Fair Game (39 page)

Hainrich acknowledged the transmission and altered their course accordingly. ‘Best not to argue,’ he said to Shepherd. ‘They’re carrying a lot more firepower than we are.’

It took almost twenty minutes before the eastbound convoy disappeared from sight and a further fifteen minutes before they left the westbound one behind.

‘It’s like Dunkirk must have been,’ said Hainrich. ‘That many ships in one place.’ He laughed. ‘All that fuss over a few fishermen with guns, huh?’

Shepherd went to his cabin and locked the door and took out the sat-phone. He looked at the clock on the wall. It was eleven o’clock, which meant that it was nine o’clock in the morning in London. He sat down on one of the sofas and called Button’s mobile.

‘How’s life on the ocean waves?’ she asked.

‘It’s starting to look like a waste of time,’ said Shepherd. ‘I can’t help wondering if the intel you got was just plain wrong.’

‘How so?’

‘We rounded the Horn of Africa last night, the bit of Somalia that sticks out in the sea, and now we’re in the Gulf of Aden.’

‘Which is where most of the pirate attacks are, right?’

‘Before the safe corridor, yes. But now it’s heavily patrolled. This morning we sailed through two convoys, thirty-seven ships between them, guarded by Chinese and Japanese warships.’ He rubbed the back of his neck. ‘The thing is, I don’t see pirates attacking anybody here.’

‘Well, I’m looking at the latest Admiralty reports and they say that a group of pirates with automatic weapons attacked a cargo ship close to the Somali coast yesterday, chased it for half an hour and sprayed the bridge with bullets. And a mother ship towing skiffs was reported just a hundred miles from your present position.’

‘I’m not saying there aren’t pirates around, and I’m not saying that they’re not taking ships. I don’t see them taking anything in the secure corridor.’

‘But you’re not in convoy, are you?’

‘No, the convoys are for the slower ships. Anything that does above eighteen knots goes it alone. What I’m saying is that if we were going to be hijacked, it would have happened while we were in open sea. But even then, it wouldn’t be easy. This ship is huge, Charlie. Boarding her at speed would be like trying to climb a three-storey building in an earthquake. An SBS or SAS unit could maybe manage it but they’re trained for it and they’ve got the right equipment. We’re talking about teenagers with ladders and grappling hooks.’

‘All I can tell you is that the intel we have seems good and that nothing has changed to make me think otherwise. Crazy Boy and his uncle are definitely about to do something. And all the signs are that it’s the
Athena
they’re after.’

Shepherd sighed. ‘Well, tomorrow we enter the Red Sea. Have Crazy Boy’s people ever taken ships that far west?’

‘No, they haven’t. But other pirates are active in the Red Sea. It’s still a risky area for shipping.’

‘But it’s Crazy Boy we’re interested in. Charlie, cards on the table, this is a waste of time.’

‘So what are you suggesting? You can hardly swim ashore, can you? And you’re due into Jeddah in two days.’

‘I suppose so.’

‘There’s no suppose so about it. You can disembark at Jeddah and fly back from Riyadh. I’ll arrange to have someone from the embassy meet you there and organise the transfers.’

‘Back to London?’

‘You’ve got somewhere else to go?’

‘I was thinking that I should stay close to Somalia. You know Martin is in Ethiopia?’

‘Near the border, yes.’

‘I could go there,’ said Shepherd. ‘Or I could wait in Nairobi. Do we have any idea where the yacht crew is being held?’

‘It’s gone quiet. The kidnappers have asked for five million and the negotiator has said he’ll get back to them. What we’re looking for is a phone in Puntland that we can home in on. Look, I’ve no problem with you joining Martin. At some point we’re going to want to go in and get the yacht crew, no matter what happens to the
Athena
. I’ll get our man in Riyadh to make the arrangements.’

‘And if I were you, I’d check the intel again,’ said Shepherd. ‘So far as I can see, there’s no way that Crazy Boy is going to be taking the
Athena
.’ Shepherd ended the call and changed into his running gear. He went down to the engine room. Tomasz and Konrad were in the engine control room and they both laughed when they saw what he was wearing. ‘Do you want to do a few laps with me?’ Shepherd asked.

‘We work for a living,’ said Tomasz. ‘That’s exercise enough.’

