—xXx—

Chapter 6: The Red Bath

—xXx—

"Uh…Dutch?" Benny stared at the inbound vessel. "They ain't stopping. They're doing something on the deck. It looks like they are setting some thing up."

Dutch put his binoculars to his eyes and stiffened. "Benny start shooting at the Bridge. Disable that ship. We can't let them get in range to use their TOW missiles."

Benny didn't hesitate and pulled the trigger pouring hot lead into the unprotected boat. Even from over a mile away, Benny could see the smoke rise from the bridge with his naked eyes. A few seconds later, he slowly swept his fire down along the side of the ship, targeting all of the TOW missiles and their crews. Dutch stood next to hatch with his binoculars keeping a carful eye on the ship, ready to rush to the cockpit and put the ship into motion at a moment's notice.

"YO DUTCH!" Both Dutch and Benny jerked in surprise as they heard Revy's voice. "We're ready to go once you've finished showing off your new toy to those Nazi fuckers!"

Dutch looked to the stern of the Black Lagoon and saw Rock and Revy pulling large waterproof bags on deck. "I thought we were getting a small painting." Dutch called out to them as he walked back to the hatch to the cockpit.

"There were some nice souvenirs that were just begging to be taken along." Revy casually replied as she dumped her tanks into an on-deck storage locker.

"Well alright then." Dutch moved into the driver's seat and shifted into gear.

"Dutch, the ship is still moving towards us." Benny reported over the radio.

"Rock, are these bastards worth a torpedo?" Dutch asked as he heard Rock enter the cabin.

"Not really." Rock replied. "There are a lot of civilian crew onboard. It would be better to just board them and take the fucking Nazi's out with small arms."

"That would put us at risk." Dutch thought aloud, weighing his options.

"It's what we did last time." Rock replied. "The only difference now is that Revy isn't nearly as rabid, and you've got another gun. We came in under the cover of night on the dingy and went topside on the bow."

"Hey, Benny, you see anyone up on deck?" Dutch asked.

Benny peered through his binoculars, scanning for any sign of life aboard the ship. "The deck around the missiles is completely red…There's a ton of bodies there, Dutch. I don't see anyone moving on deck."

"Should we wait until nightfall to go aboard or go now." Dutch asked Rock.

"As long as we've got someone covering us on the 20 mm, we should be able to get aboard easily enough." Rock replied, thinking over their options. "That would mean that Revy and I boarded while you and Benny covered us from the Lagoon. It wouldn't be much more dangerous for us to go alone."

"Get the dingy ready." Dutch ordered. "I don't want to stay here any longer than we have to."

—xXx—

An hour later, Rock and Revy motored closer to the seemingly abandoned ship. They swapped out the ten horsepower gas motor for a smaller electric one that would run quieter. Even if they were covered by the 20 mm, the less noise they made, meant the possibility of a safer interdiction. They spent over twenty minutes tensed in the rubber dingy, not moving their attention from the ship, looking for any combatants. Revy lay in front of Rock with an H&K G3 assault rifle ready to shoot at return fire if needed. They would rely on Benny seeing or hearing any shots and to open fire to keep them from getting killed in their exposed position.

Twenty tense minutes later, Rock and Revy slipped over the side and landed on the deck of the Nazi vessel with their pistols drawn. Parts of bodies lay strewn across the deck where Benny's 20 mm rounds had torn through the men. If Rock hadn't been in the thick of Roberta's war, and the following power plays, he probably would have emptied his stomach on deck. Being a veteran of Roanapur had its advantages, despite the mental scarring it caused.

"Start upstairs, Rock, kill all the fucking Nazis." Revy ordered. "I'll go below and we'll meet in the middle."

"Leave the crew alive Revy." Rock replied as he started up the stairs to the bridge. "We don't need any real authorities coming after us."

"I'm not that bad anymore Rock." Revy replied before entering the superstructure. "Not with you around…" She muttered to the cold steel walls.

—xXx—

Rock met zero resistance as he climbed the stairs up to the bridge. Coming to the door, he put his ear up against it and couldn't hear any voices. As silently as he could, Rock opened the door and peered inside. It was abandoned.

"Revy, do you copy?" Rock asked into his radio.

"No one's up there right?" Revy replied with a question.

"Right." Rock sighed.

"So where the fuck are they?"

