Ch 84
As the Hammersley sailed to Bright Island, Jack O'Neill reopened a letter and read the contents once more before passing it to Sam. Exchanging quick nods, they walked outside and drove to Cheyenne mountain, and after a quick detour, they walked inside the ship.
Soon, they were floating over the Hammersley. They did some checks before moving to the next coordinates.
"Ready?" Jack grinned, and Sam nodded. Before Jack raised the shields and entered underwater
"This is amazing," Sam said.
"It is," he agreed both mesmerized by the view. "There it is."
Jack lowered the ship to the ocean bed and extended the shield to create a breathable space around the device.
"I think it is ready," he turned to her, and she nodded walking towards the back. "Sam!" He called over, and she turned around. "Be careful."
"I will," she said after smiling lovingly at him. Then she turned around and walked out. She lowered her backpack beside the device and verified if it was safe to move. Once she was certain it was, she placed all her gadgets back in place before walking inside the ship again.
"It is safe to move, Jack," she said lowering her backpack.
"And how exactly can we manage it?" He asked, knowing she already had thought about a few ways before they flew over to Australia.
"Help me out?" She asked, showing him a bag full of ropes. He nodded an soon the device was tightly tied to the back of the ship.
"So, now we just need to close the door and hope we can move it," Jack grinned.
"Pretty much," she added. "Let's take this to the Hammersley."
"Ok, hang on," Jack started the ship adjusting the shield to cover only the ship again before he moved upwards slowly, moving the device along.
"Sweet. So, where should we drop the package?"
"About two hundred meters in front of the Hammersley," Jack moved quickly.
"Make it threehundred meters so I can untie everything in time."
"Ok," Jack lowered the ship following her instructions and extended the shield again. "You better be quick, Sam."
She rushed to the device and cut the cords as fast as she could with her newest toy, and soon she was dragging all the extra rope inside the ship.
"Done!" she yelled, and the door closed behind her. While she fixed the mess on the back, Jack shrunk the shield again and flew them out of the sea. But kept them cloaked and floated above the location.
On the Hammersley bridge, they were discussing how they would proceed once on Bright Island when they heard a noise that didn't belong to their ship.
"Stop the engines!" Mike yelled before he went down to the deck. "Buffer! Check the other side! We hit something!"
"Sir! Over here!" Buffer called after a few seconds; Mike rushed to Buffer.
"There!" Buffer said poing to a bright orange ball that in the water. Mike frowned and turned to Kate.
"X! Reverse engines and move thirty degrees away."
"Yes, sir!" Kate ran back to the bridge to give the orders.
"It seems a buoy."
"This must be a new way to get the drugs into Australia," Murphy commented
"We won't know until we check what's attached," Mike said as the Hammersley moved away.
They stopped near it and Swain, ET, Buffer, and Kate were sent to check. As their boat stopped close, Swain and ET got ready to dive down.
"Buffer. Look." Kate said pointing to Another a white ball with a blinking light on top of it buoy appeared. RO was in the radio room when a signal appeared all of the sudden.
"Sir! A transmitter signal just appeared over the radio," he announced to the intercom.
"Thanks, RO." Mike turned to the agent
"Well, it's your choice. Bright island or finding out what's going on here?"
"Bright island can wait for two hours."
"Very well," then they heard a noise and saw the tinny speeding away. As they moved towards the Hammersley, the crew on deck could see the characteristic movement of an underwater explosion.
"Swain! What the hell happened down there?" Mike asked as Swain reached the side of the ship.
"It was a setup, sir. The buoy was attached to a bond. ET and I weren't even near it; it was luck I guess, I saw a green light. Then it turned red, and I knew we had to get out of there. It was close. Probably had a timer or a remote detonator."
"Alright, go and get changed."
"Yes, sir."
On the side, Nav was asking ET if he was okay, he told her not to worry and followed Swain to get changed. Mike looked the exchange carefully, but when Nav turned towards him, he just nodded her to get back inside.
"It looks like we won't catch the ones behind that bomb," Murphy sighed and walked away.
Mike huffed before he too returned to the bridge and they started the trip to Bright Island. Reaching it, Mike sent the same team that went the first time along with the agents. Once they reached the bunker, the Agents froze cold for a moment when they noticed exactly how much of the poison was there. Then, they followed Buffer back to the beach to grab their bags before the crew returned to the Hammersley to continue their patrol.
The next day, the radar showed two boats: one was heading quickly towards the other that was completely stopped. Suspecting their purpose, they headed towards the boats. When they were close to seeing them, one of the boats started their engines and speeded away.
"Vessel on my port bow. This is Austrlian war ship Hammersley. Stop to, we will attempt to board you." Kate said over the speaker phone
"X call..."
"Hands to boarding station, hands to boarding station, hands to boarding station," Kate said over the PA system. She put the microphone back and turned past Mike.
"One day, X. One day I'll beat you to it," Kate smiled but continue moving out. Mike turned with a frown when he heard some girly giggling on the bridge. "Nav?"
