Lean on Me (38 page)

“
I’m already on it sir,”
Sergeant Dusty said. “Major Walters recommended that course of
action after the video feed.”

“
Great,” Alex said. She
felt a wave of relief for Joseph’s help. Sick, in pain, and a long
way from home, she was glad that she was not alone.
“Thanks.”

“
Sir, I’ve been asked to
inform you that the NAS has been contacted,” Sergeant Dusty
said.

“
By whom?” Alex
said.

“
My father-in-law was able
to take a moment from his daughter’s bedside.” Sergeant Dusty
cleared his throat from the lie. “The
Comfort
is on its way to you. Three
medical helicopters have been dispatched to the ship. They will
help the Jakker ferry men to the
Comfort
. Emergency personnel will
return with each chopper until the hostages are off ship. Sergeant
Scully?”

“
What?” MJ
asked.

“
You were instructed to
move the more stable first,” Sergeant Dusty said.

“
I’m not stupid,” MJ
said.

“
Don’t kill the messenger,”
Alex said. Two SEALs arrived with the gas masks and began attaching
them to oxygen bottles.

“
Yes sir,” MJ
said.

“
And sir?” Sergeant Dusty
asked.

“
Yes,” Alex
said.

“
Good luck,” Sergeant Dusty
said. “Clear.”

Alex pointed to a man near the middle of the
group. His eyes were open and he looked puzzled. Trece picked Alex
up by the shoulders and carried her over to the man. Gritting her
teeth against the pain, Alex kneeled down to the man.

“
Hi,” Alex spoke loudly so
he could hear it through the mask. “We released a gas that rendered
everyone on the ship unconscious. You passed out.”

With a hand under his head, Alex gave the
man a sip of water from her bottle.

“
Pirate,” the man
said.

“
Yes,” Alex said. “We’ve
rounded them up. What you hear moving on the deck are US Navy SEALs
securing the pirates. When you’re feeling better, you’ll have a
chance to identify the men who hurt you and they will see
justice.”

Alex took the young man’s hand and leaned
close to his face. His wounds and burn marks seeped blood and pus.
His skin was hot with fever. His legs were broken and his feet
mangled.

“
You are safe,” Alex
said.

“
Are you the Fey?” the
young man asked.

“
Yes,” Alex
said.

“
You look like an angel,”
the young man said.

Alex caressed his head. He was making a
tremendous effort to stay conscious.

“
Do you have someone back
home?”

She held up her other hand. Trece put a
morphine injector into her hand.

“
Che’lisa,” the young man
said.

“
Tell me about Che’lisa,”
Alex said. “What’s she like in the morning?”

“
Sir, I…”

“
Humor me,” Alex said.
“You’ll feel better.”

“
She’s not much of a
morning person, ma’am,” the man’s voice was ragged. His mouth was
bleeding from missing or broken teeth.

“
Kind of grumpy in the
morning,” Alex said.

“
She’s a bitch, ma’am,” he
said. “Especially these last months. She’s pregnant and I’m here
and… Ma’am, my baby was due. I have to know if she had…”

“
Sergeant?” Alex asked on
her com.

“
On it,” Sergeant Dusty
said.

“
I’m going to put you to
sleep for a while,” Alex said. “The USNS
Comfort
is in position and waiting
for you. The men will carry you to a chopper; you’ll be in the
hospital in no time. A member of my team will contact Che’lisa and
let her know what’s going on. We’ll find out about the baby and
make sure the information is available the moment you wake
up.”

“
But ma’am…”

“
We’ll do it together,”
Alex said.

“
If I die, will you tell
Che’lisa I love her and I’m sorry I wasn’t there?
Please.”

“
She knows you love her.
I’ll make sure she knows you were thinking of her,” Alex said. “I’m
going to inject you now.”

Alex gave the young man the morphine. She
held his hand until he was unconscious. Alex pointed to the young
man. The SEALs put a gas mask on him, checked his oxygen, moved him
carefully onto a litter, and ferried him to the waiting
chopper.

Looking up, Alex surveyed the room. MJ was
working efficiently on three men at the same time. Sergeant Beetle
had a handful of gauze and was helping MJ wrap wounds. Feeling her
gaze, MJ pointed to the next man ready to be moved. Trece helped
her up and carried her to the next man.

Medical personnel arrived
from the USNS.
Comfort
. Navy SEALs and soldiers moved around her.

