by Beth Abbott
Drago climbed into the lifeboat, and Kellen finally watched it going over the side. It wasn’t descending as fast as if it had been lowered by the motor, but at least it was below the level of the ship’s rails and out of sight.
He was just about to move to the other lifeboat when there was a buzzing in his pocket.
He pulled out his phone and looked at the display.
“Hannah?” He connected the call. “We’re a bit busy here, sweetheart.”
“Kellen, you have to listen carefully.” Hannah’s voice was eerily calm. “Sergei just lost his patience with Micky. His guests were yelling at him to bring the women out, so he’s taken a few guys up to the cabins to get them.”
“Shit!” Kellen knew that they probably had about two minutes before Sergei realized they weren’t where they were supposed to be. “Ok, we’re on it. Thanks.”
He turned to his teammates.
“Sergei’s gone looking for Micky and the women.” Kellen hissed to Abram and Zach. “We’ve got to get into the boat.”
“Go!” Abram instructed. “Get the women in the boat and get over the side. “Zach and I will hold them off until you’re in the water, then follow you down.”
“How the fuck are you gonna follow us?” Kellen hissed.
“I think he means we’ll be jumping.” Zach shook his head, as if resigned to their fate. “So, get the fuck out of here!”
Kellen spared his team-mates a split-second stare of incredulity as he realized that there wasn’t much choice in the matter.
He grabbed Micky and Katya and pushed them towards the next lifeboat.
“Get in quickly.” He hoisted Micky up and into the boat.
When she turned around, he lifted Katya up, and Micky leaned back down to help the smaller woman climb in.
Without wasting a second, Kellen grabbed the edge of the lifeboat and pulled himself up, hoisting his leg over the side to heave himself up high enough to flop over the edge.
“Where’s the gizmo to get us moving?” He hissed at Micky as he quickly disabled the orange warning light.
“Here, look!” She grabbed a box with three buttons on it.
Up, down and stop. It didn’t exactly need a rocket scientist to operate it.
He pressed the down button and the lifeboat lurched slightly. For a moment he didn’t think it was going to move any further, but then it lurched again and started to rise, lifting them over the rail of the ship before they started to descend, not as fast as he would have liked, but still twice as fast as the other lifeboat had descended.
As he glanced back at Abram and Zach, he noticed them grabbing more weapons and moving towards the back of the ship, looking for places to take cover.
Micky grabbed his hand, as if to reassure him he was doing the right thing, getting the three of them out of there.
Kellen glanced back up at the rail, a sinking feeling settling in his chest.
Had he really done the right thing, leaving his friends behind?
“You followed an order, Kellen.” Micky pointed out. “That’s what good soldiers do.”
Kellen nodded his head at her vehemence.
He’d believe that when he saw his friends climbing onto the Russian sub!
Chapter 60 – Zach
Zach watched the second lifeboat go over the side and tried to guess at how fast it was going. Maybe a foot every two seconds?
They’d need at least two minutes to get to the bottom and unload, and even then, they might have to wait to get into the sub if the women hadn’t already been loaded on board.
“How long do you think they’re gonna need?” Abram hissed at him from about ten feet away.
“Maybe four or five minutes.” Zach whispered. “If we’re gonna jump, he pointed to the rail behind him, I suggest we go from that spot there.”
Abram turned to look where Zach was pointing.
“Why so?” He frowned.
Zach rolled his eyes.
“Because if we jump from where the lifeboats went over, there’s a good chance they’ll still be down below us.” Zach winced. “I don’t want to land on a lifeboat from a sixty-foot drop. It’s a sure-fire way to get dead or paralysed.”
“Point taken.” Abram nodded. “When the moment comes, you give the word and we’ll both make a run for it and jump off. Simple!”
As Zach stared at his watch, willing the second hand to move faster, they heard the pounding of footsteps as presumably Sergei’s men ran up towards the deck.
When three or four of them burst out of the stairwell, they looked so ridiculous, their weapons drawn as though they expected to be met by an armed force.
Sergei followed behind them, and he immediately started to look around.
Thankfully, thanks to the bulb that Zach had removed earlier, the light on the deck wasn’t particularly good, and for a few moments, Zach breathed a sigh of relief that Sergei didn’t seem to have figured out what was going on.
He sent a couple of men forward, looking down into the other holds, as though he expected them to find the women hiding somewhere down below.
Abram grinned across at him, knowing that the longer Sergei and his men wasted time, the better chance the lifeboats had of being emptied of their human cargo.
When Sergei shouted at his men to check the back of the ship, Zach slid back further behind what he thought looked like the sort of box that housed a power junction.
Two of Sergei’s men stepped forward, but they seemed more interested in looking off into the distance, rather than looking to see what was right under their noses.
Zach reached into his holster for the knife he’d extracted from the container earlier. If the guy closest to him got any nearer, he’d have to ambush him and hope that Sergei and the rest of his team were looking the other way.
A shout from Sergei had his men turning back, and when Zach peeped out, Sergei seemed to be instructing them to go back down the stairs.
