Chapter 6 up now, and if I write a bit tonight (which is likely) then I'll post Chapter 7 later tonight. Another interesting development in this chapter, but I know a few of you will wonder where this story is going. This big event at the end will have everything to do with it. So we're up to chapter 6 and we are finally getting into the main storyline - I really take too long to get to these things but the result is usually a nice long story.
Enjoy and please review.
Chapter Six
Kate wasn't sure that she'd heard him correctly. Was he announcing a boarding without her approval? She was all for initiative, but without so much as an explanation? What was he thinking?
"I'm sorry," Kate began, "but are you ever going to tell me why?"
For once, Raffy looked a little panicky. "Walk with me?"
She gave him perturbed stare and leapt from her chair. "Swain, you have the bridge."
"Aye, ma'am, I have the bridge," came the inevitable answer.
"Explain yourself," Kate ordered her young XO as soon as they were out of earshot.
"It's not an FFV. It actually travels under the Tuvaluan flag."
"Which I suspect is simply to disguise its origin, but I don't see-"
"Yes, ma'am," he said quickly, cutting her off, "but I know the vessel. It's been used to run reconnaissance missions for a particularly nasty group in our part of the world."
"What kind of nasty group?" Kate asked, fearing the answer.
"The kind that I know very well."
Yep. That was it. Fear and dread. Misery was dragging her into his company.
"And you believe that we should board this vessel tonight? Under what pretences?"
"To enforce Australian customs laws," he answered, as though it were that obvious. "They will resist. They have done so before and quite effectively. And our calls for her to stop won't faze the captain. They will try to make a run for it."
"And the cover of darkness?"
"They're good shots but we're better trained," Raffy put forward. "I'm confident that it is the best way. And the element of surprise will be in our favour."
"If they're as determined as you say, won't they be equipped with a radar? Won't they have seen us coming?"
"Maybe, but they haven't moved yet. Perhaps they're not monitoring it."
Kate wasn't completely sold on the idea, but a strong part of her wanted to allow her XO the room to move. This was his plan and she was going to let him run with it. After all, he was the head of the boarding party and she would remain on the ship. Mike had always respected her authority when it came to these matters, and, although she did not know Raffy quite so well, she would need to learn to respect his.
"Call hands to boarding stations then, X."
A nervous smile was his response. She returned to her seat on the bridge while her X prepared a team to board the vessel.
Raffy busied himself in the armoury while the others filed in and dressed. His Kevlar vest and boarding jacket were already on and he was checking and passing weapons to his buffer. "Swain, grab the shotgun."
"Yes, sir."
He handed Brownings to all and AuSteyers to 2Dads and Sharkey. Then, unexpected to the others, he reached into the back and pulled out a much larger semi-automatic assault rifle with a detachable night vision scope.
"Sir?" Raffy saw confusion and concern Dutchy's tone and expression.
"Stoner Rifle. 25."
"I know what it is, sir," Dutchy continued.
"And you want to know why I have it? Because we will need it."
"That doesn't explain how you have it, sir," Swain put in. "Isn't it only used by Special Forces?"
The Lieutenant merely shrugged and moved towards the exit. "Are we ready to go?"
They nodded in agreement and followed him on to the boat deck. Kate watched from above as the RHIB was launched and her crew was on its way to what would become a difficult boarding. She was concerned, and a little fearful, and spent their voyage across the water towards the suspect vessel wondering if Mike felt the same way each and every time she took them out for a boarding. All thoughts, however, were soon lost as the RHIB approached firing range.
"Papa 8-2, this is X-Ray 8-2."
Kate moved at the sound of Raffy's voice. She picked up her radio. "Go ahead, X."
"They've spotted us and appear to be forming a resistance."
"Approach with caution."
Raffy had his weapon ready in his right arm. It was a heavy one to carry and he'd never attempted to fire one from a standing position in the water, but there was a first time for everything. "Halfy, bring us in along the port side."
A gunshot grazed the right side. The party was just beginning.
"Secondaries off," Raffy commanded. "Prepare to fire."
The hand that safely held on to the railing moved and grasped the body of the SR-25. His first shot came swiftly and annihilated the threat standing at the rear of the boat, where they intended to board. A second shot was fired from his weapon just moments later and Dutchy saw the man that stood just metres from him on the boat buckle. He also saw his chance to board.
Dutchy jumped from the RHIB and landed squarely on the vessel's rear. 2Dads provided cover fire over his shoulder. The RHIB settled in and Swain boarded next, followed closely by Raffy, his rifle at the ready. 2Dads and Sharkey boarded last.
"Swain, 2Dads, wheelhouse," Raffy shouted. "Dutchy, Sharkey, clear the bottom decks with me."
They split up. Raffy was at the front of his team and the first to take the stairs, a role that would have usually been reserved for Dutchy. The buffer was getting used to coming second after his new XO.
A shot was fired above Raffy's helmet and he immediately returned fire. Sharkey wasn't sure if the shooter had been taken out, but she assumed so by the lack of further enemy fire. They could hear further gunfire upstairs and only hoped that Swain and 2Dads were handling it.
Turning right at the base of the stairs, Sharkey opened a door on her left and shouted, "Clear."
They continued on. Straight ahead, there was a balding, muddy man scrambling for his weapon. Dutchy reached it first, stepping down on it and pulling it away from his grip. "Keep you hands there."
Raffy nodded to Sharkey as Dutchy holstered his weapon and removed the ties from his belt, incarcerating the man in a tight hold.
"We're clear up here, X," the Swain shouted from above.
Raffy and Sharkey cleared the remainder of the rooms below decks, which were empty, and walked up the stairs after Dutchy. 2Dads and Swain had arrested two other members of the crew and sat them at the rear of the boat.
"Get these men across first," Raffy ordered as he coordinated a thorough search of the vessel, uncovering a cache of weapons in the cargo hold, supplies and a MacBook Pro notebook. Hopefully the latter would yield some much-needed intelligence.
The "clean-up" took an hour and, by the time they'd returned to the Hammersley and prepared the other vessel to be towed, it was almost first light. Considering they'd been woken at half past three, and some had only had an hour or two of sleep, the day ahead was going to be a long one.
Kate met the Swain on the Hammersley's boat deck as the RHIB brought across the last of what needed to be transported from the other vessel—the bodies of the men they'd killed during the boarding. "How many, Swain?"
"Four, ma'am."
The body bags were open and RO was taking photos to send to NAVCOM for identification.
"And these three?" She was referring to the three men that had been killed with a single shot, and all of them penetrated between the eyes.
"That was the X. He took out two of them while we were in the water, allowing us to board. Good shots, even with the rifle. Three shots; three kills. And he only fired those three shots."
"He used the AuSteyer?"
"No, ma'am," Swain replied, the confusion evident in his tone. "He used an SR-25." Surely she would've known that, he thought.
"Right," she responded, hiding her considerations under a carefully planned nonchalant expression. A mental note was made to bring up the incident with her XO later and in her cabin.
"Ma'am?" a voice came from behind her.
"RO, did you get those photos to NAVCOM?" Kate said brightly.
"Yes, and they need to speak with you. It appears to be of some urgency." He did look apprehensive.
"I'll take it in my cabin," she told him. A million possible scenarios darted through her mind. Had that weapon actually been used in their region? Was there some sort of catastrophe imminent? Had something happened to Mike on his way home from NAVCOM last night?
But when she answered the phone and spoke to Commander White, what had actually happened to require her immediate attention was something that she didn't see coming. Everything had just gone from bad to worse.