Apocalypse Cult (Gray Spear Society) (32 page)

There were windows, but Aaron was afraid to put his face in front of one and risk getting shot. "I have a flashbang in my backpack," he said. "We could toss it in."

"Too loud," Ethel said. "Sound carries over water."

"A gas grenade, ma'am?"

"We don't have gas masks."

"Then I guess we'll have to charge in, guns blazing, and shoot them before they shoot us."

Marina pointed at a dead body at their feet. "Let him go first."

Blood still oozed from twin bullet holes in the man's forehead. Aaron clenched his teeth, lifted the bulky corpse, and used it as a large shield. The guy was heavy.

"Open the door," he grunted.

Marina drew her HK G36C and chambered a round. Apparently, the time for finesse was over.

She yanked the door open, and Aaron immediately entered. Even though the room was dimly lit, he moved as fast as he could. Automatic gunfire erupted from two directions, and he felt impacts on the corpse he held. Marina answered with her own weapon on Aaron's right side, silencing one of the enemies. Ethel killed the other with a revolver.

"Well done," Ethel said. "Anybody hurt?"

Marina shook her head.

Aaron checked himself. "No, ma'am."

His eyes had adjusted to the darkness. The two enemies turned out to be men carrying AK-47's. The heavy bullets in Marina's assault rifle had splattered the brains of one of them. Ethel had put a single round through the eye socket of the other.
Nice shot
, Aaron thought.

The bodies had Kevlar vests. He and Marina put them on.

"Aaron," Ethel said, "you take the bridge. Marina, clear the rest of this deck. I'll go below. Move!"

A stairway led up to the bridge. Aaron knew every second of delay gave the opposition time to prepare, so he immediately started up the stairs. Halfway up, he decided his Beretta probably wasn't sufficient for a one-man assault. He readied his grenade launcher instead and loaded one fragmentation grenade into the tube.
To hell with the noise
, he thought.

He crawled on his belly as he went up the stairs. His caution served him well because when he reached the top of the staircase, a bullet almost hit his ear. He answered with the grenade launcher. The resulting explosion was so loud it rattled his guts and made his ears ring. Nonetheless, he reloaded and fired a second grenade, just to be sure. Only then did he proceed.

The shrapnel had done its job, and he found three tattered bodies on the bridge. The sight of so much blood and death made his stomach clench, but he didn't have time for remorse. One of the bodies was still moving. Aaron drew his pistol and put a bullet in the man's head.

A haze of foul smoke filled the air. There was broken glass and splintered wood all around, and some windows were blown out. He wondered whether the damaged controls could still function.

Aaron found nobody else on the bridge. He heard the distinctive chatter of Marina's assault rifle below.
I should go help her.

The ship's radio crackled, and then a gruff male voice spoke, "
Scimitar of Allah,
report immediately. This is
Aegis of Allah.
We see damage to your bridge. What happened?"

Aaron raised his eyebrows.
Another ship?
He pressed the send button on the radio and said, "This is
Scimitar
. We had a serious weapons malfunction, but we can continue the mission. What's your status?"

"We're still in position. No problems to report."

"Where are you now?"

"What do you mean? Can't you see us?" There was a pause. "Who is this?"

The dead captain had a pair of binoculars around his neck. One lens was broken, but the other still worked. Aaron used it to scan the crowded harbor.

The voice on the radio said, "Identify yourself, immediately!"

Aaron turned the radio off. He opened his phone and called Edward.

"Hello?" Edward said.

"There is a ship named
Aegis of Allah
in the area. I need a description right now."

"Hold on, sir." There was the sound of tapping on a computer keyboard. "I found the registration. Length is 134 feet. Blue-gray hull. I'll send a picture to your phone."

"Thanks."

Aaron received the picture and studied it. Then he renewed his search with the broken binoculars. He found the
Aegis
floating a few hundred yards south-east of Navy Pier. Men wearing green clothes stood guard on deck.
Shit!

He ran downstairs, taking three steps at a time. The sound of automatic gunfire made him slow down. Aaron didn't want to run headlong into the middle of a gun battle.

