Necessary Retribution (20 page)

“That's what I figure, too.”

“This time we can't ignore the communications because it could bring ships and planes out to the area when we are trying to get away.”

Mark nodded.

“Okay, so when we get to the weather deck, I want you to go up and take care of the communications. It'll be your call on how you do it. I'll start looking for the nuke. When we come across anyone, we try to take them out quietly. I know this isn't exactly how we're wired, but we take no prisoners. We see someone, they're history. Any other way and we won't get off here alive.”

“Given what these fuckers are up to, I'm good to go.”

Robin put his hand on his friend's shoulder. “You're amazing, Mark.”

Mark grinned.

Robin cuffed him on the chin. “Let's get ready.”

Mark put his hand on Robin's arm. “I have a confession to make.”

“What?”

“I broke a major team rule and called Jessica Lanthrop awhile back.” Mark waited for Robin's reaction.

“So, how did it turn out?”

“We're engaged. If I don't…”

“Stow it, Mark. We're both going to make it. Congratulations. Let's get this done and get home.”

The two men checked their weapons and magazines. As they were finishing their preparation, one man came back to the engine room. When Robin saw Mark was ready, he nodded to him and Mark nodded back. They started moving to the engine room and into the dim light.

Robin went to the starboard charge and looked at the timer. He was shocked to see they only had fifty more minutes. Time had gone by faster than he'd estimated and he cursed himself for not paying more attention to his watch.

“We only have fifty minutes,” he whispered to Mark.

Mark's face showed concern, but not panic. He had a hardened look of resolve and Robin thought he'd aged five years.

As they moved closer to the engine room, the man came out, saw them and ran for the stairs. Robin fired a burst and the dull thump,
thump of the silenced weapon knocked the man against the bulkhead and he collapsed to the deck. Robin went over and confirmed he was dead. They dragged the body back to the dark front of the hold. The two men moved up the stairs with Robin in the lead. As they got near the tween deck, Robin could hear several voices. He took a quick peek at the top of the stairs and saw five men around RIBs near the side cargo door, with weapons all over the area.

He whispered to Mark. “Five tangos, many weapons near the side cargo door. The tangos are standing together. We'll take positions on either side of the stairwell and shoot from there. I'll take right, you got left.”

Mark nodded.

They moved to the stairwell with Robin standing on the right side and Mark going prone on the left. Bringing his MP5 to bear on the tango on the right, Robin figured he had to move fast and only needed to see his targets drop. The rolling of the ship caused him to take more time than he wanted, but he got a good sight picture, squeezed the trigger and the tango dropped with a two round burst to the upper chest. He heard Mark's weapon fire as he put another two round burst into the next tango he saw standing to the left, and that man dropped from Robin's vision. He moved the sights further left and shot a man running for the cargo door. The bullets ripped into the man's back. He slammed into the door and dropped to the deck. Sweeping further left showed Mark had dropped the other two. Robin cleared around him and saw nothing.

“Clear!” He said in a hoarse whisper.

“Clear!” Mark replied.

They moved forward and checked the bodies. The first man Robin shot was still alive, so he put a round in his head.

“These assholes never knew what hit them,” Mark whispered.

“Let's hope we can keep it that way. These RIBs are our ticket out of here. When you disable the antenna, get down here and protect these babies. Let's move.”

The two man team moved up the last flight of stairs to the door leading out to the weather deck. When they stepped out, the wind howled and sheets of rain pelted them. They moved to the ladder going to the second deck of the superstructure. The walkway to the crew quarters ran to the left of the ladder.

Robin stopped and whispered to Mark. “Good luck, partner. If you get compromised, break radio silence. Otherwise, I'll see you on the tween deck.”

“Good luck to you, too, Rob.”

Robin saluted and headed down the walkway.

Mark climbed the ladder and peeked over the top. He saw two men working on something by the ladder he needed to climb to get to the antenna. They were in foul weather gear and their backs were turned to him. He slowly put the muzzle of his weapon over the edge of the deck and rested it there so it moved with the roll of the ship and his intended targets. He pushed the selector switch to semi-auto and took careful aim on the head of the man on the left. He fired and the man dropped. He moved the sights to the right and the other man turned with a surprised look filling Mark's sights. The man died with that look and a bullet hole in his forehead.

Keeping low, Mark stepped onto the deck and ghosted to the ladder to the communications antenna. He climbed the ladder, at times holding tight in the roll, which got worse the higher he went. He reached the upper deck and knelt on one knee while he surveyed the area. The ship had a pronounced roll at this level and he held on tight. He saw a communications satellite dish to his left. He decided to save it for last in case it was video the crew may be watching. He saw several antennas to his right, which looked easy to disable, but immediately in front of him stood a high mast with a long range antenna on it. The base of the antenna was a good twelve feet up the mast. Mark swallowed his pounding heart.
This could be worse than a HALO jump!

