25

A young sailor jumped from the top of the sub to the lifeboat an dropped through the hatch into the vessel. "Carl Peters. Seaman 1st Class. Pleased to meet you, Captain Harkness. Sir."

Jack saluted. Ianto held out his hand, "Ianto."

Jack left Peters at the controls, and followed Ianto to the gun cabinet where they took out more ammunition, since there would be two of them shooting.

The captain's phone rang and Jack flipped it up to his ear. "Captain Alderson here. Here's what we want you to do. If you can get clean shots at any of the hijackers, by all means take them out. If you can't – which is likely, because as we understand it, they are using passengers as shields – shoot at anything you can. The side of the vessel. Up in the air. Over the heads of the passengers but close enough to be scary. Make a lot of noise. Waste as many bullets as you have to."

"How will we know when to stop?"

"Hopefully our guys will take back the ship and blow the all clear whistle."

"Did they find explosives?"

"Yeah. Lots. They are working on disarming them now."

"So in other words, we keep firing until the whistle blows or the ship goes 'boom'."

"That's about the size of it."

"Are the children safe?" Ianto couldn't help but ask.

"Affirmative, they seem to be held in a lower deck, they are safe for now"

They rang off. Jack said to the sailor, "I'm going up top to familiarize myself with the guns. You okay here?"

"Yeah. I want to play with the controls. Where are you set up?"

Ianto said, "I set up just aft of the pilot console. That gives us cover if you're facing the ship, but if you have to turn around, there's a kind of lip in the roof that we could duck into. We can also keep the spare rifles there."

Jack said, "Good work. Let's get set."

Ianto climbed through the hatch in the roof with a small boost from Jack. He raised himself through the hatch, hanging up for a second because his shoulders were too broad. He had to twist out. Ianto laughed, "That was a rather graphic reminder of childbirth."

Jack grinned back, "right soldier. Ideas?"

"Okay. There are windows and a bunch of antennas up there. I could shoot out the windows in the buffet and the gym, plus I could probably knock over some stuff if I shoot at some of the antennas and electrical equipment. That might make some noise and maybe, if we're lucky, some sparks. We might have to get pretty far out from the ship to allow me to line up those shots, though."

"I like your thinking. I also like the fact that you are going to let me take Deck 6."

"That's the most likely place where passengers will get killed. You're the sharp-shooter and the soldier. It makes sense. I'm just going to shoot wildly at the top to try to pin them down and make as much noise and chaos as possible."

He grinned and chucked him under the chin, "That's my manl!"

Ianto chuckled. Then a more serious look passed over his face. he looked up at him and said, "Really?"

He thought about it for a second and nodded slowly, "Yeah. I think, really."

Ianto leaned forward and kissed him on the lips, "Then, perhaps, after we finish making things go boom and wrecking havoc here, we should consider making some plans for picking up where we left off last night."

"That sounds like a plan. Since I'm soon to be retired and essentially homeless, I reckon we will have all the time in the world."

"Yes, but we both have a lot of lonely time to make up for. We can't waste a nanosecond." Ianto leaned against him and tried to maintain his edge. It was so hard not to relax into his arms and feel safe and cared for. With difficulty Ianto moved away from him. They locked eyes for a second and then they let go of one another and each turned inward to prepare for whatever might happen next.

.

.

.

.

.

Seaman Peters yelled, "Heads up, folks. We're going to move out in 30 seconds."

Jack and Ianto crouched low in a groove on the roof between the wall behind the pilot's console and the aft of the removable roof.

Peters gunned the engine and headed out from under the ship's overhang.

Approximately fifty yards from the ship he flipped the boat around to face the ship directly. Jack and Ianto rose simultaneously from behind the console and opened fire.

Jack noticed that Ianto seized an opportunity right away. There were two hijackers visible on the top deck, waving guns and yelling at the passengers. Ianto picked them both off with two kill shots.

Jack yelled, "I think you're as good a shot as me."

"Maybe someday we should go to a shooting range and see who's the top dog."

"I'm there."

There were no terrorists visible on the promenade deck, but Jack knew they were there due to the passengers who were falling on the deck and then being tossed over the railing. Sharks were beginning to swarm in the water where the bodies had fallen. He shuddered.

Then he gritted his teeth, raised his weapon and commenced – carefully and methodically – to shoot out windows, starting wherever he saw a passenger fall. It worked. When the windows shattered, the passengers fell to the ground and the hijackers stood up to shoot back at him. He thought he only wounded the first two. The third one dropped instantly with a chest wound Jack thought was probably mortal.

Ianto was shooting over the heads of the people on the Lido deck, trying to pin the passengers down on the deck, hoping the hijackers would come to the railing. One did. He shot him as he raised his weapon to shoot. His gun flew over the side and tumbled end over end into the ocean. His body fell backwards.

He waited, searching for another target. Jack yelled, "Make some noise."

he scanned the top deck and then started shooting at the array of antennas, wires and telecommunications equipment that were everywhere at the apex of the ship. Antennas tumbled, wires fell, and sparks flew like Fourth of July fireworks all over the top deck.

Ianto laughed and yelled, "Whooaaa!'"

Jack said, "Talk about shock and awe! Break some glass. It's fun."

He proceeded to alternately take out windows on the promenade deck as well as windows on the deck above, which made showers of glass fall from above. At some point he remembered that the doors to the promenade deck were teak.

The passengers and, presumably the terrorists, tended to be congregated near the doors. Every few minutes, he unloaded on one of the three sets of doors, shattering them, and making a lot of noise in the process. A few more hijackers showed themselves. He didn't think he killed them all, but he disabled them. Ianto shot a couple more people with rifles on the top deck.

Ianto yelled, "How the hell many of them are there?"

"I don't know, but there are hundreds of crew members. Hey, I need to reload. Take a crack at those doors. It's kind of fun. Makes big noise and splinters."

He ducked down and Ianto fired off a few rounds at the doors on Deck Six. Then he lifted his weapon and shot a large antenna at the top of the ship. A hail of green sparks sprayed the deck, then the antenna fell and knocked down two more pieces of equipment that made more sparks, one of which exploded.

Now we are cooking with gasoline!