The Race

by Ian Berry

  The MI5 building has a nice roof for us to land on and an equally nice door onto stairs that let us get quickly to the Operations Room. On the way down the stairs, we changed to our black shirts and pants, what we liked to think of as our ‘civilian’ clothes while being Kyra and Katya, the SuperTwins.

  The Ops Duty Officer spotted us and hurried over. “I’m sure you know why we need your help?”

  “Only that it involves some Somali pirates and a ship near their coast. You do know we went and beat them up a couple or three years ago? Rescuing some journalists,” I said.

  “They’ll have rearmed and forgotten about that by now. No, this is something new. We don’t know yet what they want, might be money, might be release of political prisoners, the usual stuff. That’s not why we need your help. Obviously there are passengers on the ship, one of them is an MI6 agent. She has vital information we need, she mustn’t be killed or further taken captive. She can’t reveal herself, on her own, she’d probably just be shot.”

  “Before you say anything else,” said Saskia, “we don’t want to know what the information is. That it’s important is enough. What do you want us to do? Disarm the Somalis, then what?”

  The Duty Officer hadn’t apparently thought that far ahead, so I said, “We could just cast them adrift in the boats they came in, perhaps take them within sight of land if they’re a bit far out. Don’t suppose you want them in custody? You’d probably only have to let them go eventually anyway. We could frighten them a bit.”

  “Seems reasonable. We need our agent back here as soon as possible. The boat was heading for Aden, we still have a base there.”

  “Ok,” said Saskia. “Hand over the current position of the boat and we’ll go see what might be done.”

  Armed with the latitude and longitude figures for the boat, we returned to the roof. Shoving the figures into our little GPS unit, made to reappear for the job, made it say ‘meep’ and tell us which way to go. Lifting into the air and changing back to our super costumes, we went in the indicated direction.

  “It’s about four thousand two hundred miles, at least according to Bertie,” I said.

  “Bertie?”

  “Thought I’d give the little box a name. Anyway, To get there in an hour or so requires us to step along at around four thousand miles an hour. That’s MACH 6. Need to be a bit higher for that sort of silly speed.”

  “Ok. Up we go.”

  We rose higher and higher until the sky changed from blue to the black of space. Turning south east, we shovelled on the coal. We could actually see the Earth turning under us. In not much more than an hour, we needed to slow down as we could see the coast of Somalia far below us.

  “I can see umpteen ships,” said Saskia. “Which ones ours d’you think?”

  “Let’s go to the position Bertie tells us and see what’s directly underneath us then,” I said.

  “Why so many ships anyway? asked Saskia. “Just asking to be hijacked by pirates.”

  “Main route to the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean. Half the world comes through here, a bit like the English Channel.”

  When we finally stopped and hovered in the indicated position, there was only one boat it could be. We could clearly see smaller boats tied up alongside - clearly visible to girls with super vision anyway. We had a two girl council of war.

  “Don’t want to just steam in and stamp our feet. Might get our MI6 colleague shot. Besides, we need to know which one she is.”

  “Like the school then? Look first then change to blend in?” said Saskia.

  Using super vision let us see what was going on inside the ship from some distance away. There were quite a few of the pirate types aboard, mostly scattered throughout the boat, including keeping a lookout on the deck.

  “Hm. Can’t land on the deck, we’ll be seen.”

  “Ok. Underwater attack. Dive down, swim up the side and float up to the deck.”

  “Should work. Did you spot the captives? Just two or three girls, T shirts and shorts. We can handle that.”

  “Let’s go then.” Saskia dived down at the surface of the water. An Olympic diver couldn’t have entered the water as cleanly as she did, I was right behind her. Swimming underwater isn’t nearly as quick as flying, we could do that in water just as well as in air. Within a couple of minutes we were under the ship.

  “The one on this side isn’t paying much attention,” I said. We can’t speak underwater so we communicate by telepathy.

