Chapter 10

“Maybe you could give me one of your shirts to use as a night dress but I think your shorts would fit two of me.” she told me, shaking her head.

I led her to her stateroom and then went to mine, pulling out a football Jersey that Stacy had sent as a joke. She wanted a picture of me in it to tease a friend. It was an XXL so it should be fine as a dress.

When I knocked on the door to her cabin, there was no response but the door was not locked. I opened it slowly, talking loudly.

“My eyes are closed, just tossing this on the bed.” I could hear the shower going so, without opening my eyes, I threw the jersey inside and hoped it was somewhere obvious so she would find it, then closed the door and went back upstairs.

Dean called me over to the bridge area and hit a button. One of the big plot screens changed and showed cameras throughout the boat.

“What the hell? I didn’t know about this! My eyes cataloged where the cameras were until we got to the cabins. I could see Cam’s cabin but not her shower, thank god.

“Can we shut down the cabins in use? Is there a book on these?” I reached over and hit the button he had used to shut them down again for now. Dean was grinning at me and shaking his head, but he didn’t turn them back on.

I went to the office where all the manuals were kept and there, in a binder titled, innocuously enough, Passive Security Features, I found the camera system. There was a way to lock out specific spaces, or to turn on the smart monitoring for occupied spaces. The cameras had motion sensing software that could cut off or on, depending on the settings, whenever there was movement. You could even specify the time of day.

On a hunch, I turned on the monitor and powered up the PC. The icon for the camera software was there on the desktop and a double click had a complete display of all available cameras on my screen, though in thumbnail since there were forty-eight!

There were twenty on the exterior of the boat, eight looking outward at the cardinal points and the rest giving perimeter views. If I had known this, I could have seen the boat that Cam had used!

The remaining twenty-eight were interior and were grouped by deck. I pulled up the main cabin floor and set all the staterooms to shut down camera feed if motion was detected before midnight, but record after midnight until dawn. That way, we could actually record an intruder, but no one had to be filmed taking a shower or something!

All the machine spaces, common spaces and passageway cameras stayed the same. I pulled up the actual feed from the living spaces and could see my cabin, the guys cabins, but nothing from Cam’s cabin, so it was working properly. Looking, I could even see the crew cabins on the lowest deck!

I went back up to the top deck again and hit the button for Dean. He looked up disinterestedly but laughed when he found Cam’s cabin was grayed out.

“There is a privacy setting.” I said with a smug grin. I looked out and was surprised that the sun was coming up. A quick glance at the time showed me it was almost six.

“Take this, would you? I need coffee. Hell, I am still not completely sober.” Dean said, pushing himself up and heading downstairs.

“Hey Dean, bring me some and then go back to bed. I will hit the alarm if something happens. I’ll wake you at noon.” he just nodded and headed down.

He was back a few minutes later with a carafe of coffee.

“There is cream in the mini fridge, sugar on the bar. Wake me at noon or if you get tired. Dave is already crashed.” he pointed to Dave’s cabin, and it had gone gray too.

I shut off the cameras and brought the radar plot back. I turned on the long range, setting it at twenty-five for now, the medium at ten and close at five. I turned the TV on and flipped it to the weather channel for long enough to see that we would probably be okay today, no storms in store for us, then flipped to the news.

“Jacque?”

I turned and Cam was standing there in that football jersey. The white material made her tanned skin look even darker and it clung to her figure in ways that made me a little uncomfortable. Now that she was showered and cleaned up, I was tempted to push her age up even further. She might be about my age!

“Sorry, didn’t mean to stare, I was just ... just wool gathering. Is everything okay? I expected you to be asleep already.”

She looked bashful, her eyes on her hands. The jersey was a tent on her, draped loosely over her form. The neck hole was so large that it had slid to one side, baring a shoulder and threatening to dip down and expose one of her tiny breasts. When she shrugged, I actually held my breath.

“Would you think me silly to say I was afraid? I was afraid to be alone down there. May I sleep up here? I could sleep on the couch, or on the floor, if you prefer. It would not be the first time and your rug looks very soft.”

