HARD CASE (A John Harding Novel - Special Ops, Cage Fighter, CIA Agent) (37 page)

Well that’s just swell. “Nice.”

“
I see a promotion in your future, Captain,” Casey added.

“
Shit, I’ll be an assistant director if you guys pull off another day like today. How’s your boat performing?”

“
Sweet,” Lucas replied.

“
I’m not too sure about letting you pirates haul that thing back to the states for pleasure cruising.”

“
Double cross us, Cap’n, and we’ll feed your entrails to the fishies… arrrrrggghhh! Ain’t that right, maties?”

We all of course responded in true pirate comradeship with Lucas’s threat.

“
Okay… okay… but the first airburst round shot off in US waters, and I’ll have all your mangy hides. Cruise toward the Seychelles but closer to the Somali coastline. We’re tracking you and everything within a twenty mile radius of you. Bait your pirate hook again and do some real fishing. Weather looks good. If we get the okay, I’m going to put you guys out of the port of Mombasa next year. Just about the time they think it’s safe to come back in the water, you guys will be back to say hi. Good hunting. Captain Blood out.”

Lucas put us on course for a position nearer the coast in the general direction of the Seychelles, slow but steady.

“
A yearly pirate hunt like this one will get us a free yearly overhaul,” Lucas pointed out. “We’ll always be in top shape. It might even coincide again with John’s Dubai fight. Denny would have to have the boat taken to Mombasa though. It would take us weeks to sail from Dubai to Mombasa. They only hit us this close to Mumbai because they were tipped off by someone in the port on the pirate payroll.”

Probably so. “If Denny nails a few pirate coconspirators in Mumbai, you can bet he’ll push for Mombasa. When he gets to thinkin’ we should port in Mogadishu, he can take that one himself on his own boat.”

“
I doubt we’re going to get another day like today,” Casey said. “If we hit them as hard as Denny thinks, they’ll be layin’ low for a while.”

“
We’re giving these chumps too much respect,” Lucas replied. “You can bet these warlords over in that cesspool are sending out their own crews. This business where we believe they have some kind of central pirate command is horseshit.”

I lean that way too. “We may have another good day if Denny keeps the rescued carrier out of the news until we’re through. If it gets out too quickly they’ll go into hiding for a time. This whole deal with not cleaning these assholes out once and for all is ridiculous. Since we minions have no say in it I guess we might as well enjoy what we have. I’m first up tonight on graveyard watch. Which one of you guys has the mid-watch?”

“
I’m taking it,” Casey answered. “That was funny listening to Denny reassuring us we’re covered for any approach.”

“
That’ll be the day when I trust some bleary-eyed desk jockey in God knows where with my life out here in the middle of nowhere,” Lucas agreed. “The first night we didn’t have a watch, we’d be waking up in a dungeon somewhere in Mogadishu and our floating arsenal would be a pirate ship.”

“
Would they not have an alarm sound when something approaches us since they are tracking us?” Jafar asked as he looked out to sea where a very beautiful sunset painted the sky with fiery hues.

“
Yeah, if they’re paying attention.” That was harsh so I qualified it a little. “Look, kid, Denny probably has us covered but why take a chance? We’re getting paid well for this. Let’s enjoy that fish Lucas and Casey caught. I’m starvin’. Maybe tomorrow you can hook a swordfish.”

Casey stared out at the sunset with Jafar. “Red sky at night, sailor’s delight.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Night Attack

Casey ran into my room about fifteen minutes before I was due to go on watch. “Up and at ‘um, John. We have a runner heading our way. Lucas is up and steering for intercept. Denny’s on in real time. A Dutch sporting vessel is in full flight from marauders. They must have been smart enough to have a lookout. They’re zigzagging and taking small arms fire while giving out an SOS in a loop.”