  “That side then,” said Saskia.

  We rose up out of the water and up the side of the ship. As I left the water I changed to be dry again, Saskia did likewise. I landed on the deck and slipped behind a handy lifeboat. There were two guards on our side. One each.

  “One each,” whispered Saskia. “I think we should use some of this.” She grinned as she waved a roll of Duct tape she’d made appear. “Round the hands and feet and over the mouth. Stash them in their boats, one to a boat so they can’t free each other.”

  Saskia moved at super speed to stand in front of one of the men. He didn’t get a chance to use the small machine gun he was holding, Saskia took it off him. She must have been a blur as she ran round him, sticking him up with the tape. He didn’t even get a chance to cry out, she had him gagged before he could draw breath in to shout.

  I used the same technique on my man and within seconds they were both sitting in small boats unable to move.

  “I think we should persuade the pirates guarding the hostages to come out. Then we can seal the door to the messroom where the prisoners are. Then we can enjoy ourselves without worrying about stray bullets,” said Saskia.

  “I know what you mean by enjoying yourself,” I grinned. “Sounds like a plan. Change to blend in?”

  I changed to a white T shirt and khaki shorts, Saskia did the same but her shorts had a camouflage pattern. We made our way through the ship, deliberately avoiding any pirates - easy to do when you can look through walls and floors with x-ray vision.

  There were three men outside the messroom door and a further three inside with the hostages. The three outside were surprised to see us. Questions were asked, but as these were in Somali or whatever, we couldn’t answer. Saskia shrugged her shoulders.

  They tried French. “Ou et vous?”

  More familiar ground for Saskia. “Nous somme votre cauchemar le plus mauvais.”

  “Ce qui fait vous voulais dire?”

  “Enough chatter. Get ‘em Saskia.”

  A little more super speed and we had three more pirates trussed up like Christmas turkeys.

  “Where shall we put ‘em?”

  “Oh look. A handy stockroom. Bung ‘em in there and weld the catch. We can always bust it later to add more stock.”

  This was done and we turned our attention to the room-full of hostages. I had a question. “I know he asked you who we were, but what did you tell him?”

  She laughed softly. “I told them we were their worst nightmare. They asked what I meant so we showed them.”

  “You have a weird sense of humour - I like it.”

  “Ready for phase three?”

  “Yep. Open the door.”

  She did so and we walked in. Three machineguns were pointed at us.

  “Naughty, naughty. Mustn’t point guns at Katya.”

  Within a couple of seconds, Saskia had a gun in each hand. I felt left out - I only had one. The pirates put their hand up immediately, good survival instinct there I thought. I put my gun down and converted our pirates into ex-pirates - with a bit of help from the sticky tape.

  Saskia pulled the door shut. “We’re the cavalry,” she said. “We might not look like much but you’ve seen what we can do. We plan to lock you in here - so the baddies can’t get to you - while we clean up the ship. Can you look after the
se three?”

  The captain - at least he had the most gold rings and stuff on his shirt - agreed that it would be a pleasure. Could we leave the guns please?

  “No. If we do that, there’s a chance the three muppets will try something stupid. We don’t do hurting people, and we try not let other people indulge either. I’m sure you can sit on them if required?”

  With assurances that this would be a pleasure also, Saskia and I slipped back out onto the corridor - sorry, companionway - and used heat vision to make sure the hostages couldn’t follow us. Now with them safely accounted for we could have a little fun.

  I changed back to the little super costume, it’s just as indestructible as I am invulnerable - easily up for coping with a few machinegun bullets. We didn’t bother to sneak around, we went looking for trouble. Didn’t take long to find some.

  The colourful costumes were a giveaway that we weren’t either passengers, crew, or pirates, so the first man we met opened fire. Now, there are a couple of things we can do when this happens. If we’re close to the gun, ricochets bouncing off us could hurt the gunman. We can either dodge at super speed so all the bullets miss us, or catch them before they hit us. We were far enough away so we didn’t do either of these things.

