PULAU MATI (22 page)

Making all of its probable top speed of 10 knots, the ship continued up the channel well out from the reef that extended north from the pirate’s island.  Haatim considered firing the cannon across its bow
but the distance was too great.  The ship was on a course to hit the string of mines well before it was in range of the cannon.  Although Haatim had no love for the pirates, given a choice he would have tried to warn them.

Haatim had some very powerful binoculars on the bridge but they were not very useful on the ship because of the rolling motion.  He had however attained some proficiency at using them by getting his body into a rhythm with the yacht’s movements.  He called for one of the men to bring the binoculars
up to him.  With the more powerful glasses, Haatim could make out details of the ship’s superstructure.  Two people were on the monkey bridge of the Kesempatan.  Their proportions were not quite what he had expected and their skin color was lighter than he had expected.  He rested his eyes a moment but when he put the glasses back on the ship, the monkey bridge was deserted.

Haatim
yelled at Fadi to finish the mine they were on and then winch the motorboat onboard and tell him when it was done.  When Fadi yelled all clear, Haatim asked Dawoud to raise the Abu Sayyaf flag.  Seeing the flag going up brought a cheer from the men as Haatim pushed the throttle forward and started the yacht turning onto a direct heading for the ship, not to rescue those aboard but to kill them.  They could not risk survivors telling the world their ship was sunk by a mine.

A great
gout of water rose twice the height of the Kesempatan’s deck when the mine detonated near its bow.  It took more than half a minute for the sound to reach Haatim’s ears. 

Chapter XIII   The Yacht

“We will make it
to the island a few kilometers ahead of them if we continue at this rate,” Shinobu stated.  No sooner had he said that than Dayah screeched and lifted her bare feet from the inch of water that had accumulated in the bottom of the boat.

While waiting in ambush at the clearing for the last two pirates,
they had witnessed what happened to the motorboat’s speed when it was nearly swamped.  If their boat slowed even moderately, the yacht would catch up and Gray had figured out that whoever was on that yacht meant to kill them.  They did not want anyone from a ship sunk by one of their mines to make it to civilization and tell the story.  If the yacht closed with the motorboat, Gray and his companions were sitting ducks.  If the leaks worsened, the men on the yacht might simply wait for the motorboat to sink.  There wasn’t a single life jacket on the boat.

Keegan turned the wheel over to
Shinobu and checked the bilge pump outlet.  It was shooting out a strong stream of water.  He dropped to hands and knees and crawled from repair to repair.

“
This is one,” he hollered and hand tightened the nut before taking a wrench to it.

Dayah went to her knees and crawled under the overhang of the helm
.  “Here one,” she yelled.

Keegan scurried over and reached an arm under and felt around blindly.  Dayah guided his hand to the nut.  When he had tightened that nut with a wrench, they both crawled from repair to repair but found no more loose nuts.

The water did not recede.  Rather it looked like it had risen an additional inch, which meant the hull rode another inch lower.  Keegan pounded his forehead trying to remember where they had made other repairs.  He looked at Dayah just as she pointed to a bullet hole in the cover over the engine compartment.  “Ahhhhg,” he groaned and pulled off the cover.  “that one weh repaired from the bottom of the boat.”

Gray eyed the location of the bullet hole
in the cover and leaned over and estimated its path through the engine compartment.  The bullet had just missed the end of the exhaust manifold and some other plumbing and passed through a two inch diameter relief hole in a sheet of metal between the engine and the actual hull of the boat. The water was coming up through a half inch hole like a drinking fountain.

Keegan held up a rubber plug with a bolt through it.  “
I cannot get me hand in there.”

“I do it,” Dayah said, snatching the plug from his hand.

Gray grabbed her arm.  “Dayah, that manifold will boil your flesh!”

“I not touch it.”  She moved around to the end of the engine compartment closest to the leak and slid her arm
around the plumbing and between the compartment’s wall and the manifold.  The motorboat bounced over a larger wave.  The hiss of burnt flesh came from the compartment.  Dayah screeched and yanked her arm from the compartment.  Gray splashed water from the boat’s bottom over the raw sear mark on her arm.

“I lost plug.  You got more?”
she asked, gritting her teeth.

