The Tears of Dark Water (25 page)

At the same time, he couldn’t explain the phone call the pirate had placed from the bow of the
Renaissance
in the middle of the night. Derrick had barely fallen asleep in his rack when Ensign O’Brien woke him to say that one of the Somalis had emerged from the cabin of the sailboat and spoken briefly on what looked like a satellite phone. The SEAL spotter on the forward illuminator deck had caught the moment on an infrared camera, along with twenty minutes of Ibrahim just sitting there like he was in a trance. Redman had sent the video to Admiral Prince, and Prince had arranged another conference with Gordon Tully. The call had turned into a sparring match between Redman and Derrick. After listening to both of them, Tully had worked out a truce.

“You’re offering me opinions, not fact,” said the National Security Advisor. “I don’t like the drop site any more than you do, but when you’re running a sting operation—that’s the story we’re going to feed the press, by the way, a high-seas sting with the ransom as bait—you have to let the other side set some of the rules. Your mission hasn’t changed. Get the Parkers out of harm’s way and take the pirates into custody. How you do that is your business.”

“With all due respect, sir,” Redman said, “what if Ibrahim reneges? Once he has the money, what’s to prevent him from holding on to the hostages? He could get greedy and ask for more money. He could tell us he won’t release the Parkers until he reaches land. He’s a pirate, for God’s sake. We have no idea what’s going on inside his head.”

Tully’s eyes shifted but his face didn’t change. “Paul?”

“It’s a legitimate concern,” Derrick replied. “But I think a double dip is unlikely. We’re sitting on top of him. He knows we won’t let him take the hostages to shore. And he’s too smart to expect the Parkers to agree to another payment under these circumstances. In my mind, the only way he gets cold feet is if he figures out that the drop is a setup.”

“Then you guys are going to have to do a good job selling it to him,” Tully said, staring frankly at the camera. “To answer your question, Frank, if Ibrahim reneges, you can take the gloves off. Put your birds back in the air. Disable the sailboat. Make his world a living hell. Do not attempt a rescue without my permission. But do whatever it takes to force his hand.”

Redman’s shoulders relaxed. “Thank you, sir.”

Captain Masters spoke up. “If we stay with the sailboat during the drop, we’ll be sitting dead in the water twenty miles from Mogadishu. We’re going to have spectators—fishing dhows, skiffs, cargo ships. The
Truman
and
San Jacinto
can give us a buffer. But there’s no way to keep this quiet. A lot of people are going to know we’re there.”

Tully shrugged. “We’ll handle the media and the Somali government. You keep the spectators away however you see fit.”

After traversing the main weather deck, Derrick climbed the long stairs to the bridge. He glanced at the SEAL boats bobbing in the water, like a pod of killer whales. There were three of them with six men each, all clad in black. Redman had brought them over from the
Truman
under the cover of darkness. They were keeping pace with the
Gettysburg
and staying out of sight. If the exchange happened on schedule, only the first boat—with four attackers and two medical corpsmen—would be dispatched to retrieve the Parkers. Conversely, if Ibrahim screwed the pooch, as Redman liked to say, all three boats would form a cordon around the
Renaissance
, diverting the pirates’ attention from the SEAL divers who would incapacitate the sailboat’s propeller and loop a towline around the keel. The cruiser would then tow the sailboat out of Somali waters, forcing the pirates to surrender or endure an endless purgatory at sea. The plan—which Redman had dubbed “Arachne”—made sense as a last resort, but the SEAL commander’s gung-ho enthusiasm left Derrick feeling dyspeptic. It was almost as if Redman
wanted
Ibrahim to renege so his team could finally do something.

Derrick entered the bridge and found Rodriguez at the chart table going over his notes. Masters was in his chair watching the sea. Redman was standing by the radar display and talking to his men through his headset. When he saw Derrick, he signed off and gave the negotiator a hard look.

“Are you ready for this?” he asked, speaking the question almost as a challenge.

Derrick ignored the barb and glanced at Masters. “Is CIC on the line?”

Masters picked up the nearest sound-powered phone. “We’re ready when you are.”

