Just as Collins lowered his nine millimeter, a shattering scream filled the air as several of the strange attackers burst from the side of the ship. They were all armed with the same weaponry that had killed the little girl on the island that had been newly christened Compton’s Reef. Shiloh then added her own powerful searchlights to the already surreal scene before them. Ropes made of organic sea material were thrown over the railings, and grappling hooks made of fish bone entwined between rails and cables. Farbeaux reacted fast and went to the sides and started cutting the ropes before the creatures climbing them could get a full foothold on the main deck. As Henri cut through the seaweed-like material, Jason joined him and started firing over the side. His first round caught one of the horrid-smelling attackers in the face, and the beast screamed. It was high pitched, and if it weren’t for the heavy gunfire from Shiloh’s crewmen, the noise of the injured boarder would have been earsplitting. Just as the head recoiled, the rope was cut, and the creature fell backward into three more.
* * *
Captain Johnson couldn’t believe what was happening. His ship was actually being boarded. Not since the heady days of the civil war between communists and nationalists in 1928 China had an American ship of war been attacked in this manner. Johnson grabbed the 1 MC microphone and then said the words no American warship captain had uttered in close to a hundred years: “All hands, repel boarders, repel boarders!”
Several of the strange weapons crashed through the bridge windows, and then one of the .50-caliber Brownings and one of the heavy searchlights illuminated the attackers in their boats to the port side of Shiloh. The brutal size of the American rounds caught the boats and their crewmen and chopped them to pieces.
“XO, get the anchor up. Engine room, get me some power up here. Helm, steer straight ahead. Get us moving!”
* * *
On deck, Jack heard the anchor start to raise, and Shiloh surged to life. He turned quickly and saw Master Chief Jenks and Charlie Ellenshaw as they were firing M4 assault rifles over the side. Thus far, they had kept their attackers at bay, and only a few had managed the treacherous climb to Shiloh’s deck. There were bodies floating all around the large missile cruiser. As Jack raised his head, one of the attackers who had made the climb screamed as it launched itself at him. He moved too slowly and was knocked down, and the creature seized that opportunity and pounced. Jack tried in vain to get his pistol up in time, but the attacker wedged his hand between it and the deck.
Jack looked into the animated face of his adversary, and he didn’t care for what he was seeing at all. The clear, small, sharp teeth were in full display, and the drool from its mouth spiraled down as the beast saw the opportunity. It raised the mother-of-pearl knife high into the air, and Jack prepared himself for the sharp blade to crash into his chest. The gleaming earrings and other pearl-like adornments rattled and shook as the beast, who dressed like the pirates of old, prepared to kill him.
Suddenly, the head of the attacker swung sharply to the left as a rifle butt crashed into its skull. The beast went limp, and before Jack knew what had happened, Carl was helping him to his feet. The M4 was at his side as he faced the colonel.
“Sorry. Ran out of ammo. Had me scared there for a minute, Jack. You’re slowing down a little, enough so that you let Flipper’s ugly cousin almost gut you.”
“I could say the same for you, Swabby. A little later and I would have been sushi.”
As the scream of heavy-caliber bullets streaked over into the waters, Shiloh started her run. The foam and burst of power at the stern caught several of the attackers as they climbed their ropes and made it to the stern railing, just as Shiloh took a powerful leap forward in the water. Violet spray and foam flew high into the air, and her thrust forward slung the boarders from the railing.
As Jack regained his breath after the brief struggle with death, he felt the deck beneath him heave as Shiloh used her two powerful turbojet engines to spring forward. Almost all personnel on her exposed deck lost their footing due to the acceleration of one of the world’s fastest warships.
The night sky was crisscrossed with blue, red, and green tracers. Star shells started to explode from the five-inch main mount on the foremost section of Shiloh, and their magnesium flares lit up the night sky. Luckily, they didn’t need computer guidance to fire the five-inch gun straight into the air. It was better than nothing.
“Look!” Charlie said, pointing toward the two anchored Russian ships.
