by Matt Lincoln
“Ah, well, it was a few of the crewmen,” he replied haltingly, each word tripping over the next. “Yes, they… uh, they managed to sneak onboard the pirate’s vessel and take some of their weapons. It was lucky that they did. Very brave of them. I’m lucky to have such fine, courageous crewmen.”
He can’t possibly be serious, I thought to myself, careful to keep the easy-going expression plastered onto my face even as I was rolling my eyes internally. Did he really expect me to believe such a stupid story? How could the crewmen have possibly slipped onboard an actively hostile enemy ship without being noticed? It was so preposterous that I was surprised it was the best he could come up with after being in here for two days already.
“That’s incredible.” I pretended to be impressed, grinning and widening my eyes as though I was astonished. “They must have nerves of steel to have pulled off something like that. Which crewmen were they? If they were on board the enemy ship, they might have useful information about it for us.”
“Oh, well… I’m not sure, actually.” Danieli cleared his throat. I could see Hills actually roll his eyes from the other side of the room where he was standing, just far enough behind the captain to be out of his line of sight. I guessed Danieli’s weak excuses were too pathetic for him to handle. “As I said, it all happened so quickly.”
“Sure.” I forced a smile. Even the most inept captain wouldn’t have forgotten an important detail like that. “We can just ask around when we speak with the men in a moment.”
“Right,” he replied tersely, the line of his mouth going taught as I brought up speaking with the men.
“Oh, there was something else.” I lifted a finger as though suddenly remembering something. “We heard that the weapons you used to defend yourselves ended up getting thrown overboard in the chaos.”
“That’s right,” Danieli replied, his voice quavering as he grasped for a reasonable-sounding explanation. “The crewmen aren’t used to handling such large weapons. They barely managed to hold on to them long enough to fire back before they lost them.”
“Right,” I replied with a short nod. “Well, that’s alright! We can retrieve them when we do a search of the area later.”
“What?!” Danieli squawked, his eyes going wide. “A search? How—that is, the ship sank, so I’m afraid it’s all at the bottom of the ocean.”
“That’s right.” I smiled at him. “We’re going to be diving. It’s pretty standard practice for us. We need to get a close look at the ship, anyway. Once we’re down there, I’m sure we’ll be able to piece together exactly what happened and get some justice for you and your men.”
“That’s great news,” Danieli practically wheezed. He looked like he was about to be sick. His face was stony and looked almost gaunt, as though he’d aged suddenly in the span of a few seconds. That was a pretty extreme reaction, and it made me think that the captain was extremely worried about us seeing whatever was down there.
“Well, we’ll just go have a little chat with the crewmen now,” I replied as I stepped forward to shake his hand. “You’ve been very helpful, Captain Danieli. I’m sure we’ll be able to get a fuller story once we interview the crew. We’ll have you all home soon.”
He opened his mouth as though he wanted to say something in response but clamped it back shut just as quickly before nodding stiffly.
“Let’s go then.” I turned to the other four people in the room before gesturing for them to follow me back out of the captain’s quarters. He hadn’t offered to walk us out, and honestly, it looked like he was having trouble functioning at all at the moment.
We left the room and stepped back into the maze of corridors. Once we were suitably far away, I looked around to make sure there weren’t any crew members around before ducking under a metal stairwell and turning to look at the rest of the group.
“So, what do we think about that little conversation?” I scoffed, relieved to be able to drop the nice guy act.
“I think the guy’s a complete moron,” Hills muttered, careful to keep his voice low. “There’s no way he expected us to believe that crap, right? It didn’t make any sense. My six-year-old niece makes up more coherent stories.”
“Well, I think Marston was able to convince him,” Holm replied before turning to look at me. “He seemed like he was relaxing until the end there. You laid it on a bit thick, don’t you think? I was worried he was going to catch on.”
“It was on purpose, actually,” I replied, making sure to keep an eye out for any unwanted listeners. “I was trying to give him an out. I thought he might get spooked enough about the idea of us speaking to the crewmen that he might just crack and admit everything himself. It would have made our lives a lot easier.”
“He did look like he was about to say something at the end there,” Chapman noted pensively. “Guess his self-preservation instincts kicked in.”
“Hardly,” Hills snorted. “If he was really concerned with saving his own skin, he should have rolled on the crewmen. The guy’s just an idiot.”
“Maybe,” I muttered in reply. “He did come up with that stupid story, after all. In any case, at least we learned that there’s some truth to what they said about the weapons being lost in the water. There’s obviously something down there he doesn’t want us to see.”
“I caught that too,” Holm replied. “He looked like he’d seen a ghost the moment you mentioned us diving to look at the wreck. I think we should—”
“Shh!” Russo suddenly cut him off with a hiss. “Someone’s coming.”
I turned to where she was looking and caught sight of someone at the very end of the hallway. They were still far enough away that there was no chance they’d heard us speaking, but the entire group fell silent all the same.
“Good catch,” I commended her as the figure continued to approach. As he got closer, I realized that he was looking left and right down the different halls as he walked, as though on the lookout for something. He was heading straight for us, though, and a minute later, I realized it was the same man I’d made eye contact with earlier on the deck of the boat.
