The Tahitian Pearl

by Sean Blaise

  Instantaneously the raspy hiss of the RPG leaving the launcher assaulted Abdul’s ears at close range. The acrid smell of powder burned his nose. Abdul let go of the speedboat’s throttles to slow the boat. The shot looked perfect.

  Alexi spotted the orange flash as the RPG let go. He remembered his military training, and immediately dropped the collective to zero, while mashing the cyclic hard to the right. The drop in the helicopters blade pitch, and the breaking angle of the blades with the air, caused the helicopter to drop like a stone.

  Abdul cursed as helicopter seemed to fall out of the sky. The pilot had done this before. The RPG streaked above the helicopter mere feet from the blades and exploded harmlessly.

  "Another!" Abdul screamed over the roar of the helicopter as he mashed the throttles down in full pursuit of the dropping helicopter.

  Alexi heard the grenade hiss overhead and immediately yanked the collective up until his arm hurt. The helicopter screamed as the blades bit deeply into the disturbed air and tried to stop the violent descent of the helicopter towards the frothy sea. For what seemed an eternity, the helicopter’s twin turbines roared at full power while the helicopter continued her dangerous drop. Finally, right when the nose was about to kiss the surface of the sea, the blades found grip and ripped the helicopter back skyward. Alexi smiled, pleased that he had bought the best helicopter money could buy. He banked around, trying to find the small boat, when he realized it was already nearly underneath him again.

  Chapter 25

  John watched as the dance between the helicopter and the boat continued on the starboard side of the yacht. The Ivana was helplessly adrift as Jean Michelle tried to secure the engine shafts from spinning in order to transition the boat to jet drive power. If the main engine shafts were not locked, the conventional propellers would freewheel as the boat moved through the water, potentially destroying the main engines or even starting a fire. Finally, the green lights on the Ivana’s helm blinked a blissful green indicating the system was ready, and John grabbed the three grey turbine throttles and slammed them to the stops.

  The turbines sucked in huge amounts of air and fuel, and a tsunami of water ripped out of the jet ports on the Ivana’s stern. The vessel began to quickly pick up speed and John banked to the right as he turned on the small boat. He had only one plan, if you could even call it that, to either ram or swamp the pirates.

  Faris raised the second RPG launcher to his shoulder and fired. His aim this time, was true. Alexi saw the second RPG leave the launcher and he knew it was too late. He lurched the chopper ahead trying to prevent the grenade from hitting the belly of the bird with his crew in it. The helicopter made it barely far enough ahead before the RPG crunched into the stern stabilizer of the craft damaging the stern rotor.

  Alexi knew that he had mere moments before the helicopter began to spin wildly. He pushed the bird away from the little pursuing boat as far as he could. He eased back on the collective and activated the emergency water landing floats. A tank of CO2 instantly inflated the three large yellow floats on each of the landing skids. The copter splashed heavily into the sea.

  Abdul smiled broadly as he saw the helicopter touch down. He turned to Faris and hit him on the shoulder.

  "Perfect shot, brother. We will have company shortly," Abdul said to his crew. He knew that the Sheikh's men were inexperienced. Stupid mistakes with the hostages would either cost him money, or the upper hand; and he couldn’t allow that to happen.

  Alexi could see the little boat making a beeline for them and he knew it wouldn't be too long before they were in the hands of the captors.

  Chapter 26

  Alexi knew he had few options. To resist was dangerous and futile. His escape plan had failed.

  Alexi saw the Ivana, in the distance, shoot ahead as the jet drives were engaged. And then he saw the yacht make a huge turn to the left, throwing out a nearly 16-foot wave. Alexi smiled, John. Alexi was beginning to love that kid.

  Abdul turned to his left and saw the Ivana making a dash for the helicopter. He pushed the speedboat's throttles down and tried to pick up speed. He cursed as he saw the massive yacht take off at a crushing speed. The Sheikh was terribly mistaken. The yacht did well more than twenty knots.

