Stabenow, Dana - Blindfold Game (v1

by Blindfold Game(lit)

JANUARY 19 GULF OF ALASKA

  ON BOARD THE STAR OF BALI

  T

  HEY WERE UNDER WAY again. From overheard conversations they deduced that the fuel filters on the freighters one engine had clogged up, leaving them adrift for almost forty-eight hours. Fang bore a grudging respect for Smith, who had maintained his own calm and order among the men during that time.

  But in truth there had been little danger of the Star of Balis crew calling anyone for help. In the schedule-driven world of maritime shipping all that mattered was getting the goods to market on time. The last thing any shipowner wanted was a boarding by the U.S. Coast Guard, which would cause significant delay and who knew how many citations for safety and security violations requiring expensive legal action later on. The hired hands that captained most oceangoing vessels nowadays were well aware of this, and they would do everything in their power to avoid the official attention of authorities on shore.

  Fang listened to the engine, which it seemed to him was still running a little rougher than it had before it quit. It was running, however, which was preferable to the alternative. The two days adrift had not been enjoyable, with the ship at the mercy of the heavy seas.

  Fang turned his head to see that Smith was watching the digital readout on his GPS. Everyone else was watching him.

  “How long? Fang said, voicing the thought that was on everyones mind.

  “Soon now.

  Fang looked around at the men, swinging in hammocks, huddled in sleeping bags. Theyd run out of fuel for the stove and the lanterns the night before. This morning theyd eaten dry noodles for breakfast. Everyone looked as cold as he felt. He wondered how well everyone would be moving when Smith finally set the plan in motion. Although one benefit of the cold was that the smell was much less noticeable.

  He wondered, not for the first time, what they were doing here, and rued, perhaps for the last time, the greed that had led him to this place.

  Smith said something. Fang stared at him, uncomprehending.

  “One hour, Smith repeated.

  “One hour till what?

  “We take the ship, Smith said, and held up the GPS. Fang took it and squinted at it. “Here, Smith said, and pushed a button which lit up the display. “When we hit fifty-nine degrees forty minutes north latitude, we take the ship. If we wait any longer, theyll call for the pilot.

  “Pilot? one of Smiths men said.

  “Every ship needs a pilot to get them into port. Someone who knows the local waters. To Fang he said, “Tell your men to get ready.

  Fang was still squinting at the GPS. Fifty-nine degrees thirty minutes latitude, one hundred forty-nine degrees and thirty minutes longitude. He tried to imagine the nearest port to that location and came up with Anchorage, Alaska. What the hell were they doing here?

  “Get ready, Smith said, more sharply this time, holding his hand out.

  Fang gave him the GPS and went to get his men suited up.

  GULF OF ALASKA

  ON BOARD THE SOJOURNER TRUTH

  “BEST SPEED CAH7 BE more than twelve knots, XO, Ostlund said. “Shes only got one engine. Weve got six knots on her. The Sojourner Truths top speed was eighteen knots.

  “Weve lost her, Chief Edelen said.

  Sara ignored him. “Whats our location, Tommy?

  “South-southwest of Rugged Island, XO.

  “Mr. Rincon?

  Hugh was leaning over Tommys shoulder, staring intently at the readout on the Transas. “Pan up a little, Tommy, would you? Thanks. He pointed. “Right here. Whats that?

  Tommy pointed and clicked. “Caines Head.

  “What are those, feet or meters?

  “Feet.

  “So the points a little under seven hundred feet high, and the mountain in back of it?

  “Fifteen hundred.

  Hugh stood up and looked at Sara. “Theyll want a straight shot right up the valley. My guess is theyll light it off when theyve cleared this point.

  “Caines Head?

  Hugh nodded.

  “EO? Sara said.

  “Were peddling as fast as we can, XO.

  “Vessel in sight!

  PO Barnettes shout caused a surge toward the windows.

  It was indeed the Star of Bali, gaining on the southern end of Rugged Island.

  “Yeah, Sara said, binoculars trained on the ship, “thats our baby all right. Well done, everyone.

  “I think shes got engine problems, XO, Barnette said, eyes still glued to his binoculars. “Shes barely making way.

