Targets Entangled (25 page)

“SITREP?”

“Surface combatant designated Tango One was spotted ten minutes ago,” Lieutenant Commander Chapman replied, standing on an elevated platform at the aft end of the compartment next to a young woman who was relaying information to another operator. The large screen displays on the bulkhead showed the location of a ship approximately forty nautical miles out and closing in on
The Promised Land
. “We’re attempting to contact Tango One on multiple naval navigation channels as well as guards nets, but so far there has been no joy. I have the helo standing by for launch.”

“Speed?”

“We make their speed at just over eighteen knots, with a combined closure speed of thirty-five knots. I have all weapons systems on weapons hold except CIWS, which I’ve selected to automatic.”

“Lieutenant Commander Chapman, it appears we now have multiple smaller targets emanating from Tango One,” a man said who was located to the right of the consoles. “Counting…three, no—six high speed surface targets. Designate Tango Zulu One through Tango Zulu Six. It looks like seven surface targets total, sir.”

As the operator accounted for the incoming traffic, it was apparent onscreen what had just occurred. Six smaller fast boats had launched from their mother ship and were headed straight for
The Promised Land
on multiple slightly varying bearings. In all likelihood they were dealing with pirates who had no fucking clue as to who they were dealing with.
The Promised Land
wasn’t a defenseless merchant ship carrying a cargo hold full of grain to the west coast of Africa. These criminals were about to face a modern armed, highly capable combatant ship with multiple overlapping defensive weapon systems.

“Launch the helo. I want to know who we’re dealing with. Sound general quarters.”

Starr was using the messnet radio interface on one of the nearby operator consoles to keep in contact with Captain Hensel on the bridge and he’d already given the order to bring the ship to a fifteen degree bearing in reference to the threat. The general quarters alarm was sounded over the 1MC, bringing every single member of the crew to his or her battle stations and all watertight hatches were battened down. The ship heeled over with the sudden course change, allowing it to unmask multiple weapon systems to engage any potential target down the designated threat bearing. Daegan’s fingers itched to be up on the weather deck with his sniper rifle, but the targets were too far out and would most likely never be allowed inside small arms weapon’s range. There was a COC operator that was constantly trying to initiate contact with their attackers, but to no avail. They waited impatiently for an update from the aircrew in the helicopter as they flew a circuitous route around to the flank of the approaching Tango One platform.

“Idiots,” Stick mumbled under his breath, watching the scene unfold in front of them. The six smaller speedboats were traveling at a much faster rate than their mother ship, keeping to their course. “You might think these douchebags would have checked out who they were coming after.”

“Icepack, this is Coyote. Fast boats approaching your position twenty-five clicks out.” The pilot of the helicopter’s voice came through perfectly clear throughout the room, transmitting the image of what they were seeing electronically to a side frame of the main situation display. “Appears to be armed with heavy machine guns and rocket propelled grenades bearing two hundred and eighty-five degrees north/northeast.”

“Ma’am, request permission to engage.”

“Take all necessary measures to defend the ship against any and all hostile actions,” Starr replied to Lieutenant Commander Chapman’s request.

“Bridge, COC. Recommend we maintain ship’s current bearing.”

“Fire control, prepare to engage fast moving targets with five inch gun and Phalynx CIWS. Fire control, fix Tango Zero One’s current position and speed, enter firing solution for portside battery Harpoon launch. ECM, hammer those emitters. I don’t want an operational radar left on Tango Zero One. Fire control, five-inch gun, three shot, fifteen-degree spread red star clusters. I don’t want these guys claiming we didn’t warn them off. Five control, five-inch gun—fire!”

Orders were being given over radios by various crewmembers, beeps and whistles from the control panels were echoing around them, and the tension had ratcheted higher. Daegan didn’t take his eyes off of the big screen, although he did reply to Stick’s earlier question. Suddenly the ship bucked as the five-inch gun fired three rapid salvoes.

“From their inventory it looks as if they did know who they were engaging with,” Daegan said under his breath, crossing his arms and getting comfortable. This was a show he didn’t want to miss. “What the hell do they think they’re going to get if they
were
able to take us over?”

“Weapons,” Trigger offered up from his position behind them. They were all standing out of the way, although Daegan noticed that Diesel had strolled over to the hatch that led to the opposite corridor. He was sitting on his haunches, but there was something about his stature that seemed a bit off. “Or hostages. We have a pretty damn big crew compared to most ships.”

Trigger happened to notice Diesel’s attention to the corridor as well and walked over to the exit, being careful not to block any operators’ line of sight to the situation display. Daegan recalled the last time Diesel had noticed something or someone, but he relaxed slightly when Trigger shook his head that the coast was clear. He had to wonder how the outcome of this morning would affect their plans for later this afternoon.

“Here we go,” Gunny said in a low voice, warning them that the shit was about to hit the fan.

The team didn’t need the heads up per se since they could hear the COC watch officer firing off orders to various system operators. As if they were watching a video game, a group of smaller symbols could be seen on the screen in front of them making their way toward
The Promised Land
. Suddenly the ship felt a series of bucking vibrations as the five-inch naval gun stated to engage the small fast moving targets. When the AAC fragmentation shells reached their targets, the proximity fuses detonated the twenty-five kilogram shells, decimating the small soft targets. As they were hit, the blip on the screen became larger and then vanished into nothing as their radar return first spread and disappeared. One down and five to go.

“Look at those bastards,” Doc murmured, his voice coming off of Daegan’s right side. Trigger had returned, although he’d allowed Diesel to stay by the hatch. Daegan didn’t doubt that he’d been told to alert them should someone happen by outside the exit. “They just keep coming.”

