by Matt Lincoln
His eyes were still flitting between Holm and me, as though he couldn’t decide where he should look. He seemed so scared, and I felt bad about having to question him. At the same time, there was something about his reaction that seemed a little too extreme. Then again, people reacted to trauma differently. Some even became hostile and violent. I’d reserve judgment for now, but I made sure to keep the thought tucked into the back of my mind.
“We wanted to ask you a few questions about what happened,” I replied as I took a seat on the empty cot in front of him. “We want to find out why those men attacked the ship you were on. The best way to do that would be to get as much information as we can from the people who were there.”
“You… you’re trying to find out why the boat went down?” he muttered, some of the tension easing out of his shoulders.
“Yes,” I replied warily. There was something odd about his tone in the way he’d asked me that, but I couldn’t quite place what it was. Relief? In any case, he seemed to be getting calmer.
“Okay.” He nodded slowly, his tight grip easing so some of the color returned to his hands. “What… what did you want to know?”
“How about we start from the beginning?” Holm suggested as he took a seat beside me. “We heard that the ship was flying an American flag when it initially approached you. Is that right?”
“Yes,” he replied quietly. “We got some radio transmissions from them, in English. They said that they’d been attacked by pirates and needed help. Medical assistance. We couldn’t just turn our backs on them.”
“You’re right. You couldn’t,” I agreed. It was actually Maritime law that ships which received a signal from a boat in distress were duty-bound to provide assistance. That was probably why the lieutenant had looked so disgusted earlier and even now. To send out a fake distress signal only to attack the responding ship was a scummy thing to do.
“So, the captain ordered you to respond?” Holm asked.
“Oh, well, not exactly,” Lieu replied.
“What do you mean?” I frowned in confusion.
“He, uh…” Lieu replied awkwardly. “Well, he was in his cabin at the time. The first mate gave the order to respond. I was actually on my way down to inform him of what was going on when suddenly I heard some of the crew yelling on the main deck. Suddenly, everyone was talking about guns and how we were under attack. It all happened so fast.”
He was tense again, breathing hard as he recalled everything that had happened during the attack. He definitely wasn’t faking his horrified reaction, but I still couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something he wasn’t telling us.
“So, they didn’t say anything as they were attacking you?” I asked, watching him carefully to see what his reaction would be.
“No!” he exclaimed. “Well, they were talking, I think. I could hear yelling once I got out onto the deck to get into one of the lifeboats. I couldn’t understand what they were saying, though. They spoke English when they were calling for help, but it wasn’t English they were speaking after.”
“Alright,” I replied. He didn’t seem like he was lying, so why did I still have this odd feeling something wasn’t adding up? “So they attacked you unprovoked. Mr. Lieu, is there any reason you can think of that would cause them to attack you like that?”
“Huh?” He gaped at me, his face turning a shade paler. “Um, well, no. I mean… I have no idea. Like I said, they didn’t even make any demands or anything. They asked us for help and then started firing bombs at us.”
There it was. That tiny hint of something in his voice that I couldn’t quite place. He was nervous, that much was obvious, but I wasn’t so sure it was because of the experience he’d just gone through.
Nevertheless, I couldn’t just go around making baseless accusations based on a gut feeling, no matter how sure I was that this guy was holding something back.
“What kind of cargo were you transporting on that ship?” I asked on a hunch.
His reaction to my question was instantaneous. His shoulders went rigid, and a small crease appeared between his brows. Something about the question had struck a nerve.
“It was mostly household goods,” he replied. “Pretty much all of it was the property of some big box store here in the States. You know, furniture, appliances, that kind of stuff. Nothing valuable, just normal stuff.”
“Everything has value to someone,” I muttered as I observed his reaction. He was fidgeting nervously as he spoke, and he wasn’t looking me in the eye anymore. “There was obviously something about the boat that drew their attention.”
“You would think,” Marsh scoffed from behind me. “So, why didn’t they take anything?”
I tried my best to hide my irritation at his remark. Lieu had seemed to be getting more and more anxious as I spoke. I had been trying to lure him into talking, but it seemed as though the lieutenant’s remark had set him at ease again.
“Yeah,” Lieu mumbled. “They would have tried to take something if it was the cargo they wanted, right? Maybe they were just crazy, bad people.”
“Yeah, maybe,” I replied suspiciously.
“Um… was there anything else you needed?” Lieu suddenly cleared his throat and asked. “I’d like to get some rest now if that’s alright.”
I pursed my lips together in disappointment. Whatever it was he was hiding, it looked like I’d lost my opportunity to wheedle it out of him. In any case, it didn’t seem like he was going to talk, so for now, we would retreat.
“I think that’s about everything for now,” I replied as I stood up. “We’ll come back after we do a more thorough investigation, and I hope you’ll contact us if you happen to remember anything else.”
“Oh, uh… of course, I will,” Lieu mumbled nervously.
“Thank you for your time,” I replied before indicating for Holm to follow me out. We walked out of the tent, the lieutenant close behind us.
