Cruise (31 page)

Chapter Thirty Three

Getaway

Fast Boat II, the launch with the largest passenger capacity, eased along side and the teams, which converged on the starboard rail, began the difficult task of transferring the former captives to the bobbing, rigid inflatable twenty feet below. This was accomplished with each girl, fitted with a life jacket and an attached safety line, escorted down the swaying ladder and onto the launch’s pitching deck. This process took time, but allowed Groff and Bibi to deal with the unpleasant task of making sure there were no survivors among the pirate/slaver crew

Isa and Capstan Oberly, who were conveniently on the bridge when Bibi burst through the starboard door, both reached for their automatics, only to freeze in mid reach and then collapse when the .45 ball ammunition slugs entered their skulls almost exactly between the eyes. Both recoiled backwards only to receive an additional hollow-nosed .45 round in the spine from Roz’s weapon. Two additional shots from Groff’s suppressed SMG took out the others on the bridge.

“Everyone out,” Bibi ordered. “Jena, get a final head count. Roz, are you sure we have everyone who was held here?”

“Double checked every space we could find. We’ve got the twins, all three Norquists and others. No one really knows how many captives were here.”

“Okay. Check with any who are coherent and make sure we haven’t missed any storage spaces. Then call the boats once again and have them do a headcount. I’ll be out of here in less than five. Jean, you take over RIB #1 and be ready to grab me. I’ll be moving fast, so have two team members ready to grab my harness on the first pass.”

“Got it,” said Groff, moving out the starboard bridge door and heading for the deck rail where the ladders still swung free.

Following the plan, everyone except Bibi exfiltrated to the RIBs and Fast Boats. As soon as they were loaded, the boats disengaged and moved off, holding course about a cable length away.

Bibi moved quickly through the freighter’s bridge and radio shack, seeking something that would allow her to do the most damage quickly after they escaped. The C4 explosive charges they brought with them were already set in the engine space, so she wanted something else to make sure that they wouldn’t have to return to a half sunk wreck and finish the job. The well-equipped galley behind the bridge, intended to provide coffee and quick meals for those on duty, provided her with exactly what she sought. In a well-vented storage room behind the cooking and prep area, she found the twin propane tanks that provided gas for hot water and cooking. This was a separate system from the main electrical network on the ship, but was well suited to Bibi’s intended purpose. She shut off the full time ventilation blowers and used her multi-tool kit to quickly disconnect the copper pipes leading from the tanks through the wall and into the kitchen. Then she opened the regulator valves on both tanks and left the room, leaving the door open. In the galley, she quickly filled mixing bowls with olive oil and 151 proof rum and placed them carefully into the double microwave ovens over the counter, setting the timers at ten minutes.

Bibi left the galley, sprinting back through the wheelhouse and out onto the deck, avoiding the remaining bodies of the pirate/slavers and their hapless security team. As she ran across the deck, she saw RIB #1 coming closer to the hanging ladders, ready to take her aboard. With Jean at the helm of one and Jenna easily handling the other, the small boats kept up with the ship and they were using only low power. Bibi waved to Groff and charged over the rail, safety rope in her gloved hands, but not attached to her harness. The last thing she wanted was to be dragged along the ship’s side, attached to the rope, if she missed the transfer to the RIB. She actually slid more than climbed down the ladder and jumped when the first RIB came as close as it was going to get. Four strong hands grabbed her harness and pulled her aboard.

“Go, go, go,” Bibi shouted.

Groff slammed the throttle/shifters full forward, spinning the wheel to the right. The RIB leapt into the wave, heeling over as it crossed the ship’s bow wake while all occupants grabbed safety rails and seats. As the three big, four-cycle, 300 hp Mercury engines spun up to full RPMs, Groff turned away from the ship’s rusty hull and adjusted the trim tabs a bit to get maximum lift with the full load they carried.

With its triple engines screaming, the lightweight RIB literally flew over the waves, leaving only the lower drive units and a bit of the center keel even touching the crests. Behind them, Jenna’s RIB #2 and Fast Boats I and II easily kept up and they took a course that was ninety degrees perpendicular to that of the freighter, which was under half-ahead power and auto-pilot, aimed at the African coast, a mere three thousands miles away.

