Tiger by the Tail (26 page)

“Just get us there and we will do the rest.” The leader had replied.

Even with his fifteen years of piloting, they had almost gone down anyway. Somchai thought the yacht was doing about sixteen knots, and had come in on an angle to the bow, hoping to give these men enough time to throw their grapples and get aboard before he passed the ship completely.

The boat was moving faster than he had thought, however, and his skiff came dangerously close to the sweeping bow. Wanting to veer away, he’d felt the cold circle of a pistol barrel pressed against his neck. “Get us close to the boat, and you won’t get shot,” the leader had said. Somchai had done as ordered, sending up a silent prayer for himself and his family and preparing himself for a short swim before drowning in the middle of the Gulf.

He had come as close to the gleaming vessel’s port side as he had dared, and the two men had thrown their grappling hooks, then the six had scrambled aboard. One of them had hit the anchor as he climbed, making the chain clink in the quiet night. Somchai didn’t care if they made it aboard or not, he only had eyes for the huge yacht bow that was about to crush his skiff into flotsam.

Jamming the rudder hard to port with all his strength, Somchai felt his skiff rock wildly back and forth under him as he hit the swells rolling out from the yacht. He took on a good deal of water, and thought he was going to sink before the skiff righted itself and kept going, although now riding low in the water. Once he was stable, he twisted the throttle and sped off into the night, wanting to get as far away from those pirates as he could. Rowing back to the shore once the engine gave out would be a small price to pay for escaping with his life.

* * *

The last man on deck, Daniel bin Suleiman, scrambled over the railing of the yacht, anticipating an easy subdual and looting. Even though his cousin Issako had warned him about the dangerous people he was going up against, the former Malaysian Army corporal thought if they could maintain the element of surprise in the first few minutes, then the battle would already be half won. And recovering the package and getting it back to Sunia would set him up in the tongs for good this time.

That was why he had rounded up a couple of army buddies who weren’t doing jack-shit after their discharge, grabbed a couple of Sunia’s boys, and hopped a plane to the southern tip of Thailand. Sunia had supplied them with all of the information they’d needed and seed money to pull off the plan. He just wanted the green box back. Anything else they found on the boat they could keep or sell. And that had been poor Daniel’s marginally thought-out plan.

He was reaching for his submachine gun when a form charged him from the shadows. Daniel tried to bring the weapon up, but the man closed too fast and shot a palm heel strike to his chin. He move his head aside so the blow only grazed him, but the man kept moving, trapping his gun so that he couldn’t fire with one arm, and grabbing the back of his neck and bringing his head forward in a vicious head-butt.

* * *

The intruders might have had more success with their infiltration, except for two problems. One, they had made enough noise to attract Vanel’s attention.

Second, they were trying to come aboard just after the guard rotation. The new man was awake, alert, and very large. Like every member of each team, he shouldered his share of more mundane duties along with leading his fellow Keldara.

Fortunately, Oleg had very large shoulders. So, when he saw Xatia’s small form round the aft corner of the yacht’s superstructure, he didn’t even raise his carbine, having identified her the moment after he caught her movement.

“What are you doing up, little one?” he asked.

She pointed across the boat to the front port side. “Men coming aboard on that side. I do not know how many. Vanel is over there already.”

“Get inside now,” Oleg said, then hit his mike. “All guards, tangos on front port quarter, repeat, tangos on the front port side. Move to intercept now.”

As he spoke, he climbed a ladder that took him up to the raised portion of the bow that flowed into the bridge. Moving silently, Oleg stepped across the reinforced fiberglass cowling, sinking to his elbows and knees and low-crawling the rest of the way. When he reached the edge, he could hear footsteps, and then the sounds of a scuffle.

Peeking his head over, he saw a half-dozen men beginning to fan out along the railing, heading in both directions. Not one of them was looking up. Oleg heard the bow and stern guards report in as they closed from those directions. He raised his rifle and sighted in on the nearest man when one of the men was tackled by a figure that leaped on him from the shadows.

