by Dale Mayer
Just as she was about to panic from the fear creeping up inside her, a shout came from one of the approaching boats.
Instantly Jerricho raised a hand in greeting. As soon as he did, several men appeared on deck, heavily armed, pointing guns at him. He looked at them for a long moment, cut the motor, and then slowly raised his hands.
“Shit,” she said. She glanced around, but she couldn’t do a hell of a lot from where she was. She sat beside one of the masts, but it wasn’t enough to hide her. She wasn’t very big, but she still wasn’t all that small. She wasn’t sure what Jerricho’s and Killian’s plans were and knew that they would have something in mind but maybe nothing of very good value.
She noted Killian was out of sight from anybody looking from the far side. She saw him behind a beam, his rifle ready. She watched carefully, looking to see what would happen and knew that, when it happened, it would break loud, long, and hard. And there would be a shit ton of rifle power. Which meant the women themselves were all in danger. She glanced around, wishing she had some way to stop what could be casualties among them who absolutely didn’t deserve any of it.
But the only thing that she could think to do was to fire first and to ask questions later, just what she had told Jessie that Brenna wouldn’t do. Swearing to herself, Brenna crept forward, until she was behind Killian, and she whispered, “You got a game plan?”
He looked at her and nodded. “Yes,” he said. “Can you stay out of the way?”
“I’d love to,” she said, “but none of those women have anybody to look after them.”
“We’re here,” he said.
“I am too,” she said, “and I know you don’t have any reason to believe that I can fire this with any effectiveness, but I’m a pretty decent shot.”
“Target practice in a safe environment,” he said, “is absolutely nothing like the exchange of live rounds.”
“I got it. But absolutely nothing inside me will allow me to get taken captive again,” she said, “so the last one’s for me.”
He looked at her in shock.
She nodded. “You don’t know what they’ve all got planned for us nor how that feels when you’re the victim,” she said. “I’m not going there. And I’m pretty sure a hell of a lot of the women here feel the same way.”
“I get it,” he said. “I really do, but you need to stand firm.”
“That’s all anybody’s been saying so far,” she said, with a half a laugh. Just then came another shout. She looked around and saw the boats coming closer, a good thirty yards off. “We don’t have any time,” she said. “Are they all enemies?”
“Looks like it,” he said, “but trust me when I say, we do have allies.”
“Not enough,” she said.
“If you hear a helicopter coming,” he said, “make sure you’re well outta the way.”
She looked at him, startled. In the distance, she heard the wop-wop-wop, and, with that, she headed back slowly to where the women were, most of them crowded up against the back of the ship, terror on their faces, as they came awake to realize that the little bit of peace that they had found after being rescued was about to be yanked out from under them. Brenna realized that the attack could leave them in the water, if not necessarily drowning, but she would take that over being caught up in gunfire anyway.
As she waited and watched, the helicopter got closer and closer and closer. The women stared at it. Jessie slid out from her hiding spot and came over and joined her. “What the hell’s going on?”
“I think we’ll have an airstrike,” she said.
She looked at her in surprise. “Oh, I hadn’t considered that.”
“The guys have a plan. That’s what we have to remember.”
“I’m glad you have so much confidence in them,” she said. “I don’t feel the same at the moment.”
“I know, and I have to admit that we don’t have a whole lot of reason to trust anybody right now, but I trust them.”
“I’m putting my trust in you,” she said, “so you better be right.”
Brenna gripped her friend’s hand and said, “I know the pregnancy is making your fear that much worse,” she said, “but let’s just see what happens.”
“And then what?”
“I just told him that I had no intention of being taken prisoner again,” she said. “And I would save the last bullet for myself.”
Jessie looked at her and said, “Make sure I’m the one before.”
“Jesus, don’t ask me to do that.”
“Then don’t think that you’ll get an easy exit,” she said. “If I get taken as a captive and suffer, then you do too.” She shook her head. “I mean it,” Jessie said. “Promise me.”
“I can’t do that. It’s one thing if I commit suicide.”
“It’s the same damn thing if you’re saving me from years of this kind of slavery. Not to mention my child,” she murmured.
Brenna slowly closed her eyes and said a prayer to whatever gods were available to listen to her. She prayed that they could get out of this safely, so she wouldn’t be put on the spot. But she nodded. “Fine,” she said, “but it has to be that bad.”
“If they get a hold of us,” she said, her voice deep and ugly, “it will be that bad.”
“Get ready,” Jerricho said.
“An awful lot of weapons are pointed in our direction,” Killian said.
“How far out do you think the helicopter is?” It was just a speck in the sky at the far end. Jerricho heard the noise, but he didn’t think anybody on the bigger ships heard it yet.
“Getting closer. Their snipers need to leave the big ship intact, so we have enough space to get everybody on to it.”
“I presume we’ve got pirates happening here.”
“Is that what they’re called out in this corner of the world?”
“No clue,” Jerricho said, his hands visibly up. “Let’s not get into an argument over nomenclature, but we need some strategy.”