"I'll disable the controls up here and then we can just rig this thing to explode." Rock replied. "It won't matter if they're onboard or not then."

"Copy that, Rock Baby." Revy replied, letting Rock practically hear her grinning. "You sure know how to make a girl happy don't you?"

"I try Revy." Rock retorted and grabbed a fire ax and started to smash the control panels after locking the doors behind him. It didn't hurt to take precautions. Within a minute, there was absolutely no way anyone could pilot the ship from the bridge and Rock drew his pistol and slipped out of the bridge and began to prowl the superstructure. He found absolutely no one. As he worked his way deeper into the ship, he carefully checked all the corners, and searched every room for the crew.

"Revy, I got no one. Where are you?" Rock asked, after closing the door to the room he had just searched and cleared. Instead of hearing her voice thru the radio, he heard muffled gunfire erupt from below him. Abandoning caution, Rock raced to the stairwell and slid down, the adrenaline pumping through his system harder than any time previous in his life.

Sliding to a stop five levels below, Rock whipped out his pistol and began pumping hot led into the back of the nazi's attacking Revy's position. Caught in the an accurate crossfire, the men were quickly torn to shreds, drenching the floor with blood and brain matter.

"Revy! Are you okay?" Rock called out.

"I will be as soon all these fuckers are dead!" Revy growled as she limped out from her hiding spot holding her left shoulder in pain. "One of those fuckers," she spat on one of the dead bodies, "got me from behind."

Rock took off his shirt and tore a strip from the bottom where the most material was and began to fashion a makeshift bandage for her. "We'd better get this show over with. Did you find any crewmen?"

Revy nodded. "Warned them to get the fuck off this fucking ship. I got the fuel lines in the engine room set to blow with a remote on the Lagoon. I hid them well enough that no one should be able to find them."

"Then lets get out of here." Rock tied off the McGyvered bandage and took point as they cautiously climbed up to the main deck. On their way they met no resistance, and only saw the occasional crew member scurrying along to collect personal items before abandoning ship.

—xXx—

With her hurt arm, Revy had some trouble shimmying down the rope to their dingy, but in the end she made it and collapsed into the bow wincing as the bullet in her shoulder moved around from the motion of her body. "You've done enough. Just sit tight." Rock started the motor and they began to move in the direction of the Black Lagoon. "Hey Dutch!" Rock spoke into his headset, "Can you come pick us up? Revy got hit and i don't want to stay in the area any longer than needed."

"Sure thing Rock." Dutch's deep, calm voice came back over the radio. In short order, Revy was getting some treatment below deck on the Black Lagoon and Rock had deflated and stowed the dingy in an aft compartment.

Walking below deck to check on his partner, Rock grabbed the detonator for the charges and entered the Lagoon's impromptu medical room. "You wanna do the honors Revy?" Rock asked, offering her the detonator.

"I have to see it go down Rock." Revy replied as the winced. Dutch was trying to be as careful as possible while extracting the bullet, but every once in a while, he poked something a little too hard for Revy's comfort. "Damn it Dutch! Could you try to be a little careful?"

"It's been a while since I've had to patch anyone up." Dutch replied. "Just be happy that I'm not amputating your arm."

"You'd get a fucking bullet in the your crotch if you tried any shit like that, Bossman." Revy growled. A metallic plink, and Revy was officially bullet-free. A few minutes later, Dutch had disinfected the hole, sewn it up and bandaged her shoulder, and the lady of the Black Lagoon was ready to blow shit up.

With a little help from Rock, Revy made it up on deck and without much pre-amble set off the explosives. A column of fire and smoke erupted from the rear of the ship right at the waterline. In five minutes, the research ship was almost entirely underwater. As the deck sank bellow the surface, the blood and gore created by the 20 mm floated on the surface of the water, giving the sea a red tint. Almost immediately, Rock could see sharks approaching the sinking ship, drawn in by the scent of blood.

"All right people, let's get going. I don't want to stick around for any Navy ships that are coming." Dutch sighed, lit a cigarette and pushed the throttles to their cruising level and turned towards Roanapur. Up on deck, Rock and Revy shared a smoke in silence, watching the column of smoke billow up from where the ship sunk.

After their eventful painting retrieval job, the Lagoon Company needed a break. Dutch splurged a little of their payment on a trip to Yellow Flag which, naturally, involved a drinking competition between Rock and Revy and a couple of bottles of Bacardi 151.