  John aimed toward the helicopter and that’s when he saw the small, black speedboat trying to cross ahead of him to get to the helicopter first. Otter turned and decided to forget the helicopter and go after the pirate boat directly. He aimed to cut off the boat from the helicopter with a monster wave.

  "Another RPG, shoot the yacht!" Abdul screamed at Faris.

  "It is our last one," Faris shouted.

  "I don't care, shoot them, or they will cut us off!" Abdul screamed over outboard engines.

  Faris turned to Ibrahim and grabbed the grenade. He clipped it into the launcher and turned. The huge yacht was barreling down on them and aiming to cross directly ahead. Abdul pushed his own engines ahead for more power; and that's when the opposite thing happened, the boat began to slow.

  "NO! NO!” Screamed Abdul. "Not now!"

  John was closing on the black boat quickly. He saw the rocket launcher coming up to the shoulder of an older looking man in the back of the speedboat and aiming right at John. John didn't flinch. The Ivana was a stout vessel. Her helm glass was all reinforced, bulletproof, Plexiglass, designed to withstand the force of massive ocean waves. The rusty RPG would damage it little.

  John aimed the Ivana directly ahead of the little speedboat, hoping that his huge stern wave would swamp it. He knew that if he headed straight at them, the highly maneuverable smaller boat might be able to get clear in time; but there was no way to escape the wave.

  Faris pulled the RPG trigger and sent the RPG flying directly at the helm. However, he miscalculated the yacht’s incredible speed; the rocket smashed into the starboard side wing station on the Ivana. Abdul cursed and realized the yacht would run them over if he didn't turn. Abdul aimed the small boat away from the oncoming yacht. He angled his stern towards the yacht and gave the boat all the power he had. But the speedboat’s engines were faltering, all of the motion at sea had finally loosened the sediment in the age-old fuel tanks. They started to clog the fuel filters. Abdul couldn't get more than half throttle out of the engines. He screamed in frustration as he tried to angle the boat away from the oncoming yacht.

  John saw the little boat turn hard to the right to try and avoid him; but he matched the boats turn with ease. Unlike Abdul, John had engine power to spare. John eased back on the turbines from top speed, so that the yacht would begin to squat, her heavy stern dragging lower in the water causing the wave she produced to get even larger.

  The captain of the little boat, was no man of the sea, thought John. Because the worst place to take a wave on a small outboard boat was on the vessel’s stern. This pirate had just positioned himself to do exactly that.

  Chapter 27

  The wave was huge. Abdul shuddered at the size of it, his knuckles were white as he pushed the throttles further forward, hoping, praying, for more engine power. But he finally realized that they were already at the stops when the engines began to sputter. The stern of the boat languished in the trough of the oncoming wave, its heavy stern sinking low.

  "Hold on!" Abdul shouted to the others, as he dropped down into a crouch clutching the steering wheel for support.

  The stern of the speedboat lurched downward, and then rocketed upward as the oncoming wave picked it up like a rag doll. The stern, heavy with engines, and low freeboard, seesawed up the face of the oncoming wave and Abdul was sure they would topple end for end, before the wave passed underneath the bobbing boat.

  The bow was lifted up and Abdul was looking down at the stern as the boat entered the trough of another huge wave produced by the Ivana. He felt a glimmer of hope that the boat had survived the first wave; what he didn’t know was that the first was always the smallest. The stern of the boat hit the bottom of the wave trough. When Abdul looked up, it seemed he cou
ld only see wave.

  The lack of engine power to steer the speedboat caused it to sway forward. The boat's bow was stuck in the face of the wave in front of it, while the stern labored to climb the next wave behind the boat. However, it was too late. The next wave crashed over the speedboat's stern and pitched the boat forward like a surfer. But the speedboat without its engines working, lacked a way to steer it down the wave, throwing it violently sideways. Ibrahim was washed overboard by the large wave. In an instant, he disappeared into the frothy abyss.

