Richard Johnson - Deadly Cargo - A Chilling Naval Terrorism Thriller

“If it’s the last thing I do, I’ll kill de la Vega if he hurts you or the kids,” Dan swore under his breath.

From fifty yards farther on, the sound of slurred men’s voices roared through the night air. To Dan’s ear, nothing sounded more pathetic than a bunch of drunks baying at the moon, but tonight, it was the music he wanted to hear, the louder the better. “Listen to that,” he whispered to Nicole. “That might work to our advantage.”

“What, a bunch of drunken pirates?”

“Yeah, I just hope they keep on drinking.”

Dan searched along the wall until he found a wider slot between two planks and pressed his eye to the wall. Across the clearing, he saw the other hut. The moon was bright, and sharp shadows were cast on the beach grass that covered the ground. Beyond the hut, he saw a larger building with lights burning inside. Through the bare window he watched shadows of men moving about, raising bottles of booze to their mouths, and he listened to the boisterous singing and yelling and cursing. “Keep slopping it up, you filthy pigs,” Dan muttered.

In the moonlight, Dan noticed that there was no guard standing by the hut where the children were confined. Apparently, Ruiz was expected to guard both huts, figuring that the kids would stay put in the locked shack and cause no trouble, as long as their parents were being held as prisoners.

“Hey, son,” Dan yelled, and a crashing blow thundered against the door from outside.

“Shut up!” Ruiz yelled, but it was too late. Dan saw his son’s hand reach out through a slot between the planks of the far hut.

“Yeah, dad?” Jacob yelled back. “We’re okay.”

“Shut up, you kids,” Ruiz threatened at the top of his lungs, “or I’ll kill your mom!”

Cadee howled when she heard that, and the verbal torture was more than Nicole could take. “Listen, you stinking animal, you shut your mouth, or after I’m through with your boss I’ll hunt you down and rip your tongue out by its root.”

Dan raised his eyebrows and stared in surprise at Nicole. Her eyes were glowing with anger and she was puffing her breaths like a fighter getting ready for battle. He’d never heard her talk this way before, but decided to go along with it. “Ruiz,” he called through the door, “you’d better listen to her. She’s a karate master and she’s already killed a man bigger than you.”

Ruiz yelled back, “You’re lying,” but his voice sounded a little unsure. “You just be quiet in there, or the boss will have my head.”

“You afraid of your boss?” Dan thought he detected a weak spot that could be worked.

“Are you kidding? I ain’t afraid of nobody.”

“I don’t know,” Dan said with obvious doubt in his voice. “Sounds to me like you are.”

“I ain’t afraid. I’m just smart.” The pirate tried hard to sound convincing. “I know where my money comes from.”

Dan moved against the back wall, shoved his shoulder against a plank and felt it give. One more shove and the slot opened a little wider. He stuck his hand out and waved it toward the far hut, and Jacob waved back. Good, he sees me. In a flurry of finger movements, Dan flashed sign language into the night. A moment later, Jacob’s hand started moving and Dan read the message.

“Listen, Ruiz,” Dan called out, wanting to keep the attention of his guard, “if you’re so smart about money, why are you going to split the treasure in the container with all those other men. How many are there?”

“Hey,” Ruiz shouted, “I’m not stupid. I know what you’re trying to pull. You want me to tell you how many men we have here.”

“No, that’s not what I was trying to do.” Dan rolled his eyes at Nicole. “I was just thinking of how many ways you’re going to have to split all that money. And here you are, standing guard all by yourself while everybody else is in there, drinking up your share of the booze and having a good time. Why should you have to split the money with them when you’re doing all the work? You’ll only get, what, a tenth or a twentieth?”

“We split everything,” Ruiz responded. “It’s the rule.”

“Yeah, but who made the rule?”

“De la Vega makes all the rules,” Ruiz shouted “He’s the boss. Now shut up.”

“Yeah, and how much does he take?”

“You don’t listen very well, do you?” Ruiz growled.

“You afraid to even talk about it?”

“I told you, I ain’t afraid of nothing.”

“So why not tell me how much de la Vega takes?”

Ruiz huffed. “The rule is that he gets half, and the rest gets split nine ways between us.”

“So,” Dan continued quickly, not wanting Ruiz to realize what had just happened, “if we’re talking about a million dollars, the boss gets half a million and you end up with a little over fifty thousand? Does that sound fair to you? I don’t think so.”

Ruiz was silent for a long moment. “Are you saying there’s a million dollars in that container?”

“I know exactly how much is in that container,” Dan lied. “And better yet, I know how to open it. But I’m not going to tell anyone who is such a fool that he lets himself get ripped off by some guy just because he says he’s the boss and wants to make all the rules.”

“The boss says—”

“Listen man, the boss is only the boss as long as you let him. He’s ripping you guys off. What would you do if you were the boss?”

Ruiz started talking in a lower voice, as if he were afraid to be overheard having such a conversation. “I’d split it all even.”

“Now that sounds fair to me,” Dan said. “I can work with a boss like that.”

“You?” Ruiz sounded unbelieving.

“Heck yeah,” Dan said. “I figure our chances are better if we cooperate with you than if we fight you and end up getting ourselves killed. Yeah, I’d work with you, if you were boss.”

Ruiz was quiet, and Dan hoped it was because the man was thinking about what had been said. Greed and power are temptations that can tear a man away from his foundation, and Dan knew that if he lured Ruiz into his trap, it might give him a chance to save his family. If he failed, it was likely that by tomorrow he would be dead, with Nicole in bondage to de la Vega and the kids sold into white slavery.

Dan stuck his hand back out through the slot and pressed his face to the opening, then signed again to Jacob. A moment later, his son’s fingers began moving. He understood, and he pulled his hand inside. After a few minutes, the sound of Cadee’s crying stopped, and Dan was hopeful that it was because her brother had shared the plan with her and gave her a job to do that her dad said was important.

In the distance, the drunken party was louder than before. “Ruiz,” – Dan moved next to the door so he could speak in a low voice – “listen to them in there, having a good time while you’re stuck out here. I think you’d be a better boss that de la Vega. You deserve something better than the measly little bit he is going to give you. You ought to be in charge.”

“Perhaps, you are right, senor,” Ruiz said in a hushed tone. “What do you propose?”

NIA Headquarters

Curt Delamo’s phone rang and he looked at the caller ID display, then reached for the handset. “Josh. What do you have to report?”

“Sorry to call you so late,” Josh said, “but we’re going to need to pull out all the stops here. We need more C-130’s looking for containers. Only three have showed up so far, and none of them is the right one. It’s still out there somewhere.”

“I talked with Secretary of the Navy, Bob Avery, this afternoon. The president has authorized him to dispatch a carrier out of Pensacola as soon as the storm gets out of the way. Probably another day or two, but as soon as possible we’ll get a ship loaded with planes down there to help with the search. At least Husam al Din is no longer on his way to Miami.”