Josh fished his phone from a pocket and threw it at the hijacker, who caught it, grinning.
‘I left my phone in our room, Daddy,’ Maddie said softly.
The man in front of Ben produced a master key, opened the door to 3034 and went inside. While the Fultons waited in the hallway, he searched the room and opened the safe using a default code. He emptied it of passports and valuables, then went next door and did the same. Once back outside, he motioned for the Fultons to enter their cabins.
‘Stay inside,’ he ordered. ‘You no come out unless we say.’
Nan pulled Maddie close as they shuffled past and went to the door to 3036.
‘Everything will work out just fine,’ Ben assured his mother and daughter. ‘Don’t leave your cabin unless I tell you it’s safe to do so. Okay?’
Nan nodded. ‘We’re in your hands, Ben.’
Maddie managed a little wave before she disappeared into the cabin with Nan.
‘Aren’t you going to do something, Dad?’ Josh said impatiently as Ben ushered him into Cabin 3034.
‘There’s a right time for everything, Josh,’ Ben responded. ‘Right now it’s time to do as these gentlemen tell us.’ He looked at the hijacker who’d frisked him and smiled. ‘Sí, amigo?’
The hijacker smiled back. ‘Sí, amigo.’
The cabin door closed behind Ben and Josh with a clunk. Inside, Josh looked at his father with a displeased expression on his face. ‘Couldn’t you have done Special Forces stuff to those guys, Dad?’
Ben put a finger to his lips and lowered his voice. ‘A good Special Forces operative never acts before he knows the lay of the land, Josh. For now, we lie low and watch and listen and find out all we can about the hijackers, where they are and what they’re doing. Got it?’
Josh beamed. ‘So, you are going to do something?’ he said hopefully.
Ben patted him on the shoulder. ‘All in good time, mate. All in good time. What we have to employ now is patience.’
Twenty long, tedious hours had passed aboard the Cleopatra since the hijackers had seized control of the ship. Ricardo Ramos had based himself on the ocean liner’s bridge, accompanied by several members of his group, including Ana-Maria. From there, he could control everything the ship did and, in theory, everything that occurred on the ship.
On Ricardo’s orders, the Cleopatra had turned around and was now sailing at twelve knots, southwest of Cuba, on a northeasterly course. Ricardo had given Consuela the job of monitoring the ship’s course and speed. In effect, she was in command. Consuela had never been a master of a vessel larger than a humble fishing boat, but she knew the sea. Ricardo had also placed an armed group in the Cleopatra’s engine control room down below, to make sure that Chief Engineer McQueen didn’t get up to any tricks, and sent groups of his men patrolling the vessel’s decks at random.
The passengers and off-duty crew members had been confined to their cabins. They were only permitted to emerge at mealtimes, and even then Ramos called them to the dining room by cabin numbers, in groups that could be managed by his comparatively few men. After eating, the passengers had to return to their cabins. On the Fulton family’s last trip to the dining room, they had seen Oscar and Lindy Lindoni and the Santanas being ushered away after eating.
‘Don’t worry,’ Oscar said reassuringly to Josh and Maddie in a low voice as he and his wife passed the Fultons. ‘Everything is going to work out fine.’
‘That was good of him to say that,’ Nan whispered to Ben, who nodded.
Juan, Connie and Manuel Santana seemed not to notice the Fulton family. They were laughing among themselves as hijackers directed them from the dining room, and appeared surprisingly unworried.
By this time, Environmental Officer Ponti and the other captives being held in Tender 001 had been released by Ricardo’s men and sent to their quarters. All crew members were required by the hijackers to go about their normal duties as best they could, although the galley staff and waiters were being made to work nonstop to prepare and serve food to smaller groups than usual over an extended period. That meant that breakfast ran all morning, lunch was served right through the afternoon, and dinner would last until close to midnight. The quality of the food suffered as a result, but Ricardo didn’t care about that. Food was brought to the hijackers wherever they were stationed, with crew members made to sample the food before Ricardo and his men ate it, to ensure it hadn’t been drugged or poisoned.