Peter the Great was also slowly starting to move. Her anchor had been cut loose as her powerful engines were throttled to their stops. Only the Simbirsk was idle. And to all their horror, she was also burning from her forecastle to her bridge. Flames licked at her forward sixteen-inch gun mount, and an explosion could be seen rising high into the sky.
Collins suddenly sprang and moved quickly to the stairs leading to the bridge. He entered and saw Johnson directing the intense fire from his station at the bridge windows.
“Captain, get us over to the Simbirsk. She’s starting to burn!” Jack yelled.
Johnson had to be given credit for not even questioning the direction. He immediately ordered Shiloh’s helm hard over.
“Damage control, stand by to board Simbirsk and assist in firefighting.”
Jack nodded at Johnson and made his way down to help in the endeavor to save their only ticket home. Shiloh sped through the floating carnage of the attackers. It rammed smaller boats with their screaming crewmen and crushed them beneath her massive weight. The twin propellers slashed and mutilated those creatures that had escaped the ramming. The battle was one of the more ruthless scenes any of the experienced Event Group personnel had ever witnessed.
Of the three ships anchored that night, one was burning heavily, and the other two had been boarded by an unknown threat. All of this from sixteen small boats and the tenacious creatures that crewed them. The last thing they saw was one of the searchlights picking up the largest of the ships as it moved off into the dwindling moonlight, the pirate flag flying magnificently on the topmost sail.
The attack lasted no more than seven minutes.
14
Three hours later, the fires on board Simbirsk had been put out. The crews of Shiloh and Peter the Great examined the damage as both cruiser captains had straddled the damaged World War II warship in a protective layer that any enemy would find hard to get past. A total of over six hundred men lined the decks of both with automatic weapons as they all scanned the sea for further threats.
The two captains, Jack Collins, Carl Everett, Henri Farbeaux, and Salkukoff met at the burned fantail of the Simbirsk.
“The phase shift power plant, was it damaged at all?” Captain Kreshenko asked, looking at Jack.
“Professor Gervais and the master chief are evaluating that as we speak. Thus far, it looks as though the quick thinking of Gervais saved us from the enemy getting to the equipment. He and his assistants locked themselves inside the engine room and dogged the hatches. They couldn’t get in and were butchered by the Russian, American, and Royal Marine contingent sent by you. Obviously, we need more security aboard Simbirsk. We can’t risk losing that ship at this point.”
“Are you suggesting that these … these creatures were after the power plant?” Salkukoff asked with skepticism written on his stern face.
Collins now turned his attention to Salkukoff. “Well, let’s see here, Colonel. Their boarding parties never made an attempt to get belowdecks of either Peter the Great or Shiloh. But they did the Simbirsk. I’ve never been a big believer in coincidence, and if your files on me are as accurate as I think they are, you should know that.”
“As you say, they are accurate files, Colonel Collins. So why do we not cut to the chase, as you Americans say? Ask me your questions, and maybe I can allay your suspicions about my mission.”
“I’ll bite. What are your orders?”
At this, even Captain Kreshenko raised a brow, as he wanted the full details about Salkukoff�
��s mission as well. He could see that the American colonel was as suspicious about this man as himself.
“To put it bluntly, Colonel, I am here to assure my superiors are not embarrassed by this ship and the ways and means we received the technology.”
“Destroy her,” Jack said with a smirk. “But now you find yourself at cross purposes, don’t you?”
“Yes, I would indeed like to survive this, but it is not my highest priority.”
“This has nothing to do with the phase shift experiment, does it?”
All eyes went to Jack, curious at the question he had just asked. Carl even stepped closer to the Russian.
“You’re out to protect the way in which that material was stolen originally. Not only that, you’re here to stop us from finding out those sources are still active within our government, possibly even our military. That’s why you didn’t sink Simbirsk during your egress into the hurricane. You needed to know just what it was that we knew.”
“You Americans love your conspiracy theories, don’t you? This is not one of your films where the hero always figures out the dastardly scheme of the evil man. This is real life, Colonel Collins.”
