The Isle of Devils HOLY WAR (18 page)

Once Hooda was out of sight, Savage turned his attention back to the bridge. The terrorist who was piloting the tanker was concentrating on the tanker’s direction and had his back turned to the hatch. Savage quietly stepped through the opened hatchway and was able to get within a foot of the terrorist without being detected. Savage tapped the terrorist on the shoulder and yelled out, “Hey mate, where we going?” The startled terrorist turned around only to find Savage’s right fist planted squarely into his face. The terrorist never knew what hit him. He was sprawled out on the floor in seconds. Savage stood over him shaking his right hand and said, “Damn that hurt me worse than it hurt you.” Now he had temporary control of the bridge and the terrorist’s AK-47, but what next? He still had to warn Storm and somehow defuse the detonator. Furthermore, he had to be on the lookout for the return of Hooda and his henchmen.

Back on the speedboat Storm had sighted the terrorist speedboat that was closest to him. He picked up the AR-47 from the deck and threw the throttle wide open hoping to catch up with the terrorist in a couple of minutes. What Storm failed to notice was that Imad was in pursuit of him. As Storm closed the gap between the speedboats other terrorists saw him out of the corner of their eyes. He turned around and started firing his AK-47 at Storm. Storm managed to escape being hit by any of the bullets ripping through the air. The two speedboats were now side by side colliding with each other as they flew over the waves. Now neither man could fire at the other at this close range without losing control of his own speedboat. Storm finally broke the stalemate by locking the steering wheel temporarily with his AK-47.

Without hesitation he leaped from one speedboat to the other. As he landed on the other speedboat the terrorist tried to fire at him in vain. Storm grabbed the AK-47 and shoved the butt of the weapon back into the face of the terrorist. The terrorist flipped back over the seat causing the speedboat to swerve out of control. Storm fell over the same seat landing on the terrorist. The two rolled over the deck fighting each other and trying to gain control of the AK-47. The terrorist was first to gain control of the assault weapon, but before he could pull the trigger Storm gave him a karate chop blow to his throat. The terrorist dropped the AK-47 as he grabbed at his throat trying to breath. Storm next kicked him so hard in his mid section that he fell backwards cracking his head on the speedboat’s rail. He appeared to be dead. Before Storm could do anything else he heard Imad yelling, “Don’t move a muscle, you infidel, or I will blow your brains out.” Storm stopped dead in his tracks. He knew Imad meant business. Imad continued to say, “You think you’re funny trying to stop our suicide boats. Don’t you?”

Storm replied, “Well Imad old buddy, the thought had crossed my mind.”

Imad added, “The only thing you’re going to do is drive this speedboat on to its target.”

Storm now knew that Imad was afraid to fire his weapon at him. He must be fearful of setting off the explosives too early as this would alert the authorities. Storm only had one choice at the moment. He was at least ten feet away from the driver’s seat and Imad would probably shoot him before he could get there. So the next best thing was to join Imad. Storm yelled out, “Look, there’s the Coast Guard!” Imad glanced away just long enough for Storm to jump onto Imad’s speedboat. The fight of their lives ensued.

Back on the tanker, Savage finally thought of a way to warn Storm. He was pretty sure, but not positive that Storm knew Morse code. The only problem was that he was going to have to use a very unconventional device to communicate with Storm. The tanker’s air horn! He knew that as soon as he made the first sound with the tankers horn it would draw the terrorists back to him, but he had no choice. Savage began to sound off the tanker’s air horn, “Daaaaaaaaa Daaa Daaaaaaaaa Daaa , Daaa , Daaa Daaaaaaaaa Daaa Daaa, Daaa Daaaaaaaaa Daaa Daaa.”

Then, “Daaa Daaaaaaaaa Daaaaaaaaa Daaa, Daaa Daaa Daaa Daaa, Daaaaaaaaa Daaaaaaaaa Daaaaaaaaa, Daaaaaaaaa Daaa, “Daaa.”

Then, “Daaaaaaaaa Daaa Daaaaaaaaa, Daaa, Daaaaaaaaa Daaa Daaaaaaaaa Daaaaaaaaa, Daaa Daaa Daaa.”

