by Chris Ryan
No, there would be no arguments on board this vessel. When the instruction came through that they were to maintain their course, even though they were heading into the eye of a storm, they obeyed. Perhaps they were travelling to their deaths. But if they disobeyed their boss, they’d be dead anyway. At least this way they had a chance.
The wind howled around the ship.
The sea grew rougher.
The crew were silent as the vessel continued towards its RV.
In the bowels of the MV Mercantile, Zak could also tell that the sea was getting rougher once more. In the gloom of his cell, he kept having flashbacks to the night out on deck. Every time he remembered being strapped to the railings, his skin prickled and he found himself involuntarily gasping for breath. If Acosta decided to repeat the torture, Zak didn’t know what he’d end up admitting. Not the truth, certainly, because he didn’t even know what the truth was. He couldn’t trust his abductors, but could he even trust his friends any more?
He had slept after returning to the cabin. A fitful sleep, on and off throughout the long hours of isolation. The cuts on his face were raw with blood and salt; his dreams had been filled with water and the sickening sound of the P11 dart splintering Barker’s skull. He saw Michael’s face back on St Peter’s Crag. That’s the thing about terrorists, he was saying. The good ones, at least. They’re very clever. Which means we have to be a little bit cleverer …
There was somebody in the room again, but this time he wasn’t carrying a torch. Rough hands pulled Zak from the bed, and he saw the piercings along the man’s eyebrows glint in the darkness. ‘Get moving,’ said a harsh voice which Zak recognized as that of Karlovic. The ship was rocking. As Zak staggered sleepily to his feet, he found it difficult to maintain his balance. ‘I said, get moving!’ Karlovic hissed, and he pushed Zak out into the corridor.
Bea was waiting for him there. Eduardo stood guard over her. His bandanna was no longer over his head, but round his neck. His black hair was as greasy as his beard. Bea herself was shaking with terror. But Zak had seen her the previous night when she was steely and organized. Give the girl an Oscar, he thought to himself. She was clearly a very good actress.
The ship lurched. All four of them stumbled, but Eduardo and Karlovic were the ones with the guns. Zak felt steel against his back. ‘Get up on deck,’ came the instruction. ‘El capitán wants you.’
‘I’m flattered,’ Zak said.
‘Don’t be. He’s not in a good mood.’
‘Please …’ Bea whimpered. ‘Leave me down here …’
‘Shut up, you stupid kid. Get up onto deck, both of you.’
Outside, Zak saw the treacherous colour of the sky as evening drew in. Unlike last night, however, when the sea had been still and the sky clear, now the water was a stormy grey colour and the clouds had gathered. The waves weren’t as high as when Zak had been tied to the railings, but they were high enough for the walk to the stern deck – where he had tried to throw the netting over – to be treacherous. Even Karlovic and Eduardo seemed more intent on keeping their footing than on pointing their guns in Zak and Bea’s direction.
It was raining too. The air was filled with the immense sound of droplets hitting the surface of the ocean, which looked like it was boiling and steaming. Zak noticed that the water cannons had been switched off. Made sense, he thought. Only a fool would try to board in these stormy seas. Acosta was waiting for them. He was no longer bare-chested, but wore a stormproof jacket over his waterproof trousers. His face, though, had lost none of its cruelty. He watched Zak and Bea approach with a sneer on his face that suggested they were the lowest form of life on earth. He had the pillowcase in his hand. The sight of it made Zak feel weak. When the two of them were a metre apart, Zak stopped.
He and Acosta stared at each other, rain dripping through their hair and over their faces.
‘I’m going to give you one last chance,’ said the skipper. He had to shout against the howling of the wind and the rain. ‘Tell me who you are. Tell me who you work for. Then, maybe – maybe – I let you live.’
Salt water sprayed through the air, and both Zak and Acosta were forced to shield their eyes. When Zak lowered his hands, however, he saw something. It was only small. Barely there. Just the glimmer of a look in Acosta’s face. As the spray subsided, the skipper looked out to sea. He was searching for something and, with a flash of intuition, Zak saw that he was anxious. Whoever it was they were about to meet – whatever it was they were about to meet – Antonio Acosta was scared of it. And he was even more scared of arriving at their rendezvous having failed to extract the truth of Zak’s identity out of him.
