by Matt Lincoln
It was obvious that Vargas was just saying whatever he thought might save his own skin, but Charlie wondered if he didn’t actually have a good point. The Vegas branch had been after this group for months, unsuccessful primarily because it was insanely difficult to catch someone who was always long gone by the time you arrived to investigate. Maybe luring them in instead wasn’t the worst idea ever.
23
Charlie
“Are we sure this is a good idea?” Junior asked nervously as he scanned the horizon through the windows of the bridge. “It’s just… this seems like a terrible idea.”
“Too late now,” Charlie grumbled.
It had been approximately twenty-four hours since the interrogation with Julio Vargas. As soon as they’d finished, they had jumped into action to organize their plan of attack. It had seemed like an insanely daunting task to Charlie. He’d seriously doubted that they would be able to pull it all together when they had only a day to get everything ready, and yet here they were, in the middle of the ocean on an empty cargo freighter. Ideally, they would have preferred to have the deck full of cargo containers as well for the sake of realism, but it just hadn’t been feasible economically or practically.
They were, however, in the exact type of ship that was supposed to have taken this route tonight and were flying British flags to boot. The actual freighter’s captain had been warned that his ship was being targeted, and so they had stayed back while Charlie and the rest of the group set sail on a ship full of Carabinieri, or the Italian Military Police, as well as a few Corps of the Port Captaincies, or Italy’s version of the Coast Guard. Only a few actual sailors were on board the vessel since they needed someone to operate the ship.
The brave man who’d volunteered to head the mission was Captain Salvatore Galilei. He and a small handful of his men were currently steering the boat toward its destination.
A fleet of Coast Guard units was nearby too, ready and waiting in fully armed boats and attempting to stay far enough back and out of sight that their presence wouldn’t tip off the pirates. It meant that there would be a slight delay in their arrival should things go south, but it was a risk they needed to take if this plan was going to work.
The plan itself was fairly simple. Charlie and his team would lure the pirates out with the freighter. As soon as the pirates got the telltale distress signal, MBLIS would notify the Coast Guard to move in. The Coast Guard would then apprehend the pirates, with the Military Police hanging back to provide manpower as needed. It was a pretty solid plan, assuming, of course, that nothing went wrong.
“It’ll suck if we start to sink,” Junior yawned. They’d been so busy planning everything that none of them had managed to get much sleep the night before. It was now nearly ten at night, and most of the agents had only managed to grab a few moments of rest here and there between all the planning.
“We’re not going to,” Charlie grumbled. “We’d have to lose for that to happen. Personally, I don’t intend to die tonight.”
“I mean, I don’t intend to either,” Junior scoffed as he looked back out the window at the water below. “But just look at that. How many miles deep do you think it goes? And those guys have rocket launchers, remember? If the ship gets a hole, water is going to start pouring in fast. You wouldn’t believe the amount of pressure that water can put on something.”
“I don’t think depth is measured in miles,” Charlie replied, deliberately ignoring every other part of Junior’s ramble. Acknowledging it was only going to make him overthink even more.
“It’s not,” Marston chimed in as he and Holm stepped into the viewing deck, cups of steaming coffee in their hands. “It’s fathoms if you want to be technical, or feet, for the laymen.”
“Thanks,” Junior said gratefully as he took one of the cups of coffee. “I felt like I was about to fall asleep just now. And I know what a fathom is, actually. I just thought that Charlie wouldn’t know. I was trying to be considerate.”
“Are you calling me dumb?” Charlie glared at his partner.
“Yes,” Junior deadpanned before taking a long sip of coffee. He looked at the two Miami detectives for a moment before frowning. “Where’s Officer Russo?”
“She’s down on the main deck,” Marston explained as he plopped down into one of the empty chairs beside them. “Giving out instructions and making sure everyone’s on the same page. She’s really worried about the operation.”
“I don’t blame her,” Junior mumbled. “There’s so much that could go wrong. Ideally, the Coast Guard shows up and takes them down before they can do anything, but what if—”
“No,” Charlie cut him off abruptly. “Don’t start with the ‘what ifs’ again, please. For both of our sakes. There’s no point in worrying about what might or might not happen. Just focus on the mission.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” Junior replied quietly before taking another sip of coffee.
Charlie could tell that Junior was nervous. It had always surprised him how he could keep that poker face around suspects when he was unable to hide his emotions in pretty much any other situation.
Before anyone could say anything else, someone’s phone went off.
Agent Marston reached into his pocket and pulled it out before answering and putting it on speaker so everyone could hear.
“Hello?” he answered at the same moment that someone came running into the bridge. It was one of the crewmen, an anxious expression on his face.
“Capitano!” he exclaimed before rushing up to the captain to murmur something to him.
“Hello, Ethan?” Officer Russo called over the phone, pulling their attention away from the crewman and the captain. She sounded anxious. “Someone’s approaching. The left side of the boat. It’s a ship, but they haven’t sent out a distress signal.”
Charlie and the rest of the agents jumped to their feet and peered through the bridge windows off the port side.
“There!” Holm declared as he pointed at something off in the distance. It was large, unmistakably a ship of some kind. It was moving slowly, and it was too dark to see exactly what it looked like.
