Piranha (3 page)

Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela

Present day

Harbormaster Manuel Lozada shook his head in disbelief as his boat approached the rusting hulk that he was about to inspect before it unloaded its cargo at the La Guanta docks. He shielded his eyes from the setting sun to give himself a better look. From a distance the pattern of mottled green paint on the hull seemed designed to camouflage the ship for a jungle cruise, but up close he could see that it was just a sloppy patch job, with various shades of puke green splashed on the sides to cover up bare spots, and even the newer paint was now flaking away.

As his boat passed by the stern, Lozada could make out the name
Dolos
on the champagne-glass fantail, the only mark of elegance on an otherwise profoundly ugly vessel. The flag flying from the jackstaff was of a Liberian registry, which matched the information he'd obtained independently.

The ship was large—560 feet long—but nothing compared to the massive supertankers that berthed at the Pamatacual oil terminal only five miles away. The
Dolos
wasn't a containership, but rather an old tramp steamer that carried whatever needed to be transported between the less prominent ports of the world. This one in particular looked like it should have been sent to the scrapyard last century. If it ever got caught in even a minor gale, Lozada wouldn't be surprised if the old girl broke in half and sank.

Two of the five cranes on board were so corroded that they could not possibly be operational. Trash and broken machinery was scattered across the deck without a care. Twin funnels belched black smoke. The filthy white superstructure was situated between the six forward holds and two aft holds, and two bridge wings poked out from either side. The windows on the pilothouse were so dingy that Lozada could see the spot the pilot had wiped clear to see through during the five-mile trip into the harbor.

Lozada had served in the Venezuelan Navy for twenty years, and had remained a reservist since becoming harbormaster, and he would have been keelhauled if he'd let a ship of his reach this state of disrepair. Only the cheapest or most desperate shippers would trust their cargo to a vessel like this.

He motioned for the boat's operator to pull alongside the shabby gangway lowered from the
Dolos
and turned to the man sitting behind him, a former Chinese Marine named Gao Wangshu. With a high-and-tight brush cut and a lean, sinewy frame, Gao could have still been in the military.

“Well?” Lozada said in English, the language common between them. The admiral had handpicked Lozada for this task and wanted a definitive answer.

“I do not know yet,” Gao replied.

“I can't report back to the admiral until you are sure. Your payment depends on it.”

“I cannot be confident of my conclusion until I get on board.”

“Either way, you'd better be right.”

“Is that a threat?”

“A warning. Admiral Ruiz does not like to be made a fool.”

Gao eyed Lozada's sidearm and nodded slowly. “I will share with you any doubts I have about its identity.”

“See that you do. Remember that you are playing a trainee, which means you will be silent.”

“I understand.”

Once the boat was tied to the
Dolos
, the two of them climbed the gangway and were met at the top by a slovenly crewman sporting a battered cowboy hat. Tendrils of stringy brown hair jutted out at odd angles around the edges, and bits of food were caught in a handlebar mustache draped under his bulbous nose. The man's khaki shirt was dotted with coffee and sweat stains and strained to cover a generous gut.

“¿Habla Español?”
Lozada asked.

“Nope,” the man replied with a twang Lozada couldn't identify. “I sure hope you speak English.”

“My name is Manuel Lozada. I am the harbormaster for La Guanta. Please take me to your captain.”

A smile revealed the man's nicotine-soaked teeth. “You got him. Buck Holland's the name. Welcome aboard
Dolos
.” He stuck out a hand and shook Lozada's vigorously.

Lozada could barely contain his surprise that this slob was the vessel's master, but he recovered quickly and introduced Gao as his apprentice, Fernando Wang. He didn't expect Gao's ethnicity to raise any red flags since Venezuela has a sizable Chinese immigrant population.

“I need to review your crew and cargo manifests, as well as your registration and shipping orders.”

“You got it,” Holland said. “They're up in the bridge. Follow me. Watch your step. We've got a few deck plates to repair.”

Lozada almost laughed at the understatement. Rust was so prevalent on the warped steel plates that it was a wonder the ship held together, regardless of the weather. Chains stretched across breaks in the railings, and the superstructure was even more of a horror close up. Rotting plywood sheets were screwed over gaps in the bulkheads, and a third of the windows around the bridge were cracked.

Despite his research into the captain, he hadn't expected this degree of neglect, not only to his vessel but to himself as well. Although Holland's age was forty, drinking and sun damage had added fifteen years to his face. According to his file, the captain was a recovering alcoholic who had run a containership aground near Singapore. The only command he could get after that was this rickety tramp steamer, and by the looks of it Holland had completely ceased to care about his reputation.

They entered a narrow corridor, and Lozada was struck by the foul stench, a mixture of cigarette smoke, diesel fumes, and sewage. He practically gagged.

“Yeah,” Holland said. “Sorry about the smell. The head's backing up again, so I hope you don't have to use it. I've got my boys working on it. You know, two weeks ago in the middle of the Atlantic we had to resort to using buckets.” Instead of being embarrassed, he laughed at the memory.

Lozada suppressed the temptation to hold his nose and followed the captain inside. Gao kept pace beside him, taking in the awful state of the interior. Chipped linoleum squeaked under Lozada's rubber soles, and he took care not to rub his clean uniform against the grimy bare-metal walls. The overhead fluorescent lights flickered enough to trigger epileptic seizures.

They arrived at the captain's office, where the pungent aroma was even stronger. The rectangular room had a single porthole caked with salt, and creepy sad clowns painted in neon shades stared down at them from black-velvet paintings on the wall.