For younger passengers like Josh and Maddie, being cooped up in their cabins most of the day was no fun. The ship’s in-house TV still ran, so there were movies and travel programs and news channels to watch. Apart from that, they had to amuse themselves. Ben had tried to get Nan and Maddie into his and Josh’s cabin, but one of the hijackers – it was Volcán, out of his ridiculous dress now and with his eye-patch restored – had forbidden it.
‘Everyone, they stay in their own cabin!’ the big man had growled, barring Ben’s way with a large tattooed arm before pushing him back into his cabin with one hand while holding an AKM ready in the other.
Ben’s expert eye had taken in the ammunition belts around the waist of Volcán and the other hijackers who had escorted them back to their cabins. He saw that those belts bulged with spare magazines for their AKMs, and also spotted grenades in Volcán’s belt. As Volcán had stretched an arm out in front of Ben’s face, Ben had noted one large tattoo on it in particular – a dagger through a heart.
Ben had the training and the skills to swiftly disarm the Cuban, but there was another armed hijacker in the corridor, and he could have sent bullets flying in all directions if Ben had jumped Volcán, killing or injuring other passengers. Ben’s Special Forces training told him to bide his time, to wait and watch for an opportunity that he might be able to exploit.
Meanwhile, in their cabin, Ben and Josh played cards for hours on end. Every hour, Ben picked up the room’s telephone and dialled 3036, having realised that the hijackers would not have disabled the ship’s internal telephone system, which was necessary for shipboard communications by the crew. It was possible to call from one cabin to another by simply dialling the cabin number. By putting in a call to 3036, Ben was able to speak with Nan and Maddie and keep them reassured that he and Josh were fine.
As he and Josh played cards in 3034, Ben kept an eye on the CNN and BBC World news channels. A male news anchor suddenly interrupted another report. ‘In breaking news, according to a story running on a news channel in San Diego, California, the Kaiser Line cruise ship Cleopatra has been hijacked in the Western Caribbean by an unidentified armed band. According to that report, a passenger aboard the Cleopatra used a concealed mobile phone to call relatives in San Diego to tell them of the hijacking, and those family members called their local television station. We have been unable to get confirmation of the hijacking from either the Kaiser Line or from the authorities. However, no one is denying the report. We will bring you an update as soon as we have more information.’
Hearing this, Josh looked up. ‘At least the world knows what’s happening to us now, Dad,’ he said.
Ben nodded thoughtfully. ‘Yes, son.’ He was very proud of the adult way that Josh had reacted to their predicament. That had a lot to do with Ben’s own calm, cool and collected approach to the situation.
‘That’s good, right?’ Josh said. ‘That people know we need help.’
‘Sure is. It means that the powers that be know we’re in trouble and will put steps in place to try to help us.’
‘Will the United Nations know?’
‘I reckon so.’
‘Will they send GRRR to rescue us, the way that you and Caesar rescue other people?’
‘I don’t know, mate. It depends,’ Ben replied. ‘Just don’t say anything about GRRR in front of anyone else. We don’t want to tip off the blokes in the red bandanas that I’m Special Forces and we don’t want to raise the hopes of other passengers that GRRR is on its way.’
Josh smiled. ‘Don’t worry, Da
d. I know how to keep a secret.’
‘Yes, you do, mate,’ Ben agreed, patting him on the back. Ever since Ben had been involved in top-secret Special Forces work, his family had kept his missions to themselves. There had even been a time when Josh had beaten the world’s intelligence experts to working out where the Taliban had been keeping the Secretary-General of the United Nations captive in Afghanistan. Josh had kept that knowledge a secret from everyone but his father, resisting the temptation to blab about it to his schoolmates.
‘So, what does it depend on?’ Josh asked. ‘Charlie and Baz and the others coming to rescue us, I mean.’ Charlie was Ben’s best friend; the Fulton children thought of him like an uncle. They also knew Bendigo Baz well, and knew that he and Charlie were like brothers to Ben.
‘A lot of factors come into play before the UN can get involved,’ Ben explained. ‘But don’t worry, if it’s not GRRR, the authorities will probably use the US Navy SEALs or the SAS or Special Boat Service blokes to help us. They’re all topnotch units. I’d put my life in the hands of any of them.’
‘Good,’ Josh said, feeling reassured.
