The Devil's Waters

by David L. Robbins

  Wally worked his bandaged arm. “Like before. On my mark, Doc and Mouse open both doors. Quincy and Dow toss flash-bangs. When they blow, Quincy, Doc, LB, and me assault the bridge. Mouse and Dow backstop the starboard wing. Sandoval, Jamie, copy?”

  “Juggler, go.”

  “You both in position on the floor below?”

  “Roger.”

  “You cover the back door. After the bridge is secure, we’ll alert Nicholas and get that drone to stand down. Then we’ll mop up. Assault team, listen up. This is vital. Mind the hostages. But taking the bridge is our priority. Move fast, shoot to kill. Confirm.”

  Quincy rounded an okay sign. Doc shook his head and spoke on the freq for the team to hear.

  “I got to say something.”

  “Go.”

  “It’s not the same as before. The pirates know something’s up now. The second we toss in canisters, what if someone in there panics and pulls a trigger? It might turn into a slaughter before we can stop it.”

  LB checked his watch: 0154, sixteen minutes left. He readied the Zastava.

  Doc finished. “I just wanted to say it, that this could go bad fast. We’re all thinking it.”

  “Thanks, Doc. Everybody. On my mark.”

  LB thumbed his talk button. “Captain.”

  Wally gazed at LB through his NVGs. He lowered his head. The radio caught Wally’s exasperated sigh before he said, “What?”

  LB lifted his hands off the Serb gun. “I got another idea.”

  Chapter 44

  When the elevator opened at F deck, Yusuf leaped out. He swept the hall with the Kalashnikov, taking nothing for granted on this ship. Satisfied, he climbed the last flight of stairs to the bridge. He pushed the door open carefully, calling out in English.

  “Guleed, it’s Yusuf.”

  The young Darood was the first to spin his gun to Yusuf’s voice. His eyes were white and wild when Yusuf approached through the dark.

  “What were those blasts?” Guleed urged. “What’s going on? Where’s Suleiman?”

  “Soldiers.” Drozdov spoke from the middle of his sailors beneath the windshield. All the Russians and Filipinos sat upright around him. Drozdov got to his feet. Guleed threatened him with the rifle.

  “I said no talking, old man. Sit down.”

  “That is not you speaking, boy, is your gun. Step aside. Let the men talk.”

  Guleed’s breathing accelerated, some action rising in him. Yusuf settled him with a strong hand to the shoulder, walking him away from the other guards.

  “I will talk to the captain. Stay ready.” Yusuf lowered his voice. “He’s right. There are soldiers on board. We’re the only ones left.”

  “What do you mean, the only ones?”

  “There’s been fighting. We still control the hostages and the ship. We will make it if you keep your head. Yes?”

  Guleed’s shoulder collapsed under Yusuf’s grip. “All dead?”

  Suleiman is not dead, Yusuf wanted to say, but could not with certainty. “Don’t tell the others. Guard the hostages.” He motioned Drozdov away from the windshield.

  The twin radar screens outlined the Somali coast thirty miles ahead. The ship’s speed and course kept steady. Yusuf waited for Drozdov in the dim glow from the dashboard. Guleed resumed his pacing. The other pirates jutted their guns at the hostages, unsure of what was happening, certain only that these captured sailors were their protection from it.

  “All dead, indeed?” Drozdov asked.

  “Fifteen of my men. Everywhere around the deck.”

  “Surrender. You will live.”

  Yusuf looked away from the pocked Russian to the bow, the far-off beacon on its mast.

  “Minutes ago, my cousin told me we must fight.”

  “And where is he now? One of the dead?”

  “Careful, Captain.”

  “Da.” Drozdov patted his arm. “Careful, Yusuf Raage.”

  The Russian turned without being dismissed. He sat among his crew. The sailors on both sides whispered urgent questions. Drozdov waved them off.

  Yusuf moved to the captain’s chair. He stood behind it, eyeing the dials and radar images of the dash. He was not master of the Valnea. He was a captive as much as Drozdov. Worse. He’d led fifteen clansmen who’d trusted him to their deaths. Before the sun rose there could be more.