The office featured two other doors, both open. The first was to a captain's cabin, furnished with little more than a dresser bolted to the wall, a mirror, crazed as if someone had put his fist in it, and an unmade metal bed topped with discolored sheets and a worn blanket.

The second door led to a cramped bathroom that looked as if it hadn't been cleaned since the ship had been built. The odor emanating from the toilet was overpowering.

Holland went behind his desk and plunked himself into a chair that squealed in protest. Lozada was amazed to see him plug bare wires from a desk lamp into the wall, snatching his hand back and cursing when the inevitable sparks shot from the outlet. The lamp winked on anyway.

“Take a load off,” Holland said, and gestured to a couple of chairs on the other side. Lozada perched himself on the edge of the seat to avoid a glistening spot of some unknown substance. Gao mimicked his uncomfortable posture.

Before they could get started, a huge black man rushed into the room carrying an enormous dead rat by the tail, startling Lozada and Gao.

“I found it, Captain!” the man yelled in victory.

“The critter was what clogged us up?”

The crewman nodded. “The heads should be working now.”

“Be sure to get more traps while we're here. We're going through them like crazy.” While Holland was distracted by the rat, Lozada surreptitiously took his photo with his camera phone.

“Aye, sir.” The crewman left just as quickly.

“At least something's going right today,” Holland said as he rummaged through his desk. He produced two binders, one containing the cargo manifest and shipping orders, the other the registry and crew manifest.

Lozada flipped through the cargo information to start.

“This says that you're carrying fertilizer,” he said.

Holland nodded and picked up a toothpick from his desk that he stuck in his mouth.

“That's right. Five thousand tons from Houston. Only a thousand of it is for Venezuela. The rest is going to Colombia. We're also taking on some lumber while we're here.”

“You're new to Puerto La Cruz. I haven't seen you before.”

“I go where they pay me to go. Most of the time, it's the northern Caribbean, but I'm happy to visit your fine country for a change.”

Satisfied that the cargo information was in order, Lozada next perused the crew manifest. Nothing stood out. It was just a mix of Filipino and Nigerian crewmen. The Liberian registry also checked out.

He passed the binders to Gao, who inspected them and then set them on the desk.

“How's it looking?” Holland asked.

“I'm afraid our dockworkers are very busy tonight,” Lozada said. “I don't know if they have time to help with your cargo until tomorrow.”

Holland grinned. “Maybe I can change that.” He opened a drawer, withdrew an envelope, and handed it to Lozada. “That should cover any overtime.”

Lozada riffled through the money inside and counted five hundred American dollars. Although he was here on a mission, there was no sense in letting this opportunity for a bribe go to waste.

“We all good?” Holland asked.

Lozada glanced at Gao. “Have you seen what you need to see?”

Gao gave a curt nod.

Lozada pocketed the envelope and stood. “Everything seems to be in order, Captain Holland. You may begin unloading immediately.”

“That's mighty nice of you, Mr. Lozada. Let me walk you out.”

They made their way back to the gangway.

“Nice doing business with you,” Holland said with a tip of his hat. “Now, if you'll excuse me, I've been waiting to make use of the facilities for hours, if you know what I mean.
Adiós.
”

Lozada couldn't wait to get away from this putrid mess. He smiled wanly and nodded good-bye. When they were safely back on his launch and he could breathe fresh air again, he shrugged at Gao as the operator motored away.

“At least we know now this isn't the one,” he said.

“You are wrong,” Gao said. “This is the ship you're looking for.”

Lozada looked at Gao in amazement and then up at the disgusting captain walking back toward his cabin. “You're joking! That thing isn't fit to be a garbage scow.”

“It's all a clever disguise. I have been on that ship before.”

“Look, we've all heard the rumors. A normal-looking cargo ship bristling with weapons that is used to spy on countries around the world. Some say it's British, some say American or Russian. No one knows its name. No one can agree on what it looks like. All we have are vague secondhand stories about the ship getting into sea battles with Chinese destroyers, Iranian submarines, and Burmese gunboats. Supposedly, it has missiles and torpedoes and lasers, armor three feet thick, and can withstand anything short of a nuclear blast. Does that barely floating embarrassment look like a warship to you?”

Gao's expression was deadly serious. “I didn't see any torpedoes or lasers, but I was stationed aboard the destroyer
Chengdo
, and I was one of the Marines sent onto that ship to capture it. We were repelled by a well-trained force armed with the latest weaponry.”

Lozada laughed. “I could return with two men from the police force and seize that vessel without a problem.”

“I advise against that. Your admiral has information that you don't. I suggest you call and report my conclusions.”

Lozada narrowed his eyes at Gao. “Give me one reason why I should believe you.”

“The ship's name—
Dolos
. Do you know what it means?”

“Of course. A ‘dolos' is a molded concrete block. We pile them up to form breakwaters.”

“There's another meaning. I did a search on my phone on the way here. Dolos is the Greek god of deception. You are meant to think it's harmless.”

Lozada checked his own smartphone and came up with the same result. He frowned. It was flimsy evidence, but he could be in serious trouble if he didn't report back to Admiral Ruiz and then was proven to be wrong.

“All right,” he said, and dialed the number he'd been given. He asked for Admiral Ruiz and was connected immediately. A distinct hiss came over the line before he heard a click.

“This is Admiral Dayana Ruiz,” a female voice said in Spanish. “Who is this?”

“Admiral, this is Commander Manuel Lozada,” he said nervously. “Señor Gao is confirming that this is the spy vessel.”

“What do you think?”