The Devil's Work

by Linda Ladd

  Even though she had little appetite, she ate everything that was nutritious. She had to think about the baby and keep her safe. Afterward, she walked straight back to her cabin, trying not to despair, but it was getting more difficult. That was what she did every day: walk the decks for the allowed time, eat whatever was served, and sleep fitfully in her cabin. They left her to herself, and she was thankful they did. That was the only good thing she had going for her.

  One evening she finally got a break. She was alone in her cabin resting because the baby was restless and keeping her awake. She had been able to keep up her positivity, but now she was beginning to get depressed. They intended to take her child away the minute she was born. Claire was under no illusion about what would happen to her then. Once they got the money, she was dead. Black would demand to see her again, but he would be afraid not to pay the ransom. So many things could go wrong; she could be killed and dumped at sea before he even knew where she was. She could not wait any longer for him to rescue her. She had to do something herself.

  All day, she had felt ill, her stomach roiling as hard as the ship was. She remained inside her cabin, unable to stomach the smell of food in the cafeteria. She knew they’d bring her dinner to her, but she didn’t want to eat anything. When the knock sounded at the door, Isabella appeared with a dinner tray.

  “Senor Kellen said you must eat,” the young girl told her, but she wouldn’t meet Claire’s eyes. “He said to bring your dinner and tell you that you must eat it.”

  Claire sat up in the bed. Isabella came forward and placed the tray on the mattress in front of her. Then, instead of rushing out like she usually did, she stood there for a few seconds and glanced back at the door. That’s when Claire glimpsed the pencil and sheet of notebook paper lying on the tray. She darted a surprised look at the girl. Isabella was nervous now, fidgeting her hands and repeatedly moistening her lips. “Write down his number and what you want me to say to him, and I will send a text.”

  Claire’s heart took a leap. This was it. This was her way off this ship. “Oh my God, thank you, Isabella, thank you so much.”

  “Papa will punish me if they find out. He’ll beat me. Please hurry before anyone comes.”

  Claire hesitated, unsure if she could trust the girl. What if it was some kind of trick? Kellen had shown himself to be clever. Isabella was standing there beside her, her gaze constantly darting over to the open door. She looked legitimately frightened. Claire could see that, but that could be because Kellen had told her to make this offer. Why would he, though? She knew she didn’t have a choice; she’d have to trust the girl. She quickly wrote down Black’s private number and the name of the freighter and anything else she thought could help him find her.

  She wanted to talk to him herself. “Do you have a phone? Is that the one you’re going to use?”

  Isabella shook her head. “No, there is a sat phone for the crew. I am allowed to use it, too. They don’t think I would dare help you.”

  “Why are you helping me?”

  “Because you are alone and you are going to have a baby and your husband does not know where you are. I think it is a terrible thing what they do to you.” Her words came out in a jumbled rush, and Claire could hear her fright.

  “Am I the only pregnant woman they’ve brought aboard?”

  Isabella shook her head. “You are the only one this time. There have been so many, though, too many for me to remember. Most of them only sailed north to America. You are the only one that Senor Kellen has taken south to Guatemala.”

  “I assumed we were going to Argentina.”

  “No, we always dock at Santo Tomas de Castilla in Guatemala.”

  Claire handed the paper back, and the girl folded it and stuck it down into her bra. “You must not tell on me,” Isabella said. “They will throw me overboard. I have seen them do that to one poor woman. They will kill me and my husband, too.”

  “Is he on the ship?”

  She nodded, but she was watching the door. “He’s a deckhand. They pay him well, but he feels sorry for you and for all the girls they’ve brought aboard. It is wrong what they do. It is cruel.”

  “Does your husband know that you’re helping me?”

  The girl shook her head vigorously. “Oh, no, he would not allow me to do it. He knows they would kill us.”

  “Listen, Isabella, my husband has money. He’ll pay you so much that you can get off this ship forever, both of you. Thank you so much, thank you.”

