Operation Sea Ghost (26 page)

“We’re not the only special ops team working this, are we?” Batman spit at him, raising his pistol again.

Audette hesitated a moment, but then relented. He shook his head. “No, you’re not,” he finally admitted.

“How many?” Batman asked him. “Besides us?”

Audette shook his head. “I don’t know,” he said. “Some things I’m not privy to. But more than just you guys, I know that.”

“One more? Two more?” Batman growled at him.

“Yeah … about that. I mean, there aren’t many privately run special ops groups around—but we hit them all, I guess.”

“So you’re saying you hired those assholes from the old Blackwater?” Batman asked him. “And DynCorp? And EOD?”

“I’m not sure,” Audette insisted. “I know we got a lot of eyes out there looking for this thing.” He paused, then added: “And a few bent noses, too.”

Batman and Twitch just looked at each other. “Bent nose” was code for …

“The Mob?” Batman asked him. “You got the freaking
mafia
involved in this, too?”

Audette just shrugged. “Hey, it’s a tradition with us,” he said. “Ever since World War Two. They’re watching the ports in the U.S. for us, checking to see if this thing comes in anywhere. Someone’s gotta do it.”

Batman was growing furious. “So you guys hired a
bunch
of groups like us and then, what? Pitted us against one another? While not letting one group know it was in a competition?”

Audette nodded again. This time it looked painful for him.

“And everyone’s going for the hundred-million-dollar prize?” Batman asked.

“Yes—you got it right,” Audette said. “I know it was dumb—but you have to remember, we want this thing back
very
badly—and if this doesn’t prove it to you, nothing will. We thought if we had more than just one private special ops group going after it, the chances of retrieving it were that much better. I mean, you guys are the pirate specialists, so I was sure you’d have a leg up on the rest of them. But we never dreamed that one group would find out about the other and then throw up roadblocks against them. We went to great lengths to make sure not a word of this ever leaked out.”

Twitch spoke up. “You know what this sounds like? This sounds like a fucking reality show. Like you got the big prize hidden somewhere. One team fucks up the other. Winner take all.”

Batman looked into Audette’s eyes.

“This isn’t some kind of weird loyalty thing is it?” he asked him. “Or the Agency’s weird idea for a psy-ops experiment.”

Audette replied quickly. “No—of course not,” he said. Then he thought a moment and added, “At least I don’t think so.”

Another silence. Then Batman asked him, “So let’s get back to this Bobby Murphy character. He’s the CO of another special ops outfit, I take it?”

Audette seemed to want to bite off his own tongue.

“I can’t tell you
anything
about him,” he said. “But yes, he’s the alpha dog of another group of operators.
Very independent
operators. In fact, when it comes to busting terrorists, his group is considered the best special ops group in the world, military or civilian.”

“If that’s true,” Twitch said, “how come we’ve never heard of them?”

Audette just nodded.

“Exactly,” he said wryly. “But I didn’t sign them up, I swear. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if he found out about it somehow on his own and just wormed his way in. That’s the way his guys are—guys
and
girls, I should say. They’re like phantoms. Supposedly they travel around in this old container ship, whacking terrorists, completely unauthorized shit. But they’ve got a lot of weapons and people who can use them. So, believe me, I’m sure they’re the ones who are glitching you. They probably stole your ten million, too, because while they’re in the business of terrorizing the terrorists, they’re usually cash-strapped because no one in the U.S. Government wants to fund them—they’re just too ‘out there.’”

Audette paused for a moment, then asked: “Did you actually meet him? The man himself?”

Batman shrugged. “How would we know?”

“Well, this guy you said came to you in the penthouse,” Audette replied. “This guy Maurice? What did he look like?”

“Like the most ordinary person in the world,” Batman replied.

Audette shook his head emphatically. “Yep—
that’s
him, the bastard,” he said. “He looks like your favorite uncle or the guy next door. But he’s into some crazy shit. His bunch are like you guys, heroes running around after 9/11. He’s the one who punked you, though. I’m sure of it now. Only he could pull off something like that in that casino. It sounds like he arranged that chase to get you out of that penthouse—and the Harrier thing was the cherry on top.”