He slowed down once he was just a few feet away from us and looked around awkwardly, almost guiltily, before finally lifting his head up and speaking.
“I want to make a deal,” he whispered.
Every muscle in my body tensed at once, a million possibilities running through my head. Was this some kind of trick? Was he about to admit to something? Could he even be trusted?
“What kind of deal?” I asked, looking around to make sure no one else was around.
“I know what’s going on,” he replied, lowering his voice and stepping closer so no one could overhear him. “Part of it, anyway. I know the reason we’re being forced to stay here is that the cops or the FBI or whoever suspects that we’ve been doing something. Everyone on board the ship knows it, and they’re all just keeping quiet, even the captain.”
“No kidding,” Hills deadpanned.
“That much is obvious.” I decided to be straight with him. Whatever his goal was, it didn’t seem like he was trying to feed me some crap story like the captain had. “So, why do you want to go against the grain and break the silence?”
“Because I’m not a fool,” he scoffed. “I know it’s only a matter of time before someone finds out what really happened. Like I said, I want to make a deal. I’ll tell you everything, whatever you want to know.”
“And in exchange?” I raised an eyebrow at him, waiting for the catch.
“I go free,” he replied simply.
“I can’t allow that,” Russo replied immediately, stepping up to stand beside me. “You’re admitting to being involved in some kind of crime. I cannot just let you go.”
“Okay,” the man shrugged. “Then maybe I’ll just go back up on deck and let everyone know that we’re free to go because you can’t legally keep us here, right?”
In an instant, it felt like all the air was sucked out of the space, and I could feel Russo st
iffen beside me. No one spoke a word of response, but just a second later, a smile cracked over the man’s face.
“Uh-huh, I thought so.” He smirked. “I’m right, aren’t I? You can’t actually hold us here.”
Dammit, I thought to myself. I’d been careful to keep my expression completely unperturbed, but I could tell from the way that Russo had frozen on the spot that she’d likely given away her feelings. The man had been bluffing, and she’d inadvertently confirmed his threat.
“Listen,” he hissed as the smile fell off his face, “I’m not going to tell them anything, okay? My deal still stands. Let me walk out of here, and I’ll tell you exactly what went down two days ago. Even if we run now, we’ve already lost too much. It’ll only be a matter of time before we’re all behind bars or six feet under.”
I turned to look at Russo and the rest of the group. It didn’t feel right to make a deal with a criminal, but it seemed like the preferable option to having him turn on us and cause us to lose our opportunity to apprehend them.
“Fine,” she muttered angrily. “You can leave today. No one will stop you. But know that once you’re off this ship, your special treatment ends. A warrant will be put out for your arrest, and the moment you so much as get pulled over for speeding, you will be arrested.”
“Doesn’t seem like much of a deal,” the man scoffed. “Whatever, though. Good luck finding me. The name I’m registered under here is fake.”
“Let’s get to it then,” I interjected. Russo looked like she was about to punch the guy in the face, and as obnoxious as he was, we needed to get the information out of him first, at least. “To start with, what’s under the water that Danieli doesn’t want us to know about?”
“Huh?” He frowned at me before his eyes widened as though a light bulb had just lit up over his head. “Oh, probably the guns.”
“Guns?” Holm asked as he pushed his way up to speak to the man. We were still standing under the concealed area behind the stairwell, and there wasn’t a lot of space to move around. “So, you really did toss the weapons you used to sink the other boat into the water?”
“Not just those,” the man snorted before looking around once again and lowering his voice. “We tossed all the guns.”
“What do you mean by all of them?” I asked. “How many guns did you have?”
“Maybe one or two hundred?” he mumbled. “And that’s only counting the guns. We tossed the grenades and missiles that we had, too.”
“You tossed live grenades and missiles into the ocean?” Chapman gasped, the expression on his face twisted in horror.
“Captain’s orders.” The man shrugged. “He knew when the authorities came to assist with the crime that we’d all be screwed if they found everything we had, so he ordered us to toss it all overboard. Such a waste…”
He shook his head in lamentation.
“So, you were smuggling weapons,” I concluded. Things were starting to fall into place now. “Did your store of goods happen to include rocket launchers?”
“Yes,” the man replied. “I’m assuming that your next question will be about the Viboras and how we were providing them with the weapons they’ve been using to raid ships?”
Something cold and foreboding settled into the pit of my stomach as I realized what he’d just said. Suddenly everything seemed to be rapidly clicking into place.
“Who are the Viboras?” I asked him calmly, though I already knew the answer. I wanted to hear what he had to say.
The man stared back at me as though I had suddenly sprouted a second head.
“Seriously?” He snorted. “How can you not know? They’re the ones who attacked us. The pirates!”
“Okay,” Hills suddenly piped up from the back of the group before trudging his way over to speak to the man. “Hold on for a second. Go back because we need to clear up a few things. First, the pirates that attacked you: you know who they are?”
