Resurgence

“I can’t make out the name from here,” Martinez said.

“I couldn’t, either,” Decker answered.

“Better hail them, then, and see what’s up.”

“Yes, sir.”

He passed the order to the Thresher’s radio officer, seated no more than fifteen feet from their lieutenant commander. Decker had no doubt that Ensign Rachel Wells had copied the instruction, but Martinez demanded adherence to chain of command.

Wells gave him an “Aye, aye” and did her thing, trying to raise the trawler’s captain on a range of frequencies. No answer from the nameless target vessel, but they did get a response.

“It’s turning,” Martinez said, “and increasing speed.”

“Yes, sir!” Decker had trouble reining in his natural excitement.

“All hands to their duty stations,” the lieutenant commander ordered. “Run them down.”

“THEY’RE AFTER US,” Gjergj Cana observed.

“Of course. Are you surprised?” Masiela Dovolani asked.

“No. I just—”

“See to the cattle,” Dovolani ordered. “Keep them calm for now.”

Cana made no reply. There was no military discipline aboard the stolen boat, once known as the Adeline before its owner had been killed and dumped at sea, its name and registration numbers falsified and weathered artificial for maximum obscurity. But Cana didn’t hesitate when Dovolani told him what to do.

An act of insubordination could be fatal on this run-down pirate’s boat.

The “cattle” Dovolani spoke of was a group of twenty-seven frightened, hopeful men, women and children crammed belowdecks in a space that would have crowded half as many. Cana guessed they had fouled the head by now, as peasants will, but that was not his worry at the moment.

He was more concerned about survival.

Staying out of jail.

He scuttled to the hatch, a hunched shadow figure until he was pinned by the glare of a spotlight. Raising an arm to shield his eyes, Cana proceeded, wincing as a man’s amplified voice reached out for him across the water.

“Unknown vessel, stop your engines! This is the United States Coast Guard! Heave to and stand by for boarding!”

Not likely, he thought, and ran to the hatch. It opened easily enough, faint light below revealing troubled faces. Some of the women and children were crying.

“What’s wrong?” one of the grim-faced men called up to him.

Good question, Cana thought.

“The police are after us,” he told them, keeping it simple and watching their faces convulse. They didn’t have to know it was the armed forces chasing them.

“Keep quiet,” he added.

He had no real hope that any of them would be quiet, but Cana slammed the hatch shut before he faced any more questions.

Cattle shouldn’t speak in the first place.

The Coast Guard cutter hailed him once again on his run back to the wheelhouse. Cana braced himself for bullets, but they didn’t come.

“Well?” Dovolani challenged as Cana entered. “Did you quiet them?”

“They’re calm,” Cana said, “for now. Where can they go?”

“To hell, for all I care,” his boss replied. “This tub can’t hope to outrun that cutter.”

“So? What then?”

“We need a fire,” Dovolani said.

“What!”

“Just do it!” Dovolani snapped.

Cana opened a nearby drawer and grabbed a fat thermite grenade.

God help the cattle now.

“THEY’RE BURNING, sir!” The break in Decker’s voice embarrassed him.

“Burning and still running,” Lieutenant Commander Martinez said. “Stand by with the firefighting gear, but stay alert on those Fifties.”

“Aye, sir!”

Decker passed on the order via intercom, with no doubt in his mind that both gunners were ready for action behind their .50-caliber machine guns. Nervously, he dropped a hand to his right hip, where a SIG-Sauer P-229 R DAK semiauto pistol nestled in its tactical holster. Other members of the crew would be armed with M-16 A-2 assault rifles and Remington M 870 P 12-gauge shotguns, ready for boarding.

Assuming that the trawler didn’t burn up and sink before they could reach her.

“Is that someone going overboard?” Martinez asked.

“Can’t see them, sir,” Decker replied. “It might—”

There was no doubt then, in the next split second, as a human torch ran stumbling across the trawler’s rear deck, tripped and plunged over its side into the sea.

“Jesus!”

“Come on!” Martinez snapped. “Get up alongside!”

The helmsman was already taking action as Decker relayed the order, no standing on protocol now. The Thresher surged forward, gaining on the boat as it seemed to stall, wallowing in the Atlantic swells.

Gaining, for sure.

But Decker feared that they were already too late.