“Yes, it is.” Jack turned to Kreshenko. “Captain, did you confirm with Moscow the colonel’s orders?”
The Russian captain just nodded.
“And where did that confirmation originate? Moscow?”
“No.” Kreshenko looked at Collins and shook his head. “Colonel, you are placing me in a difficult situation.”
“Yes, Captain, I am. You have close to five hundred men you’re responsible for, just as Captain Johnson does. We need to know if the only enemy we have is out there.” Jack pointed to the open sea. “Now, this man knows why the Simbirsk was targeted and why they tried to get belowdecks. We need to know why.”
All eyes again went to the Russian colonel.
“You weren’t sent to destroy Simbirsk; you were sent to salvage her and bring her home to the motherland, right?” Jack smiled as he knew he was getting warm to the truth—the same truth that Niles Compton and British MI6 wanted to get at.
“What is that?” Kreshenko asked. “What could possibly be here that Russia needs?”
“Industrial blue diamonds,” Henri answered for Jack.
“And he should know. He’s stolen enough of them from us to make the identification,” Carl said as he too eyed the Russian.
“The misguided captain is most assuredly correct, Colonel. I do know my diamonds.” Henri turned and looked at Kreshenko. “In ten years, the most advanced nations of the world will be fighting over this very limited resource for energy purposes. These fine fellows have come to utilize them in the most industrious of ways. I see them as money, but you men see them as power. Why they abound in this world and not our own will have to be explained by a geologist”—he looked at Jack and their shared memories of Sarah McIntire—“but I suspect that is the reason we have the company of your presence.”
Jack smiled and nodded at the Frenchman, who dipped his head at the colonel’s favored look.
“Speculate all you want, Colonel. My superiors want their ship and their experiment back,” Salkukoff said. “And as for your question, yes, we have recovered Simbirsk before. In 1989, she reappeared in the Black Sea with several of those disgusting creatures on board. Before we had a chance to recover her, she vanished once more. Three hundred of our men went with her. We did recover some of these from her superstructure before she did her disappearing act. Failing to recover our property will lead us to destroying her. Even with you on her, Colonel.”
“Who do you work for? Whoever they are must think you are expendable, because without your Simbirsk, you’re as stuck as we are,” Jack persisted.
“I work for my government, of course.” Salkukoff never allowed his eyes to leave Jack’s.
“The orders, as confirmed, never originated in Moscow, Colonel. I must insist you answer Colonel Collins’s question,” Kreshenko said.
Salkukoff stepped back and then looked at all of them. “I work for my government.”
“President Putin is not the head of that government, is he?” Henri asked.
“Does it really matter, Colonel Farbeaux?”
“Colonel, you have to see this,” Charlie said as he came forward with Jenks in tow. The master chief was also holding a small fire extinguisher. Ellenshaw saw the serious faces of the men standing in an angry circle, and he and Jenks stopped. “Uh, we’re all still friends here, right?” crazy Charlie asked, lowering the rag he had been trying to show Jack.
“I have a feeling we’re not, Professor,” Kreshenko said, but he was not looking at the Americans. He was staring straight at Salkukoff.
Carl turned to Charlie. “What have you got, Doc?”
Ellenshaw was silent at first as he caught the heavy vibes streaming off the angry men.
“Doc?” Everett asked again.
“Oh, this.” He held out an old red rag. It had a clear substance dripping from it. “It was recovered from the stern decking, and we suspect it was how the fire was started. Chief?”
Jenks nodded. Ellenshaw allowed the rag to drip onto the old wood decking of Simbirsk. Then Charlie eased over to Jenks and accepted a small square of steel.
“As you see, this substance doesn’t burn the wood deck, correct? Now watch this,” Ellenshaw gingerly laid the small piece of steel onto the substance. Suddenly, the liquid activated, and a magnesium-type of flare-up happened. The steel melted right before their eyes, and then when it touched the wooden deck, it slowly fizzled to nothing.
