No Remorse

by Ian Walkley

  Passing Khalid’s resort about half a mile out from the western cliffs of Crater Bay, Mac peered out with binoculars and was pleased to note that the Princess Aliya had not yet arrived. That meant there was likely to be few, if any, guards inside the fortress. With the proximity key and plans Mai had given him, they would hopefully be able to get inside without too much difficulty.

  Checking the crate of equipment, Mac allowed himself a smile. Jog had excelled himself. Hidden in the two electric underwater Sea Scooter vehicles were Heckler and Koch SOCOM pistols with noise suppressors, laser sights and spare magazines. The pistols could even fire underwater, but keeping them dry was a better option, so they’d sealed them inside plastic bags.

  Scotty had agreed with him that they would have a better chance of penetrating the resort undetected if they entered from the sea through the underground fortress. They could then gain access to the resort through the connecting tunnel and try to rescue the girls before Khalid and his men arrived. The plan was that Sammy would take the girls to Grand Comore with Jog, while Mac and Scotty remained behind to try and rescue Tally and Rosco. But Mac hoped that without the girls, Derek Wisebaum would be better able to negotiate their release.

  Mac felt good to be finally freed of the constraints of working for ASTA. Nothing personal, but they had very different objectives, and it was clear that Wisebaum’s agenda conflicted too much with his own. He glanced over at Anastia, who sat with her head back soaking up the sun as she talked with Jog. He wondered whether she could be trusted.

  She had approached them on Grand Comore, as they were negotiating with Sammy to hire the Rabi. She explained that she had been in contact with Yuri, the broker who had offered them the contract. Yuri had admitted that after Anton had initially declined the job, Ziad had offered more money and then claimed that Mai and the others had kidnapped Khalid’s son. After checking out Khalid’s sons’ names on the internet and carefully studying the photographs of the Asian-looking boy with Mai at Dubai airport, she had realised that Mac’s story made more sense than Ziad’s. She told them that it was now clear to her that Ziad was responsible for Anton’s death, for lying about the nature of the contract. She seemed genuine in her desire to help them. But regardless of whether she could be trusted, they’d agreed it would be better to keep her close.

  The dhow continued sailing past the Yubani Resort heading east towards Sommala Beach, where they would prepare for the incursion.

  ~ * ~

  80

  “Hurry up, Saleh, the banquet has already started.” Ziad leaned against the wall as the ship rolled, watching as the woman was treated by Dr. Gammal.

  “Nearly finished. I’ve stopped the bleeding. Her jaw is badly bruised, but she appears to have no broken bones. Her tongue’s swollen from lack of water and she’s unlikely to be able to speak for a day or so. But she will live. I’d like to have her in sickbay to be able to monitor her. She should have some clothes or a blanket to keep her temperature up. Perhaps if you’d listened to my advice she’d be—”

  “Just give her water and painkillers. No clothes. I don’t want her hanging herself. I’ll send Mohammed down with a pen and paper. She can write can’t she?” He crouched down and leaned close to the woman’s face. “Tally? Tally. You will write down the password for your computer. Then we can return you to your friends. Do you understand?”

  Spittle dribbled from the comer of her mouth. She raised her head to look at him for a moment then dropped her gaze to the floor. Was that an acknowledgment of his demand?

  “You hear me, Tally? We’re going to release you. All we need is the password.”

  The woman made a gurgling in her throat that could have meant anything.

  With an angry grunt, Ziad smacked the wall and walked out. She was no longer any use to him. She seemed to genuinely know nothing of their plans, despite what he’d done to her and having been forced to watch her colleague die slowly last night. She’d been insistent that Mai Fanning had given them nothing and had denied they were Israelis, claiming that they were spying on Khalid to identify any terrorist connections he may have. And she’d persisted in the line that she did not have the password to unlock the computers, that it would have to be sent from headquarters.

  She had given them nothing. But at least Rosco had talked. After hours of denying it, he had finally admitted to being a Mossad agent, tracking them to find out whether Khalid had obtained the nuclear canisters. Just as they had suspected. He would give the woman one last chance to write the password. Whether she did or didn’t, they would dump her over the side as they had done with the other Israeli. In this condition, she no longer held any appeal for him.

  As he entered the dining room, Rubi grabbed his arm, her eyes ablaze with excitement. “Come, brother, you will want to see this!”

  He followed her to Khalid’s quarters, where Khalid, Captain Jergah and Captain Khan were watching an immaculate female newsreader in a black jacket, white blouse and pearl necklace speaking with a well-practiced, barely suppressed passion.

  ...The Saudi government, which had initially denied there was an explosion, has now confirmed to Al Jazeera that an evacuation of more than twenty thousand people is underway from Abqaiq.

  At least thirty-six people, including eight foreigners, are known to have died from the initial exposure. More than one hundred are being treated. Reporters have been banned from the area, authorities citing security and health concerns.

