Yuri turned away from the spotlight, looking up at Laura with a broad smile. “Right on schedule, honey!”
* * *
Wang made some final tweaks to the canopy. He was half a minute out. As planned, his men were in trailing positions, each spaced about fifty meters apart.
Although the helipad on the bridge deck remained blacked out, there was sufficient residual light from the Yangzi’s hull to power his night vision optics. The life raft remained in place on the helipad.
Wang’s body stiffened in preparation for the landing. He glided onto the teak decking on the starboard side of the raft, managing to stop after half a dozen steps. His parafoil collapsed as the next man swooped in from above and repeated the landing.
The third operator landed on the port side of the raft but while still moving, tripped on an unseen line that secured the raft to the deck. He crashed onto the deck.
The fourth zhongdui flared his chute upward to avoid colliding with his fallen colleague.
Wang watched in horror as the commando sped overhead and smacked into the base of the superyacht’s mast.
Wang jettisoned his backpack and reserve chute. He raced forward to check on his man.
* * *
Nick returned to the garage, taking up position next to Laura.
“How’s Maddy?” Laura asked.
“Fine.”
“She’s going to be hungry soon.”
Nick grinned. “We’ve got that covered.”
“What?”
Pyotr had relieved Nick from bridge watch. On his way to the garage, Nick checked on Fredek, who was in the galley standing near the stove. Maddy, cradled in Fredek’s arms, expressed herself through gurgles and trills as a bottle of milk warmed inside a water-filled pot resting on a burner.
“One of my guys is feeding her now—baby formula from the supplies the Chinese bought. He comes from a big family, oldest sibling. Lots of experience with infants—bottles and diapers.”
“Really,” Laura said, arching her eyebrows.
Yuri was still inside in the RIB, leaning over the gunwale working on Deep Adventurer.
Nick knelt next to the open garage door. “How’s it going?” he asked.
Yuri turned. “Hi, Nick.”
“What are you doing?”
“Getting ready to haul the Adventurer aboard so I can reprogram it.” Yuri reached backward with his arm to massage his left calf. It had been throbbing for the past hour.
“That’s great, but we need to get going. We’ve been lucky so far.”
“I know, but I’ve got to take care of this first.”
Updating the AUV’s navigation system was a priority, but there was an even more pressing matter for Yuri. Before he sent Deep Adventurer to the bottom earlier, he’d booby-trapped the underwater robot as retribution, should Wang and company run a double-cross. But Yuri now needed to disarm the bomb. If the AUV malfunctioned on its trip to Anacortes and popped to the surface, the five kilos of Semtex hidden inside would decimate any innocents who tried to pry open the payload compartment. Yuri could eliminate that risk in about five minutes once he retrieved the AUV from the water.
* * *
Commander Wang Park climbed down the stairway from the top deck after checking the ship’s mast. Two of his men waited on the helipad.
“He’s gone,” Wang reported. “Snapped his neck.”
Both operators frowned but said nothing.
“How’s your ankle?” Wang asked the other operator who’d landed hard.
“I’m okay.”
“Can you function?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good.”
Wang activated his helmet mike, connecting with his second in command aboard the Ella Kay. “We’re in position. Commence your approach,” he ordered.
“Executing.”
* * *
With Laura at his side Nick continued to watch Yuri tinker with Deep Adventurer, when his cell phone activated. Nick answered. It was Pyotr.
Nick cursed and hung up. He announced to Yuri, “A boat on radar is closing on us from the north. It’s been trailing for a while but just sped up. It’ll be on us in a couple of minutes.”
“Coast Guard?” Laura offered.
“Maybe,” Nick responded.
“Maybe not,” Yuri muttered.
CHAPTER 91
Wang and his team made their way forward through an interior corridor of the bridge deck. They passed the vacant cabins for the captain and navigator and entered a mini-salon reserved for the ship’s officers. The vacant lounge connected with the pilothouse.
Crouched by a glass-panel doorway at the center of the pilothouse, Wang surveyed the bridge. A single occupant manned the helm. While his men stood guard, Wang opened the door and entered, his SMG at the ready.