And finally, “Daaaaaaaaa Daaa Daaa Daaa, Daaaaaaaaa Daaaaaaaaa Daaaaaaaaa, Daaaaaaaaa Daaaaaaaaa, “Daaaaaaaaa Daaa Daaa Daaa.”

In the heat of the fight, Storm started hearing faintly the tanker’s air horn. At first he thought it was a simple warning that maybe the speedboat was in the path of the tanker. Then it hit him it was Morse code. Savage was sending a message. The fight continued on. It was difficult, to say the least, for Storm to concentrate on the code while still fighting for his life. To make matters worse, Imad pulled out his sharp curved knife. Storm finally hit Imad hard enough that he fell backwards a few feet and dropped the knife. This gave Storm a few moments to listen to the air horn. Storm picked up words, “keys” and “bomb”. He thought to himself, “What the hell is he telling me?” Just then Imad jumped on top of him knocking both of them into the railing of the speedboat. While they both had head locks on each other, Storm could hear the air horn starting again. This time he could make out the words, “cell” and “phone”. Imad reached over, picked up his knife off the deck and sliced open Storm’s leg with it. Storm grabbed Imad’s hand with the knife and banged it against the railing until the knife fell overboard. While the fighting was going on, Storm heard the rest of the tanker’s air horn signal.

Savage was ready to blast the air horn for a third time, but before he could do that, bullets came smashing through the bridge windows from every direction. Savage dropped to the floor with his AK-47 and began returning fire from behind a console. As best as he could tell, he was taking fire from four terrorists. Savage rolled across the floor firing as he rolled shooting at least two terrorists. He was able to crawl under the bridge map desk to avoid further fire. Just as quickly as the shooting started it abruptly stopped. Savage could hear some voices in Arabic, but he couldn’t understand a word they were saying. The next thing he heard was a thud on the floor and something rolling. He looked across the bridge and saw it was a grenade. Savage yelled out, “Oh, crap!” He jumped up and threw himself through one of the shattered bridge windows just as the grenade exploded. As he lay on the narrow steel walkway on the outside of the bridge he could see Hooda and a few of his terrorists running for the helicopter. The helicopter was running as if it were about to lift off.

Savage thought to himself, “Oh hell! This tanker must be locked on its target, and those bloody bastards are going to set off the explosive barge from the air. Although he was covered with blood, Savage jumped up and started running towards the hatch where he had left the detonator crate.

Meanwhile, Imad had a choke hold on Storm. Storm was beginning to lose the battle, probably because he was distracted trying to figure out the code Savage had sent. Finally Storm put the words together, “Cell phone keys bomb. It didn’t make sense.” Just as he was about to black out from lack of air, it hit him, “The cell phone keys are the code for the bomb.” With his last gasp Storm kneed Imad in the groin causing him to fall backwards in absolute agony. Storm limped over to him grabbing him by the collar with one hand and with the other hand used Imad’s face as a punching bag. He finally dropped Imad to the deck and reached into his pocket removing his cell phone. Storm flipped it open, but there were no shortcut numbers on the screen. He knew he was running out of time. The other speedboats would be at their destination in minutes. Storm stood up and grabbed Imad yelling, “What the hell is the code to blow these explosives with?”

Imad laughed and said, “Infidel, I will never tell you. Go ahead and kill me.”

Storm threw Imad down and reached into his pocket pulling out the PPK pistol and said, “Ok, dirt bag, you just got your wish.” Storm pulled the trigger and nothing happened. The pistol was empty. In that moment of hesitation, Imad jumped up knocking Storm over then jumped onto the other speedboat. Seconds later the speedboat was ripping through the waves at full speed. Storm reached down and picked up the cell phone. He had a sickening feeling that he had just failed causing thousands of innocent people to die. The streets of New York were now filled with thousands of commuters on their way to work. As Storm stared at the cell phone he kept thinking what the hell would a terrorist key into a cell phone to set off a chain of explosions? Like of bolt of lightning it came to him. Only a sick demented terrorist would use this code. He keyed in “911.” Nothing happened. Then about ten seconds later explosion after explosion went off in the harbour. Hearing the explosions, Imad knew he had failed. He knew Storm had entered the 911 code into the cell phone. He tried to jump from his speedboat, but it was too late for him. His speedboat was number ten in the explosion sequence. His speedboat exploded into millions of pieces. Storm saw the explosions all around him in the harbour and thanked God. He knew that since all the speedboats exploded in the harbour there was no threat to human life. Luckily for Storm he was on Imad’s speedboat which had no explosives on it. He turned around to see where the tanker was and his heart sank again. It was now evident what its target was. The
Statue of Liberty!