“What? No! Wait, I mean no, you will not be sleeping on the damn floor. If you want to sleep on the couch, that is perfectly okay with me.” She had looked startled at first, then grinned at me. A real, honest to goodness grin. When she came forward and kissed me on the cheek, just the barest of touches, just rustling the hair on my beard, I thought I was going to freak.

I am not sure why, but my flight or fight response was going a little nutso and it was totally stuck on flight when it came to her! My heart was beating a mile a minute and my breath was coming in short gasps as I watched her walk across the room and lay down on the couch, a sofa barnacle for a pillow. Once I got myself under control, I grabbed a blanket off the back of the couch and covered her up, getting a sleepy smile in return. She looked so innocent laying there.

I know I watched the gauges and I know I altered the plot a couple of times to avoid small islands or reefs that were not on the charts, but I can’t remember a second of it, not really.

My mind was on the girl over there, sleeping on the sofa. She had this weird effect on me and I didn’t think I liked it, not at all. I would have to mention this to Dean, see if she had the same effect on him. If so, we might want to turn her over to the authorities sooner rather than later so we could get back to the serious business of screwing off.

We were east of what the map said should be North Palmetto Point, getting close to the end of the long thin land bridge between North Eleuthera and Eleuthera, when the radar voiced a ping.

I leaned forward and hit the button on my keyboard which would show me the last minute, highlighting visible tracks in red. I can see a boat that passed into the ten-mile range and it looks like it could be headed our way. If it was just one boat, it wouldn’t be too bad but, as I watched, two more joined it. They were all pretty close together, and all three tracks were converging on my line of travel.

The radar showed they were traveling at about twice my speed, twenty to twenty-five knots so the first thing I did was restart the motors and, when they were running, started bringing up the power. By the time I hit seventy-five percent, we were at only fourteen knots before I realized that there was not enough wind to help and the sails were actually working as a brake! With them down, I crept up to twenty at eighty-five percent. I might have eked another knot or two, but only at the risk of my motors. Instead, I backed off to seventy percent and the boat slowed to eighteen knots again.

When I sew the distance was still closing, but much, much slower, I decide to watch a bit more, see what happened before I woke the guys. Meanwhile, I picked up the radio and, after checking for the right frequency, put in a call to the Royal Bahamian Defense Forces, see if anyone is around.

Yeah, they aren’t all that big and I had no idea where their closest base was, though Google seems to think it is more than three hundred and fifty miles away. I heard someone come back with my boat name on the radio, but it was weak and in broken English.

“E Squared, this is Father’s Revenge out of Eleuthera. There are no police type forces in these waters. If you have boat trouble, some will help, some will rob you. If you have pirate trouble, run fast or shoot true. Good luck E squared and god be with you!”

One more look at the radar and they were still back there. In fact, they were falling behind a bit. Whatever they were running was not fast enough to catch us quickly and I thought they were giving up. I backed off on the engines a bit, bringing them down to sixty percent. No sense in wasting fuel.

Another half hour and another cup of coffee later, the boats had turned around and they were soon only visible on the long-range radar. But we had a new problem. There was a larger boat now coming in to view on the twenty-five-mile range and it was on an interception course. If we continued at the same speed, they would meet us somewhere near Red Pond. This shit just wouldn’t end!

When I slowed down more, dropping my speed to fifteen knots, the boat on the intercept changed as well, they were definitely looking for us. ‘Okay, let’s do this!’ I brought the speed back up, then hit the button that would ring a chime in the cabins.

Dean and Dave were there pretty quickly, both looking a tad better but still tired.

“We had three following us, catching up until I restarted the motors and dropped sail. They couldn’t catch us quickly, they started too far back, and they turned around. Then, about ten minutes ago, this fucker here showed up on an intercept course. I varied my speed and he changed to match me. He is definitely coming for us. I tried to call in for help but the locals say we are on our own. On the map, the closest Bahamian base is more than three hundred miles away, so anything that happens, we are on our own.”

Dean just nodded but Dave looked thoughtful. “How far do you think you can hit, say, the waterline of a boat, with that Lynx?” he asked Dean.

