Dan opened the door and walked along the main walkway. He went to the small platform and seeing the electric trolley parked there, stepped onto it. Jeeze, he thought as he patted his stomach, I’m getting lazy riding this thing instead of walking. He shrugged his broad shoulders and thought again, Oh well. He pressed the start button and went forward to the maintenance ladder that would take him up to Inspection Hatch Number Five.
On top, the Ultra-light’s pilot saw what he looked for: a man who waved a white handkerchief from an open hatch. He brought his aircraft as close as he could to the ship. He fought hard as the airstreams that flowed over the Sky Ship bounced his craft around like a small fish in the wake of a whale. He pushed his throttle forward as he was about to impact her and had to start over again. Mansur watched and uttered more than one curse to this unforeseen problem. Finally, the pilot was content to stay out of her wake and after matching Sky Ship’s speed, lowered the backpack he had tied to his aircraft by the securing rope. It swung aft of Mansur as he cursed more at his inability to grab it. Finally, it swung in front of him and as he grabbed it, Mansur was almost pulled out of the hatch while, at the same time, the Ultra-light was almost pulled down onto the top of Sky Ship.
The pilot saw the disaster coming and before it happened, dropped his end of the rope and pulled away. Mansur was off balance as he grabbed the bulky backpack, and it fell on a navigation light in front of his hatch. He covered his eyes as glass shards blew back toward him. The pilot circled and waved to Mansur as he saw him pull the backpack down the open hatch. His mission accomplished, the pilot flew back to the marshy island he came from.
After a short trolley ride, Dan arrived at the ladder and looked up at the fifty-foot climb. He raised his eyebrows as he said to himself, “Danny, you just have to stop volunteering for jobs that are way over your head.” He laughed at his unintended pun and put a hand and foot on the rungs of the aluminum ladder and as he started up, continued with, “Oh well, let’s go do this Danny boy.”
Mansur was sweating despite the chilled wind outside the ship. He quickly closed and locked the hatch, removed the rope from the backpack and stuck it between some of the many guy wires that ran throughout the interior of the ship. He then put the backpack on his back. As he about to go down the ladder, he spotted Dan start to climb up the same ladder.
Mansur nimbly climbed onto the guy wire rigging to hide behind an aluminum girder, as Dan got closer.
Dan didn’t like looking up or down as he climbed up the fifty-foot ladder and kept his eyes forward until he came to the platform. He sat on the platform’s three-foot wide floor then brought his legs up and stood. His head was a foot away from the bottom of the hatch. He reached up and tried the round handle that tightened or opened the hatch. Locked? he thought as he tried to close it. Oh well, let’s take a look at the outside and see if we can find out why the light says it’s open when it’s not.
This time Dan turned the hatch to the open position and it opened easily. He pushed the hatch back and a shaft of light came through the round opening. He cautiously put his head up into the slipstream.
“Wow,” he said out loud, “this is what it must have been like to be a pilot in one of those open cockpit planes.” He squinted his eyes and looked forward. He spotted the broken navigation light dome, and with a perplexed look on his face said, “Wonder how the heck that happen? He pulled his head back inside the ship and pressed the intercom button.
The radio squawked to life with the voice of Flight Engineer Ellis, “Control room. Ellis here.”
“Hey Elly,” answered Dan as he shouted over the rush of air through the open hatch, “ we have a broken navigation light, dome up here. Could that be the reason the hatch light popped on?”
“No, Dan. The vibrations probably tripped the circuit and gave me a false reading.”
“Any idea what could have caused the dome to break?
A few seconds went by until Dan heard, “Eckener here. Probably a bird strike, Dan. Thanks for checking on the hatch light. Come on back down and I’ll send someone up before it gets dark to repair it.”
Dan has opened the repair box and is holding a new bulb and white plastic dome cover. He pressed the button and said, “I've been topside before, Cap'. I can harness up and take care of it.”
Eckener looked at Beniquez with a question on his face.
“He’s been topside with me a few times, captain.” said the first officer. “He can take care of it.”
Eckener pressed the intercom button and Dan heard, ”You're sure, Dan? We have time before it gets dark.”