  The girl rushed out without another word, and Claire leaned back against the pillows and let the tears well. Maybe she was going to get out of this after all. Maybe Black and Novak could find her, and this nightmare would be over. She prayed it would, because she didn’t think she could take it much longer.

  Chapter 24

  “There’s a text coming in. I don’t recognize the number,” Black told Novak and the others around the table. He thrust his chair back and stood up. It was nearly two o’clock in the morning, but they were still up, making plans, too jacked to sleep.

  Novak watched Black’s face as he opened the text, hoping to God that it was good news, and not that Claire had been found dead.

  Black was frowning. “It’s from Claire, but somebody else sent it. She must have found an ally aboard that ship.”

  “It could be a ruse,” Doc said. “What friend could she have out there?”

  Novak agreed with Doc. Kellen was not willingly going to roll over or let them get the jump on him. Until now, he had proved himself a master of manipulating everything and everybody around him. He knew Black was vulnerable right now, as wired as any man could ever be. Kellen could be playing him.

  “No, no, this looks legit. It says she’s on a boat called the Juan Cortez. She says it’s out of Argentina but they’re headed for the port of Santo Tomas de Castilla, here in Guatemala. She says she’s okay and the contractions stopped and haven’t come back. Thank God.”

  His voice faltered with emotion. Nobody said a word when he stepped away, but he was only gone for a few moments. When he turned back, he looked relieved and even more determined. “This is it. This is the break we needed. We can get her off that boat before they know we’re onto them. We’ve got time to set up a plan and lie in wait at the port. This is good news. Claire came through; I knew she would.”

  “Yes, it sounds great…unless it’s a trap,” Novak said. “We’ve got to be cautious and think this through. Kellen’s in control of that ship. Who would want to help her get word to you? Anybody who works for him knows how ruthless he is. I can’t see any of his people taking a chance by sending out that message.”

  “It’s legit. I know it. We need to prepare to storm that ship,” Black said.

  “I disagree. It’s risky. She might not even be aboard. This just came in out of the blue; we can’t trust it. Did you call the number back?”

  “I tried, but I was blocked.”

  Lori spoke up. “Blocking his number could be a good thing, Novak. Whoever’s helping Claire doesn’t want you to call back for fear they’d be discovered. If it were me, I’d ditch that phone completely. Or stow it somewhere nobody could find it.”

  Novak glanced at Sebastian Desoto. “What do you think?”

  Desoto considered things for a moment. “I would say it’s the best chance we’ve got to rescue her before they take her out to a fortified jungle camp. The odds are against us out there. On the other hand, it could be a trap, so we need to take that into consideration. So we prepare a counter trap. You’re good at that, Novak, if I recall from the night you caught me by surprise. We can be waiting for them and expecting them to be ready for us. We’ll have to play it by ear once we get there. I think Black has a good chance of getting his wife back at that port, if we can get him aboard that ship without detection. Like I said, our chances there are better than in the jungle.”

  Novak fr
owned. “Why not dock at Puerto Barrios? That’s where I put in when I bring the Sweet Sarah down here.”

  “Because they’re probably on a tramp freighter,” Desoto told him. “Santo Tomas lets private companies run their operations out there. Santo Tomas is a few kilometers south of Puerto Barrios and bigger. It’s got a linear dock with six berths, if I recall, with cranes that load and unload shipping containers. Kellen’s got a kidnapped woman on board. He’s going to want an out-of-the-way place where he can get her off the ship without a lot of hassle. I’d say Kellen or Ramos is paying off whoever runs the place. Kellen made a good choice, considering what he does for a living. I bet they transport the children they take on the Juan Cortez, too.”

  Doc hazarded his opinion. “Whether Claire is on there or not, if you find a stolen kid on that boat you can bust him for child trafficking. It’s worth a shot. We can always prepare for a double cross.”