“Eliminate the rest,” Oleg said as he squeezed the trigger on his silenced rifle, dropping one of the intruders just as he was about to shoot Vanel. “Leave the one Vanel is subduing alive.”

Four more shots sounded in the next five seconds. Four more tangos dropped to the deck, dead.

* * *

The blow to his nose made Daniel see stars, and by the time he recovered, his weapon was gone and he was face down on the deck, his arm hammerlocked up between his shoulder blades. He looked over for the rest of his team, but only heard a series of silenced shots and the thuds of bodies falling.

He barely had time to think that maybe Issako had been right about these guys when his hands were zip-tied and he was flipped over, finding himself surrounded by a half-dozen men. One of them, a shorter guy with brown hair and cold, brown eyes, stared back at him.

“Now what the hell do we have here?”

* * *

Mike was disappointed in the night’s work, though not in his men.

He’d barely gotten started on the ringleader of the pirates when the man had spilled everything he knew, including that he was working for Sunia. A team had gone out and recovered the fisherman who had brought them aboard, but the cigarette boat that had passed astern of the
Big Fish
several minutes ago had gotten away.

But all wasn’t lost. While the fisherman skipper had been useless, a patsy induced by poverty to ferry these so-called pirates to the
Big Fish
, their leader had coughed up the one bit of information Mike had found interesting.

He sighed, and tossed his knife on the tray beside him. “Give me a fucking Armenian any day—they last longer. Hell, I’d go another round with Tony, if he were still here.” True to his word, they had dropped Tony and his henchman off in Malaysia to be bound over for trial there.

He straightened up. “Time to go ask Soon Yi a few questions again. Keep our new friend on ice ’til we reach Thailand—we’ll clean ship when we dock.”

“Adams will have the AAR reports so we can find out what happened with the guards. I want to know how the hell these amateurs managed to get aboard.”

Vanner nodded. “I expect it will be what we already know. Night vision isn’t the greatest in rain, and they chose the best, if riskiest, attack vector by going for the bow. Even if Vanel hadn’t been there, they wouldn’t have gotten much farther, but we might have taken casualties.”

“Exactly. So, everyone will run the numbers and make sure all bases are covered. I’m going below. Unless more pirates come over the bow, don’t disturb me.”

“You got it.”

Mike headed below deck to Soon Yi’s room. Vil was on duty outside the door, and he nodded as Mike let himself in as quietly as possible.

The clouds and rain outside ensured that there was no moonlight to see by, and he took a moment to take in the room. A shape was huddled under the blankets in the middle of the bed. As soon as he could see, Mike moved toward it like a stalking panther, intent on not being surprised. Sneaking to the bottom of the bed, he grabbed the whore’s foot.

The moment he did, the blanket flew up toward his head and the foot slipped out of his grasp. As he batted the sagging cloth away, he saw a dark form come in low and piston a foot squarely at his crotch. Mike shifted and took the rock-hard sole on his thigh. He tried to grab the leg to push her onto her back and control her that way, but she used the rebound and drew it back before he could get a firm grasp on it.

Soon Yi crouched on the bed, then sprang at him. Mike was prepared for her attempted rake to his eyes. He blocked the attack with all of his strength, whipping her arm away from him and riposting with a straight arm to her chest, propelling her backward toward the closet.

Mike followed up immediately, expecting her to try to use the closet door either as a shield or a feint to lure him in and block with it. She did neither, however, grabbing the edge of the door and lashing out at him with a foot at his knee. He dodged, and this time grabbed her foot and pulled her off the door. Even as she came forward, she lashed out with her other foot while in midair, coming within a hair of hitting his face. Only Mike’s superb reflexes and training kept her from connecting.

She landed on the floor with a bone-jarring
thud
. Following up his advantage, Mike used his superior weight to pin her down. However, as he dropped to one knee, she jammed her free foot against his thigh and shoved herself away with everything she had while sitting up and lashing at his face again. As Mike reared back, he felt the wind from her fingers as they passed less than an inch away from his face.