He went through into the workshop and opened the hatch that led to the Below Deck Passageway. He closed it behind him, then did a couple of minutes of loosening-up exercises, then a circuit of the ship at a slow jog. It was a good place to exercise, though the air smelled of oil in places. He had to be careful of the occasional obstruction, but he could run a lot faster than on the Upper Deck. He increased the pace for his second lap, then did a third at almost full speed, then alternated between fast and medium pace for another six circuits. By the time he’d finished he’d run almost seven kilometres and he was drenched in sweat. He dropped down and did press-ups and sit-ups until his muscles burned.

When he went back into the control room heading for the lift, Konrad had gone but the chief engineer was still there. ‘Good workout?’ he asked.

‘Not bad,’ said Shepherd. He rubbed his face on the bottom of his T-shirt.

‘You lift weights?’

‘Sometimes. There’s none in the gym, though.’

The engineer grinned. ‘Come with me,’ he said. He took Shepherd back into the tool room and opened a steel cabinet. He took out a pair of dumbbells and handed them to Shepherd. They were each about ten kilos and as Shepherd held them he realised that they had been handmade from a screw thread and hefty metal bolts.

‘You made these?’ asked Shepherd.

‘Sort of. I always get the engineer cadets to make them to practise their metalworking skills. The crew has to fly to meet the ship and you can’t really fly with a suitcase full of weights. Take them.’

‘You’re sure?’

Tomasz opened the cupboard door and showed Shepherd that there were half a dozen dumbbells of various sizes inside. ‘I’ve got plenty,’ he said.

Shepherd thanked him and took the weights up to his cabin. He showered, changed into clean clothes and put a load of washing into one of the machines, then read a book until it was time for lunch. He went downstairs to the officers’ mess. Dominik was the only one there and he nodded when he saw Shepherd.

The soup was vegetable and pasta with little in the way of taste, and it was followed by grilled tuna steak, boiled potatoes and overcooked spinach. It was as bad as anything Shepherd had eaten in the army, but he hadn’t complained then and he didn’t even think about complaining now. Food was fuel, pure and simple, and provided he was given protein, carbohydrates and the vitamins and minerals he needed, he was happy.

As he was finishing his tuna, Hainrich arrived. He smiled at Shepherd and sat down, reaching for a chunk of French bread. He said something to Dominik in Polish and they both laughed. Shepherd looked up expectantly but neither of them seemed prepared to tell him what the joke was.

‘So Jeddah in two days?’ said Shepherd.

Dominik nodded. ‘No time to get off for sightseeing, though, we’re only in port for six hours, maybe seven. Then we’re off to the Suez.’

‘I’ll be getting off,’ said Shepherd.

Dominik put down his knife and fork. ‘You’ve finished your work?’

‘All done and dusted.’

‘And what have you decided?’ asked Hainrich.

‘I don’t decide anything,’ said Shepherd. ‘I just compile a report. Someone higher up the food chain makes any decisions that need to be made.’

‘But what will be in your report?’ asked Dominik.

Shepherd was trying to think of something non-committal to say but before he could reply the alarm went off and a red light flashed on the console by the door. Hainrich grunted and hauled himself out of his chair and went over to peer at the console. He said something to Dominik and shrugged.

‘What’s wrong?’ asked Shepherd.

‘Engine overheating warning, one of the turbochargers,’ said Dominik. ‘It’s nothing. It happens sometimes.’

Hainrich pressed a button and the alarm stopped. He ambled back to his seat but just as he was sitting down the alarm started up again. He went back to the console, looked at the screen. ‘Second one’s overheating now,’ he said. He pushed a button to silence the alarm.

‘Now what?’ asked Shepherd.

‘The sensors say that the turbochargers are overheating,’ said Dominik. ‘That does happen sometimes but it’s more likely to be a computer glitch or a faulty sensor.’ He shrugged. ‘It’s unusual for two to go at the same time.’

Jimmy came out of the galley and asked Shepherd whether he wanted coffee, but Shepherd waved him away as he listened to Dominik call up the chief engineer on the transceiver. They spoke in Polish back and forth and then Dominik sighed and slid out of his chair. He left the room without saying anything and Shepherd followed him. Dominik pressed the button to call the lift. ‘The chief engineer is going to check the engine now,’ he said. ‘It’s probably nothing.’

‘But you’re slowing the ship down?’ said Shepherd.

‘It’s procedure, until we know for sure that the engine is OK,’ Dominik said. ‘If the turbochargers are overheating we could do major damage. If it carries on like this they’ll shut down automatically.’

