“Move to assigned areas,” Murdock ordered on the Motorola, and the men charged to ladders and vanished into the big ship. Murdock and three men ran up the metal steps to the next deck, and ran forward around the pool and deck tennis court to the highest section of the ship, where the bridge should be. They hit another set of steps and went up quietly. Then they found a door that was marked in English: “Restricted to Ship Personnel Only.” It had to be the bridge.
Murdock tested the door. Unlocked. He motioned to Jaybird, who was right beside him, to take the left. He’d take the right, the way they had cleared rooms a hundred times. Jaybird jerked the door open and charged in, diving to the left. He came up with his MP-5 aimed at two Koreans who sat at a table eating. A three-round burst of silent slugs drilled into them, putting both down on the floor behind the table. One drew a pistol, and Jaybird sent three rounds into him before he could fire. There was no one else in the room.
Murdock had charged in right behind Jaybird and darted to the only other door in the room straight ahead. He tried the handle. Unlocked. He heard Lam and Ching surge into the room behind him. He motioned Jaybird up beside the next door, and he jerked it open and they charged through. The door opened on a set of ten steps that went up to another door that was marked: “Bridge, No Admittance.” The English wording had to be for the convenience of the mostly English-speaking passengers.
Murdock and Jaybird went up the steps silently and paused at the door. Jaybird tried the knob and found it unlocked. He changed positions with Murdock and jerked the door open, and the pair charged into the room, covering the four men they found on the bridge. Two were tall and brown-haired and wore the all-white uniform of officers of the ship, with mortarboards on their shirt shoulders. The other two were Korean, in jungle-print cammies. One tried to draw a pistol, but Jaybird put one round into his chest and he went down pawing at it and screaming.
One of the ship’s officers kicked the gun out of his hand and put his foot on the smaller man’s throat.
“I should kill you right now, you little bastard,” the officer said. He looked up at Murdock. “Thank God you’re here. They’ve been making our lives a living hell. Where did you come from?”
The second Korean charged Murdock, who shot him three times in the chest, and he sagged to the floor, his face smashing into Murdock’s boots. He was dead before he hit the deck.
“Where is their leader?” Murdock asked.
“Probably sleeping in the captain’s quarters,” the second Dutch officer said. “He made me take him down there just before midnight.”
“We’ll get to him later. Can you men move the ship if you get the engine room and engineering under control?”
“Yes,” the taller man said. “I’m Van Dyke, first officer. We could do it, but it would take a half hour at least, and pulling up the sea anchor would make a lot of noise and the sentries on the frigate would hear. They said if we tried to move, they would shoot us in the waterline with their one-hundred-millimeter guns.”
“Which way is the current running here, to the south?” Murdock asked.
“Yes, and the frigate is anchored just to the north of us but not more than fifty yards away.”
“Could you drop the anchor chain and drift away from them without starting the engines, with no noise whatsoever?”
“Could, but we’d need to power up quickly so we could gain control. Drifting isn’t good for a ship this size.”
“We may need to try it,” Murdock said. “We have men disabling the frigate, but it could still shoot. We don’t want that. If we can get you far enough away from the frigate, we can send in aircraft to sink it before it can fire on you.”
“They have a watch out on the frigate, I’m sure,” Van Dyke said. “If they see us start to move, they’ll alert their commander on board.”
“So we have to gain control of the ship and their captain. We have other men working on capturing the vital centers so we can get your ship back. Where is this Korean captain you said is in command?”
“I can show you,” the shorter Dutchman said. “I’m Larry Verbort. I can take you to the captain’s cabin.” He hesitated. “Would you have another weapon? I was in the Navy for six years. I can handle a pistol.”
Murdock reached to his ankle and took out a.32 revolver. “It has six rounds in the chambers, so be careful. Let’s move. Van Dyke, when we leave, lock the bridge doors. We’ll leave Lam here for protection. Don’t let anybody inside unless Lam’s radio says it’s all right.”
Van Dyke nodded. Murdock, Jaybird, and Ching followed Verbort out a door on the other side of the bridge, and went down eight steps.
“What happened to your captain?” Murdock asked.
“We don’t know. The last we saw of him he was handcuffed with his hands behind him and Captain Kim was leading him away.”
“Did you notice our little demonstration out front of your ship, the planes and choppers?” Murdock asked.
“Yes, most of the Koreans went forward to watch it. They had no idea what has happening.”
They came to a door a short time later and the officer pointed. “The captain’s cabin. It’s three rooms and a bath. Usually the door is locked. I have a key.”
“Knock,” Murdock ordered.
“The Dutch officer rapped on the door five times. There was no response. He looked at Murdock, who nodded, and Verbort knocked again. They waited but no one came.
“Open it,” Murdock said.
Murdock jerked the unlocked door open and went in fast with his MP-5 up and the safety off. No one was in any of the three rooms.
Outside, Murdock used his radio. “Report on engineering and communications. Are they secure?”
“Engineering, Skipper. DeWitt here. We have a small problem. The Koreans saw us coming and have barricaded themselves inside. We’re working on the situation.”
“We need engineering and the sooner the better,” Murdock said.
11
Lieutenant Joe Socha and his six men dropped out both sides of the CH-46 at the same time Murdock’s men roped down to the luxury liner. They fell ten feet into the water in their wet suits and drag bags. All wore Draegr breathing gear, and at once went underwater fifteen feet and swam toward the Korean frigate a hundred yards away. They wanted enough separation from the man-of-war so the lookouts wouldn’t know they were aiming at their ship.
Socha angled the men to the stern of the 334-foot frigate, and missed it by only a dozen feet. He checked carefully and made sure the big ship’s twin screws were still. The craft was sea-anchored.
He motioned the two men who would attach small limpet mines to the two propellers. Four other men floated the larger, heavier limpets to the sides of the stern, where the magnets clamped them to the ship’s hull two feet under the waterline. When all was ready, the men surfaced so close to the frigate that no lookout could see them.
Socha signaled for the men to set the timers for two minutes; then they would swim north ten feet underwater for a minute before they surfaced to avoid the killing concussion that would rip through the water. Socha went with the men to the screws, and saw them set the timers and then dart away, swim fins thrashing the water as they hurried away as fast as they could swim. A minute later, they surfaced and met the other four men. They swam away from the ship as the timer ticked down.
For a moment Socha feared that the timers might not have worked; then he felt a pounding surge of water catch him and drive him forward. Almost at the same time two blasts sounded as the water-level limpets exploded, sending water spraying out a hundred feet and flashing a bright light into the darkness on each side of the big ship. Another underwater blast came, and the SEALs began a surface swim away from the man-of-war south toward the brightly lit luxury liner. Socha figured the Royal Princess was about a hundred yards from the stricken frigate. The SEALs turned and watched the activity on board the Korean Naval vessel. A siren shrilled, and whistles blew, but even as they did, the stern of the big ship began to drop lower in the water. Watertight compartments inside the blasted area would prevent it from sinking, but it would not be moving anywhere unless it was towed.