Ch 2. Too late

Earlier on Hammersley

RO walked to Mike, Nikki and Dutchy. He could clearly see that they all were nervous. Mike sat in his chair, Dutchy sat behind the radar and Nikki stood behind Mike's chair. The sergeant of the Feds stood a little aside.

"Sir, another message", he said as he handed the paper to Mike.

"Thanks", he mumbled and read the paper. "Ok, another course change, it looks like that they are going to try to sail straight to the north along the coast line. We'll see. I want to board him away from the shore line at sea, but if it's not possible we've to do it under the coast line", Mike said.

"I see it", Dutchy replied, "hey, that's weird, he stops all of a sudden!".

Mike and Nikki bent over Dutchy's shoulder to look at the screen.

"This is not ok! Action!", Mike said out loud. "X, Dutchy, Sergeant, remember what I've said during the briefing, two of us are on board, the bosun Walker and Ka.. the X as the captain, she calls Forbes ".

Nikki and Dutchy couldn't hide a smile by Mike's word slip.

She grabbed the microphone, "Hands to the boarding stations, Hands to the boarding stations, Hands to the boarding stations"

Mike could just grab Nikki's shoulder before she left.

"Be careful!", he whispered.

"I'll do", she whispered back and she hurried downstairs as well. Meanwhile a leading seaman took over the position of the radar.

The Rhibs left and an instance later the leader behind the radar noticed something.

"Sir, there's a boat leaving from the Papua Trader!", the sailor said.

Mike bent over his shoulder to look at the screen.

Hmm, bad timing, my two Rhibs are away. If I send one of them to that little boat, then I'm debilitating my task force and that's a risk, especially in this delicate case. No, I take the risk to focus on the cargo vessel.

"Ok, just watch them and warn me when you see a change", he said to the sailor.

The Papua Trader

Both Rhibs reached the cargo vessel. Luckily it was a vessel with a low board so that they could easily climb on board. The first thing that they saw was the body of a crew member of the boat, but none of them recognized their undercover agent Walker, because nobody had met him before.

From the moment they've climbed on board the smugglers opened fire upon them with machine guns so that they jumped between the containers and aside the deck house to take shelter. Nikki had to follow plan B because the initial plan was screwed up by these machine guns. While a few sailors fired back, she slipped with Dutchy on her heels inside followed by the others which was a mixture of sailors and a few Fed's. Once inside they split up to clear the vessel.

Now and then the smugglers fired upon them. This happened to Swan. A bullet screeched over his head and he pushed open a cabin door and he hopped inside. He saw a body and noticed Brigadier Grantley with a gun in his hands at the other side of the large cabin. At once he noticed a second door behind the brigadier.

"You!", Swan said in disgust.

"Yep me", Grantley replied," I took down this bastard".

Meanwhile he lifted his gun and pointed it at Swan.

"Drop it! Now!", he ordered.

"Hey, what are you intend to do? Are you one of them?", Swan asked surprised as he lifted his hands, still holding his gun.

"Nope, far from that, but it's time to get rid of the lover boy of my girl friend. "

Swan got angry. "You're a filthy bastard! You're not worth to have Sarah. She tells me that you hit her every time when you're drunk and that's quite a tad. Stay away from her and moreover she doesn't want you anymore."

"No no, you've picked her from me with your lazy great stories about the Navy. I warned you already, but you won't listen."

"Keep your paws off of her. You're scum!", Swan shouted and he aimed his gun in vain.

Grantley shot first and hit Swan in his head; The poor sod was immediately dead. Grantley did quickly a few steps to the door next to Swan's body. He was still turning at the spot as the door was yanked open and Nikki pointed her gun inside with Dutchy almost sticking to her back.

"What's this?", she said surprised seeing Grantley in front of her.

"He shot your sailor and I shot that bastard", Grantley said with a smirk as he turned and walked to the other door.

Nikki and Dutchy looked almost uninterested at the body of Swan and at the body of the smuggler. They were too much occupied by the action to feel grief for their dead comrade. They noticed also a blood strain on the wall where the smuggler was smashed against it. They exchanged a glance and they left carefully the cabin to advance slowly to the bow of the ship.

After 15 minutes of fighting they all ended up at the bridge. They gathered there the initial crew and the remaining smugglers who were still alive. In total they had killed three of them and one was wounded. Unfortunately they lost one man, Swan, and two were slightly wounded.

Nikki started to worry a tad because she hasn't seen Kate yet. It had been a few years that they had seen each other face to face again. Except for one single occasion in Sydney and for the many mails and phone chats, they haven't met each other. Even now, she was a bit pissed of that they missed each other. Kate went undercover and she had taken over the XO position on Hammersley temporally.

At that moment Nikki heard Mike's voice in her headset.

"Charlie82 to X-Ray82?"

"X-Ray82 to Charlie82", she replied.

This is really not the moment Mike!

"Sitrep X!", he grumbled at the other end.

