. “You gotta listen to every conversation I have up here?”
“If you want me to be your first mate, then get used to it. A good first mate knows the skip better than he knows himself.”
“Goddamn right.”
“You think that intel’s gonna be what we need?”
“That and more. King Pirate has one of the biggest criminal enterprises in the world. Even if we hit a hundred ships, it’ll just wound him. I’m out here to kill. I want every hit to be critical. I want him damning the day I was born.”
“Doesn’t everybody who meets you?”
Kelley laughed. It broke the tension.
Tsung said: “Attract that kind of attention, and he might come after us.”
“Even better. It’ll save me a trip.”
…
Once again, Cuchulain came through.
“Don’t ask me where it came from,” he said. “Check your in-box. Print it, and erase it. There’ll be a bit of an electronic trail. But let’s keep it to a minimum, shall we, lad?”
Kelley agreed. Thirty minutes later, the printer in his captain’s quarters spat out a hundred pages per minute. It went on for a while. When it was done, Kelley erased the files, erased the emails from his deleted box, emptied the recycle bin.
Kelley told Tsung not to hassle him unless it was an emergency. He didn’t care if it took hours or days or weeks. Here, at last, was a real sign post on his path to King Pirate’s door.
Just as he’d done with the files at IPC, Kelley locked the door, collected all of the information, sat down in front of it and entered the no-mind state.
…
“Oil tankers.”
“That’s it?”
“Of course not,” Kelley told Tsung. “But that’s at the top of the list. Five hits in the past forty-five days. All of them collected at the co-join of the littoral states. King Pirate must have a base somewhere near.”
“What’d you do to my sister?”
That threw Kelley. “Nothing. What’re you talking about?”
“She’s all pissed off at you all of a sudden,” Tsung said. “Instead of just ‘Kelly,’ now it’s ‘That Son-of-a-Bitch Kelley.’”
“In front of the men?!” Kelley felt fury risin
g.
“No, no, no. Not like that. To me. Figured it was personal. But, you know. She’s my sister, but she’s still a woman. I never know what’s up with her.”
Kelley thought about his answer for a second before he said, “Yeah, it’s personal. Maybe she thought there were something there that wasn’t.”
“Ah,” Tsung said. He almost said, Why not? But Tsung knew a man like Kelley always has his reasons. And he’s not a guy to fuck around with. An uncomfortable beat passed between them. Dao Jia was Tsung’s sister, after all. He swiftly brought the subject back to business: “What could they do with oil tankers? Awfully big prize to hide.”
Dao Jia chose that exact moment to come into the captain’s quarters.
Kelley shot her a look. “Don’t you knock?”
Dao Jia reached back and knocked on the door frame. “Can I come in?”
Kelley impatiently waved her in. “How much did you hear out in the hall?”
“Only the stuff you guys wouldn’t mind me hearing.”
Damn, she was sharp. Kelley found himself liking her again. He shook it off. Anastasia…
Kelley continued: “They must have a deal. If I had to guess, it’s getting transferred to legitimate tankers and sold on the black market.”
Tsung absorbed that. Dao Jia said, “What else?”
“In terms of cargo, it’s high-value raw materials like the logs on the Atlas, or it’s finished goods like the computers.”
“No cruise ships?”
“Not yet,” Kelley said. “They’re a potential gold mine in ransom money. But I think King Pirate knows hitting a boat load of civilians will call down the serious heat. A mass-hostage situation is a news story. Heisted cargo is just an insurance statistic.”
“Until too many crewmen die fighting for their lives.”
“Perhaps. King Pirate’s getting more daring every day, but he’s not stupid.”