  “Mr. Ostlund, assemble your team.

  “Aye aye, Captain.

  When Hugh started to follow him Sara, said, “Hold up, Mr. Rincon. Anything from the Agafia, anyone?

  “No, maam, Ops said.

  “Pull one of the emergency VHF radios from the lifeboats and start trying to raise her.

  “Those radios only have a reach of two miles, maam.

  “I know, Ops, but shell be on our tail, and I want to know as soon as shes within reach. Yes, ma am.

  “All right, lets tell the troops whats going on. Sara caught a down swell to port and was at the microphone in two steps. “Attention all hands, attention all hands, this is Lieutenant Commander Lange, she said, wincing a little as her voice boomed back at her from the speaker. Tommy reached quickly for the volume knob and Sara thanked her with a nod. She only hoped that the pipe wasnt reaching across the water to the Star of Bali.

  “Yesterday I told you what weve been doing and why. We are going into action again against a bunch of suspected terrorists who present a serious threat to the nation. They must be stopped and they must be stopped now, before they get any closer to their target. I dont have to remind you that there are two hundred and sixty thousand people living in and around that target. Our communications are still out, so we have no way of alerting anyone on shore to the threat. We cant risk letting them out of our sight, so its up to us.

  She paused to take a breath. “This is going to be tricky and dangerous. To be on the safe side, I want every one of you with a survival suit in arms reach. Chief Saunders is standing by in the portside equipment locker ready to issue them. Proceed there directly following this pipe and then report to your duty station.

  She wanted to be able to say something inspirational but all that came to mind was lame words about duty, honor, and country. She remembered the blood all over the bridge after the attack, the limp bodies of Captain Lowe and Seaman Razo as they were carried from the bridge. Captain Lowe would have been much better at this than she was.

  It never occurred to her that Captain Lowe had had twenty years on her, during none of which had he faced a situation like this one, so he probably wouldnt have known what to say, either.

  Sara said, “The sea is vast and our ship is small, but never doubt that we will prevail. That is all.

  She hung up the mike and looked at Hugh, who was standing in front of the open portside hatch. She jerked her head, and he nodded. “Ill be right back, Chief, she told Mark Edelen, and left the bridge, Hugh following behind.

  SHE LED THE WAY to her stateroom and closed the door. He raised an eyebrow. “Wont people talk?

  “Shut up, she said, and walked into his arms.

  They held each other as the precious seconds ticked by. She pressed her face against his heart and heard its steady reassuring beat even through the Mustang suit. He might have kissed her hair, she couldnt tell, but she felt his arms tight around her, to where it started the wound on her arm aching again. She didnt move.

  Ostlunds voice sounded on the pipe. “Boarding party, assemble aft, I say again, boarding party, assemble aft immediately. His grip loosened. She looked up. “I love you, Rincon. The corner of his mouth quirked up. “Same goes, Lange. On the way back to the bridge she blundered into Chief Katelnikof. If he saw the tears in her eyes, he was tactful enough not to say so.

  THE FOG AND SLEET dissolved so suddenly it startled everyone on the bridge, especially when Rugged Island thrust up out of the heaving
gray seas like a fifteen-hundred foot claymore in the hand of a vengeful ocean god. On this monolith of cracked granite, stunted evergreens clung to microscopic crevices all the way to the top, where a sharp-toothed peak gnawed at the belly of the gray skies.

  “Ive never seen anything more beautiful in my life, Tommy said fervently, and no one contradicted her. Chief Edelen miracled them up a course that gave the small boat a lee to port and at the same time kept their starboard side to the Star of Bali, in case anyone on the other ship looked in their direction. So far their luck was holding, because it didnt appear that anyone had. They lowered the inflatable and loaded the crew the way they always did. It helped that the seas had dropped five feet overnight, but the boarding team was still taking one hell of a pounding.

  Sara watched them labor up a wave and disappear into a trough. She looked up at the sky. Theyd planned the boarding for this hour specifically, that hour between darkness and dawn when the light played tricks on the mind and at least for a few moments no one could be absolutely sure of what they were seeing.

