Far away, somewhere in the ship, I heard a faint staccato of bells.
A vibration ceased.
THE ENGINES HAD STOPPED!
Chapter 5
Through my rain-streaked port glass, I could see something coming out of the night.
A craft of some sort!
I could see the glow of a light in its bow. The port running light gleamed red as blood. A white light in the stern told me it was not a third the size of the Golden Sunset.
It was approaching. Like shadowy Demons, sailors, seen by the port lights from our ship, were hanging fenders along its rails. It was going to come alongside! Yes! Somebody had thrown a line aboard!
What was it? A patrol craft? I could not tell.
Somebody, a dim shadow, was standing by its pilot house. He was even with this very deck.
A port light flashed across his face.
THE BLACK-JOWLED MAN!
Oh, Gods! What was this? My wits spun!
Quickly I grabbed my bathrobe tighter about me. I sped out of my cabin. Barefooted, I came to the deck. Like a shadow myself, I melted behind a big life-jacket box.
The pelting rain struck at me. I peered out.
The craft came against our hull with a thump.
The black-jowled man came to its rail.
Another figure came out of a door on this deck and, in the darkness, went to our rail opposite the black-jowled man. They were only about five feet apart.
A flashlight winked in the hand of the black-jowled man. It fell upon the face of the person at our rail.
My blood froze.
TEENIE! Those eyes and mouth were unmistakable even under that battered cap and in the rain.
"You didn't have to start a riot, you (bleep)!" she said. "You almost got me hit with a rock and then where would you have been? We were sailing anyway the very next morning. Jesus, I'm mad at you!"
"That's not one-sided!" snarled the black-jowled man. "You didn't have to go to Thessalonica at all. It was time to show you the party can get rough! You've been wandering all over the globe! Delay, delay! What have you got to say to that?"
"I got to say I never would have had any bullfights or clothes, you cheapskate. You know what I think? I think right now you're trying to con me. I don't think you have any idea at all of giving me what I deserve."
"Delay, delay, delay! You deserve to be shot! You weren't supposed to take a joy ride. You were supposed to deliver him into our hands!"
My heart stopped beating. Then a sickening wave of awful comprehension rushed through me. Those songs! Marijuana becoming hashish and hashish becoming hash oil. Her interest in charts, her efforts to see Turkey from the mountaintops. The search for outlaws, each one inexorably closer to Turkey! She had been shanghaiing me aboard my own yacht to return me to a place where I would be murdered!
He had begun to swear at her. She said, "Keep your voice down. You earlier threatened to pay the captain to finish it off. Well, let me tell you something, buster, Bitts and me are in cahoots. We're just like that!" And she raised two fingers parallel. "This yacht ain't going to move a foot unless I tell it to. And you know what I think, you (bleep)? I think you're going to try to get me in and then you're going to wave your dirty hand and tell me to get lost. That's what I think you're going to do."
"You wrong me," said the black-jowled man. "I keep my word."
"The hell you do," said Teenie. "Remember that Rome jeweler's? You said we could go back and pick up the necklace and what did you do? You just plain forgot!"
"I didn't!" said the black-jowled man. "I picked it up myself the day after you sailed. Here it is."
He fumbled in his pocket and brought out a box.
"That ain't going to do you any good now," said Teenie, waving it back as he extended it across the gap. "You probably had him put in fake stones and hope I can't tell in this light. No sir, Mac. I don't trust you worth a (bleep)."
He put the box back into his pocket, with an angry thrust.
She raised a cautionary finger at him. "Now hear this, loud and clear, buster. I'm not moving this yacht into Turkish waters until I get my ten grand."
"Jesus," said the black-jowled man.
I was seething. Rage had begun to take over. So that was her price, was it? Ten grand for delivering me to my death!
Teenie stepped back from the rail. Above the hiss of the rain her voice was plain. "Ten grand in my little hot hand, buster, and then and only then will I give the word."
