It was a short journey. They parked outside a restaurant that wouldn’t open for another half an hour, probably to cater for the early-morning fishing trade. Eva announced that she was heading to the harbor to look at the boat Farooq had sourced in advance.
Gray said he’d go with her. They asked the taxi driver for directions before setting off on the fifteen-minute walk.
“I wanted to apologize,” Gray said when they were out of earshot of the others. “There wasn’t much else you could have done at Puerto Escondido. I overreacted.”
“You were concerned for your daughter. I would have reacted the same way.”
Gray wasn’t so sure. There was a huge difference between imagining what you would do in a certain situation, and actually living it. Gray had almost lost his daughter once, and he’d sworn never to put her in harm’s way again.
He thought perhaps that was why he was being so hard on himself and taking it out on Eva. He’d failed Melissa, and didn’t dare imagine what she was going through at that moment.
One thing was certain: from this point on, he wouldn’t leave her safety in anyone else’s hands.
“I appreciate what you’ve done to get us this far,” he said to Eva, “but from now on, we’ll do things my way.”
It was enough to raise one eyebrow.
“What I mean is, it’s my daughter on that island. When we get to Langton, he’s all yours, but this needs to be done with military precision. Len and Sonny know the drill, but I’ve never worked with you three. They both speak highly of you, and I’ve no doubt you can handle yourself, but it’s my daughter’s life at stake.”
“And if I think your plan is complete bullshit?”
“Then say so,” Gray said. “I don’t claim to have all the answers, but we have to go in there with everyone on the same page. In the regiment, we had what we called ‘Chinese parliaments.’” He shrugged at her reaction to the term. “Everyone got a say, but I made the overall decision.”
“Suits me,” Eva said. “Just as long as I get Langton.”
“Done.”
He’d been expecting a lot more resistance, but was happy to have got the conversation out of the way.
It was a pleasant stroll to the harbor. Farooq had told them to look for someone by the name of Jed, who owned a boat used for deep-sea fishing. He’d agreed to meet them early to discuss the charter, but as yet nothing was confirmed. There were a dozen vessels moored, and they found the Morbius easily enough.
Jed was sitting at the stern, a cigarette dangling from his mouth as he tied a lure to a line. He looked to be about sixty, with leathery skin that told of many days under a fierce sun. They introduced themselves and, as previously agreed, Eva handled the negotiations.
“We’re here to rent Morbius for two days,” she said. “I understand it’s one of the faster boats on the island.”
“Nope.” Jed removed the cigarette from his mouth and spat over the side. “It’s the fastest. She’ll do thirty-five knots with a tailwind and a flat sea.”
“Sounds like she’s just what we’re looking for. How much would it be?”
Jed eyed the pair. “Two days, you say? Let’s see. Leave at nine be back by dusk, times two . . .”
“No, we’ll be staying at sea for two full days.”
Jed looked at Eva as if trying to decide whether she was joking or terminally stupid.
“What you see is what you get,” he said, tossing the butt into the sea. “Seating for eight people and no bunks. It’s a day cruiser, lady.”
“That’s fine,” she said. “We don’t need beds.”
“No toilet, either. You’ll have to piss over the side. In your case, I could find a bucket.”
Eva’s face lit up. “Wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Clearly thinking her crazy, Jed scratched his stubbly cheek as he thought of a price. “Three thousand,” he said. “US dollars.”
“Sounds reasonable.” It was a lot less than she’d been prepared to pay for his services. “Do you have GPS?”
“Yep.”
“What about fuel?” Eva asked. “Can she handle a long cruise?”
“How far were you thinking? Twenty miles out?”
“A bit closer to five hundred. One thousand round trip.”
Jed laughed, but when he saw that he was the only one, he turned serious.
“What’s five hundred miles out there that you’d want to see? If you want to get to another island, you can take a plane.”
“Not another island. Actually, we want you to drop us off in an inflatable raft roughly five hundred miles northeast of here.”
“Lady, there’s nothing there. If I drop you off, you’d be dead in a couple of days.”
“Let us worry about that. If I offered four grand, would that ease your conscience?”
Jed shook his head. “When you captain a ship, you have certain responsibilities—”
“Five grand, final offer.”
Jed sighed. “I gotta be crazy.”
“It helps,” she said. “We’ll be ready to go in an hour.”
“What? An hour?”
“No time like the present. We’ll get our gear and the others. See you later.”
She turned and walked away before Jed could protest at the short notice. Gray fell into step.
“It’s not going to be easy assembling the Zodiac on that small deck,” he said.
“That’s the least of our worries. With all the equipment, that thing’s gonna ride low in the water. One big wave and we’re swimming the rest of the way.”
“Maybe we should build the Zodiac before we set off and tow it behind us. We could dump some of the gear in it, too.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Eva said.
They were back at the restaurant fifteen minutes later. The others were tucking into a breakfast buffet, and Eva and Gray joined them.
“We’ll be casting off in an hour,” Gray said. “I’ll order a couple of taxis to get our gear to the harbor, then we’ll have to inflate the Zodiac. We can’t do it on the boat.”
