Those in Peril (Unlocked) (46 page)

‘She is scheduled to take on board her first load of natural gas from the Abu Zara field at the beginning of October,’ Hazel answered.

‘Four and a half months from now. We must move quickly,’ Paddy said.

‘Get Dave and Tariq here as soon as you can,’ Hector ordered.

D
ave Imbiss and Tariq Hakam came into Houston four days later on a flight from Dubai and Paris. Within an hour of their arrival the first planning session of Operation Lampos was under way on the top floor of Bannock House. Hector outlined the basic concept for them.

‘The object of the exercise is to entice Adam out of the fortress at the Oasis of the Miracle. It will be easy enough to suck in his underlings, but if we are going to bring an end to this blood feud he is waging against us then we have to take him out.’ He looked around their faces. They were all intent and serious. ‘We know that the campaign of piracy being conducted against all foreign maritime traffic in the Indian Ocean is orchestrated and controlled by Sheikh Adam Tippoo Tip. This campaign has intensified and become more sophisticated since Adam succeeded his grandfather as Sheikh.’ Hector pressed the control switch on the table top in front of him, and the screen on the wall facing them lit up and displayed rows of dates and figures. ‘These are the statistics for the number of pirate attacks in the last year of his grandfather’s rule. As you see there were twenty-eight attacks on shipping and all of these were localized to the Gulf of Aden. Of these only nine were successful, but they reaped ransom money of an estimated one hundred and twenty million dollars.’ He changed the display on the screen.

‘These are the statistics for the last twelve months.’ David Imbiss whistled softly with surprise, and Hector went on, ‘You may indeed whistle, Dave. One hundred and twenty-seven attacks, ninety-one of which were successful. The ransom money collected was an estimated one point two-five billion dollars.’ They were stunned into silence. ‘Yes, that’s a lot of money. Almost all of it goes into Adam’s coffers. The interesting thing is that Adam’s attack boats are now operating as much as a thousand nautical miles offshore. And they are doing so with impunity. With all the cash he has Adam can now operate mother ships for his attack craft. We know from Tariq that he is using captured Taiwanese and Russian trawlers for this purpose. These all carry sophisticated electronic equipment, but more significantly he has built helicopter pads on their decks. He now has two, or possibly three, Bell Jet Ranger helicopters in service. This enables him to scour the waters for hundreds of miles around, to spot both dangerous naval warships and fat and juicy mercantile targets.’

‘Why don’t the navies of the Western powers destroy his attack boats wherever they find them?’ asked Dave.

‘Two reasons,’ Hector replied. ‘First off, it’s not easy to find a small boat in hundreds of thousands of square miles of ocean. To do this effectively the cost of the surveillance assets they would have to deploy would be prohibitive. And even if they were able to find them, they would have to catch them actually red-handed in an act of piracy. They cannot simply blow Adam’s ships out of the water as they lie at anchor in Gandanga Bay. They are hamstrung by the complex laws of the sea, and the old-maidish sensibilities of many of the stridently socialistic countries, who are more concerned with the human rights of pirates captured in the act of seizing ships on the high seas than they are for the victims. They fret that a captured pirate may not receive a fair trial, indeed may be shot out of hand. It’s so big-hearted and politically correct of them. Meanwhile, Adam rampages across the oceans and puts billions of dollars into his piggy bank.

‘The crews of the merchant ships are unarmed, in accordance with the terms of the owners’ insurance policies, which forbid them to take up arms, and their own sense of self-preservation which tells them that if they shoot first the pirates are going to shoot back and they will have superior fire power. For Adam it’s open season, Christmas and New Year every day of the week.’ Hector let them think about that for a moment. ‘So what are we going to do about it? Dave and Tariq, you have missed out on what has been decided so far, so I will go over it for your benefit.’ Briefly he explained what they hoped to achieve by Operation Lampos.

‘As you know, my wife has suffered the murder and horrible mutilation of both her mother and her only daughter. Tariq has also lost his wife Daliyah and their son at the hands of Adam’s thugs. Adam has placed a price on the heads of my wife and myself and sworn an oath before Allah that he will have us killed, just as he killed the other innocent members of our families. We seek retribution for the dead, and we seek safety for ourselves and for all other law-abiding men and women who ply the oceans. We have been lulled into a false sense of security, believing that we were protected by distance from his little empire in Puntland, and protected also by the law enforcement of this land in which we live. Adam has shown us that he has the power to strike at us wherever we may be. He has left us no alternative but to kill him before he kills us.’ They all made sounds of agreement.

‘After much discussion it has been decided that we should not mount an expedition against Adam in his stronghold at the Oasis of the Miracle. We have tried that once already and we lost most of our good men, including Ronnie Wells. Tariq was lucky to survive the experience.’ Hector smiled at him. ‘How has your wound healed?’

‘Very pretty scar,’ Tariq said grimly. He no longer smiled readily.

‘If we go into Puntland there will be too many imponderables. We have to get Adam and his lieutenant Uthmann Waddah to come into the open. We have to set a baited trap for the two of them.’ Even Paddy who had sat in on the earlier discussions was intrigued by hearing it all set out in such orderly detail. He was nodding his agreement with the others around the table. ‘We have considered what form of bait Adam will not be able to resist. My wife has suggested that we use the
Golden Goose
.’ Dave and Tariq both looked mystified. Paddy spoke for them.

‘I think you have got Dave and Tariq flummoxed, Heck. I know what you’re talking about. Security in the Osaka shipyard is my responsibility, but you will have to explain it to them.’

Hector turned to Hazel. ‘The
Goose
is your baby. Do you want to tell us about it, please, Hazel.’

