Death Ship

by Joseph Badal

  Multiple voices suddenly sounded on the companionway up to the saloon. Bob heard Robbie announce, “Too bad we don’t have fireworks.”

  Michael looked open-mouthed at his son as Robbie, Miriana, Liz, Nick, and Nick’s wife, Ariana, sat down in the saloon. “I think most of us have had all the fireworks we need for several lifetimes.”

  “We always have fireworks on the Fourth of July,” Robbie said as he stood and walked to the bow where Sofia lounged on a beach towel.

  Miriana said, “I think there are plenty of fireworks going on between those two teenagers.”

  Ariana laughed and rested a hand on her husband’s arm. “I know my Nick. If the sparks get too hot, he’ll quickly douse them.”

  Liz and Bob sat across from one another and made eye contact. She smiled at him and said, “What were you and Robbie talking about earlier?”

  He shrugged. “It was nothing. Just a little man-to-man talk about tactics.”

  “What kind of tactics?” Michael asked.

  “You know how much Robbie loves history. We talked about how intelligence can overcome an opponent’s strength.”

  “As in military intelligence?” Michael said.

  Bob shook his head. “In all sorts of situations. Military, business, personal. I told him it’s always better to use your brains than brawn if you have the choice.”

  THURSDAY

  SEPTEMBER 7

  EPILOGUE

  Michael and Miriana sat in their pickup truck and watched students leave the Fayetteville High School grounds. The flow of kids had subsided to a trickle as they tried to spot their son.

  “I still think we should call the school and report the bullying that went on before,” Miriana said.

  “Honey, I understand,” Michael said. “But this is one of those no-win situations. Robbie has asked that we not do anything. He says he can handle it. If we call the school and word gets out that his mommy and daddy interfered, he’ll be in worse shape. I’m so angry about this. I want to go after that gang. Then I’d have a . . . talk with their fathers. And, finally, I’d go see their coach. They’re all nothing but scum.”

  “But what if they go after Robbie again?”

  “I know. I’m worried about all of that, too. Let’s just see what— There he is.”

  “Oh my God,” Miriana moaned. “My poor boy.”

  Robbie saw the Doom members eye him several times during the first school day of the semester, but he stayed away from them and made certain he was always in the company of classmates. After his last class, he waited until most of the other students had vacated the building, then he raced away from the school campus. He changed his usual, safer course of short cuts and, instead, ran along streets until he reached the church lot where the gang had first assaulted him and stolen his money. Although he was a good runner, there was no way to outrun Ninja bikes. But that was never his intent. Besides, the hiking boots he wore today slowed his progress and he barely made it to the lot before the gang intercepted him there.

  The five motorcyclists surrounded him as though he was a covered wagon and they were marauders. They revved their engines and laughed at him for a good minute before they shut down their bikes and dismounted.

  “How much you got for us today, wimp?” the leader said.

  Robbie swallowed and licked his lips. He stood as tall as he could and shouted, “Nothing. I’m not giving you another dime.”

  The leader stepped forward and grabbed Robbie’s shirt. He jerked him forward so they were nose-to-nose. “We’re going to teach you a lesson, boy.” The leader looked over his shoulder. “Hold him.”

  Two of the Doom members leaped on Robbie, pulled his arms behind him, and held him erect. The leader moved forward and double-tapped him in the chest and stomach with his fists. Robbie sagged and fought for breath. The two kids who held him jerked him upright.

  Michael felt sick at heart to see Robbie chased. They were big kids, especially compared to Robbie’s skinny, adolescent size. They drove after his son as though he were prey. Michael and Miriana followed behind the gang and slipped into a parking spot on the street as the gang pulled into the church lot and surrounded Robbie. The instant one of the gang punched Robbie, Miriana cursed and grabbed her door handle, but Michael had already leaped from the pickup and was about to charge across the fifty yards of parking lot when he noticed something out of place. Doors on cars and trucks all along the street suddenly flew open and teenage boys and girls scrambled out.

