Chapter 19

There is a reason crashed large aircraft have nearly perfect noses while the rest of the passenger plane is a mess. The nose is full of compacted first-class passenger parts ... people meat ... tightly packed.

The reason the big catamaran didn’t sink? The hulls were packed with beheaded bodies. The hulls being upside down didn’t let the decomposing gasses escape. The bodies were jammed in so tightly that the smashed seacocks were blocked. No heads ... no hands ... and the bloat made identification very difficult. Men, women and children ... not pretty. Everyone had been raped, and mutilated before shortening.

The first men aboard didn’t stay ... they did leave their breakfast behind though.

I suggested just letting the decomposing continue until the shattered seacocks were uncovered and the damn boat sank. A salvor would NEVER get the smell out of the interior ... the bodies would never be identified. It was doubtful that anyone would come forward with a claim. Did they do that?

Nope.

They sent the divers down to patch the through hulls and towed the boat to Eilot, Israel ... at the very tippy end of the Gulf of Aqaba.

Why there?

Djibouti, Djibouti, wouldn’t have them, Massawa, Eritrea, refused entry, they didn’t try Port Sudan ... too many of the recreational boats needed to provision and refuel, Jeddah, Iran, held the bodies were an abomination before God. The Aqaba, Jordan, Imam said, “Go to the Jews.”

Eilot took ‘em.

What They did with them ... I don’t know. Most of the convoy, now that the piracy danger was passed, took the canal and spread out over the Med.

The Flint waited at Port Said, Egypt. The wait was short.

“You waited,” said the younger former wet lieutenant.

“I thought you might want the armaments back.”

“I’ll ask,” he said, eying Cassie when he said it. Cassie eyed back.

“You waited,” said Commander Collins.

Ever been shopping with a Shore Patrol guard ... twelve of ‘em? And the younger lieutenant escorting Cassie.

I spent like a sailor on shore leave ... oh ... wait. I AM a sailor on shore leave. Commander Collins wasn’t married. Dinner and the bellydancer show were spectacular. Dragged on the floor, I had to have a lesson in belly and the star of the show wouldn’t take no as an answer. I made a fool of myself.

However, Cassie. One wonders just what Cassandra teaches their orphans. Cassie did the slide and hip lift like she’d been doing it all her life.

So ... the star took Cassie to the dressing room. They were gone fifteen minutes. When she came out, she was dressed ... undressed ... for the part. The main dancer whispered in the drummers ear and the dumbek set up a sensual beat. The 4-stringed kanun, the keyboard and ney flute followed the drummers lead. Cassie started slow but ended up whirling like a dervish. When the dance came to the end ... Cassie a puddle on the floor ... there was silence ... and then...

Standing ovation. The club owner tried to hire her on the spot. Several young men set up a bidding war. When the bid reached two million Egyptian pounds ... almost a million US, I walked out, picked her up, hugged her and took her back to the boat.

Now ... about the pirates...