“How about I sniper off the ones who we can see,” he said. “I already took out one, in case you didn’t notice,” he said, with a note of humor.
“Is that what that was?” Jerricho asked, as he saw a guy fall off the far side of the farthest boat.
“I’ll take another one farthest away,” Killian noted.
Even as Jerricho watched, he heard the silenced shot fired behind him. Killian picked off one of the men in the far back in the low boat.
“That’s two,” Jerricho murmured. He still had his hands up, and just enough noise was caused by the water traffic that it covered Killian’s shots. “Can you get the guy topside on the right in the back, with the rifle pointing in our direction?” Even as he finished his sentence, that guy took a sudden jolt and fell off the side of the boat. “So that’s three. Now the question is, how long before they notice?”
At that, a shout came from the backmost boat, and two men raced to the side, presumably having seen their fallen comrade.
And, in quick succession, two more men dropped. Killian behind Jerricho said, “Do we have any suspicion that these all might be good guys?”
Their boat was immediately pelted with heavy fire.
“No,” Jerricho said, ducking down behind the front cabin. “None at all.”
“We did attack first.”
“Nope,” Jerricho said, “they’re the ones ordering us to keep our hands up. That is, as far as we’re concerned, an act of piracy.”
“I’m with you all the way,” Killian said. “It would be nice to have some idea what’s going on.”
At that, the helicopter came into view. Jerricho looked up at it and saw the pirates turning to stare. Immediately Killian picked off two more. Then Jerricho lifted his rifle and picked off one gunman on one of the escort boats. In rapid succession, he took out two more. “How many more do you think there are?”
“I would think at least six,” he said. “But I could be wrong. It depends on how many men they have below on our rescue
ship and whether any of them up top are good guys.”
“I’ll assume no,” Jerricho murmured.
The helicopter came into sight and immediately fired its rounds at the ship. “I hope they know what ship they are firing on,” Killian murmured.
“I hope so too,” Jerricho said, listening. Was the fire from rocket launchers? No, machine-gun fire was firing down below. The purpose was immediately evident as two more men on one of the escorting boats were picked off, and then the helicopter swooped around, and two more on the far side were picked off. “Wow,” he said.
At that point, the men on top of the main ship were shooting toward the helicopter, trying to hit it. And immediately those two were picked off as well. At that, Jerricho received a radio signal on his phone.
“We’ve taken out everybody topside. Board gently.”
And, with that, the helicopter took off in the far direction.
Jerricho looked at Killian. “This is as good as it’ll get.” He directed their boat to one of the smaller escort boats, quickly tied to it, checked to make sure the escort boat was also tied up to the main ship. He turned to look at Brenna. “Stay here with the women.”
“We all want to get up on the big ship.”
“Of course you do, but first,” he said, with a wave, “we have to make sure it’s safe. We don’t know where the original crew is, and we don’t know how many more pirates are hiding out.”
She winced at that. “And what if you don’t come back?”
“Then you have a choice to make,” he said, his gaze hard. “Come up with your guns blazing, or you cut this boat loose and get moving to a safer location.”
She nodded. “Come back, please.”
He flashed her a bright grin. “Always.”
She laughed because there was just something, even given the circumstances, something so enlivening about being around him. She watched as the two guys scampered up the ladder and burst over onto the deck with their guns ready. But they met no answering gunfire. She waited, tense, the other women crowded around her, seeing her as some leader because of her connection to Jerricho. They waited while she held the gun, fire ready.
She couldn’t do anything because she had no target. But when a face appeared at the corner of one of the two smaller boats, and she realized it was Killian, she raised a hand. He headed back toward the women, and it took him another ten minutes to get across the boat and to her. Once aboard, he helped the individual women cross over slowly. She asked him, as she approached, “And?”
“Jerricho’s loosening up the bonds on the captain,” he said. “Doesn’t appear to be any more pirates alive and left on board, but we can’t take a chance. But, as long as we find some of the crew, they’ll do a full search.”
“So if there’s gunfire?”
“Hopefully it’s ours.”
She nodded and looked around. “That’s a lot of dead men.” She deliberately averted her gaze from one who floated by.
“It is,” he said, “and unfortunately it’s not likely to be the end of it either.”
He helped her across, and she waited until the rest of the women were transferred to the bigger ship. Some were moving slowly, including the woman with the injured leg. She pointed her out, and he nodded.
“She wanted to try it on her own.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she said.
Just then she watched as Jerricho hopped down, quickly taking the ladder alongside the ship that some women were climbing and wrapped himself around the injured woman. She turned and wrapped her arms around his neck, and he slowly moved her up the ladder.
Brenna nodded. “He’s a good man, isn’t he?”
“He is,” he said, looking at her curiously.
She shrugged. “I knew him when I wasn’t a very good woman,” she said quietly.
“He doesn’t hold it against you.”
“He should,” she said, still torn with the same guilt that had always been with her.
