“Just hold on to my belt from behind and steady me,” he said quietly to Hannah. Normally, two SEALs would do the job of steadying him, but one Hannah would have to do.
He extended the hook above the edge of the hull, and he tried to hook it on to metal, but with both boats moving with the waves, it was tough to keep his balance. Hannah did a good job of preventing him from landing on his ass, though. His first attempt to hook on to the ship failed. His second attempt lined up perfectly, but Mikhail veered too close to the ship and bumped it, causing both Chris and Hannah to lose their balance. He silently cursed the man, hoping the noise of hull against hull didn’t alert Xander and his gang.
On the third attempt, Chris successfully hooked on to a rail. Then he pulled down on the pole, causing the caving ladder to unroll like toilet paper until it reached his feet with ladder to spare. He collapsed the telescopic pole.
“Wait ’til I signal that it’s clear to climb,” Chris said. “I’ll go up first, followed by Hannah, and then Sonny. Mikhail, once we’re on board, you can back off and follow from a distance. After we get the ship stopped, we’ll radio you in.”
They nodded.
Chris mounted the ladder and climbed. With the wind and the movement of the ship, each step he took felt like a blessing. While at sea, he’d seen more than one Teammate thrown from a caving ladder. He climbed with his legs and used his arms for balance, rather than climbing with his arms and burning his muscles out quickly. Because it was daytime, it was much easier to see the steps of the ladder, but because it was daytime, it would also be much easier to be seen by Xander and his men.
When Chris reached the deck of the ship, he scanned the area for trouble. He saw none, so he went to work on the ladder. Once it was securely fastened, he looked around again for enemy signs. No one was on the main deck, but a man stood up on the superstructure. He was looking down at something in his hands, but it wasn’t immediately clear what. As he lifted the object to his shoulder, it became apparent. He had a rocket-propelled grenade.
“RPG,” Chris whisper-shouted into his comm.
There was nothing to hide behind to avoid the inevitable blast. My only chance is to take him out before he takes me out.
Chris aimed his rifle and squeezed the trigger, cutting down the enemy — but not before he could fire his RPG.
Swoosh. After the rocket took flight, it hit the deck next to Chris with a loud crack and knocked off the caving ladder. The time it took for the resulting explosion was interminable.
The RPG didn’t explode, and his human instinct was Don’t pick up an unexploded bomb, but the longer he waited, the higher the likelihood it would blow up in his face. He picked it up and threw it over the stern, away from Hannah, Sonny, and Mikhail. It vanished from view without a sound.
Thank you, Lord.
He looked over the port side. Hannah, Sonny, and Mikhail were fine. Hannah and Mikhail fished the caving ladder out of the water, but one of the hooks had snapped off. Sonny held up the ladder with the missing piece and asked over the comm, “Now what?”
There was strength in numbers, and Chris didn’t want to go the mission alone. “I’ll figure something out.”
Up on the ship’s superstructure, the RPG man was laid out on the deck, but now he rose to his knees. Before he could cause more trouble, Chris shot him again, flattening him.
Chris checked the port side for a boatswain’s locker with some rope in it to secure the broken caving ladder. He found a hatch, and as a matter of routine, he aimed his weapon at it before opening it. Expecting to find rope inside, it startled him to see a man with long sideburns armed with an AK.
This is a passageway, not a boatswain’s locker.
Both men jumped with surprise at the same time. Sideburns pulled the trigger first, but he hadn’t aimed yet. Clank clank, the bullet ricocheted in the narrow passageway, hitting Sideburns in his own thigh. Chris was slower to pull the trigger, but his weapon was already aimed. He pumped two rounds into the man.
Sideburns dropped his weapon and clutched his chest. Frothy crimson spilled between his fingertips his lung was punctured and he was having trouble breathing. Sideburns dropped to his knees, and a smile appeared on his face.
“What’s so damn funny?” Chris asked.
“You can’t stop Mr. Metaxas,” Sideburns wheezed.
Chris aimed his weapon at Sideburns’s head. “Stop him from what?”
“Eat shit.” Sideburns’s smile broadened, and he closed his eyes.
Chris ended the conversation with a bullet. “Boring conversation, anyway.”
Then he frisked Sideburns for intel and confiscated a cell phone, keys, and a wallet. He used the cell phone to call the automated number that Young ran 24-7. After the call went through, Young or one of his assistants would hack the phone and download its data and Young would begin analysis.
Chris maneuvered around to the starboard side to look for rope. With the disappearance of two men, Xander might be sending out a search party, and Chris wanted his crew at his side before the party started.
While looking for a boatswain’s locker, he located a Jacob’s ladder, bound by a strap and a metal latch. Chris spoke via his throat mic and used Mikhail’s call sign. “Jirtdan, bring the go-fast around to the starboard side. I’m going to drop a Jacob’s ladder for Infidel and Sunshine to climb aboard.”
“Roger, wilco,” Mikhail answered.
After scanning for possible threats and spotting none, Chris took a knee on the deck and undid the latch. Then he unrolled the Jacob’s ladder over the starboard side. “Infidel and Sunshine, the starboard ladder is ready for boarding. I’ll cover you from here.”
“Roger,” Hannah said, “Starboard ladder ready for boarding. You’re covering.”
“About damn time,” Sonny said.
From Chris’s current position, he had to look three ways to cover all possible approaches from Xander and his men: forward, aft, and up. “I’m moving aft for a better tactical view.”
After shifting locations, he had most of the ship in front of him without having to bend his neck back and forth, up and down and risk missing something.
“Infidel boarding,” Hannah said.
Chris hoped Hannah made it on board before Xander and his men appeared. Suddenly, there was movement. Whiteface, carrying an AK, appeared on the port side of the bridge. Chris covered him. It was the same guy who was with Animus in London.
Whiteface looked down at the port side of the ship and the sea and then returned back inside the bridge. Soon, Whiteface stepped outside on the starboard side. Chris placed the red dot of his scope on the profile of Whiteface’s upper body while simultaneously placing his finger snugly on the trigger. As Whiteface walked toward the edge of the ship, Chris followed with his red dot, tracking the side of his upper body. Chris held his breath to stop his lungs from moving, reducing the wobble of the red dot. Whiteface bent over the rails and looked down at the water, near where Hannah and Sonny were.