And with that flash of intuition came another. Acosta was never going to kill him. He wasn’t going to kill either of them. If that had been his plan, he’d have done it ages ago. He’d been told to find out Zak’s identity, and he was terrified of the consequences if he didn’t …
Zak stood up straight, and when he spoke it was with a confidence he didn’t really feel. ‘My name is Jason Cole,’ he said. ‘And to be honest, you might as well give up asking me that question, because it’s the only answer you’re going to get.’ He saw a brief smile of approval on Bea’s face.
Acosta’s face changed. The hint of anxiety was replaced by a nasty sneer. ‘You think you’re a brave kid,’ he shouted. ‘But we’ll soon see how brave you really are when you meet someone not as forgiving as me.’ As he spoke, he looked over Zak’s shoulder and he seemed to notice something far out at sea. Zak turned. Instantly he clocked what Acosta was looking at. It was another vessel, bobbing in and out of sight on the grey, stormy horizon. Zak couldn’t tell at this distance whether it was smaller or larger than the Mercantile. But he sensed one thing for sure: they were heading straight for it. Acosta’s crew members had been expecting a rendezvous. It looked like this was it.
‘Bind them!’ Acosta instructed his men. ‘And prepare the lifeboat.’
Zak heard Bea gasp. He turned to see her stepping nervously away. ‘The … the lifeboat?’ she stuttered. ‘Surely you won’t make us …’ Her words petered out. Another good impression, Zak thought to himself, of a frightened kid. Or maybe it wasn’t an impression at all. He didn’t much relish getting into that tiny lifeboat himself. Not in high seas like this.
Karlovic and Eduardo approached. They were carrying cable ties – thin loops of plastic with a notch joining the ends. Eduardo forced Zak’s hands behind his back, bound the wrists together and yanked one end of the loop. The smell of his body odour was still bad, even though the rain and the sea were giving him a more thorough shower than he’d probably had in ages. The cable tie closed around Zak’s wrists, digging into the flesh and immediately making his hands feel swollen on account of the constricted blood supply. Karlovic did the same to Bea, who struggled and sobbed as she was being tied, but of course it did no good.
‘Take them to the bow deck,’ Acosta ordered once their wrists were tied. ‘Alert me when we’re close enough to board.’ He stormed through the rain back along the deck and disappeared into the body of the ship.
‘You heard him,’ Karlovic shouted. ‘Move!’
Zak and Bea walked side by side along the starboard deck, with Karlovic and Eduardo about three metres behind. The noise of the rain and the wind was enough to muffle their voices as they spoke.
‘If Michael gave you any more intel about this RV,’ Zak said from between gritted teeth, ‘now would be a good time to tell me.’
‘You know everything I do,’ Bea replied, ‘so you might as well stop asking. Whatever’s going to happen, it’s going to happen soon. Keep your mind on the job.’
‘Thanks for the advice,’ Zak muttered. He wasn’t sure if Bea heard him above the elements, but she certainly acted as though she hadn’t.
They passed the chest where Zak had found the bundle of netting, then the lifeboat. When they reached the bow deck, Karlovic forced them onto their knees. ‘Guard them,’ he shouted at Eduardo. ‘I’ll prepare
the launching gear for the lifeboat.’
‘Who’s boarding with them?’ Eduardo shouted back.
‘Don’t ask me. El capitán will decide who gets that pleasure.’ He hurried away, leaving Zak, Bea and Eduardo alone on the bow deck. Zak caught the look of discontent on the bearded man’s face.
At first Zak couldn’t see the other vessel. The swell of the ocean had raised the level of the horizon and the air was thick with salt and spray. A wave crashed over the deck, knocking Zak and Bea from their kneeling position onto their backs. Bea screamed – Zak didn’t know if it was for effect or if it was genuine. At a harsh bark from Eduardo, he struggled up to his knees again. This time, he caught sight of the ship in the distance. It appeared closer than when he’d seen it last, which had only been a couple of minutes ago. Despite the stormy weather and the high seas, the Mercantile was fast approaching the ship it was supposed to be meeting. And what then? Zak wondered.
