The Poseidon Initiative (18 page)

Dante pointed skyward. “Look at all those antennas. There’s got to be a radio room somewhere.”

Jasmijn walked across the landing and looked down. “Ladder goes down here.”

“Let’s go.” Dante looked out over the water while he waited for Jasmijn to start climbing down. The Hofstad boat was still there, as was the boat Shah was in, although now a Zodiac was pulled up next to it.

When Jasmijn was down a few rungs, Dante followed down the ladder. It ended in a metal enclosure with a five-foot drop to a metal deck. Jasmijn hung from the bottom of the ladder until she could step off. Dante let himself drop from a few feet.

They were situated on a square metal balcony of sorts with no other ladders leading down, and only one door set into the wall. He tried the door handle. To his surprise, it opened into a small, dimly lit room. There was no one inside. Racks of radio equipment lined workbenches on either side of the room. Much of the equipment was unfamiliar to Dante, although some he recognized as HAM radio gear — shortwave radio sets capable of transmitting over long distances. But right now they just needed to talk to the boat. His eyes scanned the shelves with the aid of his dive light until he found what he was looking for: a VHF marine radio.

He walked up to the unit and turned it on, breathing a sigh of relief when its backlit display lit up orange.

“Whatcha got?” Jasmijn watched Dante start to press buttons and turn knobs.

“Should be able to monitor the boat communications with this. See if we can reach Stephen…”

A burst of static emanated from the speaker and he adjusted the squelch. Still nothing intelligible. He wasn’t sure which one was designated as the emergency channel in this part of the world, so he set the radio to auto-scan through the stations until a strong signal came though. After a few seconds, he was rewarded with a clear voice on one of the channels.

It belonged to Stephen Shah, with a background of engine noise. And one who didn’t know him well wouldn’t be able to tell, but Dante could detect the stress in his words.

“
…could make an exchange. Our woman for your man. Then we go our separate ways.”

Dante held up a hand, knowing Jasmijn had questions, but he needed to hear what came next. He could already tell that a serious situation had developed.
Our woman
must be Naomi, and
your man
must mean that Shah had somehow taken one of the Hofstad men hostage.

A Dutch-accented voice, different background sounds. “
We sent two men to help you, not one.”

There was a pause before Shah’s voice came back. “
One has been eliminated. The other will be, too, if anything happens to the woman. But we can end the killing here. Your man for our woman. It’s up to you.”

“What about your other two people — the two scuba divers — you don’t want them?”

Dante and Jasmijn exchanged a glance.

“Where are they?”

Dante eyed the radio transmitter. Should he break in on the channel to let Shah know they were on the oil rig? But that would be letting Hofstad know, too.

“
I don’t know where they are. They were with you, what happened
?”

“
Forget it. Let us do this exchange
.”

Shah’s voice barked over the radio channel. “
I’m on my way to your boat
.”

Netherlands, The North Sea

Dante thought fast. He needed to communicate to Shah that they were on the oil rig, but if he announced it over the open channel, Hofstad would hear, too. He thought back to one of their OUTCAST strategizing sessions on communication, where Tanner had asked who knew Morse code. There had been a couple of snickers and words like “dated” and “primitive” thrown around, but in the end Tanner had insisted that all of them maintain proficiency at it. And right now, as Dante clutched the radio transmitter, he was glad he did.

He keyed the transmitter several times in a row without saying anything, alternating the time he depressed the button. Short-long-short, short-short, long-long-short, repeatedly for about ten seconds:

R…I…G…

He figured Shah would be monitoring the channel and that the duration would be long enough for him to interpret it to mean that he and Jasmijn were on the oil rig. Hopefully Hofstad would just think it was interference of some kind, or not be able to decode it if they did suspect a message.

The Hofstad man’s voice punched through the channel. “What is that noise? What are you doing?”

“I don’t know, but I’m on my way to you. Probably just engine interference, over.”

Shah got it!
Why else would he pass it off as interference rather than simply saying,
I didn’t hear anything?

But for Shah to go to Hofstad’s boat alone was nearly suicidal. Even armed with his own weapon and those of the two men he’d taken down, he would still be facing four heavily armed terrorists. Hopefully he stopped by the rig before he visited Hofstad’s boat. Dante turned to Jasmijn.

“Step outside and tell me if you can see where Stephen is heading in his boat. I need to monitor the radio, but if he passes near the rig maybe we can catch his attention without the guys on the other boat knowing.”

She nodded, dropped her wet bag of sea anemones and stepped outside onto the square, metal landing area while Dante listened in on the marine channel. He heard no further conversation and so assumed that Shah was en route to the other boat.

“The Zodiac is coming toward the rig,” Jasmijn called. A couple of seconds went by and then she added, “Around back — he’ll pass behind us.”

Dante listened to radio silence for a minute longer and then decided it was time to act. He left the radio on and joined Jasmijn on the landing platform outside. Suspended below the tower of infrastructure, it offered a 360 degree view of the sea around them, but one that was obstructed in places by various pipes and pieces of equipment. He followed Jasmijn’s pointing finger to see the tiny Zodiac skirting around the rig, leaving a small wake as it traveled near the limit of its speed capabilities, about to make the turn around to the side they were on.

“Where do you think is the best place on this rig to get low enough to the water where Stephen will see us from the boat and we can jump down?”

“There’s an access ladder down to the water from this side, too.” Jasmijn pointed between a latticework of metal supports down and to their right.

Dante nodded. “I see it. Let’s go.”

The two of them went back through the radio room, where they heard no chatter coming from the systems, and proceeded to wind their way down through the rig. The whine of Shah’s boat motor grew steadily louder as they neared the access point.