Zach was almost ready to breathe a sigh of relief when he noticed Sergei stop and look around.
His men stopped to look at him, not sure what they were supposed to do.
Sergei looked over at the other side of the ship, and then turned and looked behind him.
Zach groaned quietly as he realised that Sergei had noticed the obvious difference between the two sides of the ship.
Their side had two fewer lifeboats.
Sergei rushed to the rail and looked down.
It took him a few seconds, but he must have seen what he was looking for because he yelled at his men who scurried to the rail to stare down at the sea.
Without hesitation, Sergei’s men started firing down at the water, and Zach knew that any chance they’d had of getting off the ship unnoticed was gone.
He and Abram stood up simultaneously and started firing their weapons at Sergei and his men before they could get off more than a few rounds.
Two dropped to the floor immediately, and he heard a yelp as Sergei dropped down behind them, using their bodies as cover to protect himself.
Zach didn’t know whether it was his bullet or Abram’s that had hit Lebedev, but apart from a short burst of elation, the only thing he felt was regret that the guy wasn’t dead already.
Sergei’s men started flooding out of the staircase, and Zach tried to give covering fire as Abram shouted ‘loading!’, switching out one semi-automatic for another.
It didn’t take long for Zach to realise that they were severely outnumbered, and while he had enough ammo to keep Sergei’s men pinned down for another ten minutes, at some point he and Abram had to make a run for it.
“Zach!” Abram hissed at him. “Look!”
Zach turned his head, even as he kept sending down bursts of fire.
Several of Sergei’s men were running across the walkway between the holds, making their way to the opposite side so they could come around from behind Abram’s position, attacking from both flanks.
“Shit!” He whispered.
“H
ow long has it been?” Abram hissed.
Zach quickly checked his watch.
“Five minutes.” He nodded. “They should all be on the sub by now.”
Abram let out a burst of fire at the men crossing the walkway, in the hope of slowing them down.
Sergei’s men would soon be firing on them from both sides if they didn’t make a run for it.
“Ready to jump?” He smirked at Abram.
“Hell, yeah!” The big Russian grinned at him.
Zach had half the distance to run that Abram did, so he motioned for the big guy to go first, and he would lay down some covering fire.
He pulled a loaded AK47 out of the bag at his feet and positioned it on top of the box so that he could fire in two directions at the same time.
As Abram started to run, he fired both weapons at once, the recoil making it difficult for him to stay in position.
Just as he was going to make a run for it, he heard a thud, and turned to see Abram stagger and fall to the floor, a few feet short of the rail.
Fuck this!
Zach reached into the pack again and scrambled around until he found what he was looking for.
He quickly pulled the grenades out and removed the pins with his teeth. He rolled one towards Sergei before throwing another in the opposite direction.
He waited for the first explosion, and with a final burst of his AK47, Zach ran for Abram’s position.
The second explosion sounded just as he reached the Russian, who was trying to get to his feet, a big red stain on his t-shirt.
“Come on, fella.” Zach yanked him up. “Time for a swim.”
Zach pulled Abram to his feet and bent down to get his shoulder under him, as he hoisted Abs up onto the rail.
“Take a breath, pal.” He pushed the guy over, just as a hail of bullets landed all around him.
The first flash of pain didn’t exactly register much, because he was too busy heaving himself up onto the rail.
The second one, yeah, that was the money shot. He didn’t know where it hit him, but it was enough to send him flying overboard and plunging down into the darkness.
As he fell through the cold crisp air, all he could think about was Sacha.
She was gonna be mad as fuck at him!
Chapter 61 – Hannah
Hannah sat on Danny’s lap, her skin so cold that she could barely feel her fingers.
Ellen sat next to her, holding her hand as they all crowded around Hannah’s phone, waiting for any word from the submarine.
Since she’d contacted the team to let them know that Sergei was out looking for them, they’d had absolutely no word from anyone.
Her satellite pictures had been difficult to follow, as they were wholly reliant on thermal images to let them know what was going on in the darkness.
There were a couple of groups of people on the deck of the ship, and another bunch of people who looked like they were in the water, but who was whom, and which ones were good or bad guys nobody could tell.
“They’re climbing on board the sub.” Danny pointed to the screen. “Look, the screen is getting brighter in that one place. They must be on the ladder and we’re looking right down on the sub.”
Hannah could see where Danny was pointing, and it did look as though the light was brightening in one spot, and that the number of bodies close to it was reducing.
“Look there!” Ellen stabbed at the screen. “That’s the second lifeboat. Can you zoom in and see how many people are in it?”
“I’m zoomed in as far as I can go.” Hannah whispered.
She felt the warmth from virtually the whole team as they huddled behind her, and while the amount of electricity they seemed to be generating was starting to make her feel slightly nauseous, the comfort she got from feeling their presence around her was immeasurable.
As the bright light started to fade, the people on the other boat started to move towards the sub.
“How many people are on the second boat?” Tuck asked over her shoulder.
“Three, I think.” Hannah squinted to try and tell them apart, the reddish glow making them all blur into one big blob.
“Is that everyone?” He asked.
