Necessary Retribution (19 page)

Emmett saw Rick go onto the upper deck, turned and waved Doug up, who slung his MP5 back and grabbed the boarding ladder with his right hand. He stepped onto the ladder and grabbed further up with his left. Emmett had moved down to help Doug and in light of the full moon saw him wince, but he made it to the small deck. Emmett pulled him closer.

“You good? I saw you wince.”

“I'm good to go. Let's rock!”

The two men climbed onto the second deck of the superstructure, cleared the outside, set up security and waited for Rick to come down
from the top deck, which he did a few minutes later. The ship's bridge sat just forward and up from them and Emmett pointed to it. The other men nodded.

Emmett quietly climbed the steps to the door of the bridge and peeked through the window. He saw two men talking to each other, but not touching the helm or throttle. That meant the ship steered on auto pilot and a good thing to Emmett. Doug came up behind and Emmett signaled for Doug to follow him in and Rick to maintain outside security. Both men nodded.

Doug crouched and moved to the door handle. Emmett pointed to himself indicating he would go straight in and pointed to Doug indicating he should buttonhook to the right. Doug nodded. Emmett raised his weapon and nodded. Doug pushed the handle down and pulled the door open. In one second both men moved into the bridge. The man on the left instantly reached for a pistol on the chart table. Emmett put a two round burst into his head, which pitched the man forward onto the chart table in a crimson shower and he crumpled to the deck. The other man stood stock still with his hands raised. Doug grabbed the man and pushed him face down to the floor and put his knee behind his neck. Emmett put plastic handcuffs on his hands and feet. linking them together and put duct tape on his mouth.

Emmett and Doug came out of the bridge and Rick led the way to a ladder down to the weather deck. All three had their weapons ready and continually scanned the area around them. Once on the weather deck they found the door to the inside stairwell to the tween deck and Rick very slowly led the way down. Suddenly, he stopped and raised his hand in a fist, indicating to the others to stop. He bent down and peered under a ledge. He eased back up, pointed to his eyes and then showed seven fingers, indicating he saw seven enemy.

Emmett pointed to his eyes and then to his weapon.

Rick nodded indicating he did see weapons.

Emmett signaled that the team would go down the stairs fan out and take out all seven enemy. The other men understood, in a fan, left side takes out targets starting on the left, the center takes out targets in the middle and the right side takes out targets starting on the right. He held up three fingers and the others nodded. They readied themselves to go down the stairs.

Rick held up three fingers and pulled one in…then another…then the third.

Emmett saw Doug move to the left and followed Rick as he stopped in the center. Emmett saw seven men dressed in camouflage around two RIBs. They had the center cargo door halfway open. The man furthest to the left saw them coming and yelled as he reached for a weapon and Doug fired a burst into the man's torso spinning him around. Emmett focused on the man furthest on the right. He had a quizzical look on his face that disappeared as his head exploded from Emmett's 9mm rounds hitting it. Emmett swung his weapon to the left and targeted a man diving behind the closest RIB. Emmett fired a five round burst that tore through the boat and smashed into the terrorist's torso. Swinging his weapon further left he looked for more targets, but all seven men were down.

’ weapons. They pushed everything overboard after puncturing the air cells of the boats with their knives and. Emmett waved the men back to the stairwell and led the team down to the main cargo hold in the bottom of the ship. He peeked under the ledge there, but saw no one and led the team all the way down. They quickly fanned out, with Emmett going to the starboard seam in the middle of the ship, Doug to the port seam.

Rick went to the engine room as Emmett and Doug started setting their charges, but Rick froze at the door. A man wearing dirty green coveralls stood inside. The man turned, saw Rick and reached for an AK47 leaning against a bulkhead. Rick had slung his MP5 and held the haversacks full of C4. The man grabbed the rifle by the barrel with his left hand and pulled it up and grabbed the trigger area with his right hand. At the same time, Rick dropped the haversacks and drew his pistol. Rick fired first hitting the man in the chest. The man started falling backward and his dying reflex pulled the trigger of his rifle firing a four round burst with the first round hitting the bulkhead to the left of Rick's leg, spraying it with shrapnel.
The second round hit Rick's upper left leg, smashing into the thigh muscle and exited at an angle. The third round hit him in the right side of his stomach just under his vest, coming out the back of his right side, leaving a large hole. The last round hit the bulkhead just to the right of Rick's head, slamming shrapnel into the right side.

Emmett had just set his charges for ten minutes and saw Doug finished his when he heard the shots. He looked to the engine room to see Rick crashing to the ground. Both Emmett and Doug ran to Rick. Emmett bent down over Rick.

“Rick! Talk to me!”

Rick tried to mouth words, but nothing came out.

“Doug, cover while I check him out!”

“We gotta go, Emmett! The charges are set! Let's get him outta here and work on him on the boat!”

“Standby, dammit!”

Emmett worked feverishly to stop all the bleeding he could and he gave Rick morphine. “Okay, let's go!”

Doug set Rick's charge and threw it into the engine room. Emmett picked Rick up in his huge arms and cradled him like a baby. Doug led the way back to the stairs, MP5 at the ready. He stopped at the top and saw a man coming quickly down the stairs with a panicked look on his face and pointing an AK 47. Doug put his sights on the man's head and fired a burst, stitching up the man's torso. The man fell back and then started slipping down the stairs at Doug. Doug kicked him off the stairs so he wouldn't hit Emmett and Rick.