Despite her ferocity, Mike hadn’t let go of her foot, and now he twisted it one hundred eighty degrees. She was forced to roll with it, otherwise he would have crippled her by tearing the ligaments in her ankle and knee. However, she didn’t try to get away from him, but slid toward him, free leg cocked to attempt to hit him again.

This time Mike was ready, and snaked out his free arm to grab her other leg before it could connect. Getting his feet under him, he lifted her off the ground and dropped her before she could get both arms underneath to protect her head. The top of her skull smacked into the carpet. Mike repeated the blow, then swung her into the closet door, the last smack knocking her half-senseless.

Mike dropped her back on the floor. He knelt down and got her in a choke hold, applying enough pressure so that she was on the edge of blacking out.

“I was going to simply have another little chat with you about some people you might know who came on board tonight, but since we’ve both gotten all sweaty, we’re going to clean up first.”

He lifted her up and dragged her into the bathroom’s shower stall. Mike pushed her inside, grabbed her hands, and forced them up to the showerhead pipe, lashing them to it with his belt. The shower had been designed for Americans, and she had to stand on her tiptoes to reach the ground.

Mike hit the w ater, letting the stinging cold spray play over her, making her come to with a splutter and cough. She moved her head out of the stream, but he forced it back under, prying her mouth open so the jet got inside. “Something’s not right with you, and we’re staying in here until I find out what it is!”

“I swear—” she said between coughs and choking. “I don’t know anything!”

“Wrong answer! Earlier tonight that fat fuck Sunia sent men to board my ship. I am sure they were trying to steal that box. The only way they could have even found us is if someone was transmitting them our coordinates, and the only person on board who could do that—who would do that—is you.”

“How—could I—do that?” She spluttered. “I’m always—locked in here—!”

“I don’t know yet—but I am going to find out before we’re through here. You’re like no whore I’ve ever met, even Katya. You fight way too well and you haven’t gone to pieces like a normal hooker would have by now.”

“That’s ’cause—I don’t take shit—from any man! I’d rather die first!” She tried to bring her knee up into his groin, but Mike easily batted it aside.

“If you don’t start talking, you will wish you were dead before I’m through with you.” he tore off the soaking wet T-shirt and cotton panties they had given her for clothes, then spun her around to face the wall, heedless of her pained groan as the belt cut into her wrists.

Turning the handle to hot, Mike grabbed her jaw and forced her face up to the cascading water. “Again, telling me what I want to know might make this easier on you—then again, you’re pissing me off so much that it probably won’t.”

A moan escaped her gritted teeth, and she tried wrenching her head away from the water to spit in his face, but Mike forced her back under, until she was choking on the stream again.

She tried to head-butt him, and he slapped her so hard that when he grabbed her head and lifted it to see if she was conscious, a trickle of blood leaked from her nose.

“
Tsk-tsk.
That should knock some sense into you. Now, I’m still waiting for you to tell me how you communicated with Sunia’s men!”

“I don’t—know what—you’re talking about!”

“Bullshit!” Mike changed the shower spray to freezing cold water again. “I’ll stay here all night if I have to.”

“It had—to be—something else! Maybe someone bribed a port guard to give up your route,” she gasped.

“Impossible, since we change course every hour, regardless of what we tell the harbor. Try again!”

“I—don’t—KNOW! The case itself—maybe it’s—bugged!!”

The words made Mike stop right there. He untied her and let her slide to the shower floor, trying to rub some feeling into her bruised and swollen wrists. Breathing hard, he stepped out of the shower. “I’m going to go check on what you just said. Who knows, maybe you’re right. If not, I’ll be back.”

Soaking wet, he walked out of the room, earning a raised eyebrow from Vil at his appearance.

“No one can say that I’m not willing to go to any lengths to get what I need from an interrogation,” He started to walk down the hall, then turned him Vil again. “Remove the closet doors—all of them—and no male is to be left alone with her in the room. Pairs only. Katya can go in unescorted if she wishes.”

On his way back to his room, Mike sent a quick text to Vanner to check to see if there was any kind of transmittal device on the box. He then toweled off and fell into bed, where he slept dreamlessly for the next eight hours.

* * *

“Exactly how in the hell did you know that?”