In ninety seconds, they were more than a mile away from the ship and headed at top speed towards where they hoped Altuna would rendezvous. They were another mile or two into their new course when there was a bright flash, then another, followed by several sharp concussions as the now distant freighter seemed to jump in the water, settle a bit at the bow, then roll over and slowly sink out of sight.

“What was that?” Groff shouted in Bibi’s ear as the team women clung to the seats of the speeding boat and looked back at where the freighter had been. The site was now marked only with a black smoke cloud over the water.

“Someone forgot to check their ovens,” Bibi said with a grin. “Want to go back and look for survivors?”

Groff smiled her usual secret smile and focused on the GPS.

Both Norquist girls, still suffering shock and fear from their time on the ship, began to cry and Bibi put an arm around each and had them sit in the well-padded bucket seats, then offered to strap them in. Both declined, understandably not wishing further restraint of any kind. Connie, Carol and Roz strapped in and fell asleep almost at once.

Groff piloted the speeding craft easily, leading the four-boat, staggered V formation on a compass and GPS heading towards the rendezvous waypoint with Altuna. Jenna, by now able to demonstrate her already superb piloting skill, slipped her RIB in a bit closer on the left flank, Fast Boats I and II closed in on the right and the four powerful speedboats made good time through the moderate chop. As darkness fell, Groff pointed to a bright, flashing, pinpoint speck on the horizon and altered course a few degrees. Before sunrise, they were along side Altuna, having easily made contact without breaking radio silence. The Fast Boats took their passengers to the lowered swim platform. The freed girls, each with a team escort, went quickly up the boarding ladder to the stern deck, were given blankets and taken to the clinic. At the same time, the crews climbed the suspended gangway to the hull doors on each side and the RIBs were quickly lifted up and stowed in their cradles.

Groff and Bibi went to the bridge and briefly discussed their destination with Ingram. The decision was to go back to St. Thomas, but to stay offshore while Bibi and Groff went ashore and got in touch with US authorities. All agreed to continue radio silence and to maintain a low profile until it was clear that at least the most dangerous elements of the slavers had been neutralized. By mid morning, Altuna rested at anchor and both USCG and several other officials were on board, carefully interviewing the released captives and debriefing Groff and Bibi.

By noon, it was all over. Heavily armed assault police squads raided the fortress, casino quarters and other locations that Groff and Bibi provided. The casualties on the other side were higher than the police commander expected, but none of his people were seriously hurt and the city jail was suddenly filled to capacity with gang members and their associates, many showing scars and bruises indicating that the police had not been overly gentle when arresting these thugs.

Police reports said that somehow, despite the police efforts, it seemed that the Oberlys escaped, much to everyone’s discontent. But with the island sealed, Police Commissioner Cartwright said it was only a matter of time until these two ringleaders would be captured. Neither Bibi nor Groff questioned or commented about this, convinced that the nasty pair was by now sleeping the sleep of the dead in their sunken freighter.

“When are you two leaving?” Cartwright asked Bibi and Jean as they wrapped up the interviews and most of the crew headed back to Altuna.

“As soon as we can,” Bibi said. “But I am still very concerned that Brillcart may get away. I just made a call to our friends in Zurich and they assured me that they would move at once on Brillcart’s villa.”

“Good. We’ll follow up from here and let you know,” added the chief.

“Somehow, I think we’ll hear about it,” Bibi said. Looking at Groff she added, “Let’s get out of here. We’ve been paid and we are done. The girls here are in safe hands and we deserve a real vacation.”

“Agreed,” said Groff. “Where to?”

“How about Tatoga? “ Bibi said, laughing as she stuffed her usual small bundle of traveling clothes and gear into her duffel and wondering if her friend and partner remembered the discussion they had weeks ago about the secluded camp in B.C. with its gorgeous lake and tiny log cabins. “And I was thinking of asking Karine to join us,” Bibi added, looking over her shoulder at Groff, knowing that Jean shared her fondness for the woman as well. “I think I owe her for my error in Berlin anyway.”