He spoke to the waitress and she promised to call two cabs for the short journey. The gear was too heavy to carry all that way.
They finished their last hot meal for a while, then waited outside for the cars to arrive. Sonny excused himself, saying he was going to get supplies for the journey.
“We’re going to have to think on our feet once we get to the island,” Gray said. “We have no idea what the terrain will be like. The picture of Alana and Melissa showed a beach, but that could go right round the island or just be a small cove. The rest could be vertical cliffs for all we know.”
“We also have to consider his defenses,” Eva pointed out. “He’s the richest guy on the planet, so if you can think of it, he’s probably got it. Think surface-to-air missiles, helicopters, a small army, everything.”
“The best way to defend an island is to know who’s coming,” Gray said. “He’ll probably have radar. That’s why I want to swim the last ten miles. We should have a small enough signature at that range. Any closer and we risk being seen.”
“If we’re talking sea defenses, then we have to consider the possibility of sonobuoys,” Len suggested. “It’s a lot easier and more efficient than having patrol boats cruising up and down the coast.”
“Good thinking,” Gray said. “If he has them, they’ll probably be within a hundred yards of the coast. When we get to ten yards out, we’ll crab along the coast, just in case there’s a welcoming committee.”
The taxis arrived just as Sonny returned with bottled water and a bag full of chocolate and energy bars, and they loaded up the baggage. Three minutes later, they were at the harbor.
Jed was carrying two big cans of gas to the boat, and he looked displeased at the amount of baggage they’d brought along.
“Don’t worry,” Gray told him, “we’re gonna tow the inflatable behind us.”
They got to work unpacking the Zodiac. They laid out the rubber hu
ll, then inserted the aluminum floor before using a two-handled manual pump to inflate it. They took turns, and within twenty minutes it was ready to go into the water. Jed threw them a rope to tie it off and secured the other end to a cleat on the stern. They packed most of the scuba gear in the Zodiac and tied it down securely.
Gray took Sonny aside.
“Do me a favor. Nip back into town and get us a dozen thick plastic bags and some tape. We need to waterproof the weapons for the swim.”
“Shit. I’d forgotten about that.”
“Me too,” Gray said. “Jog on, then.”
While Sonny ran the errand, Gray helped the others get everything else stowed away. By the time Sonny returned, they were ready to go.
The boat had two bench seats, one running either side, and half of the deck was covered by the roof of an open cabin. They took their seats, and Jed cast off, then climbed a ladder to the wheelhouse.
It gave the others a chance to talk among themselves, but for now they sat in silent contemplation. The mission had been on their minds for the last forty-eight hours, but now it was becoming real. They had a grueling boat ride ahead of them, and they’d need to use that time well to cover anything they’d overlooked. Because once they were in the Zodiac skimming their way to Langton’s island, it would be too late.
CHAPTER 33
After seventeen hours plowing through the South Pacific, the team was weary. They’d taken a battering as the craft clattered into the tops of four-foot seas, but the thought of the action to come helped focus their minds. They’d managed to grab a couple of hours of sleep each and had eaten their fill of chocolate bars and bananas to top up their energy levels and block their pipes. The last thing they wanted was to take a dump in the middle of the operation.
Jed gave them a warning that they’d be in position in half an hour, and Gray told everyone to get into their wetsuits. Once dressed, they began waterproofing the weapons. A rifle went into each bag, along with spare magazines and a set of NVGs, or night-vision glasses. After taping up the necks of the bags, Gray reminded them what the mission was all about.
“We’re here for the kids, first and foremost. Eva can have Langton once the girls are safe, but we need to do this as quietly as possible. If we can, we skirt around any opposition forces, understood?”
He got nods from everyone.
“We’re here,” Jed called from his perch on top of the open cabin. His reaction to seeing them dressed in scuba gear and carrying plastic-wrapped rifles was priceless, but no one offered an explanation. What could they say? More importantly, who was going to believe him? What they were about to do was unlikely to make the news.
Gray checked the time and saw that they had only eight hours until the deadline.
It was going to be close.
Jed cut the engine, and Len and Rees pulled the Zodiac alongside. Sonny jumped aboard and tied a second rope through a rubber hoop at the inflatable’s stern. He threw the other end to Len, who fastened it to the Morbius. Once they were all in, Jed appeared at the side of the boat.
He looked nervous, and Gray guessed why. He’d just seen them prepare for war and was probably wondering if they were planning to leave any witnesses behind.
“No need to hang around for us,” Gray said, flicking off a quick salute. “We’ll make our own way back. Thanks for the ride.”
Jed shook his head and began pulling in the mooring lines. “What about your clothes and personal effects?” he asked.
“If you can store them for a few days, that would be great. If no one picks them up within a week, they’re yours.”
Len started up the outboard motor, and the inflatable bucked at the sudden acceleration. Within minutes, the Morbius had shrunk to a dot in the distance.
Gray felt nervous, scared, but that was normal. He’d been into battle many times, and the feeling had been a constant companion on each op. The trick was to use it to his advantage, focusing his mind to concentrate not on what might go wrong, but on how to do his job effectively.