‘Okay, let me explain,’ she said eagerly. ‘It’s quite simple, really. Bannock Oil is in the process of building one of the largest and most valuable vessels ever to sail the seas. It is a supertanker for the transport of natural gas. It has already been launched and has been moved to Taiwan for the final fitting of its equipment. So far we have managed to keep the project under wraps, which is why even you are in the dark. The ship has been named the
Golden Goose
. She has an insurance value in excess of a billion dollars.’ Even Paddy looked deeply impressed. It was the first time he had been told the figures. ‘Now Hector will tell you the rest of our plans.’

‘Once the
Golden Goose
is ready for her maiden voyage we will arrange massive publicity, including coverage on Al Jazeera Arabic TV which must go straight to Adam. The first voyage of the tanker will be to France from the new gas fields in Abu Zara. The
Golden Goose
is far too large to negotiate the Suez Canal so it cannot take the route through the Gulf of Aden under Adam’s nose. However, we have already discussed Adam’s use of mother ships for his attack boats and search helicopters, so we know he has the capacity to operate his attack boats as far as twelve hundred nautical miles off the Great Horn of Africa. The route the
Golden Goose
must take to reach the Cape of Good Hope from the mouth of the Persian Gulf will bring her as close as three hundred nautical miles from his base at Gandanga Bay. We will make sure that Adam knows when and where the
Golden Goose
will sail past his stronghold. He will know the value of the ship, and who the owners are. The opportunity will be irresistible. He must strike, and we will be ready for him.’ They considered the enormity of the plot in silence. Then Tariq spoke softly.

‘Adam will not come. Men say that he has grown cautious with wealth and power. He will not place himself in danger. He is a cowardly swine who delights in the torture and killing of women and children, but he no longer takes any risks himself.’

‘You think that he will not attack the
Golden Goose
?’ Hazel asked.

‘No, he will not. Because he is a coward. Neither will Uthmann Waddah because as Hector knows well Uthmann is afraid of the sea. Adam will send his uncle Kamal Tippoo Tip, who is the commander of his attack flotilla. But Adam will not come himself to the seizing of the
Golden Goose
. He will remain safely at Gandanga Bay until they bring the prize to him. Only then will he go aboard to take possession of it.’ The men sat back in their chairs uneasily, and Paddy and David exchanged glances. Hazel went to the window and stood looking down at the park. There were children frolicking on the lawns watched over by their doting parents and a marching band practising on the playing field. It all looked so peaceful and commonplace; so different from the savage reality they had been discussing. Hazel felt the sorrow of her bereavement welling up inside her once again, but she forced it down and turned back to face the men at the table.

‘Very well. We must let Kamal capture the
Golden Goose
and take her into Gandanga Bay.’ They went silent and still, staring at her in blank astonishment. She began to smile, and suddenly Hector burst out laughing.

‘So! Hector’s warhorse, Lampos, becomes the Trojan Horse! You are going to send Adam a little bit more than just a billion-dollar ship and a million cubic metres of natural gas.’ At this Paddy slapped the table top and laughed out loud.

‘Lovely! Only you could have dreamed that up, Mrs Cross. You are going to have to watch this lady wife of yours, Hector. Duplicity thy name is woman!’

Then Dave Imbiss saw what was happening, and he laughed along with Paddy. ‘You are going to hide our men somewhere in the ship until Adam comes on board, then we all jump out shouting “Surprise! Surprise!”’ he chortled. ‘Once we have captured Adam we can launch a landing party. They will destroy all the pirate mother ships, the helicopters and the flotilla of attack boats. They will free all the captured foreign seamen from the stockades. We will put them on board their own ships, and we will cover them while they escape out to sea.’

But Tariq looked dubious.

‘We will need a hundred or more men to do all these things that you are planning. Is there space on your ship to hide so many?’

‘Tariq, this is probably the largest cargo ship ever built,’ Hector explained. ‘Wait until you see her! We could hide an army on board her.’

‘By God! That gives me an idea. We can arm her with a concealed battery of artillery, just like the old Q-ships of the Second World War.’ Paddy was exultant. ‘We can bombard the town and sink any other vessels that try to resist or run from us.’

‘No!’ Hazel said sharply. ‘No bombardment of the town. There are hundreds of women and children living there in makeshift houses. It would be a massacre. It would make us worse than Adam. However, I agree that we will have to send a landing party ashore to free the captive foreign seamen.’

‘How much water will the
Golden Goose
draw when she is fully loaded?’ Hector asked, and answered his own question. ‘Probably more than a hundred feet. The pirates will not be able to bring the
Goose
within a mile of the beach. We can’t send small boats in from that distance. They would be exposed to fire from the shore all the way in. It would be suicidal.’

‘If the ship is that big, we could conceal a couple of AAVs in her holds,’ David Imbiss said thoughtfully.

‘AAVs?’ Hazel asked. ‘What are they?’

‘Amphibious Assault Vehicles is the official designation. They are the new generation of the swimming tanks, like those that reinforced the Allied Forces when they went ashore on the Normandy beaches in 1944.’

‘Is it possible to launch them from a high-sided ship?’ Hazel persisted.

‘Absolutely. They can make a splash entry from a height of thirty feet,’ Dave assured her.

‘Even fully laden the freeboard of the
Goose
will be greater than that. And then how would we recover them again?’ Hazel wanted to know.

‘We will equip the ship with hydraulic cranes on travelling gantries that lie inconspicuously flat on the cargo deck until they are deployed out over the ship’s side. The AAVs can leave the
Goose
and return to her by this arrangement,’ Hector said without looking up from the sketch of the idea he was drawing on his notepad.