"Jesus," said the black-jowled man. "I haven't got ten grand aboard here."
"See?" said Teenie. "You were trying to pull a con. You weren't going to pay me at all! Oh, I'm used to dealing with the likes of you. I was brought up on birds that would rather do a double switch than eat."
"Listen," said the black-jowled man. "Izmir is right over there. Our agent will have the cash. I can get it in two hours. And if I pay you, will you order this yacht to Istanbul? You know (bleeped) well, we've got to get our hands on him."
"All right," said Teenie. "We'll stand by right here off Chios."
"No, not all right," said the black-jowled man.
"How do I know you won't just sail away the moment I leave? I think you better step over that rail and come with me."
"All right," said Teenie. "I'll tell Bitts."
She passed within three feet of me in the dark. She went to the bottom of the bridge ladder. She yelled up, "Stand by right where you are off Chios. We're going into Izmir. I'll be back in a couple of hours."
"Aye, aye," came down from the darkness.
She sped back past me.
"You sure you've got him safe?" said the black-jowled man before he extended an arm to help her over the rail.
"You bet he is," said Teenie. "Drugged to the gills and I'll keep him drugged. He thinks he's on his way to Egypt. You want to go down and see him?"
"We've wasted enough time. Jump."
Teenie landed on their deck. Lines were cast off. The screws of the craft churned. It was swallowed in the rain and dark.
Oh, the perfidy of women!
I was sick to the core with her treachery.
I HAD TO ACT!
Chapter 6
TWO HOURS!
But two hours can become two minutes if one doesn't rush.
There was a rift in the rain. A momentary luminance of moonlight spread its green horror across the scene.
There was a loom of land a mile or two away. That must be Chios, the Greek island almost up against the Turkish shore.
I yearned toward it. Oh, Gods, if I could only reach it, I would be out of their tentacles.
The rain closed in again. But I had had an omen. Some God, if only for a moment, had plucked the veil aside.
ACTION! I had to get into action quick! Even now the hurled stones for adultery were halfway through the air. Suddenly I realized that the stones of the demonstrators had been another warning from the Gods. It had been another omen and I had not seen it!
I would not miss it now!
Swift as a cat I raced below. Did I have time to pack? The hand grips that Teenie had bought me in Rome lay upon the closet floor. Anything that had to do with Teenie was bad luck. I flinched from them. No, I did not have time to pack. I would abandon my things.
I grabbed some clothes at random and began to hurl them on: running shorts, a business jacket, a straw hat, scuba slippers.
Wait, wait. I had to get some sanity into this. I could not leave behind my two-way-response radio, my money or my passports. The wastebasket had one of these liners they put in. They were waterproof. I dumped the perishable things in it, tied the top of the bag and lashed it firmly to my belt.
I was ready to swim for it.
Wait, wait. I wasn't armed.
I opened the drawer where I had thrown the guns I had brought aboard or purchased in ports. My hand went out instinctively to grasp the biggest caliber there. Then I recoiled. If I had to shoot the crew, the sound of shots might be heard for miles. A silenced
gun, that was what I needed. But the only thing there that had a silencer was an old American International Model 180. I had bought it, as I am wont to do, in an idle moment from a furtive street peddler in Palermo only to discover later that it was only .22 caliber. Its virtue was that it was fully automatic, a machine gun. He had sold me the whole case, somewhat battered, that contained it. Anxiously I looked into the four drum magazines. Yes, they were loaded!
It was all disassembled. With shaking hands and many a slip and misfit, I got the ugly short thing assembled. I snapped a flat drum on top of its barrel. I slid the silencer in place. It would not make much impact but with 1200 rounds per minute rate of fire it could hold off a lot of men. I picked up the drums. I tried to find someplace to put them. A life jacket! I hurriedly cut a slit in one, tore out the stuffings and thrust the magazines in.