“Everybody’s entitled to change,” he said, “and everybody’s entitled to a second chance.”
She gave him a bright smile, even though she felt tears in the back of her eyes. “I wonder,” she said. “It feels like I’ve been punishing myself for so long that I don’t believe I deserve a second chance.”
He motioned her toward the bottom of the ladder. “Everybody gets a second chance.”
She didn’t say anything, but she started the slow climb upward. As soon as she crested the top, Jerricho grabbed her and gave her a quick hug. She wrapped her arms around him and held him.
“Thank you for helping her,” she said. “She looked like she was really struggling.”
“If Killian could have gotten to her, he would have too, but his job was to bring up the rear.”
“I get it.” She looked around at the ship. “This is way bigger than what we had before. I feel so much safer up here.”
“It will be harder to bring down this ship, but that doesn’t make it impossible,” he warned.
She winced at that. “Meaning, we’re not out of danger.”
“No, we are not,” he said. “The captain is also injured, and we’ll have to render some medical first aid here to see what we have left to do. Two crewmen are dead, killed by the pirates. With the captain injured, we have four other crew.”
“And nobody else? No strangers left on board?”
“Not that we’ve found. I will get a full search done as well. I just needed to get everybody up on the deck.”
“Are we setting sail again?”
“We haven’t slowed down,” he said, “but we will change direction.”
“And head back the way we were coming?” She looked at him in horror.
“No,” he said, “but we have to turn this around and head back the way it came.”
She nodded at that. “Anything to get away from where we were,” she said fervently.
“Understood, but sometimes we have to retrace our steps to actually get clear.”
“I hope not,” she muttered. She said, “Can I help with the crew at all?”
“Maybe check over the women,” he said, “and see if anybody needs medical care.”
“I can do that,” she said. “Is a doctor on board?”
He gave a hard laugh at that. “No. Not at all. But rough medicine and somebody with first aid, yes.”
“Good enough,” she said, “it’s more than what we’ve had up until now. We need to especially get the young woman with her injured leg checked.”
“I’ve already got her separated out,” he said. “Check all the others and see if anybody else needs medical care.” He looked at Jessie. “How’s she holding up?”
“Better now that we are rescued and on this ship,” she said. “We’d already determined that the last two bullets in this gun would be ours.”
He looked at her and gave a hard nod and said, “Understood.” And, with that, he gave her another quick hug, and, as he went to step away, she reached up and kissed him gently and said, “Thank you.”
He gave her a surprised look, flashed that dangerous grin again, and took off.
She sighed.
“That’s a heavy sigh,” Killian said, behind her.
She looked up, surprised, and blushed. “Maybe,” she said, “I fell for him once, a long time ago.”
“Does that mean you still feel for him?”
“He’s a good man,” she said. “It’d be hard not to. But we had our chance back then, and we didn’t do well with it.”
“Does that mean you don’t get a second chance?”
“Not necessarily,” she murmured, “but I’d have to allow myself that, and he’d have to forget who I was.”
“Maybe, and maybe you should cut him a little slack for having a little more common sense than you give him credit for.”
“Maybe,” she muttered. “It’s just hard to know.”
“Understood. Come on over here where the other women are.”
“Yeah, we need to find out if anybody’s injured.”
It took a lot of hand gestures to get the message across between all the various women of different nationalities and languages. Finally, with the translations happening throughout, four women stepped forward. Everything from cuts to what appeared to be a concussion from a related head injury.
She looked at the young woman with the head injury and shook her head. “Wow! How long has she been dealing with that one?”
“Probably since the beginning,” Jessie said, beside her. “Everybody’s too terrified to bring attention to themselves.”
“And we can understand that,” she said. “I wouldn’t have let anybody know I was injured either. It would have been a death sentence.”
“Probably get you tossed over the ship,” Killian said cheerfully.
She rolled her eyes at him. “Aren’t you just a bundle of joy.”
“Not my job,” he said in the same bright voice.
She groaned. “Go find somebody else to bug,” she muttered.
He burst out laughing. “You mean, really what you’re saying is, Where is Jerricho, huh?”
She glared at him. “He’s off doing his stuff,” she said. “I’m fine without him.”
“Uh-huh,” he said in a teasing voice, making her flush even more.
“What’s the matter?” Jerricho asked, coming up behind them.
She immediately glanced down at the deck, shook her head, and said, “Nothing.”
“Uh-huh,” he said, studying her. “Seems to me that definitely something is wrong. What’s up?”
No one answered him.
Chapter 8
Jerricho looked at Killian. “We need to set up watches.”
“What about the other men, the crew?” he asked.
“They’ve got some experience but not a ton,” he said. “They’re also shaken by the attack. For two of the men, it made them more aggressive and quite eager to go on guard duty,” he said, “looking for that target that they didn’t have a chance to take out earlier,” he murmured. “But the other two are not of the same mind.”
“Understood. And the captain?”
“He’s holding. He’ll get up on the deck, as we move forward.”
