Chapter 7

Hannibal sat among them laughing loudly at their jokes and laughing at any of the passengers who walked in and then backed out the way they came once they saw all the pirates sitting together. They had pulled all the lounge tables into the centre and sat ordering glass after glass of whiskey.

The leader stuck his greasy bloated face into Hannibal's as he put an arm around his neck.

"Here friend, have ye any more of that special Irish whiskey."

"Ah now, I can't be partin with all me whisky. The stuff they're sellin on this ship isn't half as good." Hannibal told him doing a decent enough Irish accent.

"Ah go on, for your new friends. You'd spare a small drop.'

Hannibal poured a generous drop of the Xanax laced whiskey into his glass and that of his friends who held out their glasses hopefully. They all roared for the barmaid to bring more nuts and beef snacks. But as the party went on the Pirates became quieter, some of them were already asleep. The two guards could not resist joining the party too. They had a helping of Hannibal's special whisky.

Before long Murdock came in and together they began dragging pirates towards the lifeboats.

"Hold on, what are you doing?" A crew member asked as they worked.

Hannibal straightened up. It was a hot day and his work related hangover had started to kick in.

"We are sending these pirates back to sea where they belong. Now you can stand there and wait for them to wake up with their sore heads or you can help us relieve this ship of it's baggage."

The crew members looked at each other. They then headed into the bar to drag out some more sleeping pirates and haul them into boats.

Captain Stubing was of course told. He came down and confronted the veterans

"You can't do this, it's against maritime law to cast them adrift at sea. We have holding cells below we can keep them in there until it's time to dock."

Hannibal shrugged, "whatever floats your boat,"

Murdock winced, "Colonel, that was a truly dreadful joke."

"Thank you Captain." He grinned up at him.

Captain looked at them both. "It's probably not a good idea for me to ask too many questions."

"Probably not," Hannibal agreed.

"Whatever your situation, whatever you're supposed to have done I judge people on how they treat the most vulnerable. You have my thanks for helping Vicky. I don't know how she would have ended up if she hadn't met you."

"I don't get it, where was your security," Hannibal asked, "You shouldn't have had to send the little girl off the ship."

"The shipping company cut back on our security as they were trying to cut costs. What security we did have were thrown overboard on the first night. There was only four of them and they were outnumbered."

"I think you need to have a good talk with your employers," Hannibal told him seriously.

Hannibal and Murdock continued on dragging the pirates out. Their hands were tied with zip ties and they were hauled off on stretchers to the brig below deck.

"Where's Faceman, that's typical. At least BA helps with the heavy work even if he is an angry mud sucker." Murdock complained as he tied another pirates hands. Two crew members hauled him off once Murdock had finished.

Hannibal looked all around him. "Yeah, where is he?"

They both looked at each other. There were crew members everywhere now dealing with the pirates and ferrying the passengers away from the scene. The boat suddenly seemed very quiet without the lieutenant. Without a word Murdock took off up a metal ladder to search the upper decks. Soon they were all searching. Vicky, Gopher and Julie searched all the cabins. He was nowhere to be found.

They all met back at the large pool area on the middle deck.

"Where could he be, we've all searched this ship inside out," Vicky said looking up at them all with wide eyes.

Before anyone could answer they felt the ship begin to turn. Captain Stubing gave the word to turn about and search. The security guards had been thrown over at night and the pirates wouldn't permit a search for them but now they were in custody the crew could at least find this one man.

Hannibal and Murdock went up to the stern of the ship. It was near impossible to see anyone floating in the water but they were going to try.

~o~

Face had tied his tie around the ring and the other end around his wrist. That was incase he fell asleep and the ring drifted away from him. He struggled to stay conscious. The water was bitterly cold now as afternoon turned to evening and he could no longer feel his limbs. He tried to bite down the panic rising within him and tried not to look out at the vast empty waves ahead of him. He could only hold on and pray.

Two hours later the sky turned from dark blue to black. Captain Stubing shook his head. He had gone back through the same path using the on board navigation equipment but even at that finding a man in the ocean at night was almost impossible.

Hannibal and Murdock just stared out into the inky black ocean. They felt cold just standing there so what hope had their friend in those waters. The chances of finding him now.

"There," Vicky pointed, her keen young eyes had spotted something in the ocean.

"What is it," Murdock asked.

"A green light," she called back over her shoulder.

Hannibal shook his head. "It's the moon reflecting off the ocean,"

"No, it was a green light, look there," she stabbed her finger at it.

Murdock let a shout. He saw it this time too. Several crew members scrambled to alert the rescue team. Within five minutes a small rescue vessel was dispatched.

Face was unconscious when they found him but his wrist watch was still alarming reminding him to video tape that film he had wanted to see.

They dragged a life preserver over his wet hair and tugged it in place around his chest. Then they hauled him up onto the boat.

Adam was standing ready and he examined him as soon as Face was brought on board. Hannibal and Murdock had to stand well back as Adam checked his heart and blood pressure.

"He's in hypothermia, we need to bring his temperature up fast."

They wrapped him up in a special foil blanket and hurried him by stretcher up to sick bay. Faces teeth began to chatter as he was coming around. He could feel someone taking his wet clothes off but he didn't even care. He wanted to go back into the safety of the blackness where everything was quiet and he wasn't pulled about. He woke properly minutes later with a mask over his face. He felt warm and relatively comfortable.

"That's better isn't it," Adam asked as he tucked blankets in around him.

Face could only nod. He was exhausted. The lights of sick bay began to blend together as heavy eyelids closed once again.

~o~

Face was not pleased. Orange juice and morning paper aside he was not loving being confined to bed for the rest of the trip. He sat up looking quite handsome in blue pyjamas and ruffled hair but his streaming eyes and gravelly voice told of a heavy cold. Murdock had a tan already and Hannibal had a distinct I'm on holiday air about him. They were due to dock in three days and Face was missing out on all the good stuff. He sulked as the pair left him with a sports magazine and a bag of grapes. They felt bad for the guy but Face gets cranky when sick. Best to leave him alone when he's like that. They headed over to Isaac's bar for a large cocktail each.

They were sipping very potent concoctions of pineapple and rum when Vicky and the Captain came over.

"Good to see you two having a rest. " Stubing smiled "We have an update on our visitors. Apparently the passengers who left the ship reported the incident to the local authorities so we are going to have some help. They are sending officers to take the Pirates into custody and do a full inspection of the ship making sure they haven't left any bombs or weapons on board."

"That's great," Murdock nodded, "Who are they sending out."

"The US Army, A man called colonel Decker. He just happened to be in the area hunting out some fugitives."

~o~

Face scowled up at them both. "I'm cold," he moaned.

"Well why don't you come up here and row for a bit," Murdock snapped as he put his back into it. Both Hannibal and Murdock were beyond polite talk. They had been rowing for three hours and there was no land In sight yet. It would be well into evening time before they made it back to land.

"Oh how I'd kill for a grill cheese sandwich." Murdock whined as they rowed on.

Hannibal talked around his cigar.

"Murdock….shut up,"

The End.