“This way!” Dante led them down a spiral staircase that opened up onto a deck platform made of a rectangular steel grate. Below that was the access ladder. Shah came into view, cruising around this side of the rig, slowing his speed as he neared.

Dante and Jasmijn leaned out as far as they dared over the edge of the platform while they waved their arms above their heads as Shah approached in the boat. Suddenly the boat’s motor cut out and the inflatable fell back in the water.

Shah had seen them.

He idled the small craft up to the boarding ladder. Dante and Jasmijn climbed down to the water and stepped into the boat, carefully stepping around the bound and gagged Hofstad operator, who lie motionless on the deck. His eyes were open, watching.

Shah quickly addressed them. “I’m hoping to trade him for Nay. Weapons?” Dante told them about the pistols they each carried, then continued.

“I doubt it’ll be an even matchup, but we have to go get her. What kind of firepower do they have?” He looked to Dante for the details.

“You took two out, so there’ll be three left on the big boat, all armed with full-auto rifles and handgun backups.”

Shah shook his head as they bobbed in the motorized raft. “We can’t just present ourselves to them like lambs to the slaughter. How about this: Dante, you go back up into the rig with our best long-distance pistol.”

Immediately Dante and Jasmijn raised their eyebrows. They’d only just gotten down from the rig.

“And take the southeast corner, there…” Shah pointed to the end of the rig facing Hofstad’s boat before continuing. “That’ll put you in range to take at least one, hopefully two operators out, and give us the element of surprise so that I can drop whoever’s still standing.”

Dante nodded and showed him his weapon. Shah handed him a long-barreled pistol, trading for the one Dante had and tucking it into his waistband. “Here, take this — a little better range. Fully loaded. Extra magazine, too.” He handed the spare bullets over to Dante, who pocketed them.

“Take these, too,” Shah added, handing Dante the pair of binoculars that had been in the boat.

Then Shah turned to Jasmijn. “What about you, can you shoot?”

“If I have to, I guess. I never have before.” She showed him her pistol.

Shah looked at Dante and pointed up at the rig. “Okay, let’s go. They’ll be getting suspicious.”

“What’s the signal going to be?” Dante climbed up on to the ladder but waited to hear from Shah before ascending to the rig. He had to know when he was supposed to shoot.

“It’ll have to be a hand signal. I don’t have a handheld radio.”

“More like an arm signal. It’s pretty far away.”

Shah nodded in agreement. “If I hold my arms out to my sides, like an
oh c’mon, be reasonable
gesture — that means take your best shot. Okay?”

“Okay.” Dante climbed the ladder. Shah put the boat back into gear and motored away from the rig.

At the top of the ladder, Dante oriented himself with respect to his target position and took off running. He would need time to get himself comfortably situated in a good sniper nest. A few minutes later he reached the end of the rig and turned right along the edge, crouching low behind a metal railing to avoid being seen by the men on the boat, which he could now see off to his left.

Shah’s Zodiac was in his field of view as well, cutting a beeline to the larger vessel. Dante crawled on behind the railing until he reached a large diameter pipe situated like an inverted “U.” On the other side of it was a cluster of smaller pipes that he thought would make a good hiding place.

He dashed past the large pipe, temporarily exposing himself to the view of the boat, and then tucked himself into the maze of pipes. Eyeing the Hofstad boat, Dante was pleased that he was mostly concealed by the pipes. He blended in with the oil rig. No longer worried about being spotted, he turned his attention to the offensive. He rested the barrel of his pistol on one of the pipes and took rough aim at the ship. He laid his spare magazine out in front of him so that it was easily accessible. Then he peered through the binoculars.

As soon as he focused the glasses he could see the Hofstad leader gesticulating to his two other men on board. And there! Sitting on deck, wrists tied in front of her and ankles bounds as well — was Nay. He let out a sigh as he spied on the boat. Her position was far less than optimal. It was a very close-quarters environment and were he to miss, the shot could easily ricochet inside the boat and hit Naomi.

The sound of Shah’s Zodiac motor decelerating reached his ears as it neared the boat and Dante turned his attention back to the gun. He played with the balance some more, getting the long barrel to rest on the pipe in front of him just right. He practiced looking through the binoculars held in his left and then quickly changing to the sight of the gun held in his right.

He watched as the Zodiac pulled up to within a few feet of the big boat. He tensed. This was it. Should there be a firefight without time for Shah to give the signal, he would need to be ready to cover them just the same. He peered through the binoculars, which unfortunately were cheap 7x25’s, not nearly powerful enough to afford him the chance to read lips. But he could see the Hofstad leader pointing directly at Jasmijn clearly enough, no doubt asking what in the Hell she was doing aboard Shah’s boat.
Shah must be explaining how he found her in the water but not me…

As he continued to watch, the body language of all parties grew increasingly agitated. He saw one of the Hofstad men not doing the negotiating with Shah raise his automatic weapon to a semi-ready position…

And then Shah spread his arms wide in a gesture of exasperation.

Netherlands, The North Sea

Dante reacted swiftly to the signal, moving his eyes off the binoculars and onto the gun sight as he had practiced. He saw the Hofstad man in the boat who had partially raised his automatic weapon swing it to a state of full readiness. Dante held his breath, aiming the pistol. He switched back to the binoculars one more time, then quickly back to the pistol.

Now!

He let loose two rounds aimed at the chest of the shooter. Through his naked eye he saw the man twitch violently and fall backwards, discharging his weapon into the air as he landed hard on his back on the deck, not far from where Naomi sat in her trussed position.

Dante heard other shots now — Shah returning fire from the Zodiac as he ducked behind the steering console. Dante consulted the bino’s one more time as he took aim on the henchman who was swinging his machine gun toward the Zodiac in response. Back to the gun sight. Held his breath. Put pressure on the trigger, slowly…