We manned our nests in moments with Casey manning the XM307. We both had our night-vision gear on because we were speeding toward the race with all lights out. The bridge had state of the art radar and night-vision capabilities. If the sporting vessel’s captain had any sense, they too were now running in the dark. Lucas came abreast of the race nearly fifteen minutes later. He angled nearer the pirates gradually until they were only a hundred yards off our stern with us pacing them. The Dutch vessel was losing the race. I ended that real quick with the Browning fifty, taking only moments to rake the pirate skiff with fifty caliber, armor-piercing rounds at amidships. The tracers made it easy. They were dead in the water within moments, billowing smoke. The Dutch vessel didn’t wait around to find out why the pirates weren’t chasing them any longer. We went down to the bridge to confer with Captain Blood. Lucas had already given him a blow by blow description and Denny was ecstatic.

“
I love you guys! They’re calling for help but no one’s answering. They reported taking tracer fire. I think the Mother Ship may be writing them off. How long before their skiff sinks?”

“
Maybe an hour,” Casey answered. “Because of the smoke the pirates will probably be in the water in half that time.”

“
They didn’t say anything about being able to see you guys so hang tight and run silent and dark. Maybe they’ll get an answer from Mom if they stay afloat long enough. There is a Reaper in the air and heading your way. We’ll send it to take a look at Mom if the pirates get through from the skiff.”

Lucas had us positioned so we could see the skiff plainly from nearly a hundred yards distant with night-vision. Casey kept track with the spotting scope as to whether we were drawing their attention. Jafar made coffee and passed us each a mug. The skiff crew managed to get the fires out below decks because the smoke thinned out considerably, but it was still taking on water. Denny kept us apprised as to what the outgoing chatter was about but it was mostly a call out for help.

Once the smoke cleared, they did something to pump out the water because the skiff began to sit higher in the water. Then they spotted us with their own night-vision equipment. Lucas sped away as they started taking potshots at us. Casey ran out to the Browning nest and cut down the gunmen. They tried hiding behind the railing, not having noticed prior rounds going through the ship easily. They didn’t get back up. That only left five survivors we could see scurrying around. Denny came on shortly after.

“
We’re done guys. The Dutch have a Naval ship on pirate patrol heading for you. They received the call from the Dutch sport vessel. Clean up on isle seven and then get moving away from there.”

I ran up to where Casey was sitting with the spotter scope watching the pirate skiff. “Toast ‘em, Case. Denny said the Dutch Navy’s in route to rescue the already saved sport vessel.”

Casey nodded, handed me the Leupold Mark IV and eased into the XM307 nest. He vaporized the skiff and pirates. We felt the boat gaining speed as Lucas noted the demise of the local pirates and returned us to our previous course.

“
Get some sleep,” I told him. “I’m on watch and you have extra rack time comin’.”

“
Okay, John. That wasn’t as satisfying as our last pirate encounter, but we did intercept them scumbags before they caught the Dutch.”

“
Tomorrow’s another day. We’re in the right area. There’s another Mother Ship out there so there’ll be more pirate skiffs. It’ll be another wonderful day in the neighborhood, Mr. Rogers.”

“
I’m getting to be a pussy, John. I miss my new girlfriend. Her and I connected. I’m going to pop the question at Christmas. Are you still glad you asked Lora?”

“
There’s been no downside so far. Does she know what you do?”

“
Are you kiddin’? Yeah, I can hear it in my head now. How was your day, dear? Not bad, honey. I killed a couple dozen men in cold blood and talked like a pirate for laughs afterward.”

I laughed. “Lora’s sister Tess tells her I’m a cold blooded killer and a professional leg-breaker every time they talk now. They don’t have to know every detail, but it might be a good idea if they know some of the basics. This is why most of us are bachelors. If we have a family, we better never get divorced or cheat on our spouse, because she can rat us out just like Tess is doing to me. Secondly, if the bad guys find out about our secret identities they can kill or threaten everyone we care about. It worked on Chardin.”

