He nodded, not wasting words. Alicia knew he was saving his energy for the climb and what awaited them after that, but she couldn’t help but think he worried desperately about the berserker inside him too.
She knew she would.
It was the surprise element — not knowing when it would emerge or in what situation. What if it came at the wrong time? What if he caused damage to innocents? The red haze blinded him to everything. It was lucky Alicia had been at hand.
She continued to fling herself up the side of the huge tanker. To her right now ropes wriggled as agents climbed too. Luckily, this particular oil tanker wasn’t high enough that a drop into the ocean would kill you; this fact gave everyone increased courage to climb quicker.
If Crouch was somehow helping to slow the ascent, he was doing a good job. Alicia was only six meters below the last man, who carried a knife between his teeth. The trouble was he was only three meters from the railing.
Coming closer, she heard the familiar whump-whump of helicopter rotor blades and a roaring engine. What had been specks were now distinct shapes to the south. Hopefully too, the coastguard vessels would be approaching from further down the coast. The game was surely up for Ricci and his hellbent cronies.
As Ricci, Crouch and several others disappeared over the railing, Alicia paused. She fully expected guns to appear and more shooting to start. The agents were ready below to retaliate, Vino among them. But nothing happened — those on the tanker were preparing something else.
With the lull in hostile aggression the agents fired up at the two remaining terrorist climbers. One took a slug directly in the back, lost his grip, and fell amidst a haze of blood. The other, the one with the knife in his mouth, didn’t flinch as two bullets impacted right beside his climbing arm. He was already at the top.
He swung himself over.
A third bullet skimmed the top of his head and then he was gone.
Alicia scaled the tanker’s side faster, approaching the top herself. Agents were not far below. Those still on the boats took a steady aim to protect their colleagues.
When she reached the top she paused, then raised her head quickly and dropped it back down again, taking a quick peek.
The first thing she noticed was not the deck of the ship. It was something far more worrying. Over the far side, approaching from the north, was another set of helicopters. That meant two different groups were inbound.
What did it mean?
She couldn’t even begin to guess. A second quick recce revealed that the terrorists and their captives were running over to the other side of the ship, angling toward the front. They weren’t hanging around either, Alicia saw, just charging in a large group.
Weirder and weirder.
“You nodded off?” The voice came from a meter below.
Alicia looked down at Russo. “Just trying to figure this shit out. They didn’t try to stop us boarding the ship. They’re jogging on right now as if their arses are on fire. And there’s another set of helicopters coming.”
“What?” Russo climbed up alongside her for a look.
Alicia relayed her words across the radio too.
More agents joined them at the top. Alicia shrugged. “No point hanging around here, guys. Let’s get to it.”
She checked once more and then leapt aboard. The deck was flat, rusty in places and dirty, and smelling of thick crude oil. It forced her to breathe shallowly even though her heart heaved with all the exertion so far. Helicopters still bore down on them from two different directions.
“FBI choppers,” an agent came over to her, “are the ones to the right, coming along the coastline. The ones from the north are not ours.”
“Wouldn’t it have made more sense for our terrorists to let their choppers collect them from the shore?” Russo asked.
“Maybe.” Alicia was already starting to jog carefully in the terrorists’ wake, keeping them in sight. “This could be Plan B. They didn’t have a whole lot of time at the beach. Or maybe it’s something else.”
“I’m bloody dying to find out what,” Russo growled.
Alicia looked at him. “Dammit, Rob, you should know not to say shit like that by now!”
CHAPTER THIRTY NINE
A late afternoon shimmer of deep crimson and gold burnished the tropical paradise as Alicia, Russo, Caitlyn, Austin, a host of FBI agents and the Hawaiian police chased down half a dozen remaining terrorists, their captive Terri, and their boss, Ricci.
Caitlyn, Austin and five agents had remained on the boats below but were now climbing the rope ladders. Paul Cutler, the thief they had brought along, didn’t seem to be anywhere around. Nobody had seen him since the jetty.
At the front of the pack, Alicia ran as fast as she dared, mixing care with abandon and using her years of experience. The terrorists didn’t look around, but maintained a breakneck pace for the ship’s prow.
Clearly, they were going for the inbound helicopters.
The terrorist choppers would arrive several minutes before the police ones. It would give them barely enough time to take on the new passengers and start to scuttle away. Alicia reached the other side of the tanker now and saw yet one more welcome sight.
The coastguard vessel, cutting the ocean apart in their direction, a bow wave blooming to left and right. It was a heavily armed ship with many men aboard and surely now would be the final blow to Ricci’s escape plan. Alicia didn’t exactly stop to wave but threw them a super-bright beam of a smile.
“Hello, sailors. Come to mama!”
Quickly she radioed it in to Vino. No point risking any form of friendly fire. The coastguard vessel was equipped with all manner of armaments and gadgets and would surely be able to force Ricci to give up.
The speed it was traveling at suggested it would arrive just a minute or two after the first set of choppers. It was going to be close.
Alicia saw Ricci and Terri slow as they approached the front of the ship. Ricci appeared to be shouting into a two-way radio.
“Gonne be up to us to stop them, Robster.”
“Do we really need to?” the big man wondered. “With all this firepower around they’re not going to get far.”
“True, but what about Crouch and Terri? We can’t risk hurt coming to either of them. For all we know they’re gonna dump them overboard to gain just a few seconds.”
“Or use them as hostages,” Russo acknowledged.
At that moment she saw Caitlyn and Austin tracking them on the other side of the ship among a dozen agents and cops.
“Be careful, you two,” she radioed across. “I don’t trust this scenario one bit.”
“We’re fine! Have you seen Cutler?”
“I thought he was with you.”
“We haven’t seen him since leaving the jetty.”
“Damn, if that asshole’s cut and run I’ll hunt him down and end his days.”
“Not to mention…” Russo gestured ahead. “Terri.”
Alicia finally came to a place where there were no more obstructions between them and the terrorists. They were huddled about twenty meters ahead, slowing now as they waited and gestured furiously toward the oncoming helicopters, urging them to greater speeds.
“Time to pay the ferryman, boys.” She lined up the first shot.
And found they had already anticipated it. She cursed as, in traditional terrorist manner, they shoved Crouch and Terri to the outer side of the pack and took shelter behind the two hostages. Alicia could still see arms, shoulders and even heads, but wouldn’t dare risk the shot at this distance.
She jogged closer still.
Russo swore too. The choppers were just drifting in off the starboard side. They were huge now, large black behemoths that pounded the ears with an angry roar and threw out a rotor wash that hit the deck and rushed at them so powerfully they were forced to slow to retain balance.