Within the first minute the five-inch gun had fired a dozen well-aimed rounds and the remaining targets were no longer visible on the screen. The tension in the room didn’t subside as they were still left to deal with the mother ship, which the helicopter had identified as some type of cargo ship before they suddenly veered away from their attack bearing.

“Hail Tango Zero One and inform them to stop their engines and prepare to be boarded,” Lieutenant Commander Chapman informed the operations operator. “Failure to stop or any resistance to boarding operations will have severe penalties, up to and including sinking their ship.”

Daegan and the rest of the team continued to observe the operation on the big screen. A high-definition real time video was projected onto the situation display as the ship became visible on the horizon. It eventually replaced the map display in the center of the screen as boarding operations began.
The Promised Land
slowed to a stop one and a half clicks off the fantail of the suspect ship. Broadside to the target ship, the ship’s crew prepared to launch two Naval Surface Warfare (NSW) eleven-meter boats. They were then lowered into the water so that the crew could carry out their boarding duties. It wasn’t long before they were notified that ten men had been left behind on the mother ship, although only seven were being brought back aboard after fire was exchanged during boarding operations.

Daegan would have loved to be in on the questioning of these men that had chosen to try and overtake them for whatever ill-gotten gains they thought could be taken in this attempted piracy. As it was, Starr had walked out of the room without a backwards glance. She and Captain Hensel would find the answers they needed. Unfortunately this pushed back the timetable on trying to apprehend the person responsible for murdering Tami McDaniel and trying to sabotage
The Promised Land
.

‡

T
he ship was
buzzing about what had taken place this morning, including the radio room. Ferrin and Jerry had been fortunate that nothing had gone wrong with the communications systems during the enemy attack on their ship. Roger and Spivey had even shown up early to help out if needed, but all the extra personnel did was cause the workspace to be overcrowded and leave little room for what really needed to be taking place.

Ferrin hadn’t counted on seeing Daegan at all since the attack, but she wasn’t so sure that this incident was what he’d been referring to last night and earlier this morning. She’d find out when he came back to his stateroom tonight, but it was only a little after fourteen hundred hours and she’d have to wait. Her shift had come to an end and there hadn’t been much to go over with Roger since he’d been there for a few hours already by that point.

“Anything else?” Ferrin asked Roger as she slipped her glasses into the front pocket of her shirt.

“No, I think we’re good.” Roger turned to go back to his desk when he tapped the clipboard. “Wait, there is one more thing. Have you noticed the frequency on the ship-to-shore communications being off at all?”

“I caught that a week ago but it hasn’t happened since,” Ferrin explained, lowering her brows in concentration. “Why? Have you?”

“No, I haven’t seen anything off at all, but Chief Jackson asked me about it before he went off duty yesterday. I just wanted to be able to give him a clear answer.”

“Oh, I understand now.” Ferrin left her Tic-Tacs on her desk, knowing she had another box in Daegan’s stateroom and then turned to finish her explanation. “I was the one to bring it to Chief Jackson’s attention. With everything that’s happened I’m sure he’s just being overly cautious.”

“Who can blame him?” Roger said as he took a seat and picked up a pencil. “I’ll let Chief Jackson know before he goes off duty for the day.”

“That’s funny,” Ferrin quipped, both of them knowing full well that Chief Jackson never went off duty. She nodded and then headed to the exit, Jerry already in front of her. “Have a good evening.”

“I’m heading to the mess hall to see if there’s any additional news,” Jerry said as he opened the hatch and stepped out into the corridor. “Greek and a few others are going to kill some time while we wait for the verdict on what went down today. Want to join me?”

Ferrin considered his offer. Greek was actually one of the third shift’s radio techs by the name of Demos Angelidakis, but everyone just called him Greek. She decided she should head back to Daegan’s stateroom and maybe join the group later. If he wasn’t there, she would quickly change her clothes and then seek out Nina to get the latest scoop. Ferrin still couldn’t get Daegan’s warning out of her head and wondered if something else was going to happen. She’d rather be with someone she trusted if it did.

“I might meet you there later, but I’m going to go and change my clothes first,” Ferrin said with a smile, heading the opposite way in the galley passageway. “Save two seats if it’s busy.”

“You got it.”

Ferrin headed aft to the portside ladderwell and made her way down to the first platform level. The corridor was empty and she chalked it up to everyone heading to the common areas until an announcement was made or at least some type of news filtered down about what had occurred this morning. She was about to turn the corner and head down the portside corridor that would take her aft toward the next passageway heading to the starboard side where Daegan’s stateroom was located when she thought she caught sight of something in her peripheral vision. When she looked back there was no one to be found and yet she suddenly felt like a mouse caught in a maze.

Walking through the open archway, Ferrin glanced up the ladderwell and kept looking around to see if someone had followed. There was nothing but the air within the ladderwell became very thick, making it hard for her to breathe. She turned back toward the passageway and let her foot rest right before the threshold, straining to hear any sound from above. When she heard a faint shuffle of fabric, Ferrin turned back quickly but again…no one was there.

Ferrin backed out of the archway slowly, watching and waiting for someone to appear. Her back bumped into the bulkhead on the opposite side of the corridor and she took a moment to reduce her heart rate and even out her breathing. She wasn’t prone to overreacting, but it did cross her mind that she was seeing and hearing things that weren’t there. It didn’t help knowing that the person who killed Tami was still on this ship, walking around freely and able to do it again. She looked to her left and then her right, but like the main deck it was unusually clear.