The lift arrived and they rode up to the bridge together. The second officer was standing behind the left-hand chair, looking flustered, and Hainrich was sitting in the right-hand chair, one hand on the telegraph, which was in the half-speed position. Dominik said something in Polish and the chief officer frowned at the controls.

The alarm went off again and Hainrich hit a button to silence it.

‘What’s happening?’ asked Shepherd.

‘The alarm keeps going off,’ said Dominik. His transceiver crackled and he put it to his ear. The chief engineer spoke in Polish and Dominik replied.

‘The engine is fine, so are the turbochargers,’ Dominik said to Shepherd.

Again the alarm went off, and again Hainrich hit the button.

‘So it’s the computer?’ said Shepherd.

‘Seems to be,’ said Dominik.

‘Fixable?’

Dominik laughed. ‘We’re at sea, we have to be able to fix everything,’ he said. ‘We can’t wait for a tow truck.’ He said something to Hainrich in Polish and they both laughed. They both stopped laughing suddenly when all the screens went blank. The second officer jumped back as if he’d been stung.

Dominik frowned and put a hand on Hainrich’s shoulder. ‘Computer’s down,’ he said. ‘We’ve lost all electrical power.’

The screens flickered on again but the ship was visibly slowing.

‘Now what?’ asked Shepherd.

‘I don’t know,’ said Dominik. ‘We just lost power and the emergency generators have kicked in. But they don’t supply power to the main engine so we’re stopping.’

‘We’re stopping? How can that be?’

‘The emergency generators power the lights, the radar, the radio, but that’s all.’

‘Is it a major problem?’

Dominik ran a hand through his unkempt hair. ‘It’s never happened before. This is a relatively new ship, most of this equipment is still under guarantee, it shouldn’t happen.’

His transceiver crackled and the chief engineer spoke in Polish. Dominik barked back and then looked at Shepherd. ‘The engine’s shutting down,’ he said.

‘So what happens?’

‘We can reboot the software, same as if you had a problem with a laptop.’

‘How long?’

Dominik shrugged. ‘I don’t know, the chief engineer’s going to handle it. An hour. Maybe longer. I’ve never known anything like this happen before.’

‘It’s a first for me,’ said Hainrich.

One of the Filipinos was standing at the starboard side of the bridge, scanning the sea with his binoculars. The water was almost flat, differences in shade marking the various currents that swirled ahead of them. There was no mist and Shepherd could see clear to the horizon. Other than a group of dolphins playing a mile off the port bow, the sea was empty.

Shepherd walked away from the controls and around to the chart area. The ship’s last position had been marked at noon. They were midway between Yemen and Somalia with another couple of hundred miles or so to go before they reached the Red Sea.

As he walked away from the chart desk he saw movement in the sea at the stern of the ship, on the starboard side, not much more than a small dark dot on the horizon. He went back to the main section of the bridge, picked up a pair of binoculars, and went back to the rear. It took him a few seconds to focus the binoculars. The dot was a skiff, moving fast and moving towards the
Athena
. He took the binoculars away from his face and squinted at the horizon. There was a second dot, to the left of the first. He focused the binoculars on the second dot. It was another skiff. He could make out half a dozen figures in the boat. And guns.

‘Dominik!’ he shouted. ‘I think we might have a problem.’

The skiff cut across the waves, bouncing over each crest as it hit the bow, sometimes hitting the wave so hard that the boat left the water completely and hung in the air before slamming back into the sea in a shower of spray. There were two powerful Yamaha outboards at the stern linked to a single control. Blue looked over at the man holding the tiller and grinned. The tillerman was in his fifties and knew the waters well and was able to keep the engines at full throttle without damaging the hull.

There were five men with Blue in the front of the skiff, in three rows of two. They all had AK-47s hanging on their backs and machetes in scabbards on their belts. The man sitting next to Blue was called Marlboro, after his favourite brand of cigarettes. He was in his twenties but had already been involved in four hijackings. He was tall and wiry and had spent days practising climbing and strengthening his arms with press-ups and pull-ups. He would be the first to board the
Athena
.

In Blue’s hand was a portable GPS unit, but he no longer needed to look at it. Ahead of them was the
Athena
. It was drifting in the currents, its stern swinging slowly to starboard. Blue looked at his watch. Crazy Boy had been right, to the second. The
Athena
was dead in the water. Everything was going exactly to plan.