What then?
Thunder. It boomed across the sky and was followed about ten seconds later by a flash of lightning. The sky grew darker, and the swell of the sea obscured the approaching vessel once more. When it reappeared a few minutes later, it was close enough for Zak to make out some of the detail on the main body of the ship – probably not more than 500 metres away, though he knew distances could be deceiving at sea. It was, he thought, smaller than the Mercantile. Because of this, it looked like the rough seas were buffeting it even more violently. It rocked and swayed, and when a wave crashed over its deck, the whole ship disappeared from sight for a few seconds. It didn’t look, by any means, like somewhere Zak wanted to go.
He looked over his shoulder at Eduardo. The black bandanna round his neck was dripping wet and his beard looked bedraggled. ‘Hey!’ Zak shouted.
‘Shut up, kid,’ Eduardo replied.
‘Anyone who gets in that lifeboat now, in these seas – they’d be an idiot, right?’
Eduardo’s eyes darkened, but he didn’t reply.
‘You think you’re going to get out of joining us? You think Karlovic and el capitán are going to put themselves in danger instead of you?’
‘I said, shut up.’
‘You know I’m right. You know how dangerous it is. If you don’t want to board that ship, now’s your chance.’
Eduardo gave him a puzzled look. ‘What are you talking about, kid?’
‘Untie us,’ Zak yelled back. ‘Untie us now. We can overpower Karlovic. We’ll have the element of surprise. We can take the ship …’
‘Jason, no …’ Bea urged. ‘The crew are armed …’
But Zak ignored her. All his attention was on the bearded man with the bandanna round his neck and the unfortunate odour surrounding him.
For a moment – just a brief moment – Zak thought Eduardo was going to agree. There was conspiracy in his eyes, and he looked over his shoulder as if he was seriously considering the proposition.
‘Now’s your only chance,’ Zak pressed. ‘Untie us. We can—’
He wasn’t expecting the heavy kick in the guts that Eduardo delivered. Winded, he collapsed to the deck again. As he lay there trying to inhale, he felt Eduardo’s hot, stinking breath against his face. ‘You’re a clever kid,’ he hissed. ‘But you don’t know what you’re talking about. You think we would cross Karlovic and el capitán? Maybe some of us would. But you don’t know who’s coming in that other ship. If he thought any of us had betrayed him, we wouldn’t just be wishing for death – we’d be wishing we’d never even been born.’
‘What’s going on?’ Karlovic had appeared. He was as drenched as the rest of them.
Eduardo stood up. ‘Nothing,’ he said. ‘I’ve dealt with it.’
‘Then get the prisoners to their feet. The lifeboat’s ready. Load them up – I’ll inform el capitán.’
Eduardo pulled Zak up onto his feet, then Bea. The approaching ship was closer, listing and lolling in the waves. With a sharp push, Eduardo pushed them along the port deck. ‘Move!’ he shouted. ‘Move!’
The canvas covering had been removed from the lifeboat and was crumpled in a heap by its side. Already the boat had a couple of inches of water in the bottom – a result of the intense rain and spray. As they approached, there was another crack of thunder and at the same time a wave hit the side of the boat. Zak was blinded by the sharp, salty spray, and when he looked back at the boat he reckoned there was another inch in the bottom.
‘This is suicide!’ he yelled. ‘Think about it, Eduardo. Think what they’re making you do!’
But Eduardo was having none of it. ‘Get inside,’ he instructed. ‘And keep quiet.’
Climbing into the launch with their wrists bound was hard. Zak’s shoes splashed in the water that had collected in the hull, but it made no difference – he was soaked anyway. When Karlovic reappeared, he had the skipper with him, along with seven other crew members Zak didn’t recognize. They all looked nervous, and tried not to catch the eye of their captain.
Acosta looked around at them all. His face was unimpressed, as though he was staring at some very poor specimens of the human race. ‘Cowards,’ he hissed. ‘All of you.’
