Scott Mariani 2-book Collection: Star of Africa, The Devil’s Kingdom. Scott Mariani

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СКАЧАТЬ said, as if Jude was offering them a lump of plutonium. ‘That’s a whole lotta trouble I don’t need.’

      Gerber showed his palms. ‘Nor me, son. I’ve had enough excitement to last me the rest of my life, and now I just want to get home in one piece. All I’m saying is, and I’m no expert, if that there rock is what I think it is, I’d be damned careful if I were you. We weren’t the only ones in this crew who saw it, if you get my meaning. Better watch your six, before someone puts a knife in your back.’

      After the crew had hurried off to attend to their duties Ben took a quiet moment to himself on deck, feeling that familiar old sense of post-battle melancholia as the adrenalin slowly oozed out of his system. The blood-red dawn had darkened like evening as unbroken black clouds scudded menacingly overhead, blotting out the light. Ben had seen tropical storms like it before. At this time of year in these waters, they could sweep in out of nowhere with shocking suddenness and not burn themselves out for days on end.

      He stood at the rail, lashed by salt spray and craving a Gauloise, which wouldn’t have stayed lit for long in this gale. Far below him, the wreckage of the pirate trawler was dispersing on the waves. Its shattered hull had long since sunk to the bottom – or what was left of it after the high-explosive limpet mine, supplied by their man in Stuttgart, had done its destructive work. The two ex-military Rotinor Diver Propulsion Vehicles that had propelled them swiftly and silently underwater for the last mile of the journey would soon be joining the wreckage on the sea bed, if they hadn’t already. Ben felt a pang about consigning twenty grand’s worth of equipment to Davy Jones’s locker, but it was a momentary regret lost in a sense of relief so overpowering that he almost wanted to cry.

      It had been a close run thing. The delay at Obbia airport had filled him with dread that the seaplane might not materialise either; that Chimp Chalmers had diddled them; that they wouldn’t make it. But Ben’s fears had been allayed when they found the aircraft floating just offshore at Hobyo port, ready to take off at a moment’s notice. Geedi’s Toyota had served its purpose as an improvised amphibious transport to deliver their cargo to the plane, before being abandoned half-submerged in the surf. Geedi would mourn the loss of his vehicle, but to hell with the drunken bastard.

      From there, everything had gone smoothly except for the unexpected turn in the weather. They’d located the ship just a couple of nautical miles from the coordinates in Jude’s email. The tricky bail-out at low altitude into heavy seas had gone without a hitch. Tuesday might have balked at his first-ever underwater assault, clinging wild-eyed to a two-man diver propulsion vehicle as it sped thirty metres beneath the waves to zero in on their target, but he’d taken it in his stride and Ben was pleased with him.

      And now it was over. They’d pulled it off.

      Most importantly of all, Jude was safe. Until this moment, Ben hadn’t allowed himself to fully consider the alternative. The mind can work in strange ways. Now that he knew it wouldn’t happen, the worst images bubbled up in his imagination as if the brain needed to release the pressure of keeping them stored up. It hit him like a brick. His throat tightened up, his stomach was knotted and his hands shook. He gripped the rail and closed his eyes for a few moments, suddenly so washed out with feeling that he could have lain down and curled up right there on the rainswept deck. Sensing Jeff’s presence behind him, he kept his back turned so that his friend wouldn’t see his emotion.

      ‘You all right?’ Jeff said, joining him at the rail. He had to yell to be heard over the wind.

      Ben nodded wordlessly.

      Jeff clapped him on the shoulder. ‘Got the shakes? Fucking bet I’ve got them too, mate. We haven’t had a run like that in a while.’

      ‘Not since the last time. Thanks, Jeff. I couldn’t have done it without you.’

      Jeff laughed it off. He looked up. ‘Christ, I’ve never seen the morning sky so black. Blacker than the inside of the devil’s arsehole.’

      ‘You’re a natural born poet, Dekker.’

      ‘So everyone tells me. Any sign of Mussa?’

      Ben had tried to raise the pilot several times, but he was out of handheld radio range. He scanned the sky once again, and would have been very surprised if there’d been any sign of the aircraft circling overhead somewhere in those clouds. The plan had been for Mussa to double back and land alongside the ship once the pirate threat was neutralised. Then, after spending the minimum amount of time making sure the ship was secure, they were going to leave it to its own devices, load Jude on the plane and return to Obbia to call Adrien Leroy and wait for the Gulfstream to carry them back home.

      All of which had been assuming a successful outcome to the mission. And none of which had reckoned on the dramatic downturn in the weather conditions. The sea had been slick and bright with starlight when they’d left Hobyo port.

      ‘Not a chance. Headed back to land, if he’s got any sense. This crap isn’t going to lift in a hurry.’

      ‘Then it looks like we’re stuck on board this tub until it does.’

      Ben nodded. ‘Yup. Let’s get to work.’

       Chapter 27

      Ben’s first and main priority was to stow the prisoners securely under lock and key. Of the sixteen African pirates who had been aboard the ship at the time of the rescue assault, nine were still alive including their leader, Khosa. Those who had stayed on board the smaller vessel could be presumed drowned or blown to bits. Ben, Jeff and Tuesday hurriedly stripped off their dive apparatus and wetsuits. Once they had changed into combat trousers and T-shirts and swapped the cumbersome flippers for the lightweight assault boots they’d packed in the watertight kit bags along with the rest of the gear, Tuesday took charge of guarding the prisoners while Ben and Jeff hunted about below by torchlight for a suitable temporary cell space. They soon found a storage compartment in the aft cargo hold that would serve as a makeshift brig.

      Three at a time, the prisoners had their ankle bonds slashed and were frogmarched below at gunpoint and bundled into the pitch-black hole that would be their home for the foreseeable future. Allen and Lang were stationed on sentry duty outside the door.

      ‘I don’t like it much,’ Jeff said. ‘That room isn’t half secure enough to hold them. Especially Scarface. I look at that guy, I see trouble.’

      They were making their way back up through the pitch-darkness below decks when the electrical power flickered on and the winding passages, hatchways and stairways that honeycombed the vast bowels of the ship were lit up in a stark neon glow. Seconds later, they felt the thrum of the restarted engines and the vibration of the ship’s massive twin screws resonate under their feet. Cherry’s guys had done their work and the Andromeda was back in business.

      Ben’s next priority was to check on the bridge. Now that the power was restored, he needed to make sure that the two crewmen up there, Trent and Lorenz, didn’t do anything stupid like radio the coastguard and inform them of the attack. If the storm should suddenly abate, the last thing he needed was for a squad of trigger-happy Somali police to show up in a fast cruiser and spark an international incident when they discovered an unofficial hostage rescue team on board, with enough small arms to start a war.

      Ben needn’t have worried. When he stepped onto the rocking, swaying bridge he found Trent and Lorenz bent anxiously over the bullet-holed remains of the long-range radio receiver. ‘It’s СКАЧАТЬ