  “This is our break, and I’m going to take it, whether the rest of you do or not,” Black told them all. “Right now, we need to get over there and set up ahead of time. We need to be in place, armed, and ready to take them out. I’m going to call a friend who works at the Pentagon and find out if they can get me the ETA at that harbor. It should take him only a matter of minutes to get a bead on the ship’s GPS now that I’ve got the name. They have to be getting close to the coast by now.” He moved away, punching in numbers as he walked, and then speaking softly to whoever picked up at the other end.

  Storming the ship still seemed a brash move to Novak. It seemed he was the only one showing reluctance, but he couldn’t shake his misgivings. A gun battle and probable dead bodies would bring attention down on them that they didn’t want or need, not in a foreign country like Guatemala. Guatemalan cops would show up, and if they were paid off by Kellen, which they could be, Novak’s whole team would end up in some filthy Guatemalan jail. They could offer a bigger bribe, but if they knew Arturo Ruiz was involved, the police could be intimidated. Ruiz was a crime boss known far and wide for his brutality when double-crossed. Still, it was something else that could go wrong. When Black returned, Novak said as much. Black didn’t care for that opinion or for Novak’s hesitance.

  “Look, we can go in easy if you want, we can do it any way you say, but if things get hairy, if I have any inkling that Claire’s in danger, I’m going to open fire and kill every single one of those bastards.” Nobody objected to that, either, or gave him a reasonable theory why that wouldn’t be a good idea. Novak knew he’d do the same thing.

  “How far is Santo Tomas from here?” Black asked.

  Everyone looked at Desoto.

  “About two hundred miles or so northeast of here, or thereabouts. There’s an airport at Puerto Barrios, so you can fly in there.”

  Black nodded, eager and ready to take charge now. Okay with Novak. Claire was his wife. “Yeah, we need to get over there and fast. No problem lining up a chopper once we get down there if we need it. We’ve got to stop those guys at that dock. Like Desoto says, if they take her into the jungle, we might never get to her in time.”

  They discussed logistics and how the rescue would best go down until Black’s phone dinged as a second text came in. Novak felt his muscles knot up, afraid it was the bad news they had all been dreading since day one. God help him, he’d never been this cautious and pessimistic in his life, but it was Claire, and she meant a lot to him. Black read the information off his cellphone. “Dave says they should make port at Santo Tomas de Castilla around one or two a.m. day after tomorrow. That’s going to give us plenty of time to get there ahead of them and set up.”

  Novak felt relieved that the end of this thing might be in sight, but he was not as optimistic as Black. Now that Black had renewed hope and could do something to free his wife, he became a different, more confident man. All of them were encouraged, and Novak didn’t burst their bubble but remained worried. He could not shake his belief that it was unlikely for one of Kellen’s men to befriend Claire enough to risk getting killed for it, much less send out an SOS alerting them of where the ship would dock.

  It was true that Claire could come off as a sympathetic woman in a terrible predicament, but he bet there had been lots of pitiful women on board that same ship and none of them got help. Maybe this guy helping her was simply a decent person or Claire had offered him money. She could have bribed somebody. He hoped that was the case. Claire was a good judge of character, always had been, and could read people better than most. Still, right now, she was desperate and alone and vulnerable and worried about her baby. She could be unwittingly luring them into a trap.

  They spent another hour making plans and figuring out every possible contingency if things went south. After a while, no angle was left undiscussed, so they all went to bed. Black remained up, studying internet photos of the docks and making sure his plane would be ready to go first thing in the morning. He could pilot them himself, which Novak thought was a better option than hiring a local they didn’t know and couldn’t trust. This whole endeavor was sticky and going to get worse, not just for them but for Claire. They were planning an assault on an Argentine ship while in the harbor of a Guatemalan port. Not a brilliant idea, not by any stretch of the imagination. It was a good thing that they were seasoned fighters. Everyone at that table had combat experience, except Desoto, and he had other, more deadly, skills.