  It is understood that a favourable wind caused most of the radioactive material to be blown north, away from populated areas and the oil processing facility itself, which prevented many more casualties. According to a government spokesperson, the facility is still operating at eighty percent capacity.

  The blast comes just days after the Saudi Intelligence Service Headquarters was destroyed in Jeddah, killing over two hundred people. Al Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the Jeddah bombing and is suspected in the latest blast. Rebels have stepped up attacks in Saudi Arabia in recent months, and commentators have speculated this may be associated with the intense rivalry for Al Qaeda’s top job.

  News of the blast is expected to spook markets in Europe when they open in a few hours‘ time.

  Khalid clapped his hands. “We’ve done it! The demonstration was a success! It is unfortunate about the wind direction. But we will plan better next time. And they’ve assumed it was Al Qaeda, just as we hoped. Rubi, get Ibrahim and Masoud on the satellite phone so I can tell them the good news.” He turned to Ziad. “How is the interrogation of the woman going?”

  “She gives us nothing but her cover story, Highness, despite what the other one said. She’s not in a condition to take much more. I suggest we throw her overboard after the women are well asleep.”

  “Ah, I have a better idea, brother. She would be a suitable candidate for our next conversion ritual. We have not had a Jew for a while. Clean her up. I want her in good condition when our Hunnafite friends come for the wedding.”

  “Sheriti has agreed?”

  “Last night.”

  They were interrupted by Rubi entering with a satellite phone. “It’s Ahmed in Dubai, Highness.”

  Khalid held the phone to his ear. “I can hardly hear you, Ahmed! I’ll put you on speaker!” He pressed a button on the satphone.

  “I’m at NASDAQ Dubai, Highness! It’s gone crazy!” Ahmed’s frantic voice came out of the speaker.

  “What’s happening, brother?” Khalid yelled into the handset.

  “There has been a bombing at the main oil processing plant in Saudi, Highness. Gold is up fifty dollars an ounce! Oil futures have increased twenty percent. You stand to make a profit of about forty million! It could go higher when other markets open. Should I reinvest or settle?”

  “Reinvest, Ahmed! They will go even higher in the next few weeks.”

  He passed the satphone back to Rubi and it rang again. Khalid laughed. “We appear to be popular this morning.”

  Rubi listened for a m
oment, then handed the phone to Khalid. “It’s the American. Wisebaum.”

  ~ * ~

  81

  They sat on the rail and fell back into the water. Clearing his mouthpiece, Mac breathed a couple of times to check that the air was flowing, then swam down and released the clamp that kept his Sea Scooter hidden below the surface against the boat’s hull. He grabbed the handles and pressed the throttle, and the Sea Scooter pulled him forward. He tailed Scotty towards the cliffs. Above them, the Rabi continued sailing on past Crater Bay, the crew fishing to distract anyone at the Yubani Resort who might be watching.

  Mac’s heart rate quickened as they entered shallower water. Without warning, cliffs loomed up ahead. Enormous slabs of rock towered from the sea floor to a thousand metres, a relic of the immense forces that had blown half the crater into the sea millions of years earlier.

  The tunnel was close. Somewhere.

  After almost an hour of searching without success, they stopped and risked surfacing.

  “Ten minutes of air left in the tank.” Mac’s words came out between breaths as they rode the swell.

  Scotty cleaned his mask. “We’ll use half the other tank, then we’ll have to go back. Try again later.”

  “Okay.”

  Back underwater, they changed tanks and continued searching, clamping the used tank to the Sea Scooter. Ten minutes of air could be the difference between life and death.

  The swift current combined with the swell made it like swimming in a washing machine. Waves crashed against the rocks, their inertia hurling tonnes of water, forcing them out to sea. Then the next wave rolled in, pushing them dangerously close to jagged boulders and serrated coral. Mac pointed the Sea Scooter out to sea, using the motor to keep himself in position as he edged closer to the cliffs. It would drain the battery quicker, but it was the only way he could search close enough. He realised how astute Bill Fanning had been to position the entrance here.

  Wherever it was.

  Something jolted his legs. He whirled around and saw Scotty pointing vigorously. An enormous shark with a white belly was torpedoing through the water. As they watched, stunned, the killing machine thrashed its tail and in a burst of incredible speed lunged forward to bite a thirty-pound fish in half. The water clouded. The head of the fish fluttered like an autumn leaf down towards them. They readied their spear guns, which Mac guessed would probably be useless against this monster. When he looked up again, the shark had vanished.

  They continued two abreast for safety through a forest of giant kelp, their eyes darting around nervously. Suddenly, the kelp cleared and the bottom became sandy in front of a sharp outcrop, as Mai had described. He steered towards an area of rock that appeared to have two rims, one about ten metres behind the other. Rounding the front edge, he angled in towards the rear wall.

  They’d found it. The entrance! They would never have located it without Mai’s help. He gave Scotty the thumbs up and led the way into a wide funnel about ten metres below the surface. They switched on the lights of the Sea Scooters and slowly navigated along the passage until they reached the staging area. Above them, Mac could just distinguish the outline of the hatchway.