His eyes fell on Eduardo. He looked as anxious as all the others and Acosta seemed to hold him in just as much contempt. ‘You,’ he announced. ‘Get into the lifeboat.’
Eduardo looked crestfallen as he glanced out to sea, where the waves were rolling and crashing, and where the approaching ship was now only 100 metres away. ‘El capitán,’ he muttered, ‘please …’
Acosta wasted no time. From somewhere about his person, he pulled a wicked-looking knife – sharp and gleaming on one side and with jagged hooks pointing back towards the handle on the other. He pressed the point of the blade against the bandanna around Eduardo’s neck.
‘Do you have a problem following my instructions?’ Acosta asked.
Eduardo backed away. ‘N-no, señor,’ he stuttered. ‘No … no problem at all.’ He scrambled into the lifeboat, giving Zak a dark look as he did so.
Acosta faced Karlovic. ‘You stay here,’ he said. A look of relief flickered across Karlovic’s face. ‘The Mercantile is to remain in sight at all times. If any of these …’ He waved his knife in the direction of the other crew members. ‘If any of these women become a problem, just kill them.’
‘Yes, Capitán,’ Karlovic replied. ‘Are you sure you do not want to send one of them in your place?’
Zak saw Acosta’s cheek twitch. ‘No,’ he replied. ‘He will expect to see me personally, not one of these dogs.’
‘Who’s “he”?’ Zak shouted. ‘Who are you talking about.’
Acosta didn’t reply immediately. Clearly none of the others would dare to do so in his stead. ‘You’ll find out soon enough. When you do, I suggest you take some advice.’
‘What?’
Acosta sneered. ‘Fear him,’ he said. ‘If you know what’s good for you, fear him.’
He climbed into the lifeboat, still brandishing the knife, and approached Zak and Bea, who were sitting together, their hands still tied behind their backs. With one strong arm, he grabbed Bea and lifted her to a standing position before spinning her round. With a swift swish of the blade, he cut the cable tie. The knife made short work of the plastic, but it also sliced the skin of her left hand. She drew a sharp intake of breath and immediately put pressure on the wound to stem the sudden flow of blood.
‘Get to your feet, kid,’ Acosta told Zak. He obeyed. Seconds later he was rewarded with a cut of his own, but at least his hands were free. It crossed his mind to try and fight Acosta, but the knife was sharp and his enemy was vicious …
‘Sit down. Hold on. Try anything stupid and I won’t bother stabbing you, I’ll just throw you over.’ Acosta looked over at the others. ‘Launch us,’ he instructed as another cloud of spray blinded them and added an extra inch to the pool of water at the bottom of the boat. When Zak regained his vision, he saw that most of the crew had returned inside. Only three men remained. One of them was Karl
ovic, and he was inserting a key into the lifeboat’s launching mechanism. He twisted it and hit the red button. Immediately, the arm connecting the launch to the main ship juddered into motion and they started to rise up into the air.
Zak felt his stomach go. He remembered a fair-ground ride he’d been on once. He had sat in a spinning capsule attached to an arm much like this one that raised him up and down as he went round. He had screamed with delight then, but any screaming he was likely to do now would be out of fear. When they were five metres above the deck, the ship lurched and he felt as though he was falling through space. The arm moved out and started to lower them down towards the sea. The way the water was ebbing and flowing, it was impossible to see where sea level was – the top of the bulge or the bottom of the trough. It was a bulge they hit first. Acosta pulled a lever in the centre of the launch and the boat separated from the arm. It spun round – like it had a mind of its own. Zak gripped the edge, ignoring the flow of blood that smeared his hands and the boat itself. He saw the others doing the same as they tumbled from the crest of the wave down into the trough. There was a booming sound. At first Zak thought it was thunder, but then he realized it was just the sound of the hull bouncing on the water.
Zak caught sight of Eduardo’s face. He’d never seen such terror. Bea looked like she was concentrating hard on staying alive. As for Acosta, he appeared grimly determined as he manoeuvred himself to the enormous outboard motor at the back of the launch. Seconds later he had control of the lifeboat, and they were moving through the water, away from the Mercantile and towards the mysterious second ship that had come to meet them.