  None of them got much sleep. Black probably didn’t shut his eyes at all. He was so ready to move out, and he was running the mission. He never asked for that assignment because it didn’t matter. He was going to do it, regardless of what they thought. Novak was fine with that. Black was a smart guy and a good leader. As a Ranger, he’d made the plans and decided how to execute them. That was what he did best, so Novak wasn’t worried. They now had enough weapons and supplies and transport down to the coast. They were as ready as they’d ever be.

  A daylong surveillance would tell them how many men worked on the docks and how many probably manned the Juan Cortez. A freighter would have a full crew, except for the fact that they were not running freight unless they did so as cover. They were running human beings. He suspected they had to transport some kind of cargo container to make it look legitimate. Maybe ten or twelve men could operate that ship, but they’d probably need more. A stealthy assault in the dead of night was the best option, with the only objective to get Claire out without her being hurt and to avoid a fight with Guatemalan law enforcement. They had determined the best time would be the night the ship docked but before they were checked out by custom officers and given leave to disembark, which would come the following morning. Novak was pretty sure customs had been bought off, anyhow, so that wouldn’t likely be a problem. Their plan could definitely work, given some luck. Novak had done exfiltration missions himself. Only once had his team failed, and that was when they were betrayed by a local and had to retreat without their objective.

  When they got back to La Aurora International, the plane was fueled and ready to go. The trip down to the Caribbean coast was fast and uneventful. Black had been a pilot for years and handled the controls with utter confidence. They landed without incident, and Desoto bribed an airport official so he wouldn’t check their gear. They loaded up and piled into a passenger van Black had leased. Novak wished again that Jenn had been available to help them. She was the best CIA procurer in Central America—hell, make that in all the Americas. They checked into a seedy hotel not far off the shipping docks. As soon as they found out which berth had been assigned to the Juan Cortez, they begin to set up the rescue.

  While Lori Garner took to the streets to locate the best place to set up a sniper’s nest, Novak and Black walked down to the dock. Their plan was as simple as it was risky, but it should get them aboard without being seen. Black craved a full frontal assault. He just wanted to walk up the gangplank and take out anybody who stood in his way. Novak understood his reasoning but had to convince him of the foolhardiness
of the idea. Black was just thinking about one thing, and that was Claire. It would be the same until he had her back. Novak could relate, but he still had the job of talking the guy down. Luckily, Black was prone to listen to him. When they sat down on a wall, Novak gazed out at the harbor and watched a big crane unloading a freighter just down from them. It was the only ship in dockage at the moment. There was one cruise ship anchored a good way out in Santo Tomas Bay.

  “The kind of frontal assault you’re talking about is too dangerous, Black. You know that as well as I do. Claire’s probably got a guard, maybe two, watching her with orders to kill her if things go bad. Better idea is to come aboard off the water side somehow without being seen. You and I probably could do that easy enough. Desoto and Doc can cause a diversion out here on the dock somewhere to draw attention. This is a warehouse and shipping container area. I bet it’s dead around here at night.”

  “We’ve got to get Claire out of there without hurting her or the baby. That’s my only priority.”

  “That’s why it’s better for us to go in alone and find her without raising an alarm. Once we get her, then we take down anybody who tries to stop us. Lori will have a bead on the whole ship, and she can shoot out the eye of a gnat, rest assured. I’ve seen her do it. She’ll be our ace in the hole. She’ll put down anybody coming after us. You don’t have to worry about your back. We can get this done, as long as we stay calm and execute everything according to plan. No deviations, unless Claire’s in danger.”

  “Don’t worry, I’ll stay calm.”

  “I don’t think they’ll be expecting us at all, but especially not coming in from seaside. It should be the middle of the night not long after they tie up. Most of them, including Kellen and Claire, probably will be asleep. Once they’ve docked, it’ll just be the night watch out on the cargo deck. We shouldn’t have a problem, because there’s no way they’ll know we’re lying in wait.”