I flung the rifle over my shoulder and put on the life jacket. Then I had to take the life jacket off and free the rifle. I put the life jacket back on and put the sling back on....It was all too heavy! I would go down like a stone! What to do?
Suddenly I thought of Madison. I could not leave him aboard. If they seized the yacht, it would be in the papers. He might be mentioned. Krak would hear he was aboard, come over and interrogate him and then kill me! I could not leave him behind. He might drown swimming two miles.
A speedboat. I would force Bitts to land me in a speedboat!
I raced to Madison's cabin.
He was peacefully asleep.
I put my hand across his mouth so he would not cry out.
I must think. I had to tell him something.
"Madison," I said in a hoarse whisper, "don't scream. We have to flee for our lives. I have just discovered the Mafia bribed the captain to make eunuchs of us and sell us into slavery."
His eyes flared wide with terror. That was what I wanted.
"Get dressed! I've got to seize a speedboat and get ashore to a Greek island. Quick! Quick!"
"Oh, I knew it," wept Madison. "Ever since Palermo he has been laughing behind my back whenever he beats me at poker."
"Hurry, hurry. The slavers will be here in minutes."
He grabbed up clothes and began to stuff them into a grip.
"There is no time to pack," I whispered.
"I can't go naked!"
"Then put some clothes on!"
"That's what I'm doing."
"You're packing."
"I've got to pack. You can't give press conferences dressed like a bum. Not even to slavers."
I knew he would not change his mind. I unlimbered the rifle and stood at the door, listening in an agony of suspense for footsteps that might come.
He finished packing. Then he took an athletic suit out and put it on. He saw I was wearing a life jacket and got one from under the bed. He glanced out the port. It was black but he could see the rain on it. He grabbed a couple of raincoats out of the closet. He wrapped one around his grip and tied it tightly. He got into the other one and put on the life jacket over it. He was still looking around.
"Don't delay," I whispered urgently. "What are you looking for?"
"Something bulletproof to go over this," he said.
I hurried him out of the door. He dashed back and got his grip.
I pushed him to an upper deck. I whispered in his ear, "No matter what happens, stand here."
The rain was coming down.
Like a lethal cat, the machine gun ready, I mounted the bridge ladder.
There was no one there!
I heard voices above me.
The signal bridge!
I crept up the next ladder.
Captain Bitts and two sailors in oilskins were standing at the foot of a signal mast. They were trying to hoist lights up to its yardarm.
Signals! They had suspected I was trying to escape! Some lanterns were strung at intervals on a line going up. They were going to signal the shore!
"The God (bleep) block is jammed," said Bitts to a sailor. "See if you can free the other halyard. We can't flop around here all night dead in the water with no drifting lights." To the other one, he said, "Are you sure you told the electrician what panel was blown?"
"He said it's a short from the rain. He don't wanna go up there until morning."
"Then help free this God (bleeped) halyard!" said Bitts.
I spoiled their little game right there. I levelled the machine gun. "Hold it!" I said. "Stand right where you are or I'll blow you to pieces!"
"Jesus Christ!" said Bitts, staring at me.
"You got a right to be surprised," I said in a deadly voice. "You didn't know who you were dealing with! Get a speedboat in the water at once or get a bellyful of lead. You're going to land me, and right now!" I pointed toward where I had seen the dark bulk of shore.
He was standing there with the two sailors. Their hands were on the halyard. The lanterns suspended above them cast eerie pools of colored light around them. Bitts seemed to come awake. "NO!" he said. "It may seem flat calm here but a speedboat couldn't live in that surf over there! You'd drown!"
He thought he had me. He thought he could trap me aboard. But I had picked up a lot of knowledge strolling around this ship. "That won't work," I grated. "You've got rowing inflatables forward that can live in any surf. Throw one in the water and drop a ladder to it!"
"Listen ..." said Bitts.
"Shut up! No arguing! One more word and I shoot!" I cocked the machine gun.