  Robbie looked beyond the one who had punched him, in the direction of the street, and smiled, despite the pain he felt and the effort it took to catch his breath.

  “What are you smiling at, asshole?” the leader said.

  “I was just thinking how badly I’m about to ruin your day.”

  The gang members laughed. The leader punched Robbie again.

  “Empty his pockets,” the leader ordered.

  The two who held Robbie let him fall to the gravel lot onto his back. One of them put a foot on Robbie’s chest while the second one searched his pockets. “Holy shit!” that guy yelled. “Look at this.” He held up a wad of cash. The leader snatched the cash from the guy’s hand and stuffed it into a pants pocket. “Pick him up,” he said.

  The two members of the gang grabbed Robbie under his arms and lifted him off the ground. Robbie hung there; did nothing to help support himself. Just as the leader moved forward, right arm cocked, Robbie put his legs under him, quickly balanced himself, and kicked the leader between the legs. Then he wheeled and punched the boy to his left in the face.

  Air burst from the leader’s lungs with a massive oomph. He fell to his knees, grabbed his crotch, groaned, and rolled to his side. The boy Robbie had punched lay on his back, covering his face with his hands.

  Michael smiled as he watched the kids who had bailed out of cars and trucks rush toward Robbie and the gang. There had to be at least twenty of them. Every one of the kids held up a cell phone.

  The two gang members who had mostly watched events up to this point turned on Robbie and punched and kicked him. Robbie fell and curled into a fetal position.

  The kids with the cell phones congregated to one side. Not one of them said a word. They just watched.

  Michael was twenty yards away from his son when he skidded to a stop. A woman with a microphone, followed by a man who held a camera with Action 7 News painted on its side, rushed down the church’s front stairs and ran around the corner of the building. They stepped directly between Robbie and his two attackers. The woman stuck her microphone into one of the boy’s faces. “Do you have anything to say about this assault?”

  “We didn’t do nothin’,” the boy said. He looked startled. “Where the fuck did you come from?”

  The woman pointed over her shoulder. “We filmed the entire incident through a window from inside the church. You want me to play back what we have?”

  The gang’s leader had gotten to his feet and grabbed the arm of the boy the reporter had targeted. “Shut your mouth,” he yelled.

  The reporter turned on the leader. “How about that money you stole from this poor boy?”

  “What money?”

  “He took all the money I’ve saved,” Robbie said. “A thousand dollars.”

  “That’s my money,” the leader said. He turned to his friends and yelled, “Let’s get outta here.”

  “Then how come each of the bills has my name and today’s date written on it?” Robbie said.

  “One thousand dollars?” the woman said. “That makes it felony assault and battery and felony theft. Do you have anything else to say?”

  Then two sheriff’s department cars, sirens screaming, lights flashing, appeared and drove onto the lot.

  “This is Melanie Groves with Action 7 News on the scene of an assault committed by a gang of teenagers from Fayetteville High School. What started out as bullying escalated into felony assault and battery and felony theft. Fayetteville Sheriff’s Department officers arrested f
ive boys at the scene after they beat and robbed one of their school mates in the parking lot of Ebenezer Baptist Church. The boys arrested were all members of their school’s football team. Their names—”

  A memory hit Michael’s brain as he hung back, his arm around Miriana’s shoulders, letting the group of cell phone-armed teenagers screen him from view. Something his father had said on the boat near Samos. Intelligence can overcome an opponent’s strength. He tapped the shoulder of one of the kids in front of him and, when the kid turned, crooked a finger at him. He stepped back a few paces and the boy followed.

  “What happened?” Michael asked.

  The boy’s eyes widened when he looked at the name patch and General’s stars on Michael’s fatigues. “You’re Robbie’s father?”

  Michael nodded.

  “Robbie came to our photography club meeting this morning and suggested we all hang out here. He said he thought there would be a crime committed. Man, he wasn’t bullshittin’ us. We all shot video. We’re gonna to make a movie. It’ll be huge on YouTube.”