  Saskia stood in the middle of the companionway, hands on hips, letting the hail of bullets bounce off her. Her little smile while this was happening had its usual effect - the gunman continued firing until he ran out of bullets. At that point, Saskia looked disappointed as she walked up the gunman and took his gun off him. She bent it into a circle and chucked it over her shoulder - just missed me, but I can duck at super speed.

  The ex-gunman (to be a gunman requires you to have a gun - and he didn’t anymore) was taped up like his friends. Saskia stuck him to a wall with long strips of the Duct tape, she had to make another roll appear. He wasn’t going anywhere. The noise had brought some of his friends who still had guns.

  “Your turn, Twin,” said Saskia as she taped up her prisoner. Just in case stray bullets did him any damage, she stood in front of him as two more guns opened fire. It was my turn to stand and laugh as bullets bounced off me. In short order we had two more broken guns and two more pirates stuck to the wall.

  We did this a couple more times until disaster almost struck. One of the idiots chucked a grenade! I caught it, turned and flew for the stairs to the deck as fast as I could. I emerged from the hatchway going quite fast. Just as well. As I made to throw the thing away - it went off in my hand! Predictably, this had no effect on me whatsoever. I turned and dived back down the stairs to find Saskia taping another man to the wall.

  “Think this is the last one, Twin. Have a look round.”

  “Mm. Don’t seem to be any more. Shall we deal with them?”

  “Why not. After you, Saskia.”

  One by one we unpeeled the men we’d taped to the walls. Carrying them up to the deck, we dumped them into their boats, adding the men we’d locked in the storeroom. A quick scout round revealed some spare weapons in the boats. These we chucked overboard. Soon we had three boatloads of sticky-taped pirates. Tying the boats together in a line, Saskia towed them towards the coast, they left a wake like a destroyer at the speed she was going. She was back quite quickly and joined me as I went to find the now-freed prisoners. We’d both changed to our black shirts and pants.

  “Who’s in charge? Which of you is the captain?”

  That worthy made himself known.

  “You should set course for Aden as soon as you can,” I said.

  Orders were given and the crew scattered to see to this. That just left the passengers. I was fairly sure the MI6 agent wouldn’t have spread around who she was, nobody would know. We still didn’t know either. I decided it didn’t matter.

  “You should all try to contact your friends and family and let them know you’re all right,” I said. “I’m sure our nice captain has already spread the word but it won’t hurt to make sure.”

  There was much fishing out of mobile phones and dialling - didn’t do much good, of course - we were too far from land. One girl didn’t even try. She came over to talk to us. She was surprisingly young, not over twenty five I’d’ve said, with short blonde hair. She was wearing the T shirt and shorts combination we’d copied when we arrived.

  “I really, really need to get to a proper telephone.”

  “We might be able to help you there,” said Saskia. “First things first.” She made her MI5 badge appear. The girl nodded.

  “Thought so. You’ll appreciate I can’t do the same? Good. There’s a plane waiting for me at Aden.”

  Saskia was thinking quickly. “We’ll take you. Just need something to carry you ...”

  She stopped because I interrupted her, “Katya, that plane. It’s heading straight for us.” I pointed. The girl couldn’t see anything yet but Saskia had no problem with her super vision.

  “You’re right. What are the odds of the only plane in the sky passing exactly over us? I think we might need to do something. Oops. No ‘might’ about it. Ruddy things dropped a bomb! Back in a minute, don’t go away.”

  She took off towards the falling bomb, changing to her super costume as she went. At the speed she could fly it took only a couple of seconds to get to the device. She just pushed it. Now it would hit the water some distance away. I decided I should help.

  I took off for the plane, changing as I went. It was a fairly old twin seat jet, don’t ask me what, I’m no expert. I could see it had another bomb attached under one wing, the other wing was empty, presumably that was where the bomb Saskia had dealt with had come from. It was easy to detach the remaining bomb and throw it so it would hit the sea some distance away. That just left the plane itself.