  He took out the proximity key, a black square of plastic about the size of a wallet, with a chip embedded. Once he used it, they’d be committed. Behind them was a grate that would shoot up and trap them. Then they’d have to face whatever might be waiting for them inside the fortress.

  If they were lucky, there’d be no guards. Hopefully, Khalid would not be expecting anyone to enter through the sea tunnel. If they were caught... He didn’t care to think about that.

  Their contingency plan was to try to escape out the way they’d come in. But it would take time for the hatchway to close, leaving them exposed to attack in the staging area.

  They hid their Sea Scooters and other gear under boulders at the base of the staging area. After a few minutes, Mac located the panel and touched the key against it. For a moment nothing happened. Then came a low vibration, like an earthquake. Behind them the grate shot up, sealing off the tunnel.

  Now there was no going back.

  ~ * ~

  82

  Mac buried the proximity key below the panel so he could find it fast. They swam up, intending to squeeze through the small opening as the hatchway rolled back. They were almost to the surface when Scotty grabbed him and pointed to two blurry figures at the dock peering down into the black water. They took out their SOCOM pistols from the plastic bags. Now they would find out if the pistols were waterproof.

  Concealed by the hatchway, they suddenly surfaced and fired the weapons. The two guards fell, one into the water and the other onto the dock, his submachine gun clattering beside him. Despite the silencers on their pistols, the rock walls of the cavern echoed the sharp cracks. Any other guards here would have heard that. They needed to get to cover and get other weapons.

  With Scotty covering him, Mac pulled himself up and grabbed the Spectre submachine gun next to the dead guard, taking cover behind a pile of scuba gear on the dock. He pulled off his tank and mask and dumped them with the other gear. A submarine was docked nearby and he could hear the hum of a generator. The cave was surprisingly warm on his face, and the air had a misty humidity that made the mesh of LED lights above them twinkle like stars. Beyond the lights, the roof of the cave vaulted hundreds of metres out of sight. It was an amazing place.

  A guard heading towards the dock spotted the body and cried out a warning. Two muffled spits from Scotty’s pistol brought him down.

  Too late, Mac spotted a figure running from the crew quarters into the control building. The WHOOP WHOOP of an alarm began to blare, echoing off the cavern walls. Fuck! They’d lost the element of surprise. And they desperately needed more firepower.

  “Cover me!” he yelled, and with his heart pounding like a racehorse, Mac sprinted across the prayer stage and grabbed the second guard’s weapon. He dived behind the generator shed. A hail of bullets zinged past. A guard emerged from the crew quarters, firing wildly towards the dock. Mac aimed quickly and dropped him. They had the crew quarters and the control building covered. But reinforcements could arrive any moment.

  Mac crept forward beneath the window of the control building as Scotty moved to the right flank. They had an important advantage: the crew quarters had no windows, meaning anyone inside was trapped. The concrete construction that gave the buildings their strength made it impossible for those inside to fire out, except from the doorway.

  Two more men ran down the path from the tunnel that led to the resort, and Mac dropped them with an eruption of gunfire from the Spectre. The gunfire and the alarm sounding in the cave were deafening, and the echoes made it impossible to tell where the firing was coming from. That was also to their advantage.

  A guard fired off a burst from the doorway of the crew quarters, splintering the timber deck of the prayer stage. But Mac was some distance away behind the control building. When the guard ducked back inside, Mac squeezed the Spectre’s trigger and ploughed into the crew quarters, crashing the stainless steel door against the guard before he could fire again. Screaming a war cry to unnerve any other guards, he kept firing as he crashed through the building, leaving four half-dressed guards dead and a backgammon game scattered across the floor.

  He quickly found two fully loaded Spectres. He needed to get one to Scotty. They had to silence the guy in the control building. But now Mac was trapped in the crew quarters. Opening the door a fraction, he spotted a giant striding down from the back of the fortress. An old man was chasing after him.

  “Ibrahim! Where are you going?” the old man yelled. “Don’t leave me alone. I’ll go crazy in this place!”

  “Get back, Mahomet! Keep working on the bombs. Masoud is on his way!” Ibrahim ducked into Khalid’s quarters just before Mac opened fire.

  They were making bombs? Shit! Another unexpected complication! He fired off the rest of the clip at the door of the control building. The handle
disintegrated and the door swung open. He took cover as the guard inside flung a long burst back at him. Throwing his empty weapon aside, Mac held another Spectre at arm’s length and fired several short volleys. He took a deep breath and torpedoed out the door, firing at Ibrahim as he hurtled across the gap to the control building.

  Inside, he found the guard moaning and finished him. Then he located the switch that sealed the tunnel access from the resort building. No more reinforcements from that direction. He flicked the switch that held the hatchway open to prevent help coming through the sea tunnel.