Jamie Freveletti - Running Dark

He continued down the hall, opened his cabin door, and slipped inside. He pulled a case from the closet. Made of titanium, it looked like a rectangular violin case with a webbed carrying strap. Sumner threw the strap over his shoulder and plunged out the door, running.

A second explosion rocked the Kaiser Franz. Sumner careened into a wall as the vessel pitched. Screams of terror echoed from the casino. Sumner’s heart pounded in his chest, and he ran faster, with renewed urgency. He retraced his steps, past the casino entrance, up the stairs, onto the deck, and up the ladder to the bridge. A second RPG flew at the ship. This one was aimed high, at the bridge. It overshot and kept flying out to sea.

Sumner crouched on the deck surrounding the bridge and lowered the titanium case before him. Block, Wainwright, and the crew were back in the bridge. They watched him through the windows. Sumner set the code on a small padlock before flipping open the case. A Dragunov rifle with a telescopic sight nestled in the box’s protective lining. Sumner pulled it out, checked the chamber, and crab-walked to the deck’s side. When he was within three feet of the railing, he dropped to his stomach and crawled the last few inches, dragging himself by the elbows. He settled into position. He peered through the scope, targeting the pirate manning the RPG, and reined in his anger.

The shot was a difficult one. The Kaiser Franz churned through the ocean, slicing the waves, rising and falling with each swell. Wainwright kept the boat at an angle to the waves so as not to have to fight them the whole way, which would only serve to slow the ship. In contrast, the cigarette boats slammed head-on into each swell. Their superior speed ensured that they would always keep up with the larger craft, but their heedless trajectory caused the boats to buck. The pirates bounced along with each crashing wave, and the man holding the grenade launcher was hard-pressed to keep it on target long enough to fire with any accuracy.

Sumner waited until the Kaiser Franz reached its lowest point, then began its roll up. He fired when the boat was halfway to its peak. A large hole bloomed on the shoulder of the man holding the rocket launcher. He went down. Sumner could hear Block hooting through the windows. At least he thought it was Block—he didn’t bother to look up. The first cigarette boat veered off, racing away from the Kaiser Franz. The second also started to loop away. Sumner targeted the second boat’s captain. Waited for the roll, squeezed the trigger. The man flew forward with the force of the bullet that entered his back, high, at the shoulder. Sumner watched the passenger scramble to take over steering the boat, and then he swung back to aim at the first boat, but it was out of range, retreating as fast as its engines would allow. He watched the boats until they were once again tiny dots in the distance.

Block jogged over. “Hot damn! You can sure as hell shoot, boy, and that’s the truth. I’ll bet that’s the first time you shot a man, right?”

Sumner put the gun back in its titanium case. Closed it and twirled the combination lock. He straightened to look at Block.

“That’s the first time I shot a man without killing him,” he said.

Block’s mouth fell open.

8

CAPTAIN WAINWRIGHT CLAPPED SUMNER ON THE SHOULDER.“Good job. How long do you think it will be before they come back?” Sumner watched Block blanch. The possibility that they’d come back must not have occurred to him. But Sumner had no doubt they’d return. The Kaiser Franz carried rich passengers and a casino filled with cash. They’d take the money, kidnap the passengers, and strip the boat for its parts.

“A little before dawn, I would think. And I have bad news. I saw radar equipment. Can you switch off yours and alter course? Take a less familiar route?”

Wainwright pondered the question for a moment. “I hate to turn off the beam. It will help the Redoubtable find us.”

“And the pirates,” Sumner said.

Wainwright nodded. “As for the route we take, I don’t even know how long we can continue. Depends on how bad the damage is. I’ve got the engine crew checking into it now. If we’re taking on water, we’ll need to put into port as quickly as possible.”

“Back to the Seychelles?” Sumner said.

Wainwright shook his head. “Last radar showed the pirates were massed between us and the islands.”

“They’re herding us.”

Wainwright’s expression was bleak. “They seem to be.”

“In which direction?”

Wainwright grimaced. “Somalia.”

“Somalia? I didn’t pay thousands of dollars to go to Somalia.” Block’s voice was loud and scared. Sumner thought the man had a right to be frightened. Somalia was one of the most dangerous places on earth. Mogadishu’s port bustled with commerce, most of it illegal. It was likely that the pirates originated from there. Sumner would have preferred Mombasa, Kenya, although that country was in the midst of its own problems.

Wainwright turned on Block. “Mr. Block, leave the deck. Now, please.”

Block looked like he wanted to argue. Sumner frowned at the man. Block glanced at the titanium case still in Sumner’s hand, closed his mouth, and left the deck.

Wainwright turned to his first officer. “Let me know if there are any injuries, and tell me the minute you get a report from the engine crew. Radio the Redoubtable and tell them we’ll need an escort to the nearest port.”

After the officer left, Wainwright sighed. “This cruise line serves a very wealthy, very pampered clientele. Any number of bad elements in Mogadishu will see them for what they are: easy prey and big money in ransoms. I’ll do anything to avoid Mogadishu.” A small radio attached to Wainwright’s belt crackled, and a voice poured from it.

“Bad news, sir. The Redoubtable radioed back and said they can’t escort us anywhere.”

Wainwright depressed a button on the device and placed it to his lips. “Why not? Twenty minutes ago they said they were on the way.”

“They’re under fire from the insurgents. Four cigarette boats are bearing down on them, and two helicopters. I didn’t know the insurgents even had helicopters. We’ve been advised to change course and hightail it out of the area as fast as possible.”

“What’s our situation?”

“The lower decks reported in. No injuries. Two staterooms sustained damage. Satellite’s sporadic, radar’s out, but I think both can be fixed. We’re not taking on water, but oil pressure is dropping like a stone. We’re trying to determine why. Unless we can plug the leak, we’re going to be floating dead in twenty minutes.”

“Let’s get the generators ready to go.”

“Already gave that order. I have two men suiting up. When we can safely stop, they’re going to submerge to see if there is any damage below the waterline that could account for the oil-pressure problem.”

“Tell me when it gets too dangerous to continue. When it is, we’ll cut the engines.”

“That would be now, sir.”

Captain Wainwright sighed. “Fine, cut them.” He turned to Sumner. “We’re grenade fodder.” He rubbed a hand across his face. “Come on into the control room. Let’s assess our options there.”

Sumner followed Wainwright into the control room, where Wainwright’s first officer, a plump man named Nathan Janklow, turned to greet them.

“We only have so much fuel. We’re going to burn it at a ridiculous rate if we continue at the speed we need to maintain distance from these guys. We’re crazy to even consider Mogadishu. Frying pan to fire,” Janklow said. He was only in his mid-thirties but had the dour personality of a much older man. At that moment, though, Sumner agreed with him. Putting in at Mogadishu was a decidedly risky move.