“Let’s do it, then,” Derrick said. He watched as Masters gave the order and took the phone from him. It rang five times before the call connected.

“Hello?” It was Daniel Parker. He sounded more curious than scared.

“Good morning, Captain, this is Paul on the
Gettysburg
.”

Derrick heard a scratching noise and muffled speech, as if Daniel had placed his hand over the phone. After a moment, Ibrahim came on the line.

“I will talk to you when we are finished with breakfast,” the pirate said.

When the line went dead, Derrick started to laugh. “Well, he’s feeling like a million bucks. It means he’s taken the hook. Now we just have to bury it.”

Fifteen minutes later, Ibrahim called back. “As I said at the beginning, we want something and you want something. The Captain’s family agreed to give us what we want. So we will give you what you want. We will stop the sailboat four miles from the coast. As soon as we receive the payment and confirm the amount, we will release the hostages.”

Derrick watched the
Renaissance
knifing through the water five hundred yards away. “That’s good news. But I’m curious. How will you release them without your skiff?”

“We will leave them on the sailboat. We have no interest in it. We want the small boat from your ship. We will take that to shore.”

Derrick furrowed his brow, intrigued by the demand. “Let me talk to the Navy. I’ll call you back.” He terminated the connection and looked from Redman to Masters.

“Let’s go outside,” said the SEAL commander, opening the door to the bridge wing and letting in a wave of moist air. When they were alone, he spoke his mind. “I don’t like it. It’s like giving them a weapon to use against us. Let’s imagine Ibrahim is telling the truth and they use the RHIB as a getaway vehicle. My boats have the edge on speed and agility, and we can use the choppers to get in their way. But stopping seven pirates with AKs traveling at thirty knots is going to be far more dangerous for my guys. On the other hand, if he’s lying to us, he could easily take the money and make a mad dash to the coast, using the Parkers as a human shield. If we try to stop them, people will get hurt.”

Derrick frowned. “How is the RHIB any different from their skiff? If they were still towing it, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

Redman’s eyes flashed. “We don’t seem to agree on anything, do we?”

Derrick refused to take the bait. “Look at it another way. What’s he going to think if we say no? Right now he’s walking on water. He’s got almost two million dollars coming to him. We tell him he can’t have the RHIB, and he hears we don’t trust him. That reminds him of the guns we have pointed at him and the fact that he doesn’t like us very much. At that point, he starts to wonder if he can trust us. That kind of logic is more dangerous to the Parkers than giving him the RHIB.”

Redman grimaced, his frustration plain. “You should have been a shrink.” He turned to Masters. “What do you think, Gabe?”

Masters looked bemused. “You’re both overlooking something. Who says we have to give him a fully functional RHIB? My mechanics know those boats inside and out. I bet one of them could fix the engine so it cuts out before they get to the beach.”

The light of understanding struck Derrick and Redman simultaneously. “It’s a perfect trap,” Redman said, even as Derrick thought:
Leave it to a surface warrior to outwit a SEAL
.

After working out the details, they returned to the air-conditioned comfort of the bridge. Thirty seconds later, Derrick had Ibrahim on the line again. “You can have the boat, but we can’t bring it over to you while you’re moving. We’re going to have to wait until you reach the drop site.”

The pirate pondered this. “All right. But I want
you
to bring the boat. You will come alone and unarmed. I’ll meet you in the Captain’s dinghy, and we will make the exchange.”

Derrick felt a sudden chill. The prospect of a high-seas parley with Ibrahim was at once frightening and fascinating. In ten years of negotiation, he had never met a kidnapper prior to his capture. Afterward, yes, in a courthouse or an interrogation room, but never in the midst of a crisis.

“I assume you’ll also come unarmed,” he said.

Ibrahim laughed. “My father once said a dishonest person is like a toothless man. No woman will touch him. Here it is different. If I breach your trust, your snipers will put a bullet in my head.”

Derrick shrugged. “Okay. I’ll bring the boat myself.” He took a breath, thinking of the deception he was perpetrating. “There’s something else. As we approach the coast, we’re going to have vessels in the vicinity. The Navy doesn’t want spectators, so they’re going to clear the area. The other ships will do the work. They won’t come close to you, but I don’t want you to be surprised.”