On the tanker, Savage had made it to the hatch. He quickly picked up the detonator crate and began running towards the helicopter. Hooda was on the helicopter waiting to lift off. He could see that something had gone terribly wrong, and the suicide speedboats had never made it to their intended targets. He knew he still had control of the tanker which was his biggest weapon of destruction. Now he wasn’t going to take any chances. Although the tanker was not yet alongside the Statue of Liberty it was close enough to destroy it and everything else close by. Hooda yelled to his pilot, “Take off now, and leave the others behind.” With only two of his fellow terrorists onboard the helicopter lifted off.

Savage was on a dead run towards the helicopter as it was lifting off. He had the crate in one arm and the AK-47 in the other hand. As he closed in on the helicopter the four remaining terrorists on the helicopter pad aimed their weapons at Savage. Savage didn’t flinch for a second. He shot all four terrorists while running at full speed. Meanwhile everyone onboard the helicopter were too busy watching Storm’s speedboat running at full speed towards the tanker.

The tie down cables that were used to secure the helicopter to the tanker while in transit, were still dangling from its landing rudders. Savage grabbed one of the cables that was still connected to the helicopter and hung onto the landing rudder with his other arm. He wrapped the cable around the crate and tied a quick ship’s knot with the cable to secure the crate. Savage let go of the crate and the rudder, falling twenty feet to the helicopter landing pad. He laid there face down for a few moments making sure nothing was broken.

The helicopter lifted straight up over a thousand feet and was hovering over the tanker. Hooda said, “We have waited long enough. This is Cobra’s
Jihad.” He flipped open his cell phone while he was laughing and keyed in “911”. An instant later the detonator crate and the helicopter exploded into a fireball that lit up the sky.

Savage rolled over and scrambled to the cover of the pipes running along the tankers railing. He didn’t want any of the exploded helicopters debris falling on him. He knew it was over. After a couple of minutes he stood up and walked over to the tanker’s railing. He was elated to look down and see Storm waving at him. Savage waved back and yelled out, “Storm, we bloody did it! We saved New York!”

Storm was shaking his head from side to side frantically and kept pointing to his right. Savage finally looked where Storm was pointing and said, “Oh bloody hell! Here we go again! This damn tanker’s going to crash into the
Statue of Liberty!” Savage ran on a mad dash back up to the bridge. Once in the bridge he looked around not having a clue how to stop the tanker. To make matters worse, the grenade explosion had damaged most of the equipment on the bridge. He finally found the small joy stick devise that would normally steer the tanker, but it must have been damaged in the explosion. No matter in what direction Savage moved it nothing happened. The tanker was now within one hundred yards of the Statue of Liberty. In desperation, Savage was hitting anything that moved, but to no avail. He finally looked over to one side of the bridge and saw two levers labeled anchors. Savage ran over to the levers and quickly released them. The anchors dropped and struck the bottom of the harbour. In seconds they lodged in rocks and mud on the bottom. With a huge backward heave and then a surge the tanker stopped. The tanker had just barely run aground on Liberty Island. Savage looked out the bridge window and said, “Well bloody hell. I think we just gave the Lady a big fat kiss.”

Shortly afterwards Storm made it back onboard the tanker and found Savage sitting in the Captain’s chair just staring out the shattered bridge window. Storm walked up to Savage and asked, “What in the hell are you doing?”

Savage turned to Storm and said, “I’m just enjoying the moment looking at the pretty Lady. Anyway, if I stepped outside a bomb would probably explode, or a terrorist would shoot me, or a bloody New York cop would arrest me for trying to deface your pretty Lady.”

Storm laughed and said, “You’d better get your butt up. We both need medical attention. I don’t think you’ll make it through the day.”

Savage replied, “Who cares? It’s just another day in paradise to me.”