"We've control over the ship and we're gathering the crew and the terrorists on the bridge", she replied.

"And Kate? And Walker?", he asked nervously.

"No not yet", she replied extremely worried.

"What? How come?", he snapped irritated.

"If you have me my job done, then I can tell you more!", she snarled back.

Mike looked startled at the microphone by hearing her answer.

Uh? Is that Nikki?

"Report asap back as you know more!", he snapped again.

"Aye sir", she replied firmly.

At the same moment 2Dads pushed the last one onto the bridge who was holding his bleeding arm. Two wounded smugglers thus.

"Here you go rascal!", 2Dads grumbled angrily as he gave the man a last fierce punch with his elbow between his ribs.

Nikki glared at him for this rough action but her glance softened as she saw why 2Dads was so grumpy. His DPNU had a dark red shade on his left upper arm.

"2Dads, you're wounded?", she asked him.

"Sort of", 2Dads replied, "he surrendered and he lifted his hands and at the moment I lowered my gun he grabbed one from out of his belt at his back and he fired upon me. I took a bullet in my left upper arm, but I had still my loaded gun and could shoot him in his right arm."

"Does it hurt?", she asked again.

"I don't know if the bullet is still in, but it burns", he said grimacing.

"Bird?", Dutchy called out loud.

"I'm already here Dutchy, no need to yell in my ears!", Bird said tapping him on his shoulder as she walked to 2Dads.

Nikki looked at the prisoners, "Where's the captain? Forbes? And the master of the vessel?", she asked.

No one moved.

"Who's the bosun?"

No reply.

"Come on, where's captain Forbes, the master and the bosun?", she repeated her question and looked at the men. One of them looked suspiciously in her direction and she made a few steps closer to him.

"You! Answer my question!", she ordered.

The man just only grinned to her.

Harpie who stood in front of them hit all of a sudden with the but of his Steyr gun in the man's stomach. He bent like a folding knife and sank at his knees. When he put his hands on the floor to get upright, Nikki put her combat boot on his fingers and put her weight on it. He yelled.

"Wrong answer", she said dryly.

The man stumbled upright not really knowing what to comfort first, his hand or his stomach. "They… they left the bridge. I had to stop… the boat for 15 minutes. He said … that he was going to dump them", he stammered.

"Who?!", Nikki yelled.

"The boss, the captain and the bosun", he croaked out.

"Dutchy, watch these geezers. Harpie, Bird, follow me!", she ordered and left the bridge to the boat deck.

Bird looked surprised from 2Dads to Nikki's back and back to 2Dads.

"Go! I'll manage", he whispered to her.

On the boat deck they found the body the saw first.

She called Hammersley.

"X-Ray82 for Charlie82"

"Charlie82 for X-Ray82, tell me!", she heard the nervous voice of Mike.

"One of the crew told us that Oakes has taken Kate and Walker from the bridge to the boat deck to dump them."

"What!", Mike exclaimed.

Nikki ignored his reaction and continued.

"Actually we're at the boat deck and there's here a body. Thank god not Kate, but we don't know who it is. If we should have known how Walker looked like…", she said irritated.

"I told you, we don't know!", he replied also irritated, "And Kate?...", he started to ask but then they heard an explosion coming from the beach.

"Sir! I'll check that out!", Nikki said.

"But…", he tried.

"Later!", she snapped and cut of the connection.

"Rhib!", she ordered motioning with her head.

"X-Ray82 to Bravo-82", she called Dutchy.

"Bravo-82 to X-Ray82", she heard the familiar voice.

"That explosion; I'm going to check that out. You've the command here and tie all these geezers!", she rattled.

"Ok X", he replied calmly as usual.

Nikki, Harpie and Bird climbed back into the Rhib and raced to the shore where they could see a fire. Once there they could only find the debris of a small motorboat that has exploded due to the fire in the petrol tank.

They looked for traces but the blast of the explosion had wiped everything out. They looked for a while in the bushes but that was too tight to find something.

"Nothing!", she said gloomy to the two others and they stepped back into the Rhib to sail to the Papua Trader again to help with the transfer of the prisoners to the Hammersley.

On their way to the cargo vessel Nikki felt all of a sudden extreme tired and sad.

Nobody. Has she managed to escape? Or has she been murdered? Blew up, burned? Jeez, what a awful way of dying. I even haven't had the chance to say goodbye.

…

Mike! For him it must be terrible. He hasn't said it, but I know from Kate that they are in a relationship. She sounded so happy about their last stay in that resort.

I've been rude to him, my fault, I was too nervous. I'm going to apologize.

"X-Ray82 to Charlie82", she called tiredly.

"Charlie82 to X-Ray82, tell me", Mike replied hopefully.

"Sir, nothing, probably the motor boat from the Papua Trader. It has exploded and burned out. No trace of Kate and Oakes."

"What? Nothing? " he yelled it almost making Nikki a face.

"No sir… I'm sorry", she said beaten.