“Son of a bitch,” Batman moaned. “So we were sideswiped even before we knew it.”

“Fucking dicks,” Twitch said. “Trying give us the shiv—
and
steal our money!”

“That’s the way they operate,” Audette said. “They live, eat and breathe psy-ops. Just ask bin Laden’s cub scouts. They’re deathly afraid of Murphy and his crew. And if those guys put their mind to it, well…”

“Well, what?” Batman asked him.

“Well,” Audette answered. “If you guys want that ten million back, never mind your payday, you got your work cut out for you.”

Someone started pounding on the men’s room door. They were starting to attract attention.

“We gotta get out of here,” Batman told Audette. “But believe me this isn’t the end of it.”

He let Audette off the wall, finally. The agent adjusted his suit and tried to get himself together. Then Twitch unlocked the door and the three of them walked out, to the great curiosity of the man who’d been trying to get in.

Once in the casino’s lobby, Audette said, “So, now that we’ve talked, do you guys mind telling me what you’ve found out about the box since you arrived here?”

Batman began to say something, but stopped.

But Twitch jumped in. “Yeah, when you open it, a green glow comes out and kills people.”

Audette almost bought it. Then Batman said, “Seeing as we might have a security problem here—as well as a competition problem, it’s best that we keep anything we’ve found out … proprietary. You can understand that, right?”

Audette shrugged. “Understandable,” he said. “But at least tell me, what did Bobby Murphy say about the box’s location? Did he think it was really coming through here? Or is it here already? Is it going to change hands here? Or was everything he said wrapped up in this card game?”

Batman hesitated again, more questions flashing through his head. Was Audette telling the truth when he said he didn’t know about the Grand Gagnant card game? Did the card game even exist at all? Or was it just more of Bobby Murphy’s bullshit?

Before Batman could say anything, Twitch just laughed. “Screw you,” he told Audette. “We’re not telling you anything. So hit the bricks.”

Audette just shrugged again. “OK,” he said. “Be like that. Just don’t get upset when you see a lot of people running around here in trench coats, sunglasses and big funny hats. Because they’ll be going after the same thing you are. And you’re already ten million down in the game.”

He started to leave, but then Batman stopped him.

“By the way,” he said sheepishly. “Do you have any extra cash? You know we lost everything in this scam. We don’t have two dimes to rub together.”

Audette smiled slyly. He looked at Twitch, then said, “Gee, guys, I’m tapped out. Sorry…”

Before Batman and Twitch could argue with him, Audette walked away and quickly disappeared into the crowd.

18

NOLAN FINALLY STOPPED the bleeding.

He’d sustained cuts on his hands, a slash over his good eye and a nasty gash on his shoulder during the recent combat. But once he’d washed the wounds with
cheongju
and covered them over with gauze, he deemed himself in good shape.

It was the rest of Alpha that was badly hurt.

While they might have won the third battle of the
Taiwan Song—
the Bom-Kat fleet had disappeared into the night once all their men on board had been killed—it was not without casualties. Two of the Senegals were seriously wounded, as was Gunner, though he was trying to hide it. The three other Senegals had been slashed on their arms and shoulders during the fight; one had a broken hand. But at least they were still mobile. It was incredible none of the ship’s defenders had been killed—not yet anyway.

Besides being banged up and bloody, Alpha had exactly two weapons left on board—the pair of AK-47s belonging to the pirates who’d invaded the mess hall. Neither rifle had much ammunition left in it. The ship’s original crew, each with burned hands and other wounds, had just about used up all of the hydraulic fluid in the battle and there was nothing else on board to take its place. Even most of the galley knives were gone.

If and when the Bom-Kats came back, Alpha Squad would be practically defenseless.

*   *   *

FOREMOST OF NOLAN’S worries, though, was Emma’s state of mind.

After mowing down the last of the attacking pirates, she’d dropped the gun, collapsed to the deck and buried her face in her hands. Then she wept uncontrollably for more than twenty minutes.

Finally, one of the Senegals gently lifted her up and guided her to the bow where she sat alone for another half hour. Only after Alpha had thrown all the pirate bodies overboard did Nolan dare approach her.

She was still teary-eyed, looking out to sea and continuously rubbing her hands on her knees. She looked like she was trying to wipe away any evidence that she had fired the AK-47.