"Wait," said Bitts. "I think you ought to know..."
I lifted the muzzle of the machine gun to point over their heads.
I pressed the trigger.
The black powder of the .22s sprayed a fan of orange blaze! The deck flared with the light.
The staccato spits of the silenced weapon were hardly heard above the falling rain.
SNAP!
CRASH!
The bullets, fired high, had severed the lantern halyard!
The heavy-glassed lights came smashing down upon the men.
One hit Captain Bitts!
Even as he fell, a second and a third lamp hit from aloft. One burst into flame!
The two sailors, skidding on the deck, had leaped aside.
I knew they would flee and alert the ship.
"Freeze!" I cried, levelling the gun at them.
They froze, staring at me white-eyed, bathed in the oil fire's light.
A torrent of rain struck through the tableau.
The running rivulets of fire went out.
"Get an inflatable over the side!" I barked at them. "Move, or I'll fill you full of lead."
They moved but one hesitated over Bitts. He bent down. I knew he was looking for a gun.
I fired a second burst! The orange flame-fan arced above their heads.
They sped to the forward ladder and started down. I followed them. One was unwinding a pilot ladder from the gutter and dropping it over the side of the hull. The other one got a rowing inflatable out of a locker.
I looked anxiously through the rain. Was that craft coming back? I saw nothing but rain.
The sailor put a line on the inflatable.
"You can't fool me," I said in a deadly voice. "Put the oars in it."
"Don't you want the motor?" he said blankly.
I knew right then the motor wouldn't run. They were trying to trap me. And even if it did run they could follow the sound. "Oars!" I barked.
"They're strapped inside it," he said. He threw it over the rail. It was a long way down to the water.
The other sailor had a flashlight. I snatched it from him and shined it down. The inflatable had struck and the water had triggered its gas bottles. It opened out with a sizzle barely audible in the hiss of rain.
I had not realized there was any sea at all. The stabilizers were holding the yacht steady. The inflatable was bobbing up and down in surging waves.
I must be brave. I was about to go over the rail when I remembered Madison again. He was right there. I sent him down first.
Car
rying his wrapped suitcase, he descended. With a foot, he got the inflatable against the hull. It was surging up and down. He got in and held it to the ship. I tossed the flashlight to Madison.
I menaced the two sailors with the machine gun.
I backed down the ladder.
The inflatable seemed to be leaping up and down, rising five feet up and then falling away.
I took my life in my hands.
I jumped.
I landed in a clutter in the bottom of the craft.
The sailor on the deck gave his rope a toss.
We rebounded off the hull and bobbed outward from the ship. A gust of rain washed over us, carrying us further away.
I looked back.
The ship was a misty, light-sparked shape in the night.
I had escaped!
Now I only had to get ashore in Greece!
Chapter 7
The sea was black, the rain was black, the sky was black. I felt that I was being drowned in a hurricane of ink!
Gone was all sense of direction, gone was any stability, and, a couple of minutes after I had gotten into the boat, gone was anything I had eaten in three days!
It is a nauseating fact that I was very seasick.
"Row!" I cried between retches.
"Row where?" said Madison.
"Row anyplace, but for Gods' sakes, get me ashore. I'm dying!"
The only advantage in being in all this was that the rain was so heavy it was washing my face clean. I felt I had the whole Aegean for a bathtub and the sky as well.
"You better bail," said Madison. "The water is up around my knees."
Maybe it would be far better to just drown and get this over with. I felt like I was in an automatic washing machine with the lights off. I might as well pull the plug and go down the drain.
A vague haze of moonlight came through a temporary rift of cloud. Madison was trying to do something with the oars.
The water, smashing around in the craft, was up to my chest. That was because I was lying in it.
"Bail!" said Madison urgently.
There was no bailing can. I only had my straw hat.
I used it. As fast as I threw water out it rained back in.
Mission Earth 07: Voyage of Vengeance Page 23