Ben had given thought to playing a lone hand in an attempt to counter the hijackers, but he had no idea how many there were or precisely where they were. It was only in the movies that one man took on an army and won. In the end, Ben had made a conscious decision that he could not put his family at risk by deserting them to play the hero. The heroic thing to do was to stay with his family and protect them, at the same time gathering as much intelligence as he could on the hijackers. And that was what he was doing. In the meantime, his knowledge of how anti-terrorist operations worked told him that somewhere, not too far away, a team was assembling to counter the hijacking of the Cleopatra.
At a US Coast Guard drill hall at Fort Lauderdale, just to the north of Miami, the last members of the eleven-man GRRR team to arrive, Sergeant Charlie Grover VC and Trooper Bendigo Baz from the Australian SAS, walked through the door lugging their bags. From the US, Duke Hazard, Tim McHenry and Brian Cisco had been the first to arrive. Angus Bruce and Chris Banner from the UK were next, followed by the Europeans Jean-Claude Lyon, Willy Wolf and Casper Mortenson. Toushi Harada from Japan had only preceded the two Australians by minutes.
Sergeant Angus Bruce greeted the Australian pair warmly. ‘Hello, strangers!’ he said, shaking their hands. ‘You’re the last to arrive.’
‘G’day, Angus,’ Charlie said, casting his gaze around the familiar faces in the room.
‘It’s odd not having Ben and Caesar here,’ Baz remarked. ‘Caesar went into quarantine after the Antigua op, didn’t he, Charlie?’
Charlie nodded. ‘Yep.’
‘What kept you two lads?’ Angus asked.
‘We did have the longest way to come, mate.’ Baz dumped his kitbag onto the wooden floor. ‘Way further than any of you lot. There I was, sitting in a Melbourne tram at St Kilda, enjoying a week off, when my mobile buzzes. I happen to like tram rides, so I took my time getting off.’
‘You like trams, Baz?’ said Corporal Casper Mortenson, the Dane, who was in the background preparing his equipment. ‘Tramcars are so old-fashioned. We had them in Copenhagen, but got rid of them in 1972.’
‘Mate, trams are the best way to get around a big city. Melbourne’s got the biggest tram network in the world. Its trams travel twenty-three million kilometres a year. That’s the equivalent to travelling to the moon and back thirty times. My old man was a driver of Melbourne rattlers for years, before we moved to Bendigo.’
‘And what did he drive in Bendigo? A horse and buggy?’ Casper scoffed.
‘Nothing wrong with a horse and buggy, either,’ Baz responded.
Charlie spotted Liberty Lee talking to his favourite ‘bear’, Major Jinko, at a desk on the far side of the drill hall. He left Baz and Casper to discuss the merits of tramcars and made his way over to them.
Jinko broke into a smile when he saw Charlie approach. He came to his feet and saluted. In the Australian military, all ranks, even the most senior officers, were required to salute a recipient of the Victoria Cross, even if that person was only a sergeant, like Charlie.
‘Good to see you, sir,’ Charlie said, returning the salute. ‘I didn’t expect to find you here.’
‘I was close by when the situation arose,’ Jinko replied.
‘I’m glad you were.’ Charlie turned to Liberty Lee and snapped a saluting hand to his sky-blue UN beret. ‘Reporting for duty, ma’am.’
‘Thank you, Sergeant.’ She indicated the vacant chair beside her. ‘Please take a seat.’
Charlie slid out the hard plastic chair and seated himself in conference with the two officers.
‘How much do you know?’ Jinko asked.
‘I know that the cruise ship Cleopatra has been hijacked in the Caribbean, sir, with more than three thousand passengers and crew aboard.’
‘What you would not know,’ Liberty said, ‘is that your good friend Sergeant Fulton is aboard.’
Charlie looked at her, incredulous. ‘Ben is on the Cleopatra?’
‘With his mother and children,’ Major Jinko advised. ‘They were on a cruise.’
‘That could be tricky,’ Charlie said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. ‘Yet, handy at the same time, if we can link up with Ben on board.’
‘We were thinking that we could insert Caesar with you,’ Jinko said. ‘The hijackers claim they’ve planted explosives throughout the ship.’
Charlie nodded. ‘Good idea. Even if we can’t link up with Ben, I could get Caesar to seek out the explosive charges.’