He raised off his knee and shuffled on the slippery deck over to the base of the mast to a metal ladder surrounded by circular braces running up it like a tube. Mark reached up and grabbed the bottom brace, pulling himself to the bottom rung. The horizontal rain stung his face and he climbed back down and knelt again, taking off his pack. He opened it, fished out his goggles and put them on. He
unhooked a pack shoulder strap and looped it around a handhold. He started back up the ladder.

Each rung was slippery and the roll of the ship made balance difficult, but he made it to the base of the antenna. He pulled out a wire cutter from his vest, wiped his goggles and started cutting wires. He prayed the crew wouldn't transmit or he would get a good jolt. He finally cut through all the wires, put the cutters back in his vest, went down the ladder and retrieved his pack.

Now Mark knew he had to move fast. Time was running out. He quickly crawled to the smaller antenna and disabled them. Then he crawled to the back of the deck and removed the transponder from the satellite dish. He started for the ladder to the second deck when gunfire erupted just below him.

When Robin left Mark, he started down the walkway and stopped at the first porthole on the starboard side. He did a quick peek and saw four men sitting on bunk beds. He looked again and they seemed to be just discussing something. He ducked and went to the second porthole which looked into the same room from a different angle. He didn't see the nuke pack in either view.

He moved to a causeway and could see it had four doors, two on either side. He figured they were entrances to cabins like the one in which he just looked. He moved back out to the second deck and to the next porthole on the starboard side and looked in, but it was dark. He went back to the causeway and as he passed the door of the rear port cabin, he saw two men arguing. He went around the corner and peeked in the porthole and saw the same man from the dock holding the nuke pack in front of him. Another man yelled at him. Robin went back to the door and tried the latch…it moved. He stepped back with the muzzle of his weapon at eye level and opened the door.

The tango with the nuke yelled when he saw Robin, who immediately put a burst into the other man knocking him forward into the tango holding the nuke and then he fell to the deck. The man
with the nuke hit his back against a bunk bed, but kept standing using the nuke as protection. He made a move for a pistol on a small table. Robin couldn't shoot because of the nuke, so he rushed forward and slammed into the man knocking him down and sending the pistol flying. Robin grabbed the nuke pack and pulled, but the man just came with it. Robin took a step backward to pull harder and stumbled over the body of the first man he shot and fell on his butt. He quickly rolled to a crouching position as the man rushed for the door swinging a metal bar. The bar hit Robin on the left side of his neck just under his jaw and against his larynx. He grabbed the hand with the bar, but he choked and struggled for breath. With all his might, he slammed the man's right arm against the metal end of the bunk bed frame and heard it snap. The man screamed and dropped the nuke. Robin smashed his fist into the middle of the man's face. The man fell backwards and crashed into the small table and hit the deck in a flurry of shattered wood and splinters. He rolled over and struggled to his feet.

Robin bent down to pick up the nuke, but he dropped to his knees trying to breathe. The man charged Robin again ready to strike him with one of the legs from the table. He swung, but Robin blocked the blow with his left hand and drawing his knife with his right, he rammed it into the man's gut, cutting edge up. The man gasped as Robin used both hands to pull the knife up cutting from the gut to the sternum. Their eyes met and Robin tilted the point of the blade and shoved it into the man's heart. The terrorist's eyes went dull and his body shuddered to limp.

Robin collapsed with the man's body. He forced himself to calm down and breathing became easier. He coughed and spit blood. He staggered up with the pack and slowly opened the door. A man stood at the opposite corner on the port walkway with an AK47. He looked right at Robin and fired a burst, but Robin ducked behind the steel door as bullets smashed into it. He fired a burst through the crack and then took one of his frag grenades and tossed it out to the walkway. It went off with a loud bang and then Robin heard screaming. He put a fresh magazine in his submachine gun and leading with this weapon, checked the area. A head poked out of the cabin where the four men were. Robin fired a burst at the head and it ducked, leaving the door cracked. He ran to the door and tossed
another grenade into the room and slammed the door. He ran to the stairwell to the tween deck, almost slipping on the wet weather deck in the wind as the second grenade went off. There he found Mark lying at the top of the stairs.

Upon hearing the gunfire below him, Mark was torn. He wanted to go to Robin, but he knew he had to protect at least one of the RIBs they saw on the tween deck. He ran to the ladder and slid down to the second deck of the superstructure, seeing a man come out of the bridge as he did so. Mark hit the bottom of the ladder in a crouching position and fired at the man. At the same time he saw the muzzle flash of a pistol in the man's hand and felt a searing burn on the top of his right shoulder. The man fell back against the rail at the door of the bridge and crumpled down against the door. Mark then heard a loud bang on the port side of the ship.