The Pirate (12 page)

“Freeze or the woman dies,” Samatan said.

“Who are you?”

“I'm Captain Lazaraus and this is my ship.”

“I'd beg to differ, Captain.”

“Where is Jamac?”

“He is now my prisoner,” Laz said.

“There will be no shift in power. Habeb, go and find Jamac,” Samatan ordered.

A slim man who was no taller than Daphne stepped behind Laz and went down the stairs. Laz knew that Savage was monitoring him and hoped he had enough time to warn Hamm that he was going to have company.

Samatan held Daphne with one hand on her arm; in the other hand he held a SIG Sauer semiautomatic handgun pressed to her temple. Daphne was pale and sweat had beaded on her lip. She didn't look tough or stubborn now. She looked scared and Laz vowed he'd never see that look on her face again.

Samatan was taller than Laz had expected and muscular. He had the body of a man who was well fed and well trained. He was not like the lean, almost gaunt pirates that had taken the ship.

It took Laz less than a second to analyze the situation. He put his hands up and stepped across the threshold.

“If you make one false move the woman dies and then you will.”

Laz nodded in agreement. He wasn't going to do anything to jeopardize Daphne's life and right now he had orders to take back the bridge.

“Do what Samatan orders. We will be there shortly to free you,” Savage said in the earpiece.

“What do you need me to do?” Laz asked.

“I need you to talk to your masters. To tell them that we want three million U.S. dollars or we will start killing passengers,” Samatan said.

“Three million is too much for this tanker. We're not carrying cargo worth that much,” Laz said.

“I don't need your advice. It's not just the cargo that has monetary worth, Captain. Rumor has it that you have an important passenger onboard. The wife of a U.S. Senator.”

Laz shook his head. He was confident they didn't know the identity of the person related to Senator Paul Maxwell. Not that he was going to gamble with Daphne's life but right now he needed to level the playing field. Samatan clearly thought he held all the cards.

It was up to Laz to make sure he realized that he didn't.

“All of our passengers are important. Why don't we take the ship to Eyl and we can negotiate from there?” Laz suggested.

Laz knew that Mann couldn't make a shot on the bridge. There was reinforced glass on the main windows and tinting. It would be nearly impossible for the sniper to hit anyone. He might be able to entice Samatan off the bridge and into an area where Mann could hit him. But Laz thought that there was a reason Abdu Samatan hadn't been captured yet and he suspected it was because the pirate king was savvy.

“I don't deal in port towns, Captain. So you will get on the radio and relay that information to your bosses.”

“Okay, but I still think—”

“Don't.”

Laz looked at the other man.

“Don't what?”

“Don't think. That's not a job for a man such as yourself, Captain. You do what I say and no one will get hurt.”

“Hamm hasn't checked in,” Savage said in Laz's ear.

What did that mean? Had Samatan somehow taken over the tanker again? Habeb didn't look all that lethal but Laz had learned the hard way that a man didn't have to be a bodybuilder to be a threat.

“My only goal is to ensure the safety of my crew, passengers, and cargo.”

“Then radio your bosses,” Samatan said. “The sooner they pay the ransom, the sooner you will be on your way.”

Laz reached for the radio. Tankers International was listed on the shipping papers as the owner of the cargo
Maersk Angus
was carrying but for this trip a client of the Savage Seven was footing the bill. That client was a consortium of interested governments and shipping companies.

“Contact us. Wenz will answer and relay the info to the proper authorities,” Savage said.

Laz made his way over to the radio. Did Samatan realize that the one on the bridge wasn't as sophisticated as the radio room? Laz didn't care. He'd make the call and then take care of Samatan. No matter how big and strong the pirate king was, Laz was determined to take him down. Samatan was only human after all, and all men could be killed.

 

Daphne was beyond nervous. She could no longer process or function. A man was holding a gun on her, she'd just had another man threaten to kill her, and she was facing the man who was her onetime lover and wondering if he was simply going to out her as the politician's ex-wife and let this man kill her.