More cautiously, he proceeded from room to room. Panels made of knot-free wood, handsomely lacquered, covered the walls. Brass fixtures added to the air of luxury. Plentiful mirrors and lights made the rooms feel big and open, despite windows so heavily tinted they were almost murky. Unfortunately, the current occupants hadn't taken good care of the ship. Stains marked the yellow carpet in many places, and dust covered all the brass. Some furniture had been removed entirely, leaving ugly bolt holes.

The occasional corpse lying on the floor didn't help the décor, either. Marina had been busy, and Aaron noted she favored head shots. A few bodies had been stabbed with knives.

There was a burst of fire from her HK G36C in the next room, followed by several single shots. He cautiously peered around the corner.

Marina crouched behind a desk, pinned down by two men with revolvers. The men wore vests and army helmets.

Aaron shot both men in the unprotected face. Marina looked at him in surprise and almost fired at him.

"Be careful!" she yelled. "I could've killed you."

"It looked like you could use some help," he said.

She stood up. "I was fine."

"If you say so. We have a big problem. There is a second cult ship south of here, and it's just as big as this one."

"Damn it! I knew this mission was going too well. Did you clear the bridge?"

He nodded.

"I'm done on this deck," she said. "Let's head downstairs and find Ethel, carefully. Her trigger finger is even quicker than mine."

They made their way to the lower deck. A central corridor ran down the middle of the ship with cabins on either side.

There was no sign of Ethel, but she had left many gruesome remnants of her passage. One poor man had been gutted, and he had obviously tried to stuff his intestines back inside before dying in agony. Another man had a knife rammed to the hilt in his ear socket. Two detached hands lay on the deck, still clutching a gun. A head was separated from a body by five feet. Pools of blood were so wide Aaron had to hop over them, and the stench of human bowel was nauseating. He had seen plenty of horrible things as a Chicago cop, but this slaughterhouse shocked him.

It was strangely quiet, the only sound being waves lapping against the hull. Aaron and Marina checked every room without finding any sign of life.

They had almost walked the length of the corridor when Ethel said, "You two are done upstairs?"

Aaron spun around to find her standing behind him. Somehow, he had walked right past her.

"Yes, ma'am," he said. "Looks like you're done down here, too. You certainly made a mess."

"One room left." She pointed at a steel hatch at the end of the corridor. There was a heavy padlock on the handle.

"Wait, we have a big problem. When I was up on the bridge, a second cult ship contacted me by radio. It's here, in the harbor."

"Hmm." She furrowed her brow. "Were you the one making all that noise up there?"

He patted the barrel of his grenade launcher. "My new favorite toy."

"I don't approve. When this mission is over, you're going to practice stealth until I'm satisfied the message has gotten through."

"Yes, ma'am, but what about the other ship? It's as big as this one."

"First thing's first. Let's see what's behind that hatch."

The padlock was too strong to force with brute strength. Instead, Ethel pressed strips of shaped explosives onto the hinges and rigged a detonator. Everybody ran into another room. Aaron covered his ears, but the explosion was quieter than he had expected.

They went through the now open hatch. The door had simply fallen out of the hole.

The room beyond held the engine and some other mechanical equipment, but mostly it was a large cargo hold. It was crammed full.

The cult had constructed a gigantic bomb from several different materials, arranged in layers, with an open path leading to the trigger in the center. The outermost layer was a large number of 50-gallon steel drums, and the markings indicated they contained kerosene or diesel fuel. Bags of fertilizer were stacked on top of and between the drums, and the air smelled like fresh manure.

The next layer was boxes of Tovex, which Aaron vaguely recalled was a bulk explosive used for mining. There was a ridiculous amount of it, thousands of pounds, enough by itself to vaporize the entire ship and anything else in the vicinity.

Going inwards, the third layer consisted of the more expensive plastic explosive, Semtex, also in boxes stacked to the ceiling. Even though the markings were mostly in Czechoslovakian, there was enough English for Aaron to recognize the contents. He recalled from a class on counter-terrorism that just a half-pound of the stuff was enough to destroy a commercial airliner, and there were thousands of times that much here.