“With a stable platform, a klick and a half. From the roof of the flybridge? A klick, probably.” Dean replied with a grin. “I just wish we had explosive rounds.”

“Yeah, we thought of that, but you can get away with the .50 in port, but explosive rounds will get you arrested just about everywhere. What we need is federal cover. DHS, ICE, something like that. Then we could have RPGs.” Dave said, throwing up his hands.

Dean looked at me, his face serious now.

“Okay then. You are the captain, this is your ship, but I am the senior security specialist so I want control when we get into contact, okay?”

I paused for a second. Wait, he’s really asking me? “Of course, it is okay!” I practically yelled.

He just rolls his eyes and grins. “When they get close enough to see through the scope, we will tell you and you bring us down to a slow speed, just enough to be steady. You will warn off the other boat and, if they keep coming, Dean will start putting rounds along their waterline. If that doesn’t work, throttle down, grab a rifle and meet us on deck.”

“Okay, sounds like a plan. I would really like to avoid getting my new boat shot up like the last new boat I got, Dean, so if you need to sink them to prevent that, feel free.” I told him sarcastically.

“Aye Aye, Captain!”

Cam was up and staring at us from her spot on the couch.

“Ah, sorry! We didn’t mean to wake you. We really aren’t used to passengers.” I told her, trying for a little humor. Her expression told me it was very little.

“We have a ship on an intercept course and a local told me that there are no military in these parts. We are going to try and warn them off but we will not allow them to come close to us. If we have to, we will sink them.”

“You can do that?” she asked, the fear on her face evident to all three of us.

Dean smiled softly at her. “Would you like to see what I will use?” When Cam nodded, he waved her over. “Follow me down one level.”

I engaged the autopilot, knowing that I would only be away for a couple of minutes. In the main deck salon, Dean reached down and opened one of the seats, showing her, nestled in foam, the menacing form of the Lynx GM6.50 caliber sniper system. The weapon weighed in at twenty-five pounds or eleven thousand, five hundred grams, but even at that weight, it was far lighter than its competitors.

Dean reached down and pulled out a box of ammunition, opening it and showing her the round that was longer than her small hand. She seemed afraid to even touch the round and I saw her look around for me, her eyes searching my face again. I just smiled and nodded.

She scooted over close to me, but not touching, and stood watching as Dean pulled the rifle out and set it aside while he loaded two ten round magazines. Then with a shrug, he loaded the other three.

“I doubt I will get a chance to fire all five, but it is a semi-auto, so I can rock and roll until they get too close.” he said with a feral grin on his face. I had seen that look before, but usually when I got too big for my britches and he was about to take me down a peg. I was glad that look was for someone else this time!

“Dean, just picture where the motors are on this... , just ignore the outriders. It is a pretty standard place to put them from what I have seen in the build books I got from Deckhouse. Pump rounds in there, maybe you can take out their engines.” I suggested.

Next, we followed Dave as he went to one of the gun lockers. He punched in the four-digit code and the concealed door popped open. From inside, he pulled two AR-15s and two Vests. He handed me one of each and then paused, reaching inside and pulling out a third vest that he also handed to me with a head nod towards Cam.

I could see him hesitate again and guessed he was thinking about the shotguns. “I prefer a pistol at close range.” I told him quietly and he nodded. He pulled a pistol from the safe, seeing that it was a Sig, he put it back and closed the door. “I’ll just grab mine.”

I pulled open the ammo cabinet next to the safe and we each grabbed a half dozen loaded magazines for the ARs. I made a mental note to check these a couple of times a year, replace the springs.

The vests that Dean had handed me had magazine pouches for the AR and some for pistols. It had loops for grenades too, but I didn’t think we had any. What was odd was that these tactical vests also had Kevlar liners, which was pretty cool, except you would have to toss the whole thing if you got hit and survived. Maybe that was why they were on the boat instead of on some soldier. A good idea with poor execution?