Keegan eyed her a moment and reached
into the tool box for another.  Gray said, “Keegan, hold her body firmly against the compartment so she moves with the boat.  I’ll hold a shield between her arm and the manifold.”  He looked around the boat for something flat and strong and small enough to fit into the cramped space but big enough for him to hold on to without burning his hands.  A panel covering a map compartment at the helm caught his eye.  He opened the panel and yanked it off its hinges.  He knelt on the opposite side of the engine from Dayah and dropped the panel close to the manifold but not touching it.  His hands immediately felt the heat.  “Anna, pour water over my hands!”

Dayah already had her arm through the space. 
Using a plastic bottle Anna dribbled water over Gray’s hands and the panel, careful not to pour it onto the manifold.  When the boat made a larger movement Dayah moved and her arm hit the panel but it did not burn her.  After a moment she said, “It in.  Not tight.”

Keegan handed her a socket wrench with a small ratchet.  “Can yer get
this en there?”

“I afraid
plug go out.”

“You can’t hold your arm in there until we reach the island,” Gray said.
  “Keegan, how many of those plugs you got?”

“
One more o’ that size.”

“
Dayah, tighten it as well as you can.  And then get the wrench on it as quickly as possible.  Anna, more water!”

The young Malay grimaced
with the effort to finger tighten the nut.  After a moment she took the ratchet and socket into her other hand, took a deep breath like she was going to dive under water and lifted her hand from the plug only long enough to transfer the wrench.  She stared into the sky as she worked the socket onto the bolt by feel.  A smile came to her face and she shifted position slightly to work the ratchet.  They could hear the clicks as the bolt tightened, expanding the plug.

“
That’s good.  The nut’s self locking.”

As soon as Dayah’s arm was out, Gray pulled out the panel, dropped it and dipped both hands in the water sloshing in the boat’s bottom.  Already the water was receding.

Gray knelt by Dayah and took her hand in his.  “Dayah, we all owe you our lives.  And this is not the first time you have come to our rescue.  I hope there comes a way we can all repay you.”

“You crazy.  We all saved
everyone.  All help everyone.  I try pay back.”

“You have paid your share and more, Dayah.”

“Okay.  Stop now.”

They left the cover off
of the engine compartment and checked the plug regularly as well as the other repairs.

Melanie
sat alone in the stern where the least buffeting occurred but she still looked miserable.  Anna had been supporting her until needed for help with the repair.  Her eyes were closed and her head flopped one way and then the other with every bump.  Gray went back and sat by her.

“Twenty more minutes and we’re off this thing,”
he said after wrapping his arms around her and holding her head against his chest.

“Are we going back to the island
of death?”

“We are.  The boat chasing us is flying the flag of Abu Sayyaf, the people
the co-pilot said was behind the hijacking of our flight.”

“Could they be trying to rescue us?”

“No, Melanie!” Gray said with more force than he intended.  “They came after us before we hit the mine.”

The young woman flinched.  “Sorry.  I’m not questioning…”

“It’s alright.  I think it is in your nature to give everyone the benefit of the doubt.”

“Do you think the mines were theirs?”

“I’m assuming the mines were laid by the people on that yacht to protect the island where the flight we were on was supposed to land.  They have to kill us to keep word of the island from getting out.”

“
God, I’m going to die on one of these damned islands.  It’s not any worse than anywhere else but I just wasn’t ready yet.”

“I’m glad to hear you are not ready yet.  It means you are no longer suicidal.”

“I will be if this pain gets worse.”

“I brought the IBs. 
You want a big dose?”

“
I might as well.”

“Don’t give up hope.  We will not be at a big disadvantage on the island
.  And I think I can speak for all of us, those zealots may have religious fervor on their side but we are getting really pissed off and I have a plan.”

Anna took over holding her while
Gray dug out the painkiller.  He brought back a double dose of ibuprofen and a bottle of water.  Before he left he said, “Melanie, we are going to move fast when we get to the island.  Do you want us to leave you in the jungle or the hut?”

“The hut.  Leave me a rifle.  I know how to shoot.”

“We have a good one for you.  If you stay in the hut you will have to hide under blankets until you hear mines go off or shooting starts.  Will you agree to that?”

“Yes.
  Hiding under blankets sounds awfully good right now.”

Gray went to Shinobu and told him his plan.  The old man growled
, “Tell me my part and I will do it.”