  The Ivana flew past pirate boat casting a monster and unavoidable series of waves at the black speedboat. John was sure he had swamped the boat. He decided to turn around and make another pass and head back to the downed helicopter when he realized there was no response from his helm controls. The vessel continued on its previous course at over thirty knots, away from the pirates; but also, away from Alexi and the crew in the helicopter. He tried the jet steering controls again, still nothing. He pulled the jet throttles back slowing the vessel and preventing the Ivana from getting too far away and picked the phone and dialed the extension to the engine room.

  Jean Michele saw the blinking light in the engineer’s office indicating that bridge was calling. He tapped the button on his soundproofed, military grade earmuffs and was instantly patched into the bridge. "Yes?"

  "I've lost steering control over the jets," John said.

  "Moment," Jean Michelle said as he rushed over to the alarm panels controlling the three massive water jets. A flashing red light indicated that the control station on the starboard wing had malfunctioned. Jean Michel tried to override the control, unsuccessfully. He pressed the headphones and called the bridge.

  "There is something wrong with starboard wing station, is it engaged?" Jean asked.

  John opened the bridge door and looked at the starboard wing station and realized immediately what the problem was. The rocket propelled grenade Faris had fired at the bridge had sent shrapnel into the control station on the wing. A small fire had already started to burn merrily, melting the control panel.

  "The control wing is on fire. Can you override and send control to the central station?"

  "Non, my friend, zee computer thinks the control is coming from the starboard wing station, we must shift back to normal propulsion."

  "Wait, Jean, can we engage the normal rudders to steer the vessel and still use jets for propulsion?"

  "C'est impossible! The jets are turned, we cannot go straight. Shut down, I will reengage main engines."

  "How long before we have main engines?" John asked.

  "Ten minutes," Jean replied and hung up.

  John slowed the Ivana to idle. He transferred control to the engine room and saw the turbines begin to shut down. The Ivana was adrift.

  Chapter 28

  Abdul desperately tried to restart the engines. The Ivana had mysteriously started to travel away from the pirate ship and the helicopter. He needed to gain the upper hand as soon as possible. Faris was in the stern, yelling at the Sheikh’s men to bail out the boat as fast as they could. They weren't getting anywhere. The stern of the small power boat was so waterlogged that the waves were continually crashing over it and the engines, further preventing them from starting. The bilge pump was dead and the small buckets that the boys were using was useless.

  Abdul could see the fear in his team’s eyes. They were not boat people. The incoming seawater was threatening their resolve.

  Abdul hit the engine ignition one last time, and his port engine coughed pitifully. He said a silent prayer and hit the ignition again. The pitiful cough became a retching scream as the engine sputtered to life. With the power provided by the first engines alternator, the others had enough power to start as well. They were back in business. He knew, though, that he had to clear out the water as soon as possible. He engaged the engines ahead and the water began to slosh towards the back of the boat, threatening to push the stern under water for the last time.

  "Faris, there is a drain plug underneath the engines! Pull it out so that we can drain the boat," Abdul said.

  Faris launched himself at the stern, his head dipping underwater as his hand felt around for the drain plug. Nothing. He surfaced again, taking a huge gasp of air in his lungs, and went back under. His hand groped in the dark, and his fingers finally grabbed a hold of what felt like the top of a soda can. His burly pointer finger barely fit into the small hole on the pull tab. When he finally got it to fit, he yanked on the tab. The force was too great for the poor, Chinese steel, and years of corrosion, to endure. It parted evenly from the rubber plug on its end. Faris ran out of breath and resurfaced cursing holding the plugs pull tab in his hand.

  "We need the water out now!" Abdul shouted back to Faris without turning around.

  The boat was creeping along in the heavy seas at a painfully slow pace. Each wave was a death threat, capable of washing over the sides of the waterlogged speedboat for the last time. But Abdul had learned his lesson the hard way and was now aiming at a 45-degree angle to the seas on his port bow. And he was getting over the waves with minimal seawater intrusion. He was already making his way back to the downed helicopter _ and his payday.

