Jamie Freveletti - Running Dark

“We’ll be adding to their rage, not diminishing it” was how Stark put it. Nevertheless, Emma had handed out all the pens from the boxes they found in Clutch’s room, with instructions to stick the pirates twice if they could. Likewise, everyone was given a squeeze bottle of fresh water spiked with rubbing alcohol to shoot at the pans of jellyfish or into the eyes of the boarding pirates. Emma’s sat on the floor at her feet. Sumner sidled up next to her.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Good as I’ll ever be,” she said. “I wish I had an RPG instead of a small gun and some pens.”

“You think the pens will work?”

Emma nodded. “I do, despite what Stark said.”

Sumner nodded. “I’m with you. It’s all we’ve got going for us at the moment.”

There was a roar as the assembled boats began their charge.

“Here they come,” Sumner said.

53

EMMA WATCHED THE SKIFFS SHOOT TOWARD THEM. SUMNERheld the Dragunov, and he stepped out onto the deck as they approached. He waited in the shadow of a small overhang along the wall for the moment that they were close enough to hit. The pirates began their own volleys at three hundred meters away. They fired in unison, launching grenades at the Kaiser Franz, aiming high. The luxury boat shook with the force that hammered into it. Explosions rocked the ship, blowing out windows, sending shards of glass catapulting twenty feet into the air, and raining bits of metal and splinters of wood everywhere. Two grenades shot past Emma’s hiding place, too high to hit anything. She could smell the sulfuric chemical burning at the rockets’ tails as they whizzed by.

Sumner stepped out of the shadow and returned fire. Emma watched the driver in the lead boat drop. From twenty feet to Emma’s right came the burst of their own RPG being fired. Hassim held the weapon. Emma could see him standing at the very edge of the deck rail. His back blast nearly scorched a life ring hanging on the wall ten feet behind him. Hassim’s grenade traveled straight toward his target like a heat-seeking missile. The first skiff’s hull shattered at the prow, sending planks flying upward. The pirates screamed, jumping out of the craft into the water. Emma heard more shouts as the men landed in the jellyfish-infused ocean.

Sumner fired again, but it did little to slow the pirates’ progress. They unleashed grenades at the ship in sporadic bursts, and as they neared, their aim sharpened. Most of the ordnance met its target. They were close now. Sumner picked off pirate after pirate, but the sheer number of them ensured that they would succeed in boarding the ship. Emma saw the flash of steel as the first grappling hooks flew over the railing thirty feet to the left of them.

The hooks cued Cindy and Marina, who emerged from their hiding places behind a door. They crouched over as they slid four flat dishpans across the deck. Marina shoved one under the first hook, which had been thrown next to a ladder built into the Kaiser Franz ’s side. Cindy pushed hers beside it, in line with the first. Three more grappling hooks flew into the air, clattering onto the deck. Cindy yelped when one grazed her shoulder before it fell onto the planking. The metal prongs rattled as they were drawn back. Two fell harmlessly into the water when their hooks failed to grab on to anything. The third caught the base pole of the railing and stuck there. Cindy rammed another pan under the last. Both women scuttled back to the metal door.

The Kaiser Franz emitted a huge metallic sound, belched a cloud of oily smoke, and groaned to a start. They were moving. Emma heard muffled cheers from the passengers hiding in the lower decks. The ropes attached to the grappling hooks pulled tight while the boat hauled them along. Sumner moved closer to the railing, firing shot after shot into the attached skiffs. Emma sidled up next to him, removed the safety on her gun, and glanced over the side.

Four skiffs dragged in the cruise liner’s wake, each one filled with Somalis. Two aimed assault rifles upward. One fired off a volley at Sumner and Emma. Sumner dove to the deck, but Emma was already as flat as she could get, so she concentrated her attention on the shooter. She responded with her own series of shots, catching the man in the shoulder and causing the others to dive for cover. Empty bullet casings ejected from the pistol’s side, flying to the right and landing on the wooden planks with plinking sounds. She held the gun with two hands, as Hassim had taught her, but she still had a difficult time controlling the weapon’s recoil.

Six more hooks flew over the railings at various points. Sumner crawled next to her, lay on his belly, and aimed at the men. He started picking them off as they grabbed on to the ladder to haul themselves upward. The vessel’s movement served to slow the pirates’ momentum, but even so they were climbing fast. The ones using makeshift ladders fell off them when they hitched sideways from the combination of ocean waves and moving target. Emma reloaded with the last of her ammunition. Each shot was going to have to count.

The first group was at the top of the railing, and four swung a leg over to board. Their weapons were slung across their backs, and a quick glance at the first two showed that they wore heavy work boots with thick steel-reinforced soles and long pants. Emma wanted to groan. Although they stepped directly into the dishpans, they didn’t react. Even if the tentacles had fired, the men weren’t feeling the sting. The first on board managed to stumble over the lip of the pan. He catapulted forward, arms flailing. Emma darted toward him, a pen in her hand. She plunged it into the back of his arm as he fell to the deck.

Emma swung back to watch the other two. One crumpled to the planks from a shot fired by Sumner, while the fourth wasn’t quite over the railing. He wore sandals and slammed one foot into a pan. He didn’t react but seemed intent on swinging his second leg across the railing. Marina darted from behind a lifeboat. She skidded to a stop four feet from the man, pointed a squeeze bottle at him, and emptied the water into the pan. The man howled, stumbling over the pan’s lip and dropping to his knees. Marina spun back to run for cover. There was the sound of a crack, and her body flew forward with the force of the bullet entering it. She slammed face-first onto the deck, and a blooming red stain formed on her shoulder. She lay flat, unmoving.

Emma felt an arm wrap around her throat from behind. The man she’d hit with the pen was choking her. She fought for air as he tightened his sinewy arm on her neck. She could smell his sweat and feel his bicep bulge with his effort. She still held the spent pen in her hand. She dropped it and scrabbled in her pants pocket to grab another. Her fingers closed on the slim plastic piece and she pulled it out, held it low, and plunged it backward, into the man’s thigh, which was the only part of his body she could reach. Seconds later she felt him begin to jerk in a spasm. He kept his arm locked around her throat as his body twitched.

Sumner was up and running toward her, his weapon held in both hands. He swung the butt of the gun high, above Emma’s head, aiming for her attacker. She felt a puff of air as the steel whiffed past her hair. The gun hit the pirate with a thudding sound. He collapsed, taking Emma down with him. She untangled herself from his arm and rolled to the edge of the railing to get away.

Her heart plunged as she looked downward. The pirates were swarming over the side of the boat, slamming makeshift ladders against the side to crawl up. One man, still inside a skiff, yelled orders, his face contorted with rage. He held an assault weapon at the ready while his eyes raked the ship—looking for what, Emma didn’t know. Sumner moved to stand above her, a foot on either side of her body. He continued to fire at the pirates, but it was only going to be a matter of minutes before they were overwhelmed. The raging man’s eyes locked on Sumner. He raised his gun to shoot.