  In the heart of these thoughts, a soft whistle of wind tugged Yusuf’s attention to the port door. The Kalashnikov rattled into his hands. Guleed halted his frantic pacing.

  The guard outside on the wing did not enter the bridge. The door opened only inches, then stopped.

  Something dark skidded across the floor. Yusuf could not make it out clearly and in surprise could not jump away or shout a warning.

  The thing struck his sandaled foot. Yusuf braced for an explosion. He tried to capture a last thought. He pictured his home, the view of the sea.

  The rush of air quit, the port door shut. At Yusuf’s feet the small box did not explode. Yusuf’s unclenching was almost painful.

  Yusuf added the guard on the port wing to the tally of dead.

  He bent for the box. Guleed screamed to leave it alone. The other gunners around Guleed shoved their weapons into the hostages’ midst, yelling too. Yusuf out-bellowed them to be silent. They settled enough to be quietly tense, guns stirring among the hostages. Guleed’s pacing increased, back and forth across Drozdov and the cringing crew.

  Yusuf lifted the walkie-talkie. He pressed the button to speak.

  “Yes.”

  “How good is your English?”

  “Better than your Somali. Who is this?”

  Outside the port door window, a flashlight struck. The beam played upward across a face made shadowy and otherworldly against the night.

  “First Sergeant Gus DiNardo. United States Air Force. You?”

  “Yusuf Raage.”

  The garish head bobbed, the civil greeting of an enemy.

  “We need to talk, Yusuf.”

  With a sweeping hand, Yusuf motioned to the twenty-five hostages and five other armed men this sergeant surely knew about even if he could not see the gesture.

  “Why?”

  One by one, like lanterns, more faces materialized out of the black. Three soldiers emerged beside the sergeant, two others lit on the starboard wing.

  So another guard lay dead.

  “That’s why. And I got two more on the floor below you.”

  Yusuf lowered the radio, then raised it. “Where is my cousin?”

  “Gold teeth?”

  “Yes.”

  “He’s dead.”

  Yusuf fought against himself to hold his place inside the bridge, to not rush this soldier and drive his knife deep enough to feel the man’s heart stop on the blade.

  The American said, “We need to talk fast.”

  Yusuf returned the radio to his lips. “Of course, Sergeant. Come inside.”

  Chapter 45

  Wally spoke straight into LB’s face, without broadcasting to the team or the pirate.

  “No.”

  Wally gave the next order over the radio. “Team, lights out.”

  The hovering heads on both wings extinguished. Dow and Quincy lowered their NVGs over their eyes. Quincy crept to the window to help Dow keep an eye inside the bridge, weapons ready.

  LB checked the time. Twelve minutes left.

  Wally, again off the team freq, said, “You got two minutes.”

  LB lifted the M4 strap over his head. Before he could lay the gun on the deck, Wally thrust his bandaged arm to stop him.

  “I said no.”

  “I got to go in there. I can talk them out.”

  “Do it from here. Use the radio, like we said.”

  “For Christ’s sake, he wants me inside. I can do it; I know I can.”

  “Listen to me. We’re not hostage negotiators. We’ve got a mission. You have two minutes to talk them out of the bridge. Then we go in and get them. If you lack the stomach for that,
stay out here. Start talking now, or I give the go.”

  LB slipped his rifle back across his shoulders. Wally joined Quincy and Doc kneeling at the port window.

  LB peered through his NVGs for one more look inside the dark bridge. Five frantic pirates and five guns menaced the huddled hostages. Big Yusuf Raage stood in the center of the bridge behind the captain’s chair, holding the spare walkie-talkie Doc had slid inside.

  Doc was right. A single wrong move, and this would turn into a bloodbath.

  LB lifted the goggles. He flicked on his flashlight again, training it under his chin, upward over his face as before, to talk to the pirate in plain view. He thumbed the PTT.

  “Yusuf.”

  “Yes.”

  “I can’t come inside.”

  “I understand. It would not have been good for you.”

  “I’ve got two minutes to convince you that you’re all going to die.”

  “I don’t believe you, Sergeant. You would not sacrifice the hostages.”

  “We would. I know you’ve seen what’s on this ship. Down in the cargo hold, I was there. I saw you and Drozdov.”