HHe cleared the tween deck and motioned Emmett up. Doug led the way up the stairway to the weather deck. He stopped at the door and cleared the area.

Doug scrambled up the ladder to the second deck of the super-structure and took a rope out of his pack. He held on to both ends and dropped the loop to Emmett who put it under Rick's arms. Doug pulled Rick up while Emmett helped by holding Rick enough
to halve his weight on the rope. They got Rick to the deck and moved to the exhaust stack and over the incline. Then Emmett climbed down to the platform at the top of the rope ladder. He aimed his flashlight toward the rear of the ship and flashed three times. Immediately, Cái arrived at the stern with the RIB. Doug lowered Rick to Emmett and then climbed down to the platform. Emmett started down the ladder when an explosion rocked the boat…then another.

Doug steadied himself and lowered Rick to Emmett and then together, they worked him down the ladder. The ship had slowed considerably and settled lower in the water. Emmett let Rick hang for a moment and stepped into the RIB. Then he grabbed Rick's feet and pulled him into the boat as gently as he could. Emmett waved for Doug to come down. Men were shouting on the boat now.

Doug looked up at the superstructure. “Emmett! Get away from the ship! The engine room is going to blow!”

“Get your ass down here, now!”

Doug saluted Emmett and climbed back up the ladder and moved to the second deck. He cleared the area and went to the bridge. He looked through the window and saw a man screaming into a microphone. He had a pistol in the other hand. The man threw the microphone at the bridge console just as Doug entered the bridge. The man turned and Doug fired a burst into the man's chest and then his head. He fell backwards onto the bridge console and then hit the deck with a dull thud.

The crewman they had hogtied still lay there with terrified eyes. Doug cut the plastic cuffs, waved to the man and ran out the door. Another explosion rocked the ship. He looked around and saw no one so he scrambled over the incline and climbed down to the platform at the top of the rope ladder. To his surprise, the crewman from the bridge followed him and when he landed on the platform, he raised his hands in a gesture to show he meant no harm and then indicated he wanted to come with Doug.

The water splashed around the small deck and Doug grabbed the man, flashed his light three times out to sea and jumped into the water holding the terrified seaman. Moments later the man started shouting. Doug looked back and realized the crewman couldn't swim. He swam to the man and grabbed him. Turning him around,
Doug put his left arm under the man's armpits and began a lifeguard carry away from the ship. Doug truly worried he couldn't swim fast enough away from the ship before it sank and took him down with its suction.

He swam as hard as he could until he heard an outboard engine. He reached into the vest and pulled out a chemlite, lit it and held it up. His arms and legs ached and he didn't know how long he could hold the other man up. The outboard came closer and it bumped into him.

“Emmett! I'm here!”

The engine went into idle and Cái's face appeared over the side of the boat. “Emmett's back on the General's boat, working on Rick. Get in!”

“Here, help this idiot get on board.” Cái flashed a surprised look and then reached over and pulled in the crewman. Doug then climbed on board and flopped down on the deck, his left shoulder throbbing. Cái jumped to the helm and gunned the engine, pulling the RIB in a tight turn away from the ship and back to David's boat. Doug sat up and watched as the ship broke up and sank into the sea. The man looked at him, put his hands together and bowed to Doug. He nodded back.

As they approached David's boat, a helicopter flew away. Cái brought the RIB up to the stern and Doug scrambled onto the swim platform and secured the line. Cái took the crewman's arm and led him off the RIB. Doug and David pulled the RIB onto the boat then David went to the helm and headed the boat back to Hualien.

“Is Rick on that chopper?”

“Yes.”

“How is he doing?”

“Not good. Emmett had to restart his heart twice here. It's a good thing he is a medic or Rick would be dead.”

Doug dropped into the seat next to David, his mind and stomach churning at the same time. A plan formed in his mind. “Where is the chopper taking Rick and Emmett?”

“To the Navy hospital in Taipei.”

“You still have one of our sat phones?”

“Yes, it's over there,” David said pointing to a waterproof bag.

T
WENTY
-F
OUR

ROBIN AND MARK WATCHED
from their dark corner as two men talked at the door to the engine room. The men had come down a few minutes after Robin and Mark settled into their hiding space. Since then, one stayed there while the other kept going up the steps and coming back a few minutes later.

The ship had been underway for almost an hour and it rolled and pitched in the storm. Robin figured they had a good hour, maybe even an hour and a half to take care of business and get off the ship before the charges blew. The ship wasn't large, so he figured it wouldn't take too long to find the nuke. Of course, they had to get by the tangos and the crew to find it…minor problem.

The two men at the engine room headed for the stairs, still talking to each other. Robin could just hear enough to understand they had some kind of problem with the engine.

Mark looked at Robin. “What's the plan, boss?”

“I was about to ask you the same thing.”

“You're not bolstering my confidence, Rob.”

Robin smiled at Mark. “We have Ernie's plan, we're just going to have to adapt it to a two man team instead of a six man team.”

Mark had a silent thinking moment. “Well, once on board the ship, his plan called for disabling the ship's communications.”

“Right, but he counted on getting on the ship from the outside. We have to get to those antenna from the inside or blow the radios in the bridge with our grenades. Either way, my guess is we're going to have to fight to get there.”