"Good luck in that, sir."
"Very funny, Nav."
"She knows what you are going to say before you say it."
"I know! Where's the other vessel?"
"Heading south-west."
"Keep an eye on it."
"Yes, sir." Mike turned his attention to the other boat, and it was pretty obvious something was going on in there.
A few minutes later, the tinny reached the boat. Mike picked up his binoculars to keep an eye on the situation. Until he saw Kate grinning towards the Hammersley.
"X ray eight two. This is Charlie eight two. Sir, three-person on board and about forty kilos of drugs. Copy over," Mike grinned.
"Copy that, X. You and Spider stay on the boat, head back to port while we go and find the other boat, copy over."
"Copy that, sir." Mike watched as the remaining of the crew got back into the tinny and headed back towards them; while Kate turned the engines of the boat on and turned it around heading to the port.
An hour later, the Hammersley caught the other boat. Mike noticed that the driver went into the sea and noticed a buoy.
"Nav! Tell Swain and ET to get into wetsuits; I have a bad feeling."
"Yes, sir!" Nav rushed of the bridge. By the time the Hammersley stopped the engine Swain, and ET was ready to jump into the sea. They dove close to the buoy, and before they could think about it, there was an underwater explosion that blew up the boat shocking the crew. Every available member ran to the deck to look out for bodies or survivors.
"SIR!" Buffer yelled pointing to three heads that had just popped up and swam to the Hammersley. said as he pointed to where three heads popped up and started swimming towards Hammersley. Buffer lower the ladder for the three divers.
"Swain! What happened?"
"We got to him in time, sir. Same bomb as before. ET and I grabbed the guy and swam away, and it went off."
"You were very lucky, go and get change. Buffer put this man in the aster."
"Yes, sir!"
He turned around noticing the relieved faces of the crew, but it was the way Nav was looking at ET that worried him. He shook his head and decided to let it go for the moment.
They reached port, and the police were already on the boat that Kate and Spider brought earlier. Kate smiled when she noticed Mike looking at her. She and Spider returned to the Hammersley.
"Good job, people." Mike greeted them.
"Thank you, sir."
"You can go, Spider. X, what were the results?"
"The feds said there were over fifty kilos on board, possibly more."
"Well, those are at least fifty kilos that won't be on the streets."
"That's true, sir."
"Go and store your things away."
"Yes, sir." As she walked past him, he noticed a car stopping on the wharf. Mike walked off the Hammersley to meet Steve.
"Steve"
"Mike, another job well done."
"Thanks, we were lucky," Mike confessed, and Steve chuckled in agreement.
"Any idea of how many kilos of drugs it was?"
"Kate said about fifty kilos. With a possibility of more."
"That is a good catch."
"Yes, sir. It sure was"
"And how is your new XO?" Mike smiled
"She has done a great job. I don't get a chance to finish to tell her to call hands to boarding stations before she's already calling them." Steve chuckled
"One day you will."
"She knows me too well."
"That and she is the best."
"That's true. Well, I better get back on board we due to leave and knowing Kate..."
"Sir! We are due to leave in two minutes!" Kate yelled out, and Steve laughed. Mike turned towards the Hammersley to find a grinning Nav and Kate up on the top deck looking down at him.
"See what I mean?"
"Yes, I do! Fair winds"
"Thanks, Steve," Mike walked to the Hammersley and noticed Kate looking at her watch then towards him with a raised eyebrow. A few minutes later, Hammersley left the port to continue their patrol.
Two weeks later, the Hammersley went through a bad storm. By the next morning, all of the crew was tired. The storm kept them all awake and added to it, they had issues with the engines and were on the backup since early that morning. Later, Charge entered the bridge.
"Charge, how are the engines?"
"Sir, I need to work on them."
"How much time?"
"Three, four hours will do for a temporary job. But I do suggest to head back to port once done."
"Alright, Nav which is the closest island?"
"Bright island, sir" Kate turned to Mike
"Sir? How about Creek island? The crew could do with some R and R."
"Bright island is the closest, X."
"Yes, sir. And if the feds are still there?" Mike thought about the situation.
"Ok, Creek island," he turned to Nav
"One five zero and three hours, sir."
"ET"
"Yes, sir. One five zero."
"Sir, why are we going to Creek island for some R and R?"
"I wouldn't mind going for a bush walk," Kate said smiling as she turned towards the sea
"Sir, X, what's going on here?" Kate turned to Mike
"They might want to help...sir"
"Alright! There's a WWII bunker on Creek island. We think there might be more of the toxin on there."
"What?!" ET, Nav, and Charge said in shock
"We don't know for sure."
"Sir, I'm willing to help look for it," Charge said
"Same here, sir" Nav added.
"Ok, ok, and anyone else."
"Except, Charge. You got engines to fix," Kate grinned.
"Oh, yeah!"
"Don't worry, Charge."
"Thanks, sir."