Hostage Three (22 page)

I went over to him. There was a porthole in my cabin, and you could see the navy vessel through it, dark and low in the water, bristling with guns.

— Aren't you scared? I asked. Of them? I hooked a thumb at the porthole.

— The navy? No. Are you kidding?

— But it's the navy! They have helicopters, rockets, massive guns . . .

— And if they shoot those massive guns they kill you, too. We say in Somalia: dabaggaalle ar diley ma aragteen.

— What?

— It means, the squirrel beats the lion. We are not afraid of the big ship. We are the squirrel.

— Ahmed said you were the fox.

— Oh no, said Farouz. We are the squirrel. We are small and the navy are big, but we always win.

— What's special about the squirrel? I asked, but Farouz made a dismissive gesture, like it wasn't important.

— I will tell you, he said. Another time.

I was still watching the navy ship, wondering what they were thinking over there, wondering whether they were listening in on the negotiations. I guessed so. I guessed they were probably going to help with the handover.

— How much will you get? I asked. Of the four million, I mean. How is it divided?

— The sponsor gets thirty per cent, he said. The hijackers fifty per cent. So that's shared between me, Ahmed, Mohammed, the other men who took the boat. Ahmed and Mohammed, a bit more than the others. Ahmed is Officer One, and Mohammed is Officer Two. Me, too, because I'm the translator. The man with the bazooka? He's Technical Military. He will take down a helicopter if it tries to attack. He has already killed three people. So he gets more, too. All of this is being worked out in detail now by Nyesh and Ahmed. Then the guards who have done shifts from the shore, they get twenty per cent between them.

— What about Nyesh?

— He is on a salary from our sponsor. He doesn't take any risks in the hijacking, but he does all the accounts. He is paid a lot. Bonuses, too.

— So . . . wait. There were, what, ten of you who hijacked the yacht?

— Nine, since one died.

— So it's four million divided in half, divided by nine, give or take . . . Shit. That's a lot.

— Yes, said Farouz. Minus fifty thousand for my brother. That is all that matters to me, my brother.

— I know, I said, hoping that I believed it; deep down, thinking that I believed it.

— Well . . . he said.

— What?

— Also you.

— Also me what? I looked at him blankly.

He touched my hand, and electricity sparked. I could almost see it, a blue arc.

— You matter to me, too, he said.

— Oh, I said. My voice sounded very small, like it was a frightened little person inside me who was speaking.

— You asked me before, what I would do if Ahmed asked me to kill you. This is what I would do: I would kill him first.

— The other pirates would shoot you, I said.

— So? he answered. I would rather die than hurt you.

I stared at him.

— That's a bit over the top, isn't it? I asked.

— I am a pirate, he said. And then he smiled.

I smiled back at him. I stepped forward to give him a kiss on the cheek, on impulse, but I misstepped and tripped. He caught me. I was struck by how strong his arms were, how he smelled of sand and petrol, and sunshine. Suddenly our faces were very close together, and the waves were a rhythmical tapping on the hull, and the stars outside the porthole were gleaming.

And then, just when I thought Farouz was going to step away, he kissed me, his arms folding around me, pulling me in.

How can I describe that kiss?

It was like . . .

It was like I was a device – a TV, say – that had never been plugged in before, and now I was plugged in, connected, and electricity was coursing through me, and I realised: oh, this is what I am for; I light up with shining pictures; I glow. It was like my body found its purpose, and it scared me a bit, though at the same time everything was just his arms, his lips. Before this, it was like I hadn't been breathing, just sucking bits of air into my lungs.

Farouz pulled away for a moment.

— This is a thousand dollar fine, he says. If I get caught.

— Ha, I said. Count yourself lucky. If my dad saw us, he'd fricking kill me.

Farouz smiled weakly.

— You are surrounded by danger on all sides, he said.

He said it in a joking way, and when he did, I laughed. But it was only afterwards, lying in the cinema room, trying to sleep with the tingle of his mouth still on mine, that I replayed what he said in my head. The thing was, he was right.

I
was
in danger. All the time. And what if, by making friends with Farouz, or whatever it was we were doing, I was making things much worse?

— We've coordinated this
handover plan with the bank and the navy, Tony said, as he sat at the negotiating table two days later. And the pirates are on board with it.

He didn't seem to be aware of the irony of using that expression on a yacht boarded by pirates. He spread out a document on the coffee table in the cinema room.

— I want all of you to study this, he said. Anything goes wrong with this, we're all screwed.

The plan was written in English and Somali. It had been emailed by the navy to the yacht. Tony had been allowed to open it when the satellite link came on at 6 p.m., but only with Farouz looking over his shoulder, making sure he didn't send any emails back.

My dad looked through it first, then it went to the stepmother, then to Damian, then to me. Felipe winked at me – we were always the last.

Finally it came to me, and I glanced down it. I couldn't believe how detailed it was.

 

INITIAL SITUATION

 

Nine Somalis and six passengers aboard the yacht
Daisy May.

Royal Naval vessel
HMS
Endeavour
at anchor 150 metres away
.

 

All communication to take place on VHF channel 16.

GO PLAN

SUBMITTED BY JERRY CHRISTOPHER, NEGOTIATOR FOR GOLDBLATT BANK, ABOARD HMS
ENDEAVOUR
.
RATIFIED BY ALL PARTIES.

1) At 6 a.m.
HMS
Endeavour
will give the GO signal on VHF channel 16.