I headed back upstairs, this time climbing to the fly deck and activating the helm there. The intercepting boat was only about five miles away and, as I turned on the larger displays, the five-mile intercept alarm blared.

I could hear movement above me and took a second to go up the ladder and check on Dean. He had laid down a sunbathing pad and was all set, his magazines laid out for an easy grab. Next to him on the deck were a shotgun and a bandolier of slugs and one of something else. They were labeled Dragon’s breath. Not sure what they did, but with that name, I was betting on flames and fun!

Back, down on the flybridge, Cam was looking at the displays and I realized she was still in that jersey and hadn’t put on the vest!

“Cam, sweetie, you need to go down stairs. Go get that vest on the couch and put it on. It has bullet resistant fabric in it, okay? If the other boat does something stupid like shoot at us, I would like you to be as safe as possible.”

“If I get the vest, can I come back? I don’t want to be down there alone.” she asked, her voice a little shaky.

“Okay, but if I say so, you get flat on the floor, okay? Promise me.”

“Je suis d’accord. I promise, Mister Wolf.” she darted down the steps.

I picked up the mike and set it to the general frequency. “Attention ship on an intercept course with the United States motor vessel E Squared. You will stand off or we will consider you hostile and take action to protect ourselves. Stand off now.”

I repeated it twice, once more on the general station all ships were supposed to monitor, then once on the emergency frequency. I could just barely make out the ship in the distance, maybe two miles or so?

I repeated my message one more time and then reached up with the butt of my rifle and banged on the ceiling. In about ten seconds, there was an unmistakable BOOM!

Cam had come back up and was staying out of the way. I saw her jump in surprise, but then a fierce smile appeared on her face and she reached for the binoculars. When she saw me watching her, she paused, then gestured to the binoculars as if to ask if it was okay. When I nodded, she smiled again and picked them up.

I reached into the cabinet under the controls and grabbed another set. In that short interlude, Dean had fired four more times. He was like a clock up there, firing once every couple of seconds and I even saw one of the rounds hit. It hit the exact tip of the prow and blew a hole the size of two fists that was immediately taking on water. I could see where other rounds had gone in through the fiberglass hull.

Boom! Boom! The boat had slowed and turned, no longer racing towards us. Even as we watched it started to wallow and even list. With the binoculars, I could see why. Dean had been punching a pattern into the hull and the fiberglass had cracked and broken away. One of the air pockets in the hull, about where the engines were, was being flooded with seawater!

I went up the ladder to the roof and Dean was just watching through the scope. “I think they are done.” I said, loudly enough for him to hear me over the plugs hanging out of his ear. I was glad he had thought of it because I sure hadn’t!

He looked up at me and pulled one plug. “Yeah, that boat is done. There are some ragheads over there and that boat is awfully shiny.” he said with a grin. His grin faltered when he saw my expression, but I just held up a finger and went down the ladder fast.

“Cam, were there any other girls? Did this bastard have any others?”

She looked startled, then turned to look at the boat. Her hand went up to her mouth. “Jacques, there are three more. He had three more! Do you think ... Did we kill them?” she sounded horrified, but I was just growling. I shot through to the roof again and slapped Dean on the leg from the ladder.

“Down here, now!”

Back on the flybridge, I turned to Cam.

“Go down and get Dave, bring him up here quickly. We are going to save them if we can, but we have to move fast.”

She was down the ladder like a shot. Dean was with me, the .50 sitting on its bipod on the floor, the AR in his arms like a bird hunter.

Dave showed up with Cam and she ran to me, taking up a spot behind me.

“Listen, I think that is the buyer over there and Cam said he had three more girls. I was just thinking that he probably wouldn’t leave his other slaves alone if one had just escaped. If he has them over there, we have to go and get them.”

“Damn it, Jack. This is not a man of war, it is a fucking playboy yacht.” Dean said, shaking his head. “It’s is going to get fucked up if we have to take this to them.”

“So fucking what? I would sink this right now if it saved them.”

“Okay. let’s do this. You are the captain. So, captain. Get us close enough to use a hailer. Listen closely. If anyone has a gun, shoot them. No hesitation, no bullshit. If they have a gun, put them down. Clear?”