Only this time it was different. It wasn’t merely an assault on an enemy position or targeting supply lines; if he failed in this mission, his daughter would die.
He glanced down at the GPS strapped to his wrist and told Len to correct his course a few degrees to starboard. Once the green line indicating their direction passed over the red dot that represented the island, he signaled full steam ahead.
Powering through the swell at twenty-five knots in pitch darkness was a terrifying experience. Occasionally, an unseen rogue wave would roll into their path, and they’d hit it full on, jolting everyone aboard and earning Len more than his share of curses.
It went on for four hours, and by the time they reached the transition point, their arms were numb from gripping the handles of the Zodiac.
Len cut the engine and they donned their scuba gear. Each had a tank of oxygen and a rebreather mask, which would eliminate any telltale bubbles as they neared the shore. They’d brought along six DPVs. The Sea-Doo RS3s were about eighteen inches in length and had a top speed of three knots. In open water, they were meant more as an aid to the swimmer’s flippers than as a propulsion device. There were more powerful models available that would have taken them to the island in a quarter of the time, but they weighed around thirty kilos each and it would have been impossible to transport them this far.
“Remember,” Gray said, “once we get within ten yards of the beach, turn right and go a hundred yards farther up the coast.”
“Got it.”
Sticking together in the darkness would be a huge problem, so Gray had asked Jed for some rope. He hadn’t had any fit for purpose, but had given them the line from one of his fishing reels and cut it into eight-foot lengths. These were tied to the handles of the DPVs so that all six units were connected.
Preparations complete, Gray thought about a last few words, but he could see they all had their game faces on. He simply nodded and said, “Let’s go.”
They fell backward off the inflatable and let it drift out of the way, then got in line and set off into the darkness, all traveling three feet below the surface of the ocean. There was no point trying to anchor the Zodiac for the return journey. If Langton had a way to get on to the island, there had to be a way to get off.
Gray had one eye on the GPS on his wrist, but was constantly sweeping the waters below him for signs of sharks. Not that he had much chance of seeing one in the inky darkness. The waters around French Polynesia were teeming with shortfin makos and oceanic whitetips, two species of shark that could seriously ruin their day. Tiger sharks had also been seen in the waters, and Gray now regretted looking up the information before leaving the UK.
Sometimes, ignorance is bliss.
Fortunately, they encountered nothing larger than a sea turtle on their way to the island. As they neared land, an array of corals festooned the ocean floor, barely visible through the crystal waters below them and populated by an assortment of sea creatures. It would have been a sight to stop and admire on a peaceful sunny day, but they had bigger fish to fry.
A few minutes later, from his angle a yard below the surface, Gray could see the shoreline ahead. He stopped in the water and the others followed his lead when he angled right and followed the near-silent engine of the Sea-Doo. After a couple of minutes, he stopped the engine and removed his weight belt. Until now, its purpose had been to keep him from breaching the surface, but now he attached it to the Sea-Doo’s handle and let the DPV sink to the bottom.
As he raised his head above the surface, the first explosion shook the water.
CHAPTER 34
When Michael Olivera received the call to check out an alarm in sector four, he couldn’t wait to get there and investigate. After all the action he’d seen in Iraq and Afghanistan with the 75th Ranger Regiment, he couldn’t believe any place could be so quiet and boring. The island was certainly idyllic, with the huge house, golf course, swimming pool, and beautiful beaches, but the twelve-hour
shifts, seven days a week for two months at a time, were beginning to wear at his sanity. Sure, the compound had all the luxuries you could think of, but they were off limits to everyone but Mr. Danby.
In another few days, Olivera would rotate back to the world. A boat would bring in another thirty men to relieve them, and he could go and spend sixty days catching up on beer and women, two things forbidden while on duty. His neighbor in Sacramento was taping the football playoffs for him, and he had a huge Amazon Prime Video library to get through before he returned for another eight weeks of sheer boredom. Having a TV would have relieved some of the tedium, but no personal electronics were allowed. One ex-soldier caught trying to sneak a phone on board the ship as it left the west coast of the US had been turned away, missing out entirely on the three-grand-a-day gig. For that money, Olivera was happy to stick to books and porn magazines.
“On my way,” he told Nest, the apt name for the control room, which was located within the house at the center of the small island that towered above the terrain. The entire island measured only two miles across and three miles in length, and the house sat on the summit of an extinct volcano. A single, winding road led up to the front of the building, which looked like a colonial mansion.
He had no idea who Danby was, though he’d been told he was an ex-NSA adviser. Olivera had done a search on him after getting home on his first shore leave, but Google had no record of the man. He’d also tried to find the island on maps but, lacking coordinates, he’d been unsuccessful. All he knew was that it took ten days to get there by sea, and the course changed each trip. Best he could figure, they were on one of the 118 islands in French Polynesia, but damned if he could narrow it down to the exact one.
Olivera told his three subordinates to get in the open-topped Jeep, and he drove them down to the beach. This area was one of ten sectors the island had been split into, and Nest had reported a hit on a couple of sonobuoys in the area. The beach in this cove was three hundred yards long, so he asked whether Nest could narrow it down a little.
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