“I honestly don’t know.” She admitted.
Just then Hannah’s phone buzzed, and everyone seemed to jump backwards in a synchronised move.
She hit the accept button and then pressed the speaker button next to it.
“Yes?” She said urgently.
“Hanna, it’s Drago.”
She almost slumped at his voice.
“Is everyone Ok?” She asked, not wanting to wait another second to find out.
“All the women are aboard the sub, and Kris is helping the people in the second lifeboat as we speak.” Drago replied.
“Who was in the second boat?” Sacha whispered from somewhere behind her.
“Drago, do you know who was in the second boat?” Hannah asked quietly.
“Not sure, but it looks like Micky is coming aboard, so I’ll ask her.”
As Hannah continued to stare at the screen, there appeared to be two large flashes from the deck of the ship. Explosions?
There was a mumbling in the background and then a woman’s voice came on the line.
“Umm, hello? Is that Hannah?” There was the slightest hint of an accent, but you had to be listening carefully to hear it.
“This is Hannah.” She replied. “Is this Micky? Do you know where the rest of my team is? Were they on the lifeboat with you?”
“Umm, Kellen was on the lifeboat with me and Katya, the hostess Abram wanted us to rescue.” Micky explained. “But Sergei and his men were headed for the deck, so Abram and Zach stayed behind to hold them off. They were going to jump from the ship when we were all clear.”
“Oh, dear God!” Sacha moaned from behind her.
“And have they jumped yet?” Hannah asked.
“I think so.” Micky replied. “Drago and Kellen…. water… get them.”
“Sorry, Micky, can you repeat that last part?” Hannah said loudly. “I didn’t catch what you said.”
“I said… men… water… not moving…” Micky’s voice died away.
“Micky?” Hannah shouted into the phone. “Micky?”
There was silence on the line and then Hannah’s wallpaper reappeared on the screen, indicating that the call had ended.
Almost as one, Yuri, Tuck and Sacha pulled out their phones and started dialling their loved ones.
Hannah closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
What had Micky been saying? Men in the water, not moving?
Was she talking about Zach and Abram? Were they dead?
“Look!” Danny pointed at the screen.
With only a few exceptions, almost all of Sergei’s men were lined up against the rails and appeared to be looking over into the water. Gradually, they seemed to be moving to the back of the ship.
One by one they fell to the deck, until almost half of them seemed to be lying down.
“Do you think the Navy snipers are picking them off?” Hannah whispered.
“It looks like it.” JT sounded relieved. “The rest of Sergei’s men look like they’re keeping their heads down.”
“The ship’s moving away from the sub and the lifeboats.” Danny guessed, pointing at the screen. “They must be out of shooting range by now, so unless they can persuade the captain to turn the ship around, our guys should be safe. At least they can get Abram and Zach onto the sub without being shot at any more.”
Hannah sat without moving for a few more minutes until all of the red dots had disappeared.
When nothing had glowed red for more than five minutes, Danny gave her a nudge.
“I’m guessing they’ve submerged.” He whispered into her ear. “It’ll be a little while before they rendezvous with the British vessel, so why don’t you stretch your legs? It’ll give me a chance to get the blood flowing in mine again.”
Hannah turned to see Danny s
miling at her.
She knew he was joking about his legs, but he was making a good point.
The night was not over yet, and they all needed to pace themselves.
She stood up slowly and tried to stretch the kinks out of her back from sitting in the exact same position for over an hour.
“There’s hot and cold drinks in the kitchen, along with some sandwiches and savoury snacks.” Alice announced. “Fuel up, everyone. It looks like being a long night.”
As everyone followed Alice into the kitchen, Hannah walked in the opposite direction, heading through the hallway and into the den.
Thankfully the kids were already in bed, so the room was almost dark and more importantly, empty.
She sat down on the sofa, staring into the unlit log fire in the hearth.
So, she couldn’t get hold of the submarine when it was submerged, and there was nobody on the surface that she could get hold of. Even the British vessel they were heading towards would have no news yet of what they would be met with.
Hannah leaned forwards, dropping her head into her hands.
She was missing something! There had to be a way to find out what was going on beneath the Norwegian Sea.
Think! Think! Think!
“Hannah?” Danny’s worried voice was right in front of her. “Are you Ok, sweetheart? What are you doing in here all by yourself?”
“We need to find out what’s going on with our team, but we can’t get hold of them while they’re submerged.” She groaned. “I’m missing something. What am I missing? There must be a way of finding out what’s happening on that sub.”
“Honey, the one thing the Russians have always been good at, is keeping intel to themselves.” Danny smiled, taking hold of her hands. “When they want us to know something, they’ll tell us.”
Hannah sat bolt upright.
“Oh, holy shit!” She leaned forward and planted a wet kiss on Danny’s lips. “Dammit, Danny, but when you’re right, you’re fucking right!”
Danny fell back onto his ass as she jumped up and darted out of the room.
“What am I right about this time?” He yelled after her.
He hurried after her into the kitchen where Hannah grabbed hold of Ellen’s arm, dragging the startled woman along behind her.