“Damn,” Carl said as he kneeled to examine the spot. “Chemical?”
“Organic,” Jenks said. “In the late ’70s, I heard rumors that the navy was experimenting with the glands of certain fish and other sea life, and they were amazed to find some of these same properties. This stuff more than likely originated with some kind of fish—clam, who knows? But it was a substance that was harvested, to be sure.” Jenks looked over at the assembled men. “Evidently, our aggressive friends from the sea are a little more knowledgeable than we gave them credit for.”
Without warning, Jack quickly reached out and deftly removed Salkukoff of his holstered weapon and then tossed it to Everett. Kreshenko looked momentarily shocked, but Salkukoff did not.
“Easy, Captain,” Henri said as he stepped up beside Kreshenko.
Everett looked from the Russian captain to Jack. Then he went to Kreshenko and handed him the Russian pistol.
“Captain, I suggest you place this man under arrest until such a time as we can get the hell out of this screwed-up world,” Collins said.
Kreshenko shocked them all by handing the pistol back to Salkukoff. “Consider yourself under arrest, Colonel. You still have the privilege of defending yourself, but you are hereby prohibited from venturing belowdecks of Simbirsk.”
“A wise decision, Captain,” he said as he holstered the pistol.
Jack looked at the two Russians and shook his head and then turned away, followed by Carl and Henri.
Ellenshaw looked at Jenks.
“We have got to start being in on these meetings.”
“Yeah, we end up missing the good stuff.”
Master Chief Jenks easily tossed Kreshenko the fire extinguisher and left with Charlie.
* * *
Just after 6:00 A.M., alarms were sounded again on all three ships. Men crowded around the railings and watched as the alarms died down to nothing as the fleet of villagers started to sail by on their small wooden ships. With their brightly colored sails pushing them through the strangely colored sea, sailors from both nations watched them go by. There were catcalls and whistles when the men of both navies saw the women inside the boats as they prepared their fishing nets for the day.
“Look at that,” Carl said as he stood next to Jack. “It’s like the world moves on for them. Death by those fish-looking pirate bastards must be close to an everyday occurrence.”
“I’m afraid
you’re probably right, Swabby.”
As the hundred boats moved silently past the warships, one of the men with mud covering his face raised a hand. Unlike the day before when there was not even an indication that these small people even realized they were there, this time there was a greeting. Jack watched the headman as he lowered his arm. Jack’s mind was filled with the glee of that little girl as he gave her the saltwater taffy. Then the memory broke apart as he saw her face in death not three hours later. He turned away from the railing.
“You’re having the same thoughts on Director Compton’s edict on getting involved with indigenous people?”
Jack watched the small fishing boats vanish into the rising sun of the east and then turned and nodded. “I tend to lean more toward the Garrison Lee way of doing things.”
“Yeah, kill the bad guys, and then we’ll figure out the rest.”
“Yeah, this noninterference stuff, sometimes it’s hard to see and grasp, even coming from one of the smartest men in the world.”
A Russian commando approached Collins, and with a sour look on his face, he reported, “Colonel, I have been sent to inform you that Colonel Salkukoff has requested you join him aboard Peter the Great.” The Russian saluted, but Jack held firm. The hand remained raised just below the man’s helmet. The commando finally caught on. “We have a prisoner.”
Jack finally returned the salute, and the Russian left with an arrogant gait. He brushed by two American sailors, and one of the men made a turn to go after the commando, but Captain Johnson walked by at just the right time and shooed the men back to work. The captain, his eyes momentarily on his men, finally turned and went to Jack and Carl.
“This is getting a little tense around here,” Johnson said as he joined the two.
“I don’t think it’s going to get any better,” Jack said. “Fighting a common foe hasn’t resulted in forgetting old animosities, has it?” Collins said, and then he faced Johnson. “It seems we’ve been invited over to Peter the Great. Want a look-see at this marvel of the seas?”
Beyond the Sea--An Event Group Thriller Page 23