“I hope that was helpful to you,” Marsh sighed as we stepped out into the sunlight. “Like I said, it seems like none of the crew know anything about who the pirates were or why they attacked the way they did.”
“Or they’re just not telling us the whole story,” I muttered.
“You think he was lying?” Holm asked as he looked toward the tent as if checking to make sure no one was listening.
“I’m not sure what to think,” I replied as I replayed the conversation in my mind. “There was something about his behavior that seemed strange. I didn’t get the feeling he was lying, but I did feel like he might not have told us the whole truth, either.”
“Why would he keep something secret?” the lieutenant asked curiously.
“Who knows?” I shrugged. “Though I did notice that he got a lot tenser when I asked about what kind of cargo they were carrying on the ship.”
“You think they had something on there they weren’t supposed to have?” Holm asked, his brows knitting together.
“Maybe,” I replied with a short nod. “If they did, it would explain his hesitation to speak up.”
“But even if that was the case,” Lieutenant Marsh chimed in, “why wouldn’t the pirates have taken it? I mean, if they attacked because of something that was on the ship, why sink it before they could get their hands on it?”
“That’s the question, isn’t it?” I replied as I turned to stare out over the clear blue water. “I guess the only way to find the answer will be to go and have a look for ourselves.”
6
Ethan
We spent a little while longer at the camp, asking a few more crew members for their accounts of what had happened. However, they all stuck to the same story about suddenly being attacked without provocation and having no idea why. The entire time, I couldn’t shake the feeling that we weren’t getting the whole story. However, Holm and I both knew it would likely be faster for us to just go dive and find out what exactly was on the boat for ourselves than waste time trying to convince the men to talk.
Normally, we would have gone out right away, considering we were already on the dock. However, Diane had told us to come back after we were finished to meet the agents we would be working the case with. It had been a few hours since we’d left, so they’d likely be there already.
With that in mind, we decided to head back to the office.
“I wonder what working in Vegas is like,” Holm mused aloud as we pulled back into the parking lot of the MBLIS office building. “I mean, it’s one thing to go to Vegas for a night or two, but full time?”
“I don’t think I could ever live somewhere that landlocked,” I replied. Miami was in my blood. The sun, the coast, the ever-present heat… I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else, to be honest.
“Well, let’s go meet our new partners,” Holm remarked as we made our way into the building and up to the office.
As we stepped inside, I could see that Diane’s office door was closed. I walked toward it, assuming that they must be having some kind of meeting inside. I knocked on the door, but to my surprise, no one answered. I turned to look at Holm, who just shrugged in response.
“Agent Marston, Agent Holm,” Diane’s voice rang out from behind me. I turned around to look at her and found her walking through the bullpen and back toward her office. There were two men beside her. “You’re back. I was just giving Agent Chapman and Agent Hills a little tour of the office while we waited for the two of you to return.”
So, these were obviously the agents then, I thought as I looked the two men over. One of them looked young like he was fresh out of the academy. Clean-shaven, a bit on the lanky side, with bright blond hair and baby blue eyes. The other was almost the complete opposite. Tall, broad-shouldered, and fairly muscular, with slightly unruly dark hair and an unfriendly frown plastered over his face.
“This is Agent Charlie Hills,” Diane introduced as she gestured toward the taller, meaner-looking one. “And this is Agent Junior Chapman. Agents, these are Agents Ethan Marston and Robert Holm.”
“It’s nice to meet you.” Chapman smiled as soon as Diane finished giving the introductions, stepping forward right away to shake our hands.
“Likewise,” I replied. The kid seemed friendly enough, though I had to admit I was concerned about his level of experience if he really was a new recruit.
“Nice to meet you,” Hills parroted, though he sounded much more surly. “You’re the one who’s looking for a pirate ship, right?”
I blinked with surprise at his sudden, unexpected question.
“Yeah, that’s me,” I replied.
“We ran into Bonnie while I was getting them acquainted with the office,” Diane explained. “She mentioned a bit about it.”
“Right,” I replied a little awkwardly. Hills shot me an unimpressed look.
“Why don’t we go speak in my office?” Diane suggested as she stepped toward the door. “Instead of standing around in the middle of the bullpen?”
“Good idea,” Holm replied as we all followed her inside.
As I stepped inside, I noticed four chairs in front of her desk instead of the usual two. She must have arranged that in advance of their arrival. Still, it was a bit of a tight squeeze as the four of us all sat down.
“Alright,” Diane declared as soon as she sat down behind her desk. “Agents Marston and Holm just returned from speaking with the surviving crewmen. Why don’t we go over all the information we have about the pirates’ actions up to now, then we can talk about the most recent attack?”
She turned to the other two agents expectantly.
“They first caught our attention about three months ago,” Hills replied, the stern look on his face unmoved even as he spoke. “A boat belonging to an American citizen was attacked near Hawaii. The victims were having a party on the boat when a group of assailants approached them on the water, yelling about being in distress and needing help. That seems to be their general M.O. Anyway, they stormed onto the boat, rounded everyone up, and held them at gunpoint while they stripped everything of value off the ship. Then they left.”