“What your Navy does is not my concern, so long as they stay away,” Ibrahim replied. “If you breach my trust, the consequences will be swift and irrevocable. You will see that I have all my teeth.”

I don’t doubt it
, Derrick thought. “I’ll call again when we’re close to the drop site.”

“I look forward to meeting you, Paul,” the pirate said, and ended the call.

The hours of morning drifted quietly by like jetsam on the current. The mood on the
Gettysburg
was subdued, the gravity of the moment drawing everyone into its sober grip. Conversations were held in low tones. Sailors who usually moved with alacrity adopted a slower step. Derrick stayed on the bridge with Redman and Masters, monitoring the many dimensions of activity happening all at once—the preparations of the SEAL small-boat, sniper, and dive teams; the labors of the mechanics to modify one of the RHIBs; and the maneuvers of the
Truman
and
San Jacinto
, sailing in formation like the prongs of a pitchfork, to sweep the sea of interlopers.

Around noon, Derrick left the bridge, ate a hasty lunch in the officers’ wardroom, and went to the CIC—a black-lit warren of computers, wall-mounted screens, and communications equipment—to call Brent Frazier. It was four in the morning in Virginia, but his boss picked up on the second ring.

“Frazier here,” he said, sounding wired.

“Are you chewing Nescafé again?” Derrick smirked.

Frazier laughed. “For four days straight. If I had a blood test right now, they’d find more caffeine than oxygen. These SEAL guys never sleep.”

“I think they’re genetically engineered,” Derrick quipped. “What’s the word from Nairobi?”

“I just talked to Mary. The bank rolled out the red carpet. They’re back at the hotel preparing the package. They have a turboprop fueled and on the tarmac. They should be wheels up by 14:30 and over the drop site by 17:00.”

Derrick wasn’t surprised. “The guys from Sagittarius are first rate.”

Frazier lowered his voice. “Prince is really worried about Ibrahim. He doesn’t think the pirates intend to let the Parkers go before they reach the coast. He’s been bending Tully’s ear about it, and Tully’s getting nervous. I have to confess: he’s got a point. Think about what happens if Ibrahim reneges. Nobody knows if the sailboat can be towed by the keel. If the tow fails or they have to abort, the
Renaissance
is going to start drifting south on the current. By the time the sun comes up, it’ll be off the coast of Mogadishu and within sight of two million Somalis.”

Derrick felt a churning in his stomach. “What is Prince suggesting?”

“He’s pushing the White House to green-light an assault if Ibrahim reneges.”

Which would almost certainly lead to the death of the hostages
, Derrick thought
.
“Please tell me the President is smarter than that.”

Frazier made a noise that was half-grunt, half-snort. “He is, but he isn’t happy about it. He wants a negotiated solution, not an international incident. I spoke to Tully confidentially. He’s advising the President to follow your instinct. He was damn impressed by your prediction about Ibrahim going off the reservation. At the same time, he told Prince to put a few options on the table. If you think of any reason you might be wrong—any reason at all—I want to hear about it immediately.”

Derrick massaged the bridge of his nose, trying to alleviate the headache he suddenly felt. “I’ll be meeting with Ibrahim in a few hours. Until then my judgment stands.”

“I trust you, Paul,” Frazier said. “I know how good you are. But the reputation of the Bureau is on the line. We need a win here.”

Not as much as the Parkers do
, Derrick thought to himself, putting the phone back in its cradle.

At three-thirty in the afternoon—15:30 on the Navy’s clocks—the
Gettysburg
entered Somali waters and began to close the gap with the sailboat. Redman had proposed a distance of three hundred yards, but Derrick, with Masters’s support, had negotiated 350. A few minutes later, Derrick called Ibrahim to finalize the terms of the parley. They agreed to meet halfway between the cruiser and the sailboat in one hour. Derrick was concerned Ibrahim would complain about the ship’s proximity, but the pirate didn’t mention it.
He’s not watching us
, Derrick surmised.
He’s thinking about the money.