Finally, at the very center was an electronic timer connected to detonation cord and dynamite. The bomb was currently set to explode at 9 PM. The entire detonator was completely enclosed in a glass box which had sensors all over the interior. Aaron was certain bumping or cutting the protective glass would immediately trigger the bomb. Somebody had worked very hard to make it tamper-proof. Aaron had no idea how it could be safely defused.

"Holy shit," he said. "Simon didn't screw around."

Ethel nodded. "Years of planning and preparation went into this atrocity." She paused to take a deep breath. "Here are my orders. I'll stay here and deal with this bomb... somehow. You two handle the other ship."

"Are you kidding, ma'am? It took all three of us to take this ship, and we had surprise on our side. The bad guys are expecting trouble now. I don't see how Marina and I have a chance."

"Nonetheless, those are my orders. This is an opportunity for you to earn my respect. The Lord told me you're an extraordinary man. Let's see if He was right."

"But..."

"Those are my orders!"

Aaron cowered slightly. "Yes, ma'am."

Marina grabbed his hand and pulled. "Come on. We'll take the speedboat. Let's go!"

Reluctantly, he followed her out.

Chapter Twenty-three

Ethel stared at the bomb, hoping to defuse it with the force of her severe displeasure. She knew the basics of disarming bombs, but the thing in front of her was far beyond her limited skills. The glass containment box had many different sensors to make sure nobody could reach the detonator inside without setting it off. It seemed every avenue of attack was blocked.

There were people she could call for help. The team back at headquarters had enough collective expertise to guide her through the complex defusing procedure, and if necessary, they could consult bomb experts in other Society cells. Still, Ethel would be holding the tools, not them. She felt sure she would accidently cut the wrong wire and blow herself up.

However, she could easily move the bomb to a location where it wouldn't cause any harm. Presumably, the ship's engines and controls still worked. She decided she would drive the
Scimitar
a few miles out into Lake Michigan, scuttle it, and escape on a life boat. The worst possible outcome was a burning oil slick and some dead fish. Furthermore, a lot of physical evidence would be destroyed, which was always a good thing. The police would find only unidentifiable debris, if they found anything at all.

The only serious problem with this idea was that it would take her out of the action. She wouldn't be able to get back in time to help Aaron and Marina. They would have to finish the mission without her.

That was annoying but acceptable. She had great confidence in Marina and growing confidence in Aaron. Granted, the rookie was undisciplined and disrespectful, but he had the instincts of a survivor and a remarkably quick mind. More importantly, God favored Aaron. Ethel was inclined to step back and allow Aaron to demonstrate why he deserved such a high honor.

Her decision was made. She put her doubts aside and sprung into action.

She left the cargo hold, climbed two flights of stairs, and soon arrived at the bridge. Aaron's grenades had made a real mess of the place. Half the windows and many of the instruments were broken. At least there was a fresh breeze blowing through the room.

She found the ignition, but it required a key. Fortunately, the captain's dead body was on hand, and a quick search of his pockets turned up the key. She started the engine, which purred like a lion under her feet. It really was a very nice ship.
A shame
, she thought. She opened the throttle and steered towards the nearest gap in the breakwater.

She spotted two U.S. Coast Guard patrol boats headed directly towards her. They were small, about thirty feet in length, with twin outboard motors. Perhaps the Coast Guard had noticed the damage to the bridge and was investigating.
This is Aaron's fault,
Ethel thought.
He had to use the damn grenades. He has a lot to learn.

She opened the throttle to full power. Her first priority was moving the
Scimitar of Allah
to a position as far from shore as possible. If the Coast Guard wanted to keep her company, that was their choice. She didn't see how the small patrol boats could stop her.

It turned out the
Scimitar
had plenty of horsepower. The speedometer was broken, but she estimated the ship was travelling at 20 knots, fast enough to give the Coast Guard patrols some trouble. Still, they managed to flank her on both sides.