"Yeah, ok, carry on, I'll see on at the bridge when finished", he replied dully.

Nikki closed the connection and looked at Harpie and Bird and noticed that they didn't look that happy either.

I know Harpie from before, a solid rock in the branding, just like the big blond bosun, with his nickname Dutchy. It clicked with Dutchy from the first moment and that's great, because we've to work together. But Bird is new to me. She looks a decent sailor with a willingness to learn. My stomach feelings tells me that she's going to make it.

A slight smile appeared on her face.

2Dads. He's still a whelp, but he has improved a lot. He can be categorized as a decent sailor in serious situations but not on shore!

…

It's good to be back with the old crew. Of course there're new faces, but the backbone is still the crew I know from my time on board as navigator. Moreover they were also happy to see me back. It makes me a bit sad to know that it's just temporally. Kate is the XO, not me and when Kate takes up her XO position again, then I've to move to another patrol boat. Unfortunately Kate isn't found yet. Disappeared. Dead? Alive? It makes me confused and upset to think that I would take over Kate's function as XO because she has died. That's the last thing on earth that I want!

Meanwhile they had reached the Papua Trader again and Dutchy was already busy to transfer the prisoners to the Hammersley.

They finished the job together and finally Nikki dragged herself almost to the bridge to face Mike.

She saw him sitting in his chair with a face like a thundercloud.

"Boss, can I have a word in private please?", she asked him.

"Yeah, sure", he replied neutrally as he stood upright. He walked downwards to his cabin and she followed her. Inside he leaned against his desk and waited until she had closed the door.

She looked at him desperately. "Sir, I want to apologize. I was rude to you and it wasn't acceptable. You know Kate and I are friends and we haven't seen each other face to face for a long time and now this", she swallowed and continued with a hoarse voice, "The idea that she could have died made me upset. I'm sorry", she said and he noticed how her eyes became glassy.

He lifted his hand, "Just forget it Nikki. I've heard nothing. I wasn't correct either. I know that you know your job and pushing you would have hampered the action. I'm a tad nervous as well, because I… we're… friends… hmm, a bit more, uh… a tad more…", he stammered but he was cut off by Nikki.

"I know boss, Kate told me and I'm happy for you both."

He looked at her lifting one eyebrow.

Uh? How come?

Then a faint smile appeared on his face.

Kate. Of course, she has her friends also, although, she's so private that you can count her friends on a hand with four fingers. Dutchy is one of them and he knows that something is going on between us and Nikki is also one of them. I didn't realize but Kate had for sure talked to her about her worries and expectations. That's good, you can't keep sorrows for your own. It would kill you at the end.

I guess that Nikki knows about my coffee gaffe also, but I'm not going to ask it. I don't want to lose my face.

He shrugged, "Yeah, we wanted to move on from the moment I have my shore posting back. And that is something for after this operation", he confessed.

"What do you think? Is she still alive?", Nikki asked.

He looked for an instance very intense at her and shrugged again, "I hope, I assume it is!", he said determined.

Nikki nodded looking at the floor.

"But, can you give me an overview of the operation? I know you're going to make a report, but I want to know it now already."

Nikki started to tell, "They expected us. We barely poked our head on deck as they started firing upon us. It was a miracle that nobody got hurt then. I assume that they weren't professionals. We jumped to the deckhouse and we noticed already a body there. Afterwards we found out that it was the body of our undercover agent. Once inside we fought us to the bridge and here one Fed and two of us were hurt. We lost also a sailor who was called Swan. He was killed by one of the terrorists and that one was shot down by the corporal of the Feds who came in at that moment."

Mike made a face when he heard that Swan was killed.

"That's a strange coincidence. Wasn't that brigadier not having a fight with Swan?"

"Uh, yes, do you think? No?", Nikki hesitated.

"Nah! That would be really crazy!", Mike said shaking his head.

"Who's hurt?", he continued.

"King and 2Dads."

"Worse?"

"Not that bad. 2Dads had bad luck, he took a bullet in his upper arm."

Mike grimaced and nodded. "What happened next?"

"Finally we reached the bridge, but there was no Kate, nor that Oakes bloke. I understood that Oakes found out about our undercover agents and that he wanted to kill them and to escape. He did that with Walker. I was talking to you when we heard that explosion. I went to there with Harpie and Bird, but we couldn't find anything, just debris and a small crater.

On board we didn't find money but the entire F18 and the missiles were still on board in crates."

"Pfft, what a mess! I knew that they were underpowered to do such an action. If it was me, I would have put at least four men on board."

"Was this Knocker's idea?", Nikki asked irritated.

"No, certainly not, it came from the brass, a commodore", he said convinced.

"Oh, I see."

"No, that's not her style, but ok, put everything on a report and ask Dutchy to do the same. I'll see you at the bridge after you took a refreshment."

"Aye sir", Nikki said and left the cabin.

Mike left also and walked to the bridge to organize a steaming party.

To be continued

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