She relaxed a little once she realized he was there. Reaching out to grab his hand, she asked, “How are my people below? Did any more pirates make it down to the mess hall?”

Nolan shook his head.

“They’re all fine,” he reassured her. “Though I’m sure they’re worried about you.”

She watched the injured crewmen hose off the last of the blood from the deck.

“Do you always feel like this after one of these things?” she asked Nolan.

“Why? How do
you
feel?” he asked her back.

“Sick,” she replied. “Sick to my stomach. Sick in my head.”

Nolan shrugged. “Well, you have to be alive to feel sick. That’s the upside.”

Her tears returned. “But I feel like such a criminal,” she said. “Do you know how many times I’ve done something like that in one of my movies? Mown down a bunch of bad guys with some kind of machine gun? But all I was ever concerned about was how my hair looked. Now, I’ve done it for real … I killed how many people? Ten? Twelve? I’ll never be the same. I
can’t
be…”

“You saved our lives,” he told her. “And not just us, the people in the mess hall, too. The pirates would have killed them all—or left them to die.”

She wiped her eyes again. “But you’ve got to know
I’m
the cause of all this. You’re all here because of me. I made you take me along. I made you rescue those poor people. I made you steal this boat. Why didn’t I just stay on my yacht?”

He sat down beside her. He resisted the urge to put his arm around her, but kept hold of her hand.

“What do you remember about that night in the refugee camp?” he asked her. “Right before we decided to take the Untouchables with us?”

She had to think for a moment. “The whole thing is like a dream to me now. Why?”

Nolan took the diplomatic route.

“Let’s just say you’ve become a different person,” he told her. “And I’ve been in this business a long time, and I’ve got to tell you, you’ve shown more guts in the past twenty-four hours than some guys I’ve spent years with. Now, try to stop dwelling on what just happened—the world is better off without those mooks. The idea here is to save those poor people in the mess hall, and that’s what we’re going to do. Capeesh?”

She managed a smile. Even in this condition, she looked absolutely radiant.

“Mio
capice
,” she replied in a perfect Italian accent.

He raised her to her feet. “Your friends in the mess hall will be very glad to see you. The wounded guys are down below, too.”

She wiped her eyes again and then started making her way aft.

But she turned, stepped back to him, and said softly, “Thank you.”

Then she kissed him on the cheek and walked away.

*   *   *

NOLAN WAITED UNTIL she was out of sight before climbing up to the ship’s bridge again.

It was now 0400 hours. It was still dark, still brutally hot and the sea was still ominously calm.

With the injured crewmen’s help, he got the ship’s balky radio working again. He went up and down the dial, hearing a cacophony of chattering voices speaking countless languages at very high speed.

He eventually found one frequency that was clearer than the rest, and just listened. The participants were speaking Hindi, but with a few English words mixed in. After just thirty seconds, he knew it was the Bom-Kats, talking about what had happened less than an hour before. It didn’t take long before he heard the name
Emma Simms.

It just reconfirmed his worst fears. Yes, the Bom-Kats knew the world’s most famous actress was aboard the old ship. And like the Somalis who’d snatched her earlier, they undoubtedly knew she would be worth tens of millions of dollars in ransom—and that was after they got through doing whatever they wanted to her.

So, yes, Alpha Squad had foiled the Bom-Kats three times now. But judging from the radio chatter, Nolan was certain the pirates were going to try again. What would happen then? Alpha Squad was out-gunned, out-manned, out of their element, and out of touch—with anybody who could help.

But then one of the crewmen began tapping him urgently on his good shoulder. The man pointed to the eastern horizon where Nolan was heartened to see a bright light approaching. He knew right away that it was not a Bom-Kat boat; it was way too big. The crewman confirmed it; a major vessel heading in their direction.

Nolan started listening to the shortwave radio again. He zeroed in on another frequency. It, too, was filled with a mixture of Hindi and English chatter about the Bom-Kats, and mentions of a disabled freighter coming under attack by the pirates. But the cadence was different and those speaking were using proper maritime radio etiquette—all “rogers,” “overs” and “outs.” The four crewmen listened to the conversations with growing smiles.