  “I wanted to go with them, Chief Edelen said from beside her.

  “So did I, she said, and went to stand in front of the captains chair. She still couldnt bring herself to sit in it. She wanted to pace but it would drive everyone crazy, so she refrained.

  She couldnt help following along in the inflatable in her imagination. Were they shipping water? Had they come up on the freighter yet? What if someone saw the grapnel come up over the taffrail and hook on? What if the stern was too high for climbing and Hugh couldnt get up and over? It wasnt like he was a field agent; he was an analyst. He wasnt trained in boarding hostile vessels in the open ocean from a small boat that wouldnt stay still underfoot.

  What if the Star of Bali had had icing problems, too? What if the hook wouldnt hold? What if the motion of the ship caused Hugh to lose his grip and he fell in?

  What if the freighter sank? Would the Scud go off underwater? If it did, what kind of damage would it do? How long before they would know?

  Was Hugh seasick yet?

  ON BOARD THE STAR OF BALI

  THEY WERE OUT OF the container and on deck. It was daybreak, and the sky was going from a dour black to a sullen gray. They were rolling hard enough to ship occasional water over the sides, which led Fang to believe that the engine had yet to regain full power, because it was obvious that either the storm had run its course or they had gained shelter in the lee of whatever land they were approaching. The spray was freezing on contact into a pearlescent sheen over every exposed surface, a sight that frightened Fang right down to his marrow. He nudged Smith in the small of the back and pointed at the ice. “Lets go!

  Smith looked at the ice and appeared to understand, because he moved out.

  They were careful, but there wasnt much need for it. The first crewman they encountered went down without a sound, blood bubbling out of his mouth and chest from Fangs knife. The second crewman, one of the junior officers if the markings on his shirt were correct, backed away with his hands upraised, but he, too, went down.

  Fang motioned to Soo to heave the bodies overboard and followed Smith. They swarmed up the outside ladders to the bridge to surprise the officer on watch with his feet up on the instrument panel, admiring the proportions of this months Playboy Playmate. They burst in and he looked up, gaping. He reached for what later proved to be a radio, and Fang shot him. He spun out of the chair and fell on the floor, his eyes wide and surprised beneath the bullet hole in his forehead.

  “No, the helmsman said, backing away, “no, no. He tripped and fell and Fangs bullet caught his arm on the way down. “No, no, he said as he tried to scrabble out of the way. Fang shot him again, this time in the chest. He tried to speak and couldnt.

  Fang wedged a foot beneath his body and flipped him over for a swift search of his pockets. He found a wad of cash inside a wallet otherwise filled with pictures of a young Filipino woman and several toothy children of various ages. The officer was wearing a very nice watch. Fang took that, too. When he was done, he hauled the helmsman out of the bridge and onto the catwalk. “No, no, the man said faintly, as Fang tipped him into the sea. The officers body followed.

  The rest of the crew were either in their bunks or at breakfast in the mess and were easily cowed into submission by the automatic weapons the pirates held. The captain, surprised in the shower, was inclined to put up a fight and was clubbed into unconsciousness with a rifle butt, after which he followed the officer on the bridge over the side. It silenced the rest of the crew, as if they imagined that keeping quiet would save their lives. It didnt.

  Fang took over the bridge, sending Liet, his second in command and his best engineer, to the engine room. A while later a phone rang on the bridge. It was Liet, reporting that while all the moving parts were at a stage that could only be described as geriatric they were, in fact, still moving and it looked as if they would continue to do so. Liet, a Thai with almost uncanny intuitions about the internal combustion engine, was completely to be trusted, and Fang breathed a sigh of relief.

  His relief was tempered by the southeastern horizon, which was looking very black. The horizon was backed up by the barometer, which was dropping like a rock.

  “The AIS, Smith said, and Fang found it and disabled it.

  “Steer this course, Smith said, handing him a piece of paper.

  Fang looked at it and raised his eyebrows. “North? he said. He looked up and peered at the horizon. “Thats right into that bay. He realized something else. “Hey. Wheres Jones? Where are the rest of the men?

  “Steer that course, Smith said. “Watch him, he said to one of his men.