  Faris pulled out a long, serrated knife and plunged under the water again. He took the blade and wedged the tip between the butt of the rubber drain plug and fiberglass of the hull. He pried at the stubborn plug, but it refused to budge. Faris gripped the plug with his left hand and pried again at the rubber with the knife in his right. Just then the boat went over a particularly large wave and the knife slipped. The heavy steel blade and his own pressure, drove the sharp serrations into the soft skin between his thumb and first finger on his left hand, causing an enormous and deep gash. Faris screamed underwater and surfaced holding his severely bleeding hand.

  "Abdul!"

  Abdul spun around instantly at the tone of Faris’s voice. Faris's tone was the same whenever a situation was going to shit fast. He took in Faris's injury quickly, as well as the frightened faces of the Sheikh’s men. He was losing control fast and he knew it.

  "Jamil wrap his hand with something. Hamoud, get out that plug or we all sink!"

  Hamoud dropped down in the water and on his hands and knees looked for the dropped knife. Holding his breath, he reached under the engines and searched for it in the dark. His right hand found the blade, and he hefted it carefully before resurfacing.

  "Cut it out of if you have to," Faris said.

  Hamoud plunged back beneath the water again. He was smaller and more agile than Faris, and he found the plug on his first try. He placed the blade tip carefully between the rubber plug and the hull again with both of his hands on the blade. He placed his two fingers underneath the middle of the blade, creating a fulcrum and pushed the handle towards the boat. Rotating on his fingers, the tip of the blade slowly pried the rubber plug from its hold, until it sprung free. The water began to rush out of the hole and the boat began to quickly drain. Hamoud surfaced with a grin on his face.

  "It’s out, Abdul. The water is draining."

  "Good, now get back to bailing. The quicker we get it out, the better," Abdul replied without turning back.

  Chapter 29

  Pierre dialed the 14-digit satellite phone number that Belina had given him for the yacht Ivana. He was surprised when it was picked up on the first ring.

  "Yes?" Asked a frightened voice.

  "With whom am I speaking?" Pierre asked.

  "Captain Al Brown, motor yacht Ivana. Are you with the navy coalition?"

  "No, sir, I am with Interpol, and wish to speak with Alexi Popovich."

  "Interpol? Do you handle pirate issues?"

  "No, sir," Pierre responded confused.

  "Then you'll have to contact us later."

  "Is Mr. Popovich unavailable, sir?" Pierre queried.

  "You could say that again, we are currently under pirate attack."

  With that Captain Brown hung up and a blank tone issued from the earpiece stuck
to Pierre's head.

  Chapter 30

  John watched the pirate boat picking up speed. It was heavily waterlogged, but he saw through his binoculars as one of the pirates ducked underwater at the stern, to release the drain plug. The pirate boat was moving again, and the was no doubt where it was headed, right for the Alexi and the crew in the downed helicopter.

  Captain Brown walked in from the communications room and looked at John wearily.

  "Status?" John asked.

  "Someone from Interpol called. I have no idea what they wanted. The Navy is getting a crisis team together. Nothing immediate to help us."

  "Interpol?"

  "I hung up," Captain Brown said quickly.

  "We've lost control of the jet drives. The starboard wing malfunctioned, and we can’t override the system. We're dead slow ahead and facing this direction till we get the mains online and switch back to the shafts."

  "Ok," Captain Brown said.

  "Sir, the pirates are resuming their course to our crew, I only managed to slow them down a little."

  Captain Brown picked up the binoculars and surveyed the swamped speedboat.

  "Nice work, looks like they're struggling over there."

  "I’d like to go get our crew, sir," Otter said.

  Brown surveyed John closely. He couldn't tell if he was trying to be a hero out of principle or ambition. Saving a billionaire’s life never hurt anyone's future.

  "What do you have in mind?"

  "The jet skis," John said. The Ivana was equipped with 2, powerful, 3-person jet skis. They were 30 grand each; the best money could buy, and capable of over 70 knots in flat water.

  "For what?" Brown said.

  "I want to go get our people, sir, bring them back on board."

  "What? No, I'm not going to risk it. What if they shoot at you? Besides you can only carry 2 people out of that helicopter at a time, and there are 7 people in there. Who were you planning on leaving? Have you even thought this through?"