  Saskia had joined me. “I’m going to trash the engine,” I shouted. “Can you stop it falling out of the sky?”

  “Yep. No problem.” She dived under the plane ready to catch it.

  I didn’t want the plane to blow up, that would kill the two men, couldn’t have that. I peered into the engine with super vision. It was easy to spot the fuel lines feeding whatever the jet used. I shoved my hand through the skin of the plane and pinched the fuel line flat with my fingers. The engine obliged by cutting out almost at once.

  Saskia had taken the weight as the machine began to fall out of the sky. “I’m going to dump in on the nearest beach.”

  This done, I hovered by the cockpit. I tore off the transparent cover to get at the two men inside. “Speak English?”

  One of them nodded. “A little.”

  “Right, radio, no more bombs. The next plane will be destroyed. Understand?”

  More nodding. “Ok. Radio - now!”

  Dutifully, the thoroughly frightened pilot gabbled something I couldn’t understand into his breathing mask-thing. He listened to a reply in his headphones. I listened as well but still couldn’t understand. He gabbled a bit more then turned to me.

  “They will send no more planes. What will you do with us?”

  Saskia grinned. “Why, nothing of course.” The grin changed to a scowl. “This time.”

  One the way back to the boat, I said, “I didn’t know you could look like that, you almost frightened me.”

  “Didn’t frighten you, I know I didn’t. Good though, eh?”

  “What did you have in mind for Mata Hari?”

  “What, Twin? Who’s that?”

  “Sorry, our tame spy. Mata Hari was a famous spy for the Germans in the First World War. Hm. Perhaps not really appropriate. Mata Hari wasn’t a very nice person. She was shot at the end as I recall.”

  “Oh. Anyway, I thought we could load her into a lifeboat or something and fly her to Aden.”

  “A brilliant plan. Let us hasten to put it into effect.”

  Landing back on the ship, we put our idea to not-M
ata-Hari, our spy.

  “That would be brilliant. Shame you can’t take me all the way back to England.”

  “We could but it’d take more or less just as long. Don’t suppose you want to travel four thousand miles in an open lifeboat? Thought not,” grinned Saskia. “Got any luggage you want to take?”

  This was quickly produced and we loaded our spy and her stuff into a handy lifeboat and lifted off from the deck of the boat. Bertie the GPS unit told us where the military airbase was in Aden and we went as fast as we could considering the poor girl sitting in the boat.

  With the lifeboat dumped in a corner, our girl almost ran to a plane obviously waiting to take off, but not before she’d given us both a kiss goodbye.

  “What now, Twin? Home I suppose. Should we call at MI5 on the way?”

  “Don’t see why,” I said. “I’m sure they know their agent is safe already. I’m dying for a hot chocolate, they never offer anything at the Ops Room. Home?”

  “Home.”

  Accelerating into the air, we reversed the course we taken to get there. The return journey took around an hour, same as the outbound one. We were amazed to find that it was still only mid afternoon in England. Time flies when you’re having fun.

  Landing in our hidden part of the plant grounds, there was a slight snag when Saskia couldn’t immediately remember what she’d been wearing that morning. I could, so I change to be her.

  “This is what you looked like this morning.”

  “Oh. Yes. That’s it. You can change back now. We could go in both looking like me and see who notices first,” she laughed.

  “I don’t think so. Be fun though.”

  There was basically only time to say hello to Melanie, snag some hot chocolate and drink it before it was time to go home. That evening, we were on the News. No pictures of course, just a report of our exploits at the ship, and no mention of MI5.

  Four

  Friday. Melanie had an observation. “You two were out all day yesterday. Your friends the SuperTwins were busy duffing up some pirates. If I didn’t know better I’d be thinking the two things were connected.”