Cliff Ryder - The Powers That Be

Unable to stop himself, Jonas stuck his feet straight down and tried to aim for the guy’s head. The intruder glanced up, so surprised by what he saw that he forgot he had a gun in his hand for a moment. He had just started to bring it up when Jonas’s deck shoes crunched into his face. Jonas kept going, forcing the man’s head back and pushing him to the deck with the weight of his body. The mercenary collapsed to the floor, unmoving.

Jonas didn’t stop to check him, but stepped on the man’s gun arm, snapping his wrist as he steadied his own MP-5, tracking anything moving on the aft deck. The second team member rolled on the deck, clutching his bleeding ears, his tearing eyes screwed tightly shut. Jonas cleared the rest of the area, then came out and slapped the frame of his gun against the man’s skull, knocking him unconscious. He then cleared the rest of the area, stepping over Hartung’s corpse as he did so. Only when he was sure there were no hostiles lying in wait did he activate his transceiver.

“P-Five, this is Lead. Lock word is tango. Have secured the aft deck. Report.”

“This is P-Five, key word is salsa. I took a couple in the vest, maybe cracked a rib, but I’m okay. What should we do?”

“Take P-Six’s area and defend it. Hole up in the rear saloon, and keep watch as best as you can. As soon as we’ve secured the ship, someone will come and relieve you.”

“Got it. I’ll be going forward by the left side, so please don’t shoot me.”

“If you’re not wearing black, you’ll be okay.” Jonas heard steps coming and raised the gun, just in case a hostile was using the ex-cop as a hostage to get to him. When he saw the stocky Native American come around the corner, Glock first, Jonas held up his hand before the other man could draw a bead on him.

Martinson nodded, and Jonas pointed to the motionless man in front of him and the other one bleeding in the corner of the deck. “Arm yourself, search these two and secure them, then hole up. I’m heading forward. Anyone comes back that doesn’t give you the key word, kill them.”

“Right.”

Jonas headed topside, figuring he’d take the high-ground advantage. Scattered shots came from the bow, and he planned to get the drop on the other team. “P-One through P-Four, Lock word is tango. Report.”

“P-One here, key word is salsa. We’ve got two hostiles pinned at the bow, behind the watercraft. Attempts to dislodge have met with heavy resistance, including flash-bangs. P-Two is down with superficial injuries. We’re under cover on the left side of the ship, trying to keep them in place.”

“Affirmative. P-Three?”

“I’m moving up on the right side to cut off their escape route.”

“P-Four? Come in, P-Four?” There was no answer.

“P-Four, if you can’t speak, key any button on your phone once.” Nothing. Shit, he thought. “All right, P-One, hold tight. P-Three, advance to the corner and keep them busy.

I’ll be there in a second. Lead Two, if you are in position, key twice.”

There was a pause, then Jonas heard two beeps. Good.

He climbed onto the roof of the yacht, crept past the radar and radio antennae, then crossed the roof of the bridge, walking lightly. As he came upon the forward observation room, he saw a black shadow crawling up onto the roof below him. Jonas hit the deck and drew a bead on the man.

Before he could fire, however, three shots sounded from below him, slamming into the man’s side. The intruder jerked as the bullets hit him, then rolled off the observation roof.

That gave Jonas an idea. “P-Two and Three, fire in the hole.” He set the timer on his last grenade and skittered it across the roof of the observation deck, the flash-bang disappearing from sight and exploding, lighting the night in a brilliant flash.

“Advance now!” Jonas jumped down to the observation roof and ran forward, training his pistol on the two prostrate, moaning men as the two trainees also came from both corners and covered them, kicking their weapons away. Jonas walked to the edge of the roof and let himself down, then checked the prone body lying underneath the shattered windows. He glanced up to see the other two men, their wrists and ankles neatly cuffed back-to-back in the middle of the bow area.

“Lead Two, this is Lead. Bow is secure. Tally is six hostiles, two dead, four captured. Our side has one KIA, two WIA, one MIA.”

“Acknowledged. Bridge is secure,” Karen replied.

“P-One, make sure P-Two is stable, then head back and reinforce P-Five, and make sure you give the proper key word. P-Three, you’re with me,” Jonas said.

Leading the way, Jonas and the trainee swept and cleared the entire ship, room by room. Along the way, they found the body of the young woman who had been at position four, taken out with a clean head shot. Jonas checked her vitals anyway, even though he knew it was a lost cause, then covered her face with a towel and kept moving. Only when he was satisfied that no one else was aboard did he contact everyone.

“The ship is clear—repeat, the ship is clear. Karen, let’s head in. We’ve got wounded to take care of.”

“What happens afterward?” she asked on a separate channel.

“I’m going to visit Mr. Castilo and ask him a few questions.”

“Do you want to interrogate any of the captives on the way?”

Jonas considered that for only a moment. “Negative. All of them are either deaf from the flash-bangs, concussed or both and besides, I doubt they know anything about what’s going down today. No, I need to go to the source.”

“I’ll contact Primary and update—?”

“I’m the agent in charge, I’ll do it,” Jonas interrupted. He sent a call to headquarters on a second line. “No doubt Judy will flip over this. Do you still have a fix on that Stinger crate?”

“Yes, it’s heading south-southwest, probably to Paradise.”

“Naturally. See if you can get this behemoth to go any faster, will you? I’ve got a really bad feeling that this thing is going down faster than we thought.” He gripped the hand-rail and waited for the connection, willing the yacht to speed them to their destination more quickly.

Losing an operative on a mission was always Kate’s biggest concern, even though she had long ago resigned herself to the fact that it would happen. She acknowledged the people who joined Room 59 knew the attendant risks, and their training had been designed to make them the most formidable operatives in the world. She also accepted that sending one person directly into harm’s way to prevent a catastrophe that could hurt hundreds or thousands of innocents was reasonable. However, whenever she lost an operative it was always painful.

When Hartung’s implanted chip sent out the signal indicating he was deceased, NiteMaster had alerted both Kate and Judy, each of whom had arrived just in time to watch the takedown of the last two remaining hijackers. All they could do was watch.

NiteMaster signaled that he had the incoming call, and patched it to Kate directly. “This is Primary,” she said.

Jonas’s voice was as calm as ever, but he was speaking slightly faster, which was how Kate knew he was angry.

“This is Beta. After our meeting, the buyers tried to take over the ship and its cargo and marked us as expendable. In the course of defending ourselves, two of our trainees were killed and two were wounded. We killed two of the hostiles, and captured the remaining four, who will need transport once we’re ashore.”

“What’s your next move?” Kate asked.

“We’re heading to Castilo’s home. There are two operatives on surveillance there already. Contact them and pull them out,” Jonas said.

“Don’t you want backup?”