Charlie turned around as the crewman who had arrived earlier took off out of the bridge again. From the serious look on the captain’s face, it was clear that he’d just been informed of the news as well.
“The situation has become precarious,” The captain declared as he came to a stop in front of the agents. “I’m afraid we cannot determine exactly who is on that ship. They are flying Italian flags, but they haven’t sent out the distress signal yet.”
That was what they had been waiting for. So far, the pirates’ MO had been to send out distress signals to lure ships into a false sense of security as they approached. They’d expected as much to happen this time, but so far, it hadn’t happened.
“If we don’t call the Coast Guard in now,” the captain continued, “they might not arrive before the ship does, given how far they currently are behind us. However, if I call them in and this isn’t the pirates—”
“Then we’ll be giving away our plan,” Charlie concluded. The game was up the moment the pirates realized that this was just a Trojan Horse. If MBLIS moved too prematurely, they might accidentally blow their own plan, and there was no way they’d get another opportunity like this again.
“I’ll leave the decision to you,” Galilei informed the group warily, “but I can’t put the lives of my men and those of the officers on board in peril. I need to know what course of action to take.”
Charlie turned to Marston, who had pursed his lips together in thought. It was a bad situation and one that would require them to rely on their instincts.
Before anyone could answer, though, the captain’s radio crackled to life.
“Capitano!” the voice on the other end called. “Abbiamo ricevuto il segnale di soccorso!”
Galilei’s eyes went wide at the message before he turned to look at the agents.
“We’ve just received the distress
signal,” he informed them, his voice hard.
“That’s them,” Marston declared. “Call in the Coast Guard. We need to brace ourselves for the attack.”
The captain nodded before turning back to his crew.
“Let’s go find Gabriella,” Marston suggested. “She’s still down on the deck. If things go south and there’s a firefight, we don’t want to be out in the open.”
“Good idea,” Charlie replied. Unlike the Coast Guard Officers or the Military Police, there wasn’t much that the few of them could do with just their handguns. The agents headed down to the ship’s main deck, where the bulk of the officers were gathered, lying in wait.
As they ran out onto the main deck, Charlie turned to look back in the direction of the approaching ship. It was bearing down on them faster than it had been earlier, and his heart began to pound. What if the Coast Guard didn’t arrive before the ship did?
The freighter was full of Military Police, but they weren’t trained to fight on the water, unlike the Coast Guard. The plan had been for the Coast Guard to rush in at the last moment to cut the pirates off before they reached the cargo ship. Their boats were, after all, much faster than the large ships that the pirates typically used.
However, it seemed they had miscalculated something because the ship was getting closer and closer with still no sign of the Coast Guard.
“Crap,” Charlie hissed through gritted teeth as he watched the ship pull down the Italian flag. He knew what was coming next, but it still sent a chill down his spine as he watched the modified Colombian flag go up in its place, the ship now close enough that he could see figures moving around on the deck.
“This is bad,” Junior muttered beside him as officers began to scramble around the deck at the behest of the few trained Coast Guard officers that were currently on board, rushing to get set up and instructing everyone else on what to do.
It was dark, and the boat was still far enough away that Charlie couldn’t exactly make out what was happening on board, but there was no way he could have missed the massive burst of light as the first explosion went off over the deck of the pirates’ ship.
“Get down!” he roared as he threw himself onto the deck just before the missile hit the side of the ship.
24
Ethan
“Get down!” Hills yelled beside me, but I was already on the ground. My body had moved instinctively even before I’d completely registered that the explosion was a result of a rocket being launched at us.
No sooner had I hit the deck than I felt it lurch suddenly beneath me, shaking so hard that it felt like an earthquake. The vibration of the metal surface felt painful.
“We need to get back up to the bridge!” Hills yelled as the explosions continued. “We’re gonna die out here!”
Clearly, the pirates had caught on that something was amiss. I managed to lift my head and get up onto my knees as the ship continued to shake beneath me so forcefully that I couldn’t get to my feet.
The few trained Coasties on board were getting into position with the weapons they’d brought with us and stashed out of sight, just in case something went wrong and we needed to defend ourselves. Looking at them now, though, it didn’t seem like we fared a chance with just the handful they were dragging out of the bridge.
The surrounding noise was deafening, and my heart was pounding so forcefully that it felt like it was going to burst out of my chest. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the Coasties firing back, striking the pirate’s vessel.
For just a moment, there was a lull in the noise, and I managed to stand up straight. I looked up at the pirates’ ship and realized why they had stopped attacking. Their ship was on fire, thick, dark clouds of smoke rising from the flames, billowing over both of the boats and making it even harder for me to see what was going on. I could hear the men on board the deck of the Colombian ship yelling, running around in a panic.
It wasn’t until I took a few wobbly steps that I realized our ship hadn’t fared all that much better. We were tilting to the side pretty severely, and it seemed to be getting worse every second. In an instant, I suddenly remembered everything that Chapman had said about how deep the water was and what might happen if the ship were to go down. Suddenly, the possibility seemed all the more real.
“Where the hell’s the Coast Guard?” Hills roared angrily.