‘Exactly,’ Jinko returned. ‘We know what a close relationship you and Caesar have.’
‘Where is Caesar right now?’ Charlie asked. ‘In quarantine somewhere reasonably close by, I hope.’
‘He’s in a US Marine Corps animal quarantine facility in Puerto Rico, Sergeant,’ Liberty replied.
‘Good. We’ll need to get him out of there, quick smart.’
‘So, Sergeant Fulton,’ Liberty said, ‘you will be in charge of the operation once we can land GRRR on the ship. Major Jinko will act as your mission controller.’
‘Yes, ma’am.’
‘What we have to nut out,’ Jinko said, ‘is how, where and when we insert you and your team.’
‘What sort of intel about the number, location and arms of the hijackers do we have?’ Charlie asked.
‘We’re pretty much in the dark, I’m afraid,’ Jinko said with a sigh. He leaned back and ran a hand through his thick hair. ‘We don’t know how many of them there are, how they are armed, who they are or where they’re from.’
‘An American EITS is on its way to the scene,’ Liberty said. ‘It is expected to locate the Cleopatra shortly, after which it will circle the ship and train its cameras and sensors on it, beaming its information back to us.’
‘How long will we have the use of the EITS?’ Charlie asked.
‘It will remain in position for ten hours,’ Liberty said, ‘after which another aircraft will take its place.’
‘So, continuous observation.’ Charlie nodded. ‘Good. Do we have an FOB?’
‘The US Navy’s amphibious assault ship, the USS Wasp, is in port in San Juan,’ Liberty responded. ‘This is the same ship we worked with on the last operation. The Wasp has been ordered to sail for the Western Caribbean. It will act as your advanced operational platform, your FOB, and its helicopters and landing craft are at our disposal.’
Charlie nodded. ‘Great. But I really would like to know what’s going on aboard the Cleopatra. I was hoping that Ben had his phone with him so that we could contact him for some intel on the situation on the ship.’
‘Sergeant Fulton’s phone keeps going through to voicemail,’ Liberty said.
‘The hijackers confiscated the passengers’ mobile phones,’ Jinko added.
‘How do you know that?’ Charlie queried.
‘One passenger phoned a TV station in California to report the hijacking,’ J
inko explained. ‘This person apparently succeeded in keeping their phone hidden. It was a shame Ben wasn’t able to do the same.’
A faint smile appeared on Charlie’s face. ‘Don’t worry, Ben will find a way to contact us.’
The voice of Ricardo Ramos boomed over the Cleopatra’s PA system. ‘Attention all passengers! It seems that one of you has disobeyed my orders. One of you has used a mobile telephone to contact family members in America, and now they are talking about us on TV. This is not good. Not good at all. If I give an order, it must be obeyed! Or someone will die!’ His tone, initially calm, had suddenly turned to anger. ‘One of you will die!’ he repeated.
In their cabin, Josh looked worriedly at his father. ‘Do you think he means it, Dad? Would they kill somebody?’ he asked.
Ben nodded grimly. ‘If they were prepared to take the risk of hijacking this ship, Josh, they won’t let anything stand in their way. That’s why I let them have our phones. There’s no point antagonising them unnecessarily over a mobile phone.’
If the bad guys were to tap the number one on his phone, it would call GRRR Commander, Captain Liberty Lee. Dialling the number two would connect them with Major General Mike Jones, chief of the Australian Army’s Special Forces Command. Not that the hijackers were likely to do that – they now had thousands of confiscated mobiles piled in empty cabins.
‘I am prepared to give those of you who have not yet surrendered their mobile telephones one last chance,’ Ricardo continued, his voice calm once again. ‘You have thirty minutes to take any remaining phones to the Hub on Deck 4. Place the phone in the middle of the dance floor and then return immediately to your cabin. You will not be punished. Just do as I say and all will be as right as a rainy day. But, if you fail to do as I say and do not surrender your telephone, one passenger will be chosen at random to be shot. My compadres will go to any cabin, pull out one of the passengers and shoot them. The body, it will be thrown to the sharks. It could be you or someone you love. Thirty minutes. Surrender your phone now! The clock is going – tick and tock.’
Operation Black Shark Page 10