Chapter 34: Intruders

The initial shock of seeing someone board a yacht that was several hours from shore was not as traumatic for us, as seeing five naked people sitting in perfect calmness when they should be reacting, was for the frogman.

“Alex! Please don’t kill him. He’s wet,” Carina reminded me of what had happened last time someone tried to board a yacht to harm me.

“What should I do then,” I asked.

The masked diver simply stared at us like he didn’t believe his eyes. There was not the usual panic in his victims eyes or the hysterical movements of people who were afraid for their lives. Something was wrong with this picture.

“Can you disable him without killing him,” Roland asked.

“The pistol is already disabled,” I replied. “I think!”

The frogman immediately raised his pistol towards me and pulled the trigger. When nothing happened, he looked at the pistol and then at me before throwing it to the floor. Then as he reached for another device on his web belt, he noticed that most of the electronics on his dive suit and vest were beginning to smoke.

He quickly released the buckle of his dive belt, and began to rip everything else off. When he looked up, Captain Tony had a rifle trained on him.

“Stand very still, son,” Captain Tony said in his captain’s voice.

A soft “Shit!” escaped our attacker’s lips.

“Remove your dive mask and tell us who you are,” Captain Tony commanded.

Slowly the attacker reached for his mask. Just as his hand reached his neck, he pulled a knife from a hidden sleeve on his back, near his neck and pulled back to throw it before he crumpled to the floor.

“Well, fuck!” said an amazed Captain Tony.

“He gave me no choice,” I said as Carina rushed to the fallen attacker. Captain Tony walked over and retrieved the knife and other weapons as Carina ripped off his mask and hood, looking for a pulse in his neck.

He’s alive,” she said with relief.

“He may have other hidden weapons,” Captain Tony said. “Roland, can you and Alex strip off his dive suit? Then Carina can see about reviving him.”

Soon, our attacker was as naked as the rest of us.

Captain Tony brought over a pair of nylon cuffs that looked like fancy zip-ties and placed one on his wrists and the other on his ankles.

“I’m going to check on the girls,” he said.

“Let me do it,” I told him as I headed for the stairs. Noèle was in the galley and the girls were in their cabin. When I saw they were safe, I simply backed out with a “Sorry to bother you.”

I spent a few minutes checking the other cabins before I returned to the bridge. When I arrived, Roland was on the satellite phone with Reggie and the prisoner was stretched out on one of the big sofas. He appeared to be in his late twenties or early thirties with dark hair and a short beard. He had a series of tattoos on his left wrist and forearm. One was of a dolphin and another was a coiled snake. The others appeared to be some unknown symbols.

“The dolphin used to be popular with British SPS. And that symbol there is one that the Royal Marines favor,” Captain Tony explained to Roland who relayed the information to Reggie.

“Just a minute,” Roland told Reggie, and then took his smartphone and snapped a picture of the still unconscious Marine’s face and one of his left arm. Then he sent them to Reggie.

“What are we going to do with him?” Captain Tony asked.

“Do you want to try and heal him?” Carina asked me.

“Not really, but I suppose I should,” I told her as I moved behind the sofa next to her. Then placing my hands over his head, I moved them slowly until I felt the familiar tug and watched as the area around his ear took on an amber glow. In less than a minute it turned silvery/blue to match the glow of my hands. Soon, a low moan escaped his lips.

“What the bloody hell!” he said as he tried to sit up. Then he lifted his hands to see the nylon cuffs. I’d have to ask Captain Tony where he got those sometime.

Finally, he settled down as he twisted around to sit up on the sofa. It didn’t take him long to realize what the situation was.

“Taser?” he asked.

Carina just nodded.

“Well, I bloody well didn’t see that one coming!”

“Who are you,” Captain Tony asked.

The naked frogman just looked at him without saying a word.

“Bring him over to the table and hold his arms while I cut off his fingers,” Captain Tony said. “Then we’ll throw his sorry ass over the side and take the fingers back for identification.”

“Remind me not to ever piss off a French Naval Captain,” I said to Roland as we hoisted the prisoner up to take him to the table while Captain Tony selected one of the knives the marine had been carrying.

“I sure hope he sharpened this lately, otherwise, it’s really going to hurt,” Captain Tony said aloud. “I think maybe you ladies should go downstairs now. He isn’t going to need any medical care in a moment.”

“Reggie said we probably wouldn’t need more than a thumb and an index finger,” Roland supplied.

“Wait! I’ll tell you! Don’t do this!” he begged.

“Hurry!” Captain Tony said.

“Mars Van der Lancing!” he spit out as if he were cursing.

“What about Van der Lancing?” Roland asked. He had the satellite phone on speaker so Reggie could hear.

“He hired us to find out what kind of weapon the kid used on the Navy,”

“He’s worthless. He isn’t telling us anything I can’t find out from Van der Lancing himself. Tie a line to his ankles and tow him for a couple of hours. The sharks should take care of the evidence,” Reggie said over the speaker.

“He offered one million for the weapon and three million for the kid!” the prisoner said. “And he offered five million for both!”

“Who are you and who’s in this with you?”

“Harry Grimes,” he said. “I’m a former swimmer (British Marine). I got injured in Kabul and forced to retire. My brother works in security for Mr. Van der Lancing and he hires me on occasion, usually to gather information.”

“And how were you going to get the kid to Van der Lancing?” Reggie asked over the open phone.

“There’s an old Dutch Mercuur class cruiser following this yacht. It belongs to VDLS. Once I had the kid and the weapon, I was supposed to radio and they would come along side,” he explained.

“What about everyone else?” Captain Tony asked as he began to study the radar.

Grimes just looked at Captain Tony and said nothing.

“How did you get on board?” Roland asked.

“Simple, really. I swam under the yacht while you were docked in Cardus and then worked my way into the toy hold. The hard part was figuring out how to get out of there. I had to go back through the opening to the sea and then grab hold of the stern as the yacht went by me. Tricky bit of business,” Harry said.

Something he said was gnawing at me.

“What happens when you don’t radio in?” Captain Tony asked.

“Then they will assume I failed and either sink the yacht if they can, or turn and disappear.”