A three-round burst of suppressed gunfire tattooed helmsman Pyotr Skirski’s upper spine. The SVR officer fell forward onto the instrument panel.
Remaining crouched down, Wang advanced halfway into the wheelhouse, when a thunderous torrent of submachine fire erupted from the port side of the compartment. Wang dove for the deck. The storm of nine-millimeter slugs shattered the starboard bridge windows but missed their mark.
Hidden from Wang, the SVR agent standing next to the port bulkhead sprayed the starboard side of the bridge house with a thunderous barrage from his AKSU-74.
After the Russian expended a full magazine, Wang’s backup team took the Russian out with multiple rounds to the head and chest.
* * *
The zipper-like reports of an SMG on full auto broadcast from an upper deck. The racket penetrated to the garage.
“What’s that?” Laura asked.
“Gunfire?” Nick offered.
“Govnó,” Yuri muttered, still aboard the RIB. With the gantry crane system’s fore and aft rail beams over the floating Deep Adventurer, he was just connecting the lifting cables. “It’s the Chinese—making a counterattack. They want the Yangzi back.”
Nick withdrew his pistol and turned toward the interior garage bay.
Yuri hauled himself onto the deck and stood up. “Both of you, in the RIB now. I want you to power away from here.”
“But Maddy!” Laura screamed. “We’ve got to take her with us.”
“I’ll get her. Now get in the boat before it’s too late.”
Nick started to protest, when Yuri cut him off. “I need the pistol—I’ll check on your men if I have time. Take care of Laura.”
Nick handed over the Colt.
“Once I have Maddy, we’ll get wet. I’m going to swim due south.” Yuri held up the compass still strapped to the left wrist of his wetsuit. “When we’re in the clear, I’ll call you on my cell.” He tapped his chest. Under the bulge of the wetsuit was a plastic bag. It contained his cell phone and the phones belonging to Elena and Kwan.
“That’ll work,” Nick said.
Laura wasn’t buying it. “Maddy—in the water? That’s crazy.”
“I’ve got it covered. Nick will fill you in. Now please, both of you go—NOW!”
After boarding the RIB, Laura reached up and handed Yuri his diving fins and face mask. “I love you,” she said. “Save Maddy—and yourself.”
“I love you, too, and I will.”
Nick eased the RIB away from the Deep Adventurer and gunned the throttle. The runabout powered into the gloom without running lights.
Yuri made his exit.
The Deep Adventurer bobbed next to the Yangzi, secured by the overhead crane’s lifting cables.
The bomb inside remained lethal—Yuri’s choice.
* * *
With their cover blown, Wang and his shooters descended from the bridge deck to the upper deck expecting trouble. It came when one of the SVR agents guarding the captives moved forward to investigate the racket.
Wang ambushed the man, dropping him in a passageway near the elevator. He and his team approached the salon—Kwan Chi’s private lounge.
Familia
r with the layout, Wang elected to enter from the aft, using the starboard deck for access. As they moved on the outside deck, he observed Kwan and the PLAN crew members through the windows. All remained bound and were sitting on the carpet. They also spotted the guard. The Caucasian squatted behind the corner of Kwan’s bar. He held a submachine gun with his hand. A baby carrier rested on the deck beside his left knee.
The PLAN commandos made their way to the aft doorway. With his companions again serving as backup, Wang flipped the selector switch on his SMG to full auto and burst through the aft doorway, peppering the bar area with half a mag. He moved forward to inspect the kill but found no body or blood trail. He surveyed the rest of the salon, deciding the guard had moved forward before his attack.
Keeping an eye out for the rogue gunman, Wang greeted Kwan Chi. “Are you injured, sir?”
“No. Get these damn things off my hands.”
* * *
After Yuri exited the garage through the aft hatchway, he ascended the stern stairs to the main deck, working his way forward on the starboard side. The pain in his left calf surged, slowing his progress. Stooped over, Yuri pulled open one of the double doors that opened into the interior spaces of the upper deck. Still hunched down, he advanced into the lobby area that fronted the elevator and the adjacent stairway. He gripped the Colt with his right hand.