  Michael thanked the boy and moved with Miriana toward the television station’s cameraman, who had separated from the female reporter and now smoked a cigarette near the street.

  “How’d you happen to be here?” he asked the man.

  “Our station’s doing a series on bullying. The pastor here called and told us there might be an incident here today. We almost didn’t show up. Thought it might be a scam. But nothing else was going on.” He smiled. “Turned out pretty well for us.” The cameraman looked toward the front of the church. A large black man dressed in a black suit with a white clerical collar stood on the top step and looked down at the chaos in his parking lot.

  The cameraman then pointed over at the side of the church. “We set up inside with the minister’s permission. Filmed the whole thing through an open window.” He dropped his cigarette to the ground and crushed it underfoot. “I love the way that kid defended himself. He must be pretty popular the way all those other kids showed up.” The man’s eyebrows raised and his forehead creased. “Wonder how they knew to be here?”

  Michael shrugged and he and Miriana walked over to where a sheriff’s deputy questioned Robbie. They introduced themselves to the deputy, and then Miriana said, “You okay, Robbie?”

  “You bet, Mom. You bet.”

  “We’ll wait until you’re done with the deputy. Then we can give you a lift home.”

  “That’s okay, Mom. After I thank Pastor Lewis, a bunch of us are going to get some pizza.”

  THE END

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Prior to a long finance career, including a 16-year stint as a senior executive and board member of a NYSE-listed company, Joseph Badal served for six years as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army in critical, highly classified positions in the U.S. and overseas, including tours of duty in Greece and Vietnam, and earned numerous military decorations.

  He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in business and graduated from the Defense Language Institute, West Coast and from Stanford University Law School’s Director College.

  Joe now serves on the boards of several companies.

  He is the author of nine published suspense novels, including “Evil Deeds,” Silver medalist in the 2015 Military Writers Society of America contest, “The Lone Wolf Agenda,” named the top Mystery/Thriller novel in the 2013 New Mexico/Arizona Book Awards competition, and “Ultimate Betrayal,” named the Tony Hillerman Award Winner for Fiction in the 2014 New Mexico/Arizona Book Awards competition. “Borderline,” his first mystery, is a Finalist in the 2015 NM/AZ Book Awards Competition.

  He also writes a monthly blog titled Everyday Heroes, and has written short stories published in the “Uncommon Assassins,” “Someone Wicked,” and “Insidious Assassins” anthologies.

  Joe has written dozens of articles that have been published in various business and trade journals and is a frequent speaker at business, civic, and writers’ events.

  “EVIL DEEDS”

  DANFORTH SAGA (#1)

  “Evil Deeds” is the first book in the Bob Danforth series, which includes “Terror Cell” and “The Nostradamus Secret.” In this three book series, the reader can follow the lives of Bob & Liz Danforth, and of their son, Michael, from 1971 through 2011. “Evil Deeds” begins on a sunny spring day in 1971 in a quiet Athenian suburb. Bob & Liz Danforth’s morning begins just like every other morning: Breakfast together, Bob roughhousing with Michael. Then Bob leaves for his U.S. Army unit and the nightmare begins, two-year-old Michael is kidnapped.

  So begins a decades-long journey that takes the Danforth family from Michael’s kidnapping and Bob and Liz’s efforts to rescue him, to Bob’s forced separation from the Army because of his unauthorized entry into Bulgaria, to his recruitment by the CIA, to Michael’s commissioning in the Army, to Michael’s capture by a Serb SPETSNAZ team in Macedonia, and to Michael’s eventual marriage to the daughter of the man who kidnapped him as a child. It is the stops along the journey that weave an intricate series of heart-stopping events built around complex, often diabolical characters. The reader experiences CIA espionage during the Balkans War, attempted assassinations in the United States, and the grisly exploits of a psychopathic killer.