“No problem captain: I'll hold the bulb and you guys turn the ship around a few times.”
Laughter came over the intercom. “Okay, wise guy. We'll slow down to fifteen. Take your time and make sure your harness is secure to a tie-down, I don’t want to have to tell the boss his policeman went for a swim.”
Dan took the nylon harness, put his arms through it and secured the clasp in front. He checked that the end of one hundred foot long safety rope was fastened to a tie-down attached to a girder inside the ship. He put a pair of goggles on and as he felt the ship slow down, took a screwdriver and put it in his pocket. He took the bulb and dome then climbed up the last few steps to the top of the airship. He leaned forward into the steady fifteen-knot wind and walked the few feet to the broken bulb and kneeled down to fix it.
As Dan disappeared out the hatch, Mansur slid onto the platform and deftly unhooked the safety rope from the tie-down. He slowly peeked out the hatch and grinned as he saw Dan, bent over with his back to him. He removed his backpack, placed it on the platform then stepped out of the hatch as he held Dan’s unhooked safety rope in his hand. Mansur yanked the safety rope sideways and Dan is startled. He half fell and half slipped as he dropped the bulb and tried to turn to see what happened.
Mansur gave a cackle of a laugh as he saw his quarry struggle on top of an airship hundreds of feet in the sky. He toyed with him by pulling first this way and as the man started to gain his balance, pull the other way, all the time laughing at the man’s plight.
Dan tried to get his gun out of its holster and Mansur laughed harder as he gave a final yank. On an airship, there is some flatness on the topside, but Dan slid beyond it. Mansur gave one more yank and sent him overboard. As Dan slid down the curve of the airship’s side Mansur threw the safety rope after him with a last laugh. He then reentered the hatch, pulled and locked the cover behind him. As he put his backpack on, the intercom came to life.
“Ellis here, Dan. Indicator light says you’re back inside. Did you fix the navigation light?”
Mansur hesitated a second then pressed the intercom and said, “Light’s fixed.”
“Okay, Dan,” answered Ellis, “thanks a lot. See you later. Over and out.”
Dan’s been in many a fight while on the New York Police Department, but always knew he’d come out of it. “Training,” he used to say to rookies, “Training takes over. And when it does, let it ride because that’s what being in a tight spot requires. There’s no time to think when some bad guy is shooting at you or rushing at you with a knife. Let the training take over and there’s a very good chance you’ll come out of it okay.”
But this was different. No training in the world teaches you how to stop from sliding off the side of a zeppelin as it flies slowly along at two hundred feet in the air. In the fraction of a second, Dan thought: first, “Who was that guy?” Then, “God, don’t let that bastard hurt Jennifer, she’s gonna have to get home to raise the girls.” Finally enraged, he’s upset at himself, “Dan, you stupid son-of-a-bitch, you broke your first rule of survival, putting your back at an open door with no backup.”
This all took place in the fraction of a second as he slid down the ship’s curve. He burnt his hands as he tried instinctively to slow his descent down the side of the airship. This all happened well rear of the forward section where others might see him. Blown by the ship's slipstream, he slid toward the tai
l section and it looked as if he were going to fall to his death landing on one of the many islands below. Suddenly he was jerked to a stop that almost wrenched his arms out of their sockets. His goggles and gun were lost in the sudden stop. His neck hurt as he looked up to see what saved him. Dan saw that it was only temporary as he was dangling one hundred feet below the airship because the safety rope was caught on the rudder as the ship carried him along one hundred feet in the air.
In the gondola, Ellis turned to Captain Eckener who had a pair of binoculars and was scanning the horizon. “Captain, Dan fixed the light.”
“Is he in Mr. Ellis?”
“Yes sir.”
“Fine. Ring up seventy knots and bring her up to three hundred feet.”
“Aye aye, sir. Seventy knots and three hundred feet.
Dan spotted an island passing, about 80 feet below him. He heard the engines as they accelerated to speed the airship up. Feeling that the ship was about to climb and go over deep water, he frantically tried to undo his harness. Finally, he pulled on the rope. It suddenly came free, and Dan fell 80 feet and hit the water hard.