It'd be easier, she thought. Then Laz could capture Samatan and she'd be out of the picture.

But when she met Laz's gaze, he winked at her. She felt a sudden lightening of her soul. She wasn't alone in this land of death even though that was how it had felt to her. She had Laz here with her and he wasn't about to let her die.

She needed to get her head around helping Laz take this guy down. Part of it was that she was tired. She'd been running on empty since…well since she'd arrived on the tanker. Being part of a captured team, running the risk of being caught but going to the radio room, performing surgery when she hadn't since she'd been a resident had completely drained her.

She was breathing heavily. She realized she was going to hyperventilate if she didn't calm down but her body was on a runaway train. It needed rest and an escape from the nerves that were dogging her.

“You okay?” Laz asked.

She nodded, but felt herself swaying.

“Don't worry about the woman,” Abdu said. “Just make contact with your bosses.”

Laz moved around Abdu to do that and Daphne watched as the pirate king kept his eye on Laz. But the gun to her head never faltered. Even as she swayed a bit on her feet, the muzzle of that handgun remained in constant contact with her skin.

She started shaking.

“Would it be easier if I knocked you out?”

She turned to stare into those midnight black eyes of Abdu and realized he wasn't a cruel man. Just a man fixated on his goal.

“Maybe,” she admitted.

He laughed then and it was a rich deep sound as unexpected as the bitterness of 99 percent pure chocolate. This man looked hard and cruel, but with that laughter Daphne realized he was more than the devil on this ship. He was a man and with that came all the complications of being human.

“Why don't you let her sit down?” Laz said. “I will still do your bidding.”

“Just do what is asked of you, Captain. What is between the lady and I isn't any of your concern.”

Abdu didn't loosen his grip on her arm or take his concentration from Laz. He was capable. Even though she'd been thinking of him as just the pirate king she realized that he was like a real king and to him this was a battle that had to be won.

She was just a pawn that was in his way. “Why do you do this?”

“Do what?” Abdu asked.

“Risk your life by taking ships. Wouldn't it be easier to be a doctor or a lawyer? Someone who makes a good living in a safer way.”

The gun against her forehead moved slightly as he turned them both to follow Laz's moves. “There is no opportunity to do those things and still make a living in Somalia. My people are lost and leaderless and all that is left us is whatever we are brave enough to reach out and take for ourselves.

“Now, Captain, my patience is running thin, make that call.”

Laz picked up the microphone for the radio and fiddled with the dial. She watched his long fingers as they moved over the control panel and she realized how very much she'd enjoyed being his lover. It was an odd thought when her life was in danger, but she realized one of the things that brought her peace was having him here with her.

“This is the
Maersk Angus
. I need to be patched through to Tankers International.”

“This is Port Authority and we will relay your message. Go ahead.”

“We have been taken by a group of pirates. And ransom is being demanded.”

“How much?” the voice came back.

“Three million U.S. dollars.”

“Is there a deadline for it to be delivered?”

“Tomorrow,” Abdu said. “Five
P.M
.”

Laz relayed this information. They waited three long minutes before there was a response. “Tankers International refuses to pay that large amount of ransom. Instead they offer five hundred thousand U.S. dollars and no prosecution.”

Abdu's hand tightened on her arm as anger coursed through his body. He was so tight she feared he might explode and she'd be left tethered to a madman.

“Tell them not to insult me again. We will not negotiate with them. They will pay the ransom or we will start killing the passengers and crew of this ship one by one.”

Laz started to speak but Abdu stopped him.

“The deadline is now noon tomorrow. The first person will be killed at 12:05.”

Laz relayed this information and the radio went silent. Daphne wasn't sure what would happen next.

 

Samatan wasn't sure what to do with his captives. Until he heard back from Habeb he needed to keep them locked up. There was a small room used for storage at the base of the bridge and he decided to keep them there.

He didn't take his eyes from the Captain for a minute. There was an aura of danger around the man, and Samatan had learned early on in his life that he couldn't trust any man when that man was pushed into a corner.