  “Evil Deeds” is an adrenaline-boosting story about revenge, love, and the triumph of good over evil.

  “TERROR CELL”

  DANFORTH SAGA (#2)

  “Terror Cell” pits Bob Danforth, a CIA Special Ops Officer, against Greek Spring, a vicious terrorist group that has operated in Athens, Greece for three decades. Danforth’s mission in the summer of 2004 is to identify one or more of the members of the terrorists in order to bring them to justice for the assassination of the CIA’s Station Chief in Athens. What Danforth does not know is that Greek Spring plans a catastrophic attack against the 2004 Summer Olympic Games.

  Danforth and his CIA team are hampered by years of Congressionally mandated rules that have weakened U.S. Intelligence gathering capabilities, and by indifference and obstructionism on the part of Greek authorities. His mission becomes even more difficult when he is targeted for assassination after an informant in the Greek government tells the terrorists of Danforth’s presence in Greece.

  In “Terror Cell,” Badal weaves a tale of international intrigue, involving players from the CIA, the Greek government, and terrorists in Greece, Libya, and Iran—all within a historical context. Anyone who keeps up with current events about terrorist activities and security issues at the Athens Olympic Games will find the premise of this book gripping, terrifying, and, most of all, plausible.

  “Joe Badal takes us into a tangled puzzle of intrigue and terrorism, giving readers a tense well-told tale and a page-turning mystery.”

  —Tony Hillerman, New York Times bestselling author

  “THE NOSTRADAMUS SECRET”

  DANFORTH SAGA (#3)

  This latest historical thriller in the Bob Danforth series builds on Nostradamus’s “lost” 58 quatrains and segues to present day. These lost quatrains have surfaced in the hands of a wealthy Iranian megalomaniac who believes his rise to world power was prophesied by Nostradamus. But he sees the United States as the principal obstacle to the achievement of his goals. So, the first step he takes is to attempt to destabilize the United States through a vicious series of terrorist attacks and assassinations.

  Joseph Badal offers up another action-packed story loaded with intrigue, fascinating characters and geopolitical machinations that put the reader on the front line of present-day international conflict. You will be transported from a 16th century French monastery to the CIA, to crime scenes, to the Situation Room at the White House, to Middle Eastern battlefields.

  “The Nostradamus Secret” presents non-stop action in a contemporary context that will make you wonder whether the story is fact or fiction, history or prophesy.

  “ ‘The Nostradamus Secret’ is a gripping, fast-paced story filled with truly fanatical, frightening vi
llains bent on the destruction of the USA and the modern world. Badal’s characters and the situations they find themselves in are hair-raising and believable. I couldn’t put the book down. Bring on the sequel!”

  —Catherine Coulter, New York Times bestselling author of “Double Take”

  “THE LONE WOLF AGENDA”

  DANFORTH SAGA (#4)

  With “The Lone Wolf Agenda,” Joseph Badal returns to the world of international espionage and military action thrillers and crafts a story that is as close to the real world of spies and soldiers as a reader can find. This fourth book in the Danforth Saga brings Bob Danforth out of retirement to hunt down lone wolf terrorists hell bent on destroying America’s oil infrastructure. Badal weaves just enough technology into his story to wow even the most a-technical reader.

  “The Lone Wolf Agenda” pairs Danforth with his son Michael, a senior DELTA Force officer, as they combat an OPEC-supported terrorist group allied with a Mexican drug cartel. This story is an epic adventure that will chill readers as they discover that nothing, no matter how diabolical, is impossible.

  “A real page-turner in every good sense of the term. ‘The Lone Wolf Agenda’ came alive for me. It is utterly believable, and as tense as any spy thriller I’ve read in a long time.”

  —Michael Palmer, New York Times bestselling author of “Political Suicide”

  “BORDERLINE”

  STAND-ALONE MYSTERY

  In “Borderline,” Joseph Badal delivers his first mystery novel with the same punch and non-stop action found in his acclaimed thrillers.