“Hooah!” came from Dean, but I just gave a thumbs-up.

“Dean, up high. Cam, can you help me put the big fenders over the side so we can tie up to that wreck without damaging Jack’s boat?” She just nodded, then looked to me as if for approval.

“That would be awesome, Cam, thanks. Help wherever you can but when we get close, hide. Don’t let them see you. We want them to just give us the girls and we will give them a way to survive. If they see you, they may not bargain with us and it will get ugly.”

She nodded her head. “Bon chance, Jacques, mon loup!” and disappeared after Dave with a feral grin on her face.

I cranked up the motors and spun the wheel, even kicking in the bow thrusters to get us turned faster. We were almost beside them before Jack began hailing them.

“Attention sinking vessel. Do you have a life boat?”

Someone on the other side screamed that they did not, that the owner used it as a water taxi in port and they hadn’t had time to take it aboard before coming out here.

“We will see you safely to land, but you must gather on the bow wearing pants and nothing else. Hold your hands above your head so we can be sure you are not armed. If we find a single man armed, we will sink this boat and kill every one of you. Is that clear?”

“We are just the crew, we did not do this thing!”

“On the bow, unarmed or die. That is the deal”

“Okay, okay!”

Slowly, men started to appear, stripping off their shirts but putting life vests on. There were half a dozen men gathered on the bow. The stern of the ship was now squatting and the bow was an easy dozen feet higher than it should be. The entire boat was only about seventy feet long, a bit shorter than mine.

We pulled closer and Dave threw a rope over to have them tie us off. I shut down the motor and locked the controls before scurrying below to cross over with Dave. I had left the rifle but I had my pistol and the spare mags.

I stepped across and adjusted my stance to the tilt of the sinking boat. Dave followed me then waved at the men waiting. He pointed back over to our boat at Dean who had his rifle aimed their way. The message was clear.

Dean and I headed aft. There were several staterooms but the biggest was on the main deck. The door was closed and latched from the inside.

“Open this door or you will go down with the ship.”

A spate of something foreign sounding came through the door. I recognized only the word Allah, but not like you hear on television, you know, where the guy screams and blows himself up? This sounded more like cussing.

Dave said something back in the same language and there was a gunshot from inside, then a scraping sound at the door. We both jumped back, him to one side, me to another and both of our guns pointed at the door. It opened a crack and a single eye showed through. When nothing happened, the door opened a bit more and a bruised, tear-streaked face looked out.

“Please, I am not one of them.” a scared female voice said.

I lowered my gun and stepped forward, praying Dave was good enough if I was wrong, but the woman looked at me, wide eyes, and tried to smile.

“You will rescue us, si?”

“Si! Come with me. There are two more?”

“Si, si! Dos mas!” She threw the door open and I could see a man in a white dress of some kind, lying on the bed. He had a gun in his hand but the bullet hole was in his chest, his expression surprised.

“He grab me and I...” she jabbed and punched the air. “I fight. I grab gun, el Despidió, he fall down.”

“Good! Good job. You are very brave. Camille, Cam, she is with me on my boat. Quickly, bring clothes.

The three women grabbed pillowcases from the bed and began stuffing things inside until each of them had a bundle. Dean was tossing the cabin, looking for something as well, though I wasn’t sure what. When the girls were done, we walked them through the boat and back to ours again. Before we cast off though, I wanted the boat’s papers and, over Dean’s objections, went back on the boat, reminding Dave that there was a zodiac in the rear storage under where the Chris Craft hung in the lifeboat davit.

I went straight up to the bridge, my pistol out in case someone was hiding and found the captain’s cabin just off the bridge. It was where the office was on my boat, but the principal was the same.

There, in an open safe, were the obvious ship documents plus a bunch more. Also inside, were half a dozen stout-looking metal cases stacked on the bottom shelf. Each one was about a foot square and two or two and a half inches tall. Out of curiosity, I opened one and inside, in rows like poker chips, were gold coins.

Okay...