“Of course I do,” he replied, “we’ve been supplying them with the weapons they have been using to go after other ships. That’s why they came after us. I suppose they got tired of actually having to pay for the merchandise and decided to just take it.”
“This group, the Viboras,” I prompted him to go back, “What else do you know about them?”
“Plenty,” the man replied. “They’re a group based out of Colombia. I grew up there. Back when I was a kid, they were just a bunch of nobodies, a little no-threat group of punks that liked to go around pretending they were gangsters. They were so pathetic that the real cartels and gangs didn’t even bother to wipe them out. They were basically a bunch of kids playing pretend.”
“They’re not so pathetic now,” Hills grumbled bitterly.
“Yeah, I was surprised when I ran into that flag again,” the man remarked. “They used to run around tagging things, spraying that dumb sign all over everything. I moved from Colombia to Spain a few years ago. I never thought I’d see them again out here in European waters.”
“You said you sold them weapons,” I replied quietly, having another look around to make sure we were still alone. “How did that transaction come about?”
“They just showed up one day in this huge ship,” he replied with a shrug. “I don’t know how they found out we had merch to sell. Whatever, though, the captain doesn’t care as long as he gets his money. I knew it was a bad idea from the start to trust them. They’re snakes. Even back in Colombia, they were infamous for being sneaky.”
“I thought you said no one took them seriously?” I asked, confused by his conflicting statements.
“They didn’t.” He shrugged. “They were small fries compared to some of the real gangsters, but that didn’t mean they were harmless. They had this weird thing that they did, where they would pretend to get in with other gangs. They’d even go as far as getting tattoos of the rival gangs. Then once they were in, they’d try to start trouble. You know, break things down from within.”
“They’d pretend to be part of the rival groups?” Chapman muttered behind me. “That kind of sounds like what they’re doing now to lure the ships in. The reports we’ve received all say that they would fly an American or European flag and send out a distress signal before suddenly attacking.”
“That’s exactly what they did!” the man exclaimed before flinching at how loud his own voice had just been. “They put up an Italian flag and then started sending out SOS calls. We realized it was them, and at first, we were just confused. We thought maybe they wanted to buy and were just being weird about it. Then they started firing, and, well, we fired back.”
“And that’s why Danieli is so scared,” I muttered. “You were trafficking arms illegally, and one of your buyers attacked you. He knows if we dive to the wreck, we’re going to find all the guns that you all launched overboard.”
“That about sums it up,” the man replied as he shifted from one foot to the other nervously, looking up and down the hallway as he did. “So, uh, was there anything else that you wanted to know? Or can I go? I’d rather not still be here when it hits the fan, you know?”
I frowned, still irritated that this criminal was going to walk free. The information he’d given was beyond invaluable, though, so I couldn’t be completely mad.
“Just one more thing,” I replied. “What else can you tell us about the Viboras?”
“I don’t know,” he replied anxiously, clearly getting antsy to leave. “As I said, they were a bunch of losers back in the day. I know they have a lot of ships now, though. A lot. They’d show up with different ones all the time. And then there’s that big black monster they’ve been sailing around on lately, that old warship.”
“We’re aware of it,” I replied vaguely. It was concerning to hear that, apparently, they had several more ships aside from that one and the one that had just sunk. Just how powerful was this group?
“Oh!” He suddenly spoke up again. “Their leader goes by Viper. I’ve heard the men call him that before while we were doing business
. I’ve never seen the guy himself, but I know that’s what they call him.”
“Alright,” I replied with a nod. Once again, I felt disappointed to have hit another roadblock. Of course, he didn’t know what the leader’s real name was. We already knew that he went by that dumb nickname, so that didn’t help much. Nevertheless, he had at least given us something new to work with. We knew more about the pirates’ MO now, what they’d been up to before they took to pirating, and we knew where they had been getting their firepower from.
“So can I go now?” the man asked impatiently, rocking up on the balls of his feet and staring almost longingly down the corridor behind us.
“We’ll have to walk you out,” I replied begrudgingly. “If we just let you waltz out of here on your own, the rest of the men are going to protest. We’ll pretend to arrest you and let you go once you’re out of sight.”
He frowned, clearly displeased with the idea.
“Fine,” he replied after several moments of thoughtful hesitation.
“Turn around,” I instructed him before pulling his arms behind his back and cuffing them together. “Okay, let’s make this look real.”
I marched the man back through the winding hallways of the bridge and up to the deck. We passed several men on the way up, all of whom either gasped or yelled or otherwise emitted some shocked reaction to the scene they witnessed. Some tried to say something, but they were quickly and efficiently silenced by Russo.
By the time we made it back onto the ship’s main deck, several men had gathered around to watch the proceedings. As I guided the turncoat down the long staircase off the ship and onto the dock, I noticed that almost all the men were wearing identical looks of fear and horror, clearly worried about what was happening and probably wondering if they would be next.
Back on the deck, Russo leaned in to whisper something to the officers on guard before following me over to where the cars were parked. I made a show of putting the man into the back of my and Holm’s car before driving away. I knew that the men would still be watching, and we needed to make this look realistic for as long as they could still see us.