“What was that?” Groff asked, imagining Bibi and Karine in some happy, but compromising position.

“Uh, I left her chained in the shower while I went and dealt with the Arab buggers who tried to kidnap me. The Brillcart thugs.”

“Oh. Well then we should not only invite her, we should pay her way,” Groff offered.

“You sure?” Bibi asked. “You know she really enjoys being the sex slave to either or both of us.”

“Well, I’m sure we can work something out among the three of us,” Groff offered. “She is certainly a bonafide member of our little club and a third will just make things a little more interesting. I’m looking forward to tying her up. We’ll be the hottest threesome in British Columbia. Besides, it seems to me that she is a pretty good cook.”

“Right. Yes. Of course,” Bibi said. “Karine has been to all the big cooking schools and has certificates, urkunde and diplomas enough to be able to run the kitchen at The Regent.

“I assume you mean The Regent in Berlin, not the ones in London or Singapore,” Groff added with a grin, always enjoying the on-going restaurant debate they shared.

“Indeed. The Berlin Regent, my dear. I honestly don’t care that much for The Regent in Singapore, anyway. Last time I was there they were running a Grand Prix Race through the city in the middle of the night. Try sleeping while the noise of those Formula One cars ricochets off the high rise buildings. I’ll text her and follow up with an email before we leave.”

“I’ll vote for that. Charter or commercial air,” Groff asked, picking up her mini-sat phone and pushing a few buttons.

“I think that, after all of this and given the new status of our bank accounts, we’re entitled to charter, don’t you, Hon?” Bibi said.

Groff nodded and made the call. She was not surprised to get no answer and left a voice mail for Karine, who was, unknown to Bibi and Jean, still chained and being regularly fucked and whipped in Brillcart’s dungeon. By now, Brillcart had figured out that she was enjoying it far too much and he was anxious to get rid of this singular nuisance because no matter what he did to her, it seemed like she was always ready for more.

“Maybe I can trade her in for a different model,” Brillcart thought that night as he went about his rounds in the basement. “I could use some new material.”

With that in mind, the fat watchmaker called one of his friends at a plush downtown Zurich hotel and asked bluntly if there was any “new talent” available. His resource, the senior concierge, noted that there were two young tourist women who seemed to fill the bill.

“How young?”

“Passports are Canadian and say the blond is twenty and her companion, also blond, but a bit heftier in the tits, is twenty-two. Both model material, but perhaps a bit too…shall we say…voluptuous.”

“How soon can you make them available?” Brillcart asked, buzzing his driver’s pager and grabbing his coat and hat.

“They’re nicely packaged in the lower basement right now,” the hotel man said. “We haven’t had time to prep them though.

“That is fine. I’ll take them as they are. The usual fee will be paid, plus a bonus for you. I will be there in forty minutes. Have them ready.”

Epilogue

At 0230 hours, Zurich time, while Brillcart was busy inspecting and testing his new acquisition in the hotel’s spacious cellar, two platoons of heavily armed Swiss national police with dogs and two armored vehicles raided his villa in the Zurich suburbs. Unfortunately, the owner was not at home. However, there was a brief exchange of gunfire and then the raiders easily entered the house, finding a few wounded and injured servant defenders. The search dogs quickly located the hidden basement entrance. Female officers, assisted by EMT teams, slowly managed to free the seven naked and bound young women in the basement cells. Initial reports indicated that all were battered, but would survive. Bibi’s friend, Karine, was among them.

As final closure, a few weeks later, the net of a local island fisherman brought up a pair of corpses from a shallow offshore fishing area, nearly a hundred miles southwest of the Caribbean island. Despite their poor condition, the bodies were tentatively identified as those of Isa and her brother, Capstan. Brillcart was not found.

A German breed of large, heavy warhorse, initially bred for carrying a man in full armor. In modern times, they are shown in Combined Training Events, being extremely hardy.

High end inboard recreational runabouts from an old domestic Maine boat builder.

The
Syrette
is a device for injecting liquid drugs through a needle. It is similar to a syringe except that it has a spring-loaded piston inside the tube which, when released, forces the drug through the hollow needle. Military syrettes have been used to inject morphine and atropine.