  “Very good. That is a lot of machines.”

  “About five billion dollars’ worth, all of it state-of-the-art.”

  “All going to Iran. Yes, I know this.”

  “Then you know it’s an illegal shipment. Four different countries, mine included, do not want you to keep this boat. Hostages or not.”

  “Those are harsh orders, Sergeant.”

  “For everybody. So come out. Let’s call it a night.”

  “What if I fight you?”

  “Listen to me. Even if you win, you lose. In ten minutes, the United States government’s going to blow this ship to the bottom if we don’t have control of it. There’s a drone over our heads right now with weapons locked.”

  “Again, I don’t believe you.”

  “Look behind me, Yusuf. You see the American warship?”

  “Yes.”

  “It’s turned around.”

  “Yes. It has.”

  “They’ve got orders, too. No witnesses. I’m not lying. We’re all dead, the hostages, you, me, if we don’t settle this fast. If we have to come in for you, I swear, you and your men will not survive. You’ve seen what we can do.”

  “Yes.”

  “So end it. Give your men and the hostages their lives back. You and me, too. I’ll be honest, I don’t want to come in there to get you.”

  Off the radio, Wally said, “Time.”

  “Yusuf, what’s your answer?”

  Inside the bridge, the pirate lowered the radio. Wally stepped beside LB. He drew his hand under his chin—out of time.

  LB shut off the flashlight.

  Wally circled a finger in the air for Quincy and Dow. Ready.

  Dow snuck his arm up to the portal handle. Quincy readied a flashbang.

  LB dropped his NVGs in place. In the starboard window, Mouse and Dow watched from their dark wing. LB took a knee, Wally knelt beside him. Wally held up a fist, as per the plan, marking thirty seconds.

  The team freq hissed.

  “Sergeant?”

  “Yeah, Yusuf.”

  “Can you see me in the dark?”

  “We all can.”

  “Then watch.”

  Chapter 46

  Yusuf approached the seated hostages. A few shied from him, shinnying away. In the center, Drozdov held firm.

  Yusuf knelt before Drozdov. “Captain. I need one of your men. You pick. Or I will.”

  Drozdov’s gray sockets and sunken cheeks might have branded him a ghost to Suleiman.

  “No,” the captain said. “This is not the way.”

  Yusuf stood to look across the seamen. The Filipinos in dungarees and T-shirts lowered their eyes from him, wanting nothing to do with sacrifice. The Russian officers in slacks and buttoned shirts crowded about Drozdov as if closeness to his courage might save them from Yusuf’s choosing. The two guards in their black sweaters sat separate, distancing themselves from these sailors and their concerns.

  Yusuf considered the fat first mate, Grisha. This one looked like he would blubber. Already Yusuf knew him to be a traitor. He needed a more sympathetic figure.

  The Filipinos were small and too many.

  A lanky officer shifted to his knees to stand, muttering, “Sparcai-m-ash in ciorba lu ma-ta.”

  Drozdov reached to stop him. “Razvan, no.” The officer shoved his captain’s hand away and straightened.

  Yusuf moved close to this tall officer. “What did you say to me, Russian?”

  “I will shit in your mother’s soup.” He spat. “And I am Romanian, pirate.”

  Before Yusuf could take this one by the arm, Drozdov struggled to his feet to confront his tall crewman.

  “Sit, Chief. That is order.”

  The Romanian curled his lips and winced, holding back another spit. He took his seat.

  Drozdov walked away from Yusuf, again without instructions. He rounded the long dashboard to stand in the glow of his dials and screens, lit by his ship.

  Dramatically, Drozdov spread his hands. Yusuf pushed talk on the radio and held it up to Drozdov so the Americans could hear him.

  “Three years I have been dying slow death from pirates. Drinking, stupid, angry. Day after day. So let’s go, Yusuf Raage. Kill me all at once instead of these little bits. Po hooy. I don’t fucking care.”

  Yusuf raised the Kalashnikov to his shoulder. At the same time he brought the radio close to his lips.

  “You are listening?”

  “Yes.”

  “Take your men off the wings. Now. Or I will shoot the captain. I will kill another every minute until you leave or you kill me.”

  “Yusuf, I’m not bluffing. I can’t.”