Fredek bounded down the staircase on the opposite side of the lobby with the AKSU-74 in his right hand and the baby carrier suspended by the other.
Startled, Fredek raised his weapon. Yuri countered in Russian. “It’s me—don’t shoot!”
Fredek lowered his weapon. “We’re under attack.”
“I’ve got to get to the bridge—for Maddy’s survival gear.” He’d parked the backpack on the deck in the aft port corner. It contained the child immersion suit and plastic inflatable raft.
“No way, man. They’re following me—they’re killing everyone on sight.”
Yuri had no choice. He reached forward and grabbed the baby carrier. “We’ve got to get off this thing now.”
“But how?”
“Follow me.”
* * *
“How many of you are aboard?” asked Kwan Chi.
“Three. The rest of the team will arrive soon by boat.” Wang hesitated. “Sir, who were these men that held you?”
“Russians—SVR, I think.”
“But how could—”
“Kirov! He’s responsible. Find him. I want that son of a bitch dead. And his woman, too.”
“Yes, sir.”
CHAPTER 92
Yuri and Fredek stood inside the storage locker at the aft end of the garage. Fredek struggled to pull on the immersion survival suit. Fluorescent orange and constructed of thick neoprene, the one-piece dry suit provided cold-water protection from booties to hood.
Yuri assisted Fredek, tugging the chest zipper tight and then pulling the neck flap to complete the watertight seal.
“That should do it,” Yuri said.
“What about you? There are a bunch more of these.” He gestured to the lineup of survival suits in the compartment.
“I’ll be fine in my wetsuit.”
Yuri leaned forward and picked up Madelyn. Tucked inside the shoulder and hood section of the smallest immersion suit he could find, her tiny head peered up at him. She gave a two-tooth smile.
“It’ll be okay, sweetie. You just sit tight.” He faced Fredek. “Help me secure her.”
“Right.”
With Madelyn facing Yuri’s chest, Fredek crossed the suit’s arms over Yuri’s shoulders, knotting the sleeves with a section of line behind his neck. He repeated the same with her legs, tying them together near the small of Yuri’s back.
Fredek checked his work. “She’s snug as a bug.”
“Good,” Yuri said while reaching down to make sure Maddy could breathe unobstructed. An instant later, they both heard a dull thud and felt a tremor in their feet.
“What’s that?” asked Fredek.
Yuri cracked open the aft hatch. “It’s another boat. They’re coming aboard on the stern platform.”
Yuri dogged the hatch shut and pushed Fredek through the forward hatchway, reentering the garage. He flipped a switch by the hatch, extinguishing the overhead lighting. Since both garage doors were open, they prevented the approaching vessel from mooring alongside, leaving the stern the next best access point.
The Deep Adventurer remained moored to the starboard side of the garage, so they relocated to the port side. Standing next to the edge of the open door, Yuri whispered, “Get in now.”
Fredek eased himself into the water, slipping feet first over the one-foot-high ledge. He bobbed like a cork in the immersion suit.
“Pull yourself onto it but stay facedown for now.”
“Okay.”
With both arms extended, Fredek pulled himself onto the ten-foot-long paddleboard. He lay prone with his elbows tucked under his chest. He looked up at Yuri.
Yuri handed Fredek two carbon fiber paddles. Fredek tucked the paddle ends under his chest, letting the shafts project over the board’s bow.
Yuri dropped the second paddleboard into the water. He sat down, letting his legs hang over the ledge. He looked down, checking Maddy. “Here we go, sweetie.”
Yuri lowered his body into the water. Maddy’s hybrid immersion suit added extra flotation, keeping her head two feet above the water’s surface. Yuri pulled himself onto the second board. After extending his legs over each side, he sat up. He nodded to Fredek, who floated nearby.
Fredek repeated the same maneuver. Now sitting up with his legs straddling the board, he handed Yuri a paddle.
Yuri aimed his paddle toward the south and whispered, “Head that way, I’ll follow you.”