I searched and found a briefcase, stuffing it with every bit of paper in the safe, and everything that looked important from the desk. Then I carried it out and yelled for Dave. After tossing it to him, I told him to stick it inside and come with me.

“We don’t have time to fuck around, Jake!”

“Trust me. You want to see this.”

Dave cursed his way back to the slowly listing boat and followed me into the office. I showed him the case I had opened and he looked thoughtful.

“Nice” was all he said, grabbing two of the cases. “Grab two and be prepared to drop them and grab a gun if needed. Then I will watch while you grab the last two. You are younger.” he told me with a grin. These things were heavy, they had to weigh at least fifty pounds each!

We managed to get all six stacked in the salon on the E² without trouble and I was untying and backing the boat off in just a few minutes. Dave had pulled the zodiac out and it was folded into the size of a footlocker, with a red pull-tab that said ‘Inflate’ on it.

Inflating it was as quick as pulling a rope and the small, electric motor, complete with solar panel, was pretty simple to mount. Dave suggested just letting them get in the boat and towing them to land, but I would rather just give it to them and get the hell out of dodge.

I pushed the boat overboard and had Dean pull farther away. When I turned to see where the three ladies had gotten to, I heard a shot that came from the ship and threw myself to the deck, rolling behind the nearest cover.

There were several shots from our side from about where Dave had been standing. I could clearly see two dead men on the deck, a couple more in the water. I had my pistol out and was looking for a target when Dean yelled ‘Clear!’ from his spot on top of the flybridge.

“Someone with a rifle took a shot at Dean from near the bridge over there. I shot back and one of those idiots on the bow pulled a pistol. Fuck ‘em.” Dave said, his expression grim. I was already heading up the ladder to find that Dean was there by the door, crouched with a rifle ready, but unhurt.

“It actually came close enough to hear the flutter. I am one lucky fucker.” Dean said, shaking his head. I just patted him on the shoulder.

“Give me a minute to settle the new girls and I will be back up here to take over. See if you can get Dean to lasso that Zodiac. We can bring it back on board and you can get us out of here.”

The girls were all clumped around Cam, hugging and practically dancing. I got them to settle long enough for me to show them where the bottom deck guest cabins were. They could all stay down there, or they could split between there and Cam’s stateroom. Hell, they could take over crew quarters if they wanted. For now, though, I had Cam show them where to shower and where the kitchen was.

“Eat and drink anything you want.” I told her.

The Zodiac hadn’t gone far and we were able to maneuver alongside to pick her up again. It was a little awkward to get it back on board and get the motor off, but they were twelve hundred each for boat and almost a grand for the motor. Dave said he would deflate it and tie it down later, after we were clear.

I put my rifle away along with the spare mags, I hadn’t even fired it, then hung my vest up too. With just my shorts and my shoulder holster, I went back up to take over from Dean and let him clean up his gear. I did have him leave his AR and mags though, just in case.

I had the boat up to fifty percent power and was checking the wind, finding that we were now running into the wind, not with it. I knew you could tack into the wind but how to actually do it and this was primarily a motor yacht so ... screw that noise. I pushed the power up to sixty percent and just barely over fifteen knots with the wind in front of us.

We were no more than a mile or so away when a cracking sound made us look. A great greasy gout of smoke and flame was visible over the rear of the boat. There was a second flare and something broke the spine of the damaged boat. The rear sank out of sight, the front heeling over to one side and slowly submerging. I could only guess that a fire in the engine bay had found the fuel, or maybe the natural gas storage.

If anyone was left alive over there, well, it sucked to be them.

The way things were going, we were not much in the mood for more sight-seeing. We were about five hundred miles from the Keys, about thirty-five hours sailing at fifteen knots. With two of us to man the helm and Dave to help some too, we could be home in two days barring any problems.

Right now, home sounded awfully good.

Dean took over after he had some lunch, sending me down to eat and get some rest. I had other things on my mind though. First things first, I went and carried the six cases of coins into the office and stacked them along the wall, out of the way. Then I went and found the briefcase of papers and put those in the office, setting the papers on my desk. Then I went to find the girls.