  “Take a moment, Sergeant. Be sure.”

  “I haven’t got a moment. Neither do you. Put the gun down.”

  On both dark ends of the bridge, the doors unsealed. The wind whistled again.

  At the end of the Kalashnikov, Drozdov dropped his arms.

  Yusuf had run through the blood of his clansmen, sworn to walk through Robow’s in revenge. In the next seconds, there would be more blood at his feet, the hostages’, Guleed’s, his own, perhaps the Americans’. Air gushed into the bridge from the doors cracking open; the soldiers would be next to rush in. They would spill all to take this ship and their machines back. Suleiman had not slowed them. Yusuf could not stop them.

  The American had said it. If Yusuf did not surrender, he was a dead man. If he did give up, if he betrayed his clan, his vows, Qandala, his kin, he would surely be a living dead man.

  There was only one choice. Spill one man’s blood. It may stop more. It had worked before.

  The radio said, “One last time. Put all your guns down. Come out.”

  Guleed shook his head in fast, frightened trembles. “They’ll kill us.”

  The port door opened wide enough for a big soldier, eyes hidden behind goggles, to fill the frame. The soldier did not enter but pointed his weapon at Guleed’s back.

  Yusuf screamed at the soldier, “No!”

  His Kalashnikov flamed inside the dark bridge.

  Drozdov shuddered, every round of the long blast tearing him until he buckled at the foot of the captain’s chair.

  Chapter 47

  LB yanked Quincy out of the doorway and down. Doc slammed the door just before a burst from an AK shattered the window-pane. Bullets blistered over their heads, banging the rail. Glass shards showered the ducking PJs.

  “Now!” Wally’s radio voice cut across the gunfire. “Throw!”

  From his back, Quincy pulled the pin to toss a flashbang through the busted window. LB shut his eyes behind the goggles and clapped hands over his ears.

  The first detonation thumped deep in the steel. A second followed instantly.

  Quincy scrambled off the deck, quick as a tiger. LB opened his eyes, gathering himself to move fast. Doc pulled the door wid
e open. Coils of smoke spilled out. Wally bulled into the cloud first, his M4 immediately sparking. Quincy moved in his wake, angling toward the windshield and hostages. LB jumped to his feet to rush into the bridge.

  His goggles pierced the mist, every detail left hazy but identifiable. Emerald beams slashed back and forth, searching. The last traces of the grenades’ roars rang in the metal surfaces. Near the windshield, a Somali staggered, stunned and blind. From ten feet away Quincy pinned his chest with the IR beam, put a fast pop on the dot, then plugged him again as he fell. Another Somali lurched near the hostages, hunched and holding his head. Before LB could target this one, the pirate pulled his trigger to loose a wild arc of bullets, intending to die firing into the hostages. All of the sailors pressed chests to the floor, flattened by the grenades and gunfire. The pirate had no bearings in the smoke, deaf to the hostages shrieking at his feet. His first volley dented the wall behind them and blasted out a windshield pane, spattering glass on the crew. LB whipped his IR beam to the pirate’s chest and fired. The Somali wobbled from two speed rounds to the breast but did not go down. Fading, the pirate lowered the gun’s muzzle as his last act and raked the gun blazing into the hostages. From the chart table, Doc finished him with two more rounds to the rib cage. The Kalashnikov fell silent with the pirate. With more Somalis alive on the bridge, LB tore his attention from the wailing, injured hostages.

  Bathed in the lights of the dashboard, another stumbling pirate went down to Wally’s M4. Folding to his knees, the pirate let off a quick burst. Across the room Quincy whirled, stung. LB put two more rounds in the dropping pirate from close range. This last Somali collapsed in a heap beside the first pirate killed when Wally charged the room.

  The bridge echoed like a spent bell. The PJs stabbed their targeting beams into every corner of the room. A dark ooze spread into the Somalis’ blouses, drizzling onto the deck. The hostages moaned or shouted urgently through the chemical haze, unable to hear or see. Doc hustled to them, skidding on his kneepads to assess casualties. “Quincy,” he yelled, “med rucks!” Big Quincy, shaking blood off his left hand, bolted for the port wing’s shot-up door.