“They didn’t kill any of them?” I raised an eyebrow in surprise. “Or sink the ship? Seems like a big escalation from robbing a party yacht to launching rockets at a cargo ship.”
“They have escalated extremely quickly,” Chapman replied, his face twisting into a dismayed frown. “As we dug into it, we found several similar cases. In each of them, the pirates struck, took what they wanted, and then left. Most of the time, they only hurt people who attempted to fight back. Then, about two weeks after we started investigating, they amped it up and attacked a cargo ship instead of a yacht.”
“The smaller attacks might have just been practice rounds for the real target,” I surmised as I leaned back in my chair.
“That’s what we thought as well,” Hills replied. “After that first attack, they started escalating even faster. Suddenly, they were striking ships all over the western coast of Europe—American and British owned ships, predominantly. Still, for the most part, they continued to leave the people on board unharmed so long as they complied—until they attacked a German vessel about a month ago.”
“They started hurting people?” I asked.
“They started sinking the ships,” Chapman corrected as he tapped his fingers along the armrest of the chair. “After they were done taking what they wanted, they would go back to their boat and fire rockets at the ship they’d just robbed until it was full of holes.”
“So, the ship yesterday wasn’t their first rodeo,” Holm scoffed as he shook his head.
“No,” Hills replied. “But they’ve never done anything quite like this. They’ve always robbed the ships first before sinking them, which at least makes sense. But just attacking out of the blue like that? It’s uncharacteristic of them.”
“Well, there’s a first time for everything,” I responded. “It’s also possible that it wasn’t entirely out of the blue. One of the crewmen we spoke with earlier reacted strangely when I asked him what kind of cargo they were transporting.”
“You think they attacked because of something that was on the boat?” Chapman asked as he sat up straighter to look at me.
“It’s definitely possible,” I replied. “At the very least, it would make a lot more sense than the idea that they attacked for literally no reason.”
“That’s a good point,” Hills grunted. “I’ve been thinking since yesterday that it didn’t make sense for them to have suddenly pulled something like this. Everything we know about them points to monetary gain being their main motivation. I can’t see them pulling off some senseless terrorist attack that didn’t net them any gain.”
“What do we know about them?” Diane suddenly interjected. “We’ve been able to ascertain from the video that was shot by one of the crew members that they most likely hail from Colombia. Have you managed to gather any more information about them?”
“We have,” Chapman replied as he reached into his bag to retrieve a tablet. He turned it on and scrolled through it for a moment before continuing. “The earliest reports we’ve found about the group go back to as early as a year ago.”
“They’ve been attacking boats for that long?!” Holm exclaimed, his eyebrows shooting up toward his hairline. “How have we not known anything about them before a few months ago?”
“Because they haven’t been attacking ships for that long,” Hills replied gruffly. “Up until now, it seems they’ve pretty much been minding their own business, trafficking drugs from South America up into the United States. Still criminals, but no different from the other dime-a-dozen drug smugglers operating around the east coast. It wasn’t until a few months ago that they suddenly turned into pirates and decided to start robbing people.”
“Guess they must have been feeling bold after going so long without getting caught,” I replied.
“That’s likely the case,” Diane noted as she laced her hands together on top of her desk. “Alright then, so we know what they’ve been up to til
l now. Marston, you said there was something peculiar about one of the crewmen you spoke with. Can you elaborate?”
“He seemed really nervous,” I replied as I crossed my legs and thought back to the interview we’d conducted with Lieu. “Which is to be expected after what happened, but something about it seemed weird. It seemed like it was certain things I said or did that set him off, as opposed to the situation itself.”
“What do you mean?” Chapman asked.
“Well, he seemed really afraid of us, to start with,” I replied as I tried to recollect every detail of the conversation. “As soon as the lieutenant introduced us as federal agents, he went white as a sheet. At first, I just dismissed it as him being antsy and worked up over the attack, but thinking back, I’m not sure that was it.”
“You think the fact that you were feds freaked him out?” Hills asked me thoughtfully. “If that’s the case, it might be that he has something to feel guilty about and was worried you were coming to nab him on it.”
“He did seem awfully relieved when he learned we were there to find the pirates,” Holm muttered as he leaned forward in his chair, his eyes staring fixedly ahead as though he was deep in thought.
“So the guy’s hiding something,” Hills grunted. “What else did he say?”
“It’s more what he didn’t say,” I replied. “As I mentioned earlier, when I asked him about the cargo, he suddenly seemed nervous again, even though he’d been answering my questions fine before that. He insisted that all the cargo on board the ship was the property of some big box store, but I got a feeling right then that he wasn’t giving me the whole story.”
“So, there was something on the ship that he didn’t want you to know about,” Hills concluded as he crossed his arms over his chest. “That’s not a bad theory, except for the fact that the pirates didn’t take anything.”
“That’s the issue we keep circling back around to,” Holm sighed as he leaned back in his chair again.