Casey headed down. “Thanks for the pep talk, you wanker.”

“
Don’t kill the messenger, Case.”

Casey glanced back at me with a smile. “How about I sever his Achilles Tendons?”

“
Ouch.”

* * *

We cruised for two gorgeous days. The fishing only netted some dinner, but the weather day and night could only be described as balmy heaven. Denny of course wanted action every day and every night. The pirates didn’t cooperate. The pirate skiff disappearing in pursuit of the sporting vessel may have made the rats run back in their hole for a while. We took turns giving Jafar gunnery lessons with my M107 sniper rifle. I couldn’t tell if the pirate extermination so far bothered him or not. He hadn’t mentioned it and his only reaction had been to join in the after action pirate talkathon. His skills improved with every try, and hitting floating targets at a hundred yards became standard procedure for him.

The third night out proved our theory in being obsessive about having a lookout at all times. At near midnight, running slow and steady on auto pilot with our lights on, I caught a glimpse of something on the horizon. The dark shape was there one moment and then it was gone. I called it in, but home base wasn’t picking anything up, and they weren’t able to get a satellite image at the time. We don’t take chances. On calm, still nights like this one you don’t want to make any excessive noise so I rounded up the guys personally rather than sounding an alarm.

We kept out of view going back to the bridge. With four of us scanning, we picked up movement our way with Jafar spotting the small skiff first. Tiny was more like it. We could see eight heavily armed pirates in a twenty foot open launch powered by what must be an electric motor. It made very little noise on approach because we had the outer sound boom pointed at them to see if we could pick up any chatter.

I went up with Casey spotting for me. We let them get to about a hundred yards away before I put a few holes through whatever that thing was propelling them at the launch’s fantail with the M107 sniper rifle. That got their attention. A couple of them immediately aimed AK47’s at us and I blew their heads off. The remaining blood and brain matter spattered pirates hugged the deck. They decided to surrender after a quick conference when I didn’t fire anymore rounds off. I could see one of them with my night-vision talking to someone on an old style field radio. Weapons began cascading over their launch railing before they tentatively stood up again with hands behind their heads.

“
If they headed toward us in that thing you can bet Mommy must be nearby. Cap’n Blood is probably already on the horn with Lucas. You saw that guy callin’ it in, right?”

“
Yeah, Case, but if home-base couldn’t pick anything up when I called it in at first glimpse, Mommy must be running silent and dark too.”

To put an exclamation point on my statement the eerie whistling sound of an incoming shell heralded a mammoth splash twenty yards off our port bow. Lucas immediately turned full speed toward the pirates in a zigzag pattern. Casey had already popped out both nests, and manned the Browning .50 caliber. He swept the launch deck with fire leaving nothing on the water but floating debris. Lucas turned us away from the unmistakable sound of incoming shells raining down around us. Just when it seemed we had stymied the attack, Lucas turned into the fire, making wide turns while again becoming live target practice.

“
Hey, what is this, a suicide mission?” Casey called out to me.

Jafar, his head ducking at each round landing in the water, arrived moments later. “Denny says they’ve launched a Reaper drone. The ship firing at us had to light up to attack and home-base has it pinpointed. We are to-”

Lucas swerved to starboard a split second before a round hit where we would have been.

“
Give them something to shoot at for a while?” I finished for him.

Jafar nodded in tightlipped angst, his eyes wide as he looked off in the direction the attack originated from. “We can’t survive a hit from whatever they’re shelling us with, can we?”

“
We’re still holding over two thousand gallons of fuel so I don’t think so, but it’ll be quick,” Casey replied with a grin. “What’s the ETA for the Reaper?”

“
Fifteen minutes.”

That’s a long time to keep lucking out. If they’d had anything with a chip in it we’d be dead already. “Well, we may as well go below. Lucas will be cussing out Denny for putting his boat in danger I’m sure.”

“
He already is,” Jafar said as we headed to the bridge.