The sound of gunfire drew the attention of all of them. He saw a long low speedboat off the aft bow.

“Do not let them board,” he yelled to Tomas and Bin, who were on deck. He saw his men move to do his bidding.

The Captain leaned forward and watched the other boat intently.

“Do not worry, Captain. I will keep your ship better than you did.”

The other man lunged toward him and Samatan pressed the barrel of the gun harder to the woman's face. “Do you want her death on your hands?”

The Captain cursed and shook his head.

He shoved the woman to the floor and then reached over her head to rip the radio from the control panel. The Captain leapt toward him as Samatan fired, hitting Laz in the fleshy part of the thigh. The Captain kept coming and Samatan lifted his hand back and hit the Captain in the face. Blood spurted from Laz's nose and lip as he staggered backward.

“Stay put,” Samatan said as he left the bridge. He stopped to lock the door with the key Habeb had found earlier.

“Stop them,” he yelled to his men.

Tomas aimed a burst of semiautomatic fire at the speedboat, hitting the driver. The man slumped forward and the boat careened toward them. The throttle was still down. The other pirates continued to fire.

Samatan took his time finding his target and then fired three shots, hitting each of the men who'd been attacking them. There was only one man remaining alive on the boat and he stopped it and put his hands up.

“Board the boat and take supplies for us,” he ordered Tomas.

“Bin, go below and make sure that Habeb has the situation under control.”

Alone on the deck he looked around the tanker. This mission was to be his last in charge of the pirate group. He'd been doing this for better than ten years now and he was ready to retire and start a life for himself in Madrid. He knew this was a young man's game and he had been dancing to the piper for too long.

Tomas tossed the weapons from the boat onboard the deck of the tanker. “What should I do with this man?”

The man who had driven the speedboat looked up at him with pleading eyes. But he was unmoved.

“Kill him. No one steals from me,” Samatan said.

Tomas turned and shot the man at point-blank range. Then let his body drop on the floor of the speedboat with the others.

“The boat?”

“Burn it. I want to send a signal to any other poachers who might think they can take what is mine.”

Tomas nodded and went to work. Samatan watched as his man found the spare fuel can and poured liquid gas all over the floor of the speedboat. Tomas worked quickly and efficiently. He never questioned any of Samatan's orders and he'd been with his crew for almost two years now. Samatan liked Tomas because he did what he was told.

Tomas climbed back onboard the tanker and then tossed a match down onto the floor of the speedboat. Flames spread quickly over the floor of the boat as it drifted away from the tanker.

Soon a big black cloud of smoke could be seen, sending the signal to anyone else on the seas that Samatan wasn't a man to be fooled around with and this tanker had been claimed, and soon would be ransomed.

Samatan had debated briefly taking the hostages to Eyl where he could keep them in a real brig. But doing so would make him like all the other pirates on the seas, and he had never been like everyone else. He'd keep them on the tanker, and if it came time to kill the hostages, he'd do it here at sea.

Unlike the other pirates who preyed in this area, he wasn't in awe of the money he made. He always knew there was more. He did hire men from the village where he'd once been Strongman and he tried to give back to his people whenever he could, but at the end of the day he was in this line of work to make a living for himself.

He did this because it was one of the most lucrative careers a Somali man could have. And if that Somali man was as educated as Samatan he'd grown to crave a life and a lifestyle that couldn't be obtained by working as Strongman.

Besides, Samatan wanted to live a long life. He wanted to have sons who would grow up and not in a death-filled village as he had, but in a nice village where they'd learn to play football or soccer as the Americans called it. They'd go to school without the fear of being shot on their morning walk. And someday they'd grow up to give him grandchildren.

That was it, he thought as Tomas came to stand next to him on the deck. His dreams were simple. They were the same as any other man's. He knew that the woman he'd left on the bridge thought him evil and he didn't care what her opinion of him was. His life had been hard. Not because he'd chosen it but because he'd been born on the wrong continent.