2)
All passengers will report to the rear deck. For purposes of clarity, that is Mr James Fields, Mrs Sarah Fields, Miss Amy Fields, Mr Damian Lacey, Mr Tony Purdue and Mr Felipe Santos. HMS
Endeavour
will confirm the presence of all passengers.

3)
Helicopter will leave HMS
Endeavour
and fly to a point 200 metres to the east of the
Daisy May
.
Helicopter will be weapons cold.

4)
Three Somalis will leave the
Daisy May
aboard a dinghy, carrying a portable VHF unit tuned to channel 16. They will navigate to a point below the helicopter.

5)
The helicopter will drop bags containing two million US dollars in cash. Somalis to recover the bags from the water and count to verify the full amount is present. They will then confirm by VHF to the
Daisy May
that they are in possession of half the ransom.

6)
All Somalis will disembark the
Daisy May
,
leaving the passengers aboard, and get into their own remaining dinghies and wooden boats.

7)
The helicopter will then drop the remaining two million US dollars. The Somalis below the helicopter will confirm receipt of the full amount of the ransom, and instigate retreat from the theatre of operation.

8)
All Somalis will repair to the coast in their vessels, to be verified by HMS
Endeavour
by helicopter.

9)
End of exchange.

 

At the bottom of the list was a warning:

 

Note: it is absolutely imperative that this plan is followed to the letter by all passengers and hostage-takers. Any deviation could result in danger of death to either side. During the entire exchange, the six named passengers MUST remain on the rear deck of the
Daisy May
.

 

Jesus, I thought. These guys weren't messing around. I wondered if people back home knew about this, if we were on the news, if Esme and Carrie were watching. When the helicopter flew overhead, I'd assumed it was the military casing us out, but what if they were taking pictures, too? There was something surreal about the idea of people back in London, or New York, following this whole thing on the TV.

Interesting, too, I thought, how they talked in the plan about
Somalis
. Not pirates. Maybe because they didn't want to cause offence in an already tense situation. Maybe they knew all about the coast guard stuff that Farouz had told me. Or maybe they just wanted to make it sound more like a war.

Just then, there was a bang as the door flew open. Ahmed came storming in, Mohammed behind him, grinning. Farouz followed.

— Deal is off, said Ahmed.

— What? said Tony. But we agreed that –

Ahmed raised his gun, and Tony shut up. The pirates' leader turned to Dad.

— You own boat, he said.

— I don't know what –

BOOM
. Ahmed fired, and my ears rang. A puff of plaster dust burst from the wall. I have to stop being around when guns go off, I thought.

— Farouz read emails, said Ahmed. He inclined his head to Farouz.

— It's true, Farouz said, his head lowered, not meeting my eyes. I was checking the go plan, he said. I saw some other messages and realised that Hostage One was not just a passenger. This is his yacht.

I stared at him in disbelief. Traitor, I thought. Meet my eyes, traitor. Look me in the bloody eyes.

I couldn't believe he had done this to us, had sold us out like this. And for what? A bigger share?

— Oh my god, Mr Fields, said Felipe. You did not tell you owned the yacht? Why didn't you tell them that?

— Be quiet, Felipe, said Tony.

— Sorry, sir, said Felipe, looking at Dad. Then he turned to Tony. But I don't understand. Why did Mr Fields not say?

— Because otherwise Mr Fields would end up paying out a fortune, obviously! shouted Tony.

— Why the fuck I care about that? Felipe asked, his anger suddenly driving out his grammar and his politeness. I want my family! I want home!

— So does Mr Fields! shouted Tony.

— Yes! But he pay for me to work. Is because of him I'm here. He should pay for me to be free, too!

My head was going back and forth, following this argument like someone at a tennis match. Actually, I couldn't fault Felipe's logic.

— Shut up! said Damian. None of this is helping.

— Yes, shut up, said Ahmed. Deal is now ten million dollars. There is no negotiate.

Well done, Farouz, I thought. You've more than doubled your share.

Tony turned to Ahmed.

— You can't do this. We had a deal. The navy are right there. They will come for us and they will save us –

Ahmed lifted his gun again.

— They lion, we squirrel, he said.

Tony looked confused, but I knew what he was saying. I knew exactly what he was saying because Farouz had told me the story.

Farouz. Before, the name had seemed like a sigh in the mouth; now it was a cold wind inside me. I could say,
I felt betrayed
, but those are just words, and words alone can't express how I felt. It was like I was one of those Lego people made of three parts, and someone had come along and taken out the middle bit, had taken out my body, so I was just legs and a head and, in between, this whirling nothing of wind and air.

I knew, now, where Farouz's loyalty lay. And it didn't lie with me. When I looked at him and his glance caught mine before sliding away, I thought that I might faint.

There was a triumphant expression on Mohammed's malicious face.

— The navy can fuck, he said eloquently.

Tony seemed to understand that.

You don't know Farouz's voice
.

And there is no way I could describe it to you, its tone, its timbre.

But this is how I hear it, when I close my eyes at night.

 

 

This is how he tells me stories.

Once, there was a lion that had gone mad. It lived among the trees by the watering hole, so none of the other animals could drink. If they went near, the lion killed them, and many of his kills he wouldn't even eat, as if he were a hyena or a fox instead of the king of the beasts. The other animals didn't know what to do: the lion was powerful, so strong that no one could stand against him.