Page 50 of Wild Tempest

I moved to the gunwale and crouched low, taking cover as the helicopter passed by. When the helo crossed the bow to the port side, I sprang from the gunwale and took cover behind the superstructure.

The helicopter banked around and hovered over the aft deck, the rotors barely clearing the A-crane. Another squad of four special operators fast-roped to the deck.

I met up with Jack at the watertight door. We moved aft, rounded the corner with caution, and crept past the knuckle boom crane. At the aft railing, I angled my rifle at the work deck. I opened fire at the forces as they advanced.

Bullets snapped back in my direction.

I fell back as the team entered the superstructure below through the aft hatch on the main deck.

The helicopter continued to circle. It made another pass, and another goon had manned the PKM, firing off blistering rounds of 7.62mm.

JD and I ducked back into the superstructure in the nick of time, through the aft hatch. We dogged the door behind us. They would have a hard time breaching it.

There were three ways up to this deck. The central aft staircase by the knuckle-boom crane. The central ladderwell. The forward steps by the helipad. On this level, the superstructure had three watertight doors. One aft, and the forward doors on either side.

JD and I moved through the structure and secured all of them.

The ladderwell was a potential point of entry. We couldn’t seal the door. But it would be a choke point and a bad tactical position for the goons.

Something told me the goons weren't terribly concerned with us at the moment. They were probably here for as much gold as they could carry, with the primary mission of destroying the lab and evidence.

JD watched the ladderwell while I moved back down the corridor and knocked on the door to my stateroom. "It's me. Are you okay?"

"I'm good,” Tempest said. “What's happening out there?”

"You don't want to know. Sit tight and shoot anyone who comes through this door that's not me or JD."

“Aye-aye, Captain.”

Paul, still cuffed to the hand grab, shouted obscenities, rambling on.

I moved next door to Dale's stateroom and opened the hatch. "You doing okay in here?"

He gave me the thumbs up. "Never better."

“Hang tight.”

“What else am I going to do?”

I pulled the hatch shut and rejoined JD at the ladderwell. He looked terrible. Sweat dripped from his skin, and his eyes drooped.

“You don’t look so good.”

He frowned at me. "How do you think they’ll get the gold off this ship?”

I shrugged. “We’re talking roughly 8 metric tons of it in that cargo hold. You’d need a crane to lift it up through the cargo hatch and transfer the pallets to another ship. Maybe you could take a handful of bars out of here. Maybe a pallet, if rigged to the helicopter.”

“A pallet might be enough,” he said. “Hell, a few bars might be enough.”

A whoosh rumbled below deck.

JD and I shared a worrisome look.

31

Smoke wafted up through the ladderwell and seeped through the door. The acrid tang of thermite hovered in the air. I had no doubt they burned out the lab, destroying all traces of the bioweapon.

On the work deck, the hatch to the cargo hold creaked and squealed as the goons tried to open it manually. After years of rust and corrosion, it was no easy task. The groans reverberated through the ship.