  “What for? Fang said. “And wheres the rest of my men?

  Smith left without answering. The man remaining behind kept his rifle pointed in Fangs general direction.

  Fang stood at the wheel for a few moments, getting the feel of the ship. The pitch seemed to him to be heavier than it ought to have been, given the height of the waves. He looked out on deck, over the rows of neatly stacked and lashed containers. The gray dawn revealed the topless container they had ridden in, and Smith and his men pulling back the canvas top of the container next to it.

  He looked around for Catalino, one of his own men who had also remained behind. “Find me a cargo manifest.

  Catalino, an Abu Sayyaf guerrilla from the southern Philippines who in a shockingly procapitalist gesture had abandoned the fight for freedom for the acquisition of personal wealth without a backward look when Fang recruited him, was back in less than ten minutes with a clipboard and some new blood spatters down the front of his jacket.

  The manifest showed the containers to be filled with drilling equipment bound for the port of Seward, Alaska, and a hold full of Chinese steel bound for Seattle. Fang put the manifest down and looked out the window again. He had a sinking feeling that the container Smith was busy with didnt have drilling equipment inside it.

  He headed for the door to the ladder down and was stopped by Smiths man.

  “Let me by, Fang said angrily.

  The man watched him out of expressionless eyes, said nothing, and didnt move.

  Fang headed for the starboard door and the mercenary was there before him. This time the mercenary deigned to speak. “No, he said.

  Fang had set his rifle next to the wheel, and he eyed it now, wondering if he could get to it, click off the safety, aim, and fire before the mercenary shot him.

  “No, said the mercenary, who was evidently also a mind reader.

  “What the hell is going on here? Fang said. “Whats in that container?

  The mercenary said, “No. He motioned again with the rifle. Fang looked at Catalino.

  Smiths man fired. Catalinos weapon clattered to the floor and a second later Catalinos body followed it.

  Smiths man motioned with the rifle again, and this time Fang returned to the helm.

  JANUARY

  IN THE INFLATABLE, HUGH was too terrified to be seasick. Th
e walls of water surrounding the small boat were so high he could barely see the sky, and the boarding team was so packed in and so bristling with weapons that even if he was sick he wouldnt have been able to do anything but puke down the front of his Mustang suit. The coxswain was a square-shouldered young man with a large flat brown mole on his left cheek. He had his teeth bared in what looked more like a snarl than a grin, and his hands on the controls were quick and deft.

  Hugh had insisted on going with the boarding team. “I speak Korean, he had said. Since he was the only person on board who did, it had been impossible to gainsay him, and Sara was the first to back him up. She knew what he was thinking because she was thinking the same thing. No way was he letting whatever it was on board the Star of Bali any closer to a populated landmass, especially his populated landmass.

  Suddenly the stern of the freighter was looming above them, water smacking against the hull and rebounding to spray them all. Ostlund slapped Ensign Reeses helmet. “Go!

  Ensign Reese, the best arm on the ship in Ops opinion, stood up and braced himself against the steering column. Everyone ducked as he swung a rope with a grapnel on it around his head, once, twice, three times, and let fly.

  It missed. He reeled it back in as the coxswain, cursing under his breath, coaxed the small boat back beneath the stern. Another wave smacked the stern of the freighter and rained down on their hapless heads.

  Again, Reese started the windup, once, twice, three times, and it flew up, up, and over the stern, and Seaman Lewis grabbed him around the waist as he hauled on the line as hard as he could. Seaman Lewis was six feet four inches tall and weighed two hundred and fifty pounds and he had been selected for this mission for just that reason. If Hugh was not mistaken he was wearing Seaman Lewiss pants.

  “On belay, Lewis bellowed.

  “Feels solid! Reese yelled. The coxswain turned the small boat off the stern of the freighter, just enough to keep the line taut, or as taut as possible in these heaving seas.

  Seaman Delgado, the size of a monkey and just as agile, stepped up to the rope. He was five-one and wouldnt tell anyone what he weighed, but he had been observed in the gym bench-pressing one-fifty. He wore no pack and carried only a sidearm.