Gray went to each of his companions and told them
the plan and their part.  The only variables depended upon how far ahead of the yacht they were when the motorboat reached the dock.

The yacht was
perhaps three miles behind when the mouth of the bay appeared a mile ahead. It looked like they were going to beat the yacht by enough margin for their plan to work if nothing slowed them down.

The c
oncussion of an explosion pounded the hull of the boat as a geyser of water shot into the air behind them.  Gray put the glasses on the yacht and tried to move with the bounces enough to see what was causing the explosions.  Steady puffs of smoke were flying back from a gun mounted ahead of the bridge.

“Shinobu! Turn into the bay as soon as possible!  They’re firing a cannon at us.”

Gray guessed it was a small caliber cannon and very close to its effective range but the yacht was getting closer and if they elevated the gun perfectly it could reach them.

A geyser went up only feet from the port side and shrapnel rattled against the hull but it had traveled through too much water to penetrate.  Gray felt the boat turn and now
they were almost abeam the yacht making it a deflection shot for the gunner and very difficult.  The geysers of water fell behind, never coming any closer than the one that rattled the hull and then the motorboat passed the north point of the bay cutting off sight of the yacht.

Shinobu
ran the boat aground at the end of the dock to prevent it from filling with water should they need it again.  Anna grabbed her rifle and the one Gray had allocated for Melanie and two bandoliers of clips.  She helped Melanie to the hut and made her comfortable on a pallet of blankets against the right front wall.  She stacked two cots beside Melanie that partially covered her from view if someone came into the hut expecting it to be empty.

Shinobu, Dayah and Keegan grabbed
weapons, Claymore mines, clackers and a spool of wire from the hut and raced for the trail.  Gray had told them to set up a mine fifty yards down from the bend in the trail where they had shot the two pirates and another mine twenty five yards before the bend. The spacing allowed for the spreading out of pursuers on the trail.  After detonation they were to open fire at will.  If they were outnumbered, they were to go to the cave.  Otherwise they were to mop up and work their way back to the edge of the clearing.  Shinobu was carrying one of the two way radios taken from the pirates.  Gray carried the other and said both radios were to be shut off when and if the Abu Sayyaf men started ashore, and kept off until the ambush was sprung.  Before leaving the dock, Dayah had asked what if these men did not start up the trail.

Gray guessed why she was asking and he said, “Yes you can bait them.  But please be conservative.  Don’t put your li
fe at risk unnecessarily.”

“Huh, those men risking life… unnecessarily,”
she had said, sounding angry.

Gray gave Melanie some last minute instructions.  She was not to initiate a fire fight.  They wanted
the men that came ashore to go up the trail to the ambush.  Anna and Gray would remain at the clearing in case all those that came ashore did not go up the trail.

Gray set up a mine near the pool facing into the clearing
and covering a triangle that included the dock.  Anna ran the wire to the cover where they had waited in ambush for Bossman.

The yacht had already anchored close to the same spot the pirate ship had sat for six days. 
Using the powerful binoculars from the ship, Gray watched the yacht from cover. If they sent men ashore in a launch, he wanted to know how many men remained aboard the yacht.  However, so much of the deck was enclosed and the open end faced north that learning what he wanted to know was not going to be possible.  The men on the yacht lowered a motorboat off the stern that looked capable of carrying a dozen or more men.  Gray could not get a count before the boat pulled away but he did see one man in a short sleeve white shirt standing on the deck when the boat left.  When the boat was clear of the yacht, Gray counted nine men aboard it.  These men displayed more military discipline and uniformity than the pirates.  Historically the Abu Sayyaf has been a ragtag band of rebels so these men may be a select group and their dark grey shirts may be borrowed military issue.  Some of the men carried grenade launchers mounted beneath their M-16s but all the rifles were muzzle up beside each man, four on each side of the boat.  A man with the bearing of a leader and wearing aviator style sun glasses and a crème colored kufi stood in the prow of the boat.

Gray radioed Shinobu that
nine men were coming ashore and to turn off the radio.

The
motorboat slid alongside the dock and two men jumped out and secured both ends of the craft.  The man wearing the sun glasses and kufi stepped onto the dock and started for the clearing.  He was an older man, grey hair showing through the open weave of the kufi.