Damn! No way I’m gonna drown after that escape, he thought as he went deep in the blue, green, warm water, God, get me out of this one and I’ll quit this business for real this time. I promise. He finally broke the surface with a huge gasp for air. He treaded water as got his senses back. He shook his head as he looked around, “Lord, what I meant was, I’ll quit after I get that guy.”
He looked up at Sky Ship as she climbed and sped away south into a light fog.
Inside the airship the group of athletics is standing casually as if by chance by the door that opened a crack, and Mansur sees that all’s clear. He quickly joined them and no one is the wiser about his little jaunt into the ship’s interior. They all saunter on down the hall and enter their coach’s room.
Aziz is doing push ups as they enter. All stand and watch as he counted two hundred and jumped into a standing position. He looked at the smiling face of Mansur as he held out the backpack. “Mansur, I knew you were the right man for such an important job. You have given us the lightning to strike down this decadent device of Satan.” He took the backpack and gave it to Hadi Bakr a tall man with a thick mustache. Hadi opened it and gave out Uzis machine pistols and 9mm pistols to the commandos: Ali, Harun, Salam, Hamadan, Kassem, Arif, Mitanni, Mustafa, Gailani, Mansur, Rashid, Said and Karim. They conceal the weapons in their clothes.
The colonel clapped his hands together as he did when he was in a celebratory mood, “Go! Go out and mingle with the lambs, my brothers. Their time has come and we are the sword of swords.” He opened the door and looked into the empty hallway then ushered them out and they went to their assigned positions.
Dan lay in the sand, soaked and exhausted. He is bone tired and wanted to sleep after his ordeal. “ . . . Can’t,” he said to himself, “Got to warn the ship. That guy’s some kind of a hi-jacker or something and he’s nuts.” He did a poor version of a push up and was about to collapse in the mud when he noticed in the distance, a couple of figures in beach chairs.
“Wha? What the heck,” he mumbled as he realized that they sat there and just watched him with smiles on their faces. Dan forced himself up and stumbled along the beach toward them, as he removed the harness and trailing safety rope.
Jennifer and Jim are chatting when she spotted a serving cart with a long white tablecloth. “Jim, I need my first coffee of the day without having to fix someone’s hair. Will this spot be here when I return?”
“You go right ahead, lassie, and when you come back you have to tell me about your wee ladies at home.”
She walked through the crowd that started circling the cart when she felt an earring drop from her left ear. “Darn, I knew I didn’t put them in right, Marie’ll kill me.” She got down on her knees to search for it.
The terrorists have filtered back among the passengers. Hadi used the stolen pass-card to open the door that lead to the gondola. A technician, leaving the control room saw him. “Sir,” he said with a smile, “you can't go there. It’s the control room.”
Rashid pulled out his gun and stuck it in the man's face. “Now he can.”
The man put his hands up and Rashid and Kassem dragged him back into the gondola.
A female Flight Attendant carried a tray of coffee to a group of passengers that stood by the window. She saw Rashid brandishing his pistol, screamed and dropped the tray. Kassem stepped between her and the men that entered the gondola and shoved her. As she fell heavily to the floor, two male passengers rushed to her aid, but stopped short when commandos pointed their guns at them. There is general pandemonium.
Hadi stood on a chair and shouted as he gestured with his gun, “Quiet down! Do as you're told and you won't get hurt! First thing: take out your cell phones and hand them to the man who will come around with an ice bucket. Don’t try to hide any because you will be searched shortly and if it is found that you still have one, you will be shot immediately.”
One of the terrorists poured out the ice water and ice and collected everyone’s cell phone.
The terrorists are on the outside of the knot of passengers and easily herd them and ship's staff into the middle of the room, away from the windows. They bring some more terrified passengers from their rooms.