“I don’t know,” I replied as I looked around the ship. I thought I could see something that looked like boats in the distance, but it became almost impossible to see now with all the smoke in the air. I turned back to Holm and the Vegas agents, stumbling slightly as the ship creaked and leaned a few more degrees. “We need to find Gabriella. The ship is in bad shape.”
“Okay!” Holm yelled back.
I swore under my breath as I continued to search, scanning over the deck of the ship. Since the deck was empty of containers, I could see straight to the other side. It was swarming with officers, though, and under the darkness of night, I could only make out flashes of movement. A few of the officers were on the ground, struggling to stand up.
“Ethan!” I heard Gabriella’s voice yell, though I couldn’t see her.
“Where are you?” I coughed around a mouthful of acrid smoke. A small gust of wind blew some of the smoke out of my eyes, and I spotted her then, kneeling on the deck next to one of the Military Police.
I ran over to her, stumbling twice on the slanted deck as I did, worried that she might be injured.
“Are you okay?” I asked as I crouched down next to her.
“I’m fine,” she hurried to assure me, though I noticed right away that there was a small cut on her forehead, a trickle of blood making its way down the side of her face. “He’s injured, though.”
The man was gritting his teeth and clenching his fists as he groaned in pain. His leg was twisted at an odd angle, and there was a large piece of shrapnel sticking out of it. Blood was pouring freely from the wound, and Gabriella was attempting to staunch the flow with the man’s own shirt.
“Just keep still,” she said calmly. “Everything’s going to be okay.”
The man swallowed heavily but didn’t reply.
“I’m glad you’re alright,” I told her as I looked around for Holm and the Miami agents. I could see Holm crouched down a few feet behind me, talking to one of the other injured officers, but I couldn’t see Hills or Chapman, and the increasing amount of smoke covering the deck of our ship was making it difficult for me to see anything.
“Brace for impact!” someone to my left suddenly yelled. I flinched in surprise and turned to see what the commotion was about. My eyes went wide with sheer horror when I realized that the pirate’s ship was coming straight toward us at full speed.
“You’ve got to be kidding,” I muttered as I pushed Gabriella down, shielding her with my own body. Had the pirates decided to take us down with them since they knew they were going to sink, anyway?
I didn’t have time to ponder over it any further because a massive quake rocked our ship just a few seconds later. The force of the impact as the pirate’s ship struck ours immediately shoved the deck back up so that it was no longer tilting to the left. This time, however, it tilted severely to the right and even more sharply than it had before, sending everyone on the deck tumbling down toward the starboard side of the ship.
The sound of the crash was so loud that, for several seconds, I couldn’t hear anything aside from a ringing in my ears. As soon as the boat stopped tilting, I lifted my head. Everything was muffled, but I could see Gabriella still wrapped in my arms. I’d held onto her tightly when the crash sent us careening to the side of the ship. Her mouth was moving, and I could tell that she was saying something, but I couldn’t hear what it was.
“Ethan!” Her voice finally broke through the hum in my ears as the world regained sound again. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I replied breathlessly as I untangled my arms from around her and sat up. I looked back toward the pirate�
�s ship that had just crashed into ours, and a fresh wave of horror washed over me at the sight I beheld. Men were spilling off the edge of the pirates’ boat and down onto the deck of ours, scattering around like ants as they landed.
I swore as I scrambled onto my feet and looked around for Holm and the Vegas agents. I’d lost sight of them as the crash rocked the ship, and I couldn’t see them anywhere.
“They’re coming on board!” she yelled as she pointed toward the junction where the two ships were smashed together. The pirates were still jumping down off of their deck and onto ours, firing their guns wildly as they did.
“Come on!” she called to me over her shoulder before taking off toward the middle of the battlefield.
As I ran toward the men, my own gun held aloft, I kept my eyes peeled for Holm and the Vegas agents. There was so much smoke that I could barely see a few feet in front of me.
The Military Police were shooting back at the pirates through the smog, and I was careful to steer clear of the firing path. It was so dark and smoky now that I could easily imagine myself becoming a victim of friendly fire. I turned when I suddenly caught a flash of movement out of the corner of my eye. A tall man was lifting a massive weapon onto his shoulder. It was one of the rocket launchers, which he had apparently brought onto our ship with him. I lifted my gun and fired a bullet at him before he could shoot. There was no way I could let him fire that thing off onboard the ship right now.
My shot struck him directly in the chest, and he grunted with pain as he fell to the ground.
I rushed up to where he’d dropped the rocket launcher and stowed my gun back into its holster before lugging the hefty weapon over to the side of the boat and dropping it overboard. While I normally wouldn’t get rid of evidence that way, I couldn’t risk someone else picking it up and attempting to use it against us.
Once it was safely off the ship, I turned back around toward the chaos, coughing as I inhaled several more lungfuls of smoke. I looked around for Gabriella and the other agents again, but the smoke was too thick to see through. I couldn’t see them, but I did spot a man wearing a green and brown camo-print shirt. He stood in the middle of the deck, barking orders at several other men. Judging from his authoritative voice and how he carried himself, it was obvious that he was some kind of leader.