Fredek dipped the paddle into the water, propelling his board forward.
Maddy whimpered. Yuri reached down and caressed the top of her head. “It’s okay, honey, I’m here.”
Yuri’s comforting words were not enough. Scared, cold, and miserable from a new tooth that pierced her lower gum, Madelyn Grace Newman wailed full throttle.
CHAPTER 93
Kwan Chi and Commander Wang stood next to the open starboard garage door, gawking at the floating Deep Adventurer.
“What is this thing?” asked Kwan.
“An autonomous underwater vehicle—a robotic submarine from Kirov’s company. We deployed it to search for the recording devices he planted the year before.”
“What’s it doing here now?”
“Kirov told me that it would park itself on the bottom when it completed the survey. We were supposed to recover it several days ago.”
“So it’s just been waiting?”
“Yes. Kirov must have sent the recall signal.”
“But why now?”
“I expect he wanted to recover it. The unit is quite valuable.”
“To pull it out like the Mark Twelve?” Kwan said. He turned toward the Russian torpedo mine parked in its cradle on the opposite side of the garage.
“That appears to be what he was doing.”
“Cast it off. We need to leave now.”
“Ah, sir, I’d like to bring it aboard. The technology is quite advanced—we’d learn much from it. Plus, there’s a chance it located the second Russian recording pod.”
Kwan considered the request.
With his mission aborted, any mitigation Kwan could offer Beijing would bolster his precarious position. Kirov’s machine would help in that endeavor.
“Go ahead and bring it aboard, Commander. But be quick about it. We need to head to the ocean now. We’ve been recalled to Hong Kong.”
“Aye, aye, sir. We’ll have it aboard and stowed in ten minutes.” Wang had an afterthought. “The boat my men arrived in, I wish to scuttle it. There’s too much evidence left behind now that the mission is blown.”
“Sink it here?”
“No, in the ocean—far from here. It can follow us.”
“V
ery well.”
CHAPTER 94
Yuri feared Maddy’s squeals would give them away. Bundled within the immersion suit, her cries were somewhat muffled. After bellowing for several minutes, her wails diminished to whimpers and she fell asleep.
Managing to paddle about a thousand feet away without detection, Yuri and Fredek watched the yacht as it drifted, both engines set to idle. It appeared to Yuri that every light aboard was on, creating a lightship spectacle. When he noticed a flurry of activity in the garage, he guessed they had discovered the Deep Adventurer.
After dousing the cabin lights, the Yangzi’s engines throttled up, and it proceeded westward at ten knots. The Ella Kay followed. Yuri and Fredek watched the running lights fade into oblivion.
Yuri extended his hand behind Maddy’s capsulated covering. She remained asleep. He reached inside his partially unzipped wetsuit jacket and removed his cell phone from the ziplock bag.
He keyed the speed dial.
“Yuri!” Nick Orlov answered in a flash.
“They’re gone. You can come pick us up now.”
“On the way!”
Nick and Laura hid behind nearby Smith Island to avoid the Yangzi’s radar. Encased in neoprene, Yuri and Nick were immune to radio wave detection.
Yuri turned toward Fredek. “Get the light.”
“Okay.”
Fredek unzipped the front of his survival suit and removed the beacon. Because the emergency light was water activated, Yuri had placed the unit inside Fredek’s suit before sealing it. Otherwise, the flashing strobe might reveal their location too soon. Maddy’s suit did not have a light.
Fredek scooted beside Yuri’s board and handed over the light.
Yuri yanked the plastic ring, manually activating it. He used his chest to the shield the light from the west.
Twelve minutes elapsed. The RIB homed in on the flashing strobe with the precision of a cruise missile. Yuri, Maddy, and Fredek were assisted aboard, along with the paddleboards. The rigid inflatable boat drifted with the current.
Yuri would not have made it into the runabout without Nick’s help. His lower left leg had morphed from stinging pain to terrifying numbness.
“Hi, honey,” Yuri said as he embraced Laura, wobbly.
The Forever Spy Page 33