Jennifer is terrified! She is hiding under the serving cart as she watched the chaos from between a fold in the tablecloth. “Oh my God!” She looked around as much as her cover would allow her. “Dan! Oh Lord, where is Dan?” she mumbled through clenched lips. Suddenly she saw Jim. He was in the center of the room with everyone else. He eyed Jennifer and slowly put his hand in his pocket, came out with his Pass Card and, unseen by the terrorists, dropped it at his feet. He waited for an opportunity to kick it under Jennifer’s coffee cart. It came when an elderly woman went into a faint and the people around her grabbed her. The terrorists snapped their eyes to the commotion. In that instant, Jim kicked the card and it slid close to Jennifer’s cart. Years of soccer without ever getting a goal, thought Jim with a wry grin, and finally I made the best shot I ever did.
Suddenly a burly young man charged a smaller commando, Harun, and grabbed the Uzi from him. He got it and turned to fire at two commandos as another young man joined him and rushed another commando. The tall lanky commando, Mitanni, had stayed in the background for just such a reason as this. Now he stepped up behind the man with an Uzi and fired from the hip. His years of training showed, as he riddled the young man with bullets then calmly turned and did the same to the other passenger. A woman screamed then all went silent.
Hadi shook his head as he said in a mock sorrowful voice, “Now, what did I tell you! Do you all want to die? These two would-be heroes are now just extra weight that we do not need on this ship. I suggest that you all take a look at them lying there in their own blood, and think if you really want to have your blood mingle with theirs.” He motioned to the group that was spread out all over the floor after ducking the gunfire. “In the middle! Everyone get up and stay in the middle of the room. Anyone straying will be shot instantly.”
As the gunfire started Jennifer stretched and grabbed the Pass Card, Oh my God, she thought as Mitanni started the second round of shooting, they’re going to kill us all. She suddenly remembered her little girls and set her jaw tight. Well, if they want me, those bastards will have to find me first. She looked at the pass-card and thought as she crawled quickly to the door to the interior as the firing suddenly stopped, Hell, it must work just like a hotel key, slide and turn the knob. She opened the door and slipped through while Hadi made his speech. Jennifer stared at the immense interior. “Oh my God! Dan, where are you?” She began running down the main walkway.
Rashid and Kassem shoved the technician into the gondola. Rashid shouted, “Attention! Attention! Stand where you are and make no sudden moves. We are armed.”
The Flight Crew is shocked. Eckener stepped forward and with a firm jaw said, “What’s going on
here? Get out of my contr . . .”
Rashid immediately struck him across the forehead with his gun.
Eckener stumbled back and leaned against the side window. Flight Engineer Ellis jumped off his seat and grabbed Rashid’s leg. Kassem shot him once and he fell dead to the floor with a bullet in his head.
Capt. Eckener moved quickly to Ellis's side and checked for a pulse. “He's dead! You- you've killed him, you bastard!”
Rashid motioned to Kassem, who pulled the Captain away from Ellis's limp body. Rashid does a quick check out the window then said, “Dump the body.”
Kassem smiled as he opened the gondola exit door and shoved the body out. It plummeted to the ocean and he grinned as he shut the door. The Flight Crew is looking at Rashid with hatred in their eyes. He smiled back at them. The door to the passenger’s lounge opened and Hadi entered. He saw their faces. Rashid said without looking away from the crew, “One tried to be a hero,” he tilted his head towards the ocean and continued, “He’s gone.”
“Well done.” He addressed the crew. “My name is Hadi. Go ahead, hate us - I'm glad you do. But understand this: Unless you wish to join your comrade at the bottom of the ocean, forget heroism. Do as we say and live. It’s as simple as that. We don’t want to kill anyone, but will, if we need to.”
While a group of the terrorists are covering the passengers in the passengers lounge, Aziz pointed to the door that led into the ship’s interior. He handed a pass-card to Mansur who opened the door and readied his Uzi. Mansur motioned Arif, Hamadan and Said to follow him, and the four entered the ship’s vast interior. As rehearsed, the men split up. Arif took the starboard walkway that went along the right side of the ship, Hamadan took the port walkway that ran down the left side while Mansur went down the center main walkway and Said walked along the hull walkway. The lighting inside gave it the appearance of daytime and they walked slowly as they inspected every inch of the area they were assigned, Uzis and pistols at the ready.
Sky Ship Page 5