Alex continued the work only she could do.
One heart, one soul at a time, she rescued these men from the
abyss. The next time she looked up, a surgical team was performing
a field spleen removal on the last man in the room. MJ pointed
toward the door to request permission to leave the room. Alex
nodded.

“
Come on, Alex,” Trece
said. “Zack’s waiting for us.”

“
I need to deal with the
pirate Captain,” Alex said.

“
After a bandage change,
clean clothes, and more pain meds,” Trece said. “The kid is with
his puppy.”

Alex nodded. Trece picked her up and carried
her to the deck. When she arrived on deck, the men clapped. Feeling
like she was Cleopatra on her litter, she blushed and waved. Trece
carried her to the chopper and a SEAL helped her to her litter.

“
Sir, Sergeant Scully
checked the pirate Captain before we came to deck,” Sergeant Beetle
said. “He expects him to be out for at least another hour. He would
like you to rest before attending to the pirate
Captain.”

“
Rest?” Alex asked. She
looked at MJ’s concerned face. “Okay.”

She passed out.

FFF

Thirty minutes later

Wednesday morning

November 4 – 7:17 a.m. AST

Somalian Pirate Ship, Indian Ocean

Trece set Alex onto the edge of a table in
the pirate Captain’s room. She was pumped full of equal doses of
morphine and methamphetamines. The morphine dulled the pain while
the methamphetamines kept her alert. MJ called it an old fashioned
soldier’s cocktail. As far as the military was concerned, as long
as she had a legitimate medical reason to take these medications,
she could dose herself regularly.

Alex hated drugs. She hated the feeling of
being drugged, the side effects, and the withdrawal. But today,
there wasn’t much else she could do. She had to manage this
interaction. She endured the drugs, and a half-hour of vomiting, so
that she could sit right here, right now.

“
Okay, wake him up,” Alex
said.

MJ moved to wake up the pirate Captain.

“
Alex!” Vince
said.

Alex looked up. MJ stopped moving.

“
Oranges!”

One at a time, he threw three oranges at
her.

“
Go ahead,” she said to MJ
and began peeling an orange.

MJ injected the pirate Captain with
epinephrine. He jerked awake. In a state of wild panic, he reached
for the weapon he kept under the bed.

“
Nah, we took that one,”
Alex said in Somali. She didn’t look up from peeling her orange. He
reached for his knife. “We took that one too. And the shotgun under
the bed and the rifle near the window. A lot of weapons for a
fishing pirate Captain.”

“
As-Salāmu
`alayki
, Mrs. Fey,” the pirate Captain
replied. He looked at her bowed head, and then noticed Vince,
Trece, and Sergeant Beetle.

“
Yeah, whatever,” Alex took
a bite of her orange. She leaned her head back and took a sniff. “I
do love the smell of a Khat bonfire.”

“
That’s impolite,” the
pirate Captain said.

“
Burning your Khat? Or my
manners?”

The pirate Captain shrugged.

“
We piled your filthy drugs
on the deck and set it on fire while your men watched.”

His eyes moved to the location of his
private stash.

“
We burned that too,” Alex
said.

“
That was
impolite.”

“
I left my manners at home
when I had to come to rescue more hostages from your ship,” Alex
said. “We had a deal.”

“
We did…” The pirate
Captain moved to get up and Bill gave a deep low growl. The pirate
Captain squealed in horror. With his panic, his bladder let loose.
A wet stain appeared on his expensive sheets. The pirate Captain
looked down then looked at the men again. He pulled a handful of
covers over the wetness.

Alex continued eating her orange while the
pirate Captain watched. She reached for another orange to peel.

“
Do you remember what I
promised you would happen if you took hostages again?” Alex
asked.

“
I’m not quite
sure…”

“
We’d use a few members of
your crew as shark bait. When the sharks were good and hungry, we’d
cut you and throw your body overboard. The sharks would eat you
alive,” Alex said. “I’m pretty sure you remember how many hungry
sharks we can draw.”

“
Those bull sharks like
human flesh,” Trece said.

“
You know, I’ve heard
that,” Alex said.

“
You were dead,” the pirate
Captain said. “Your team was dead. That horrible creature Michael
Scully is dead. Our deal died with your murder.”

“
Clearly, I’m not dead,”
Alex said. “And that’s Mike Scully’s son.”

MJ sneered. The pirate Captain swallowed
hard. She opened the orange and held out a piece to him. He shook
his head. She started eating the orange.

“
You want to tell me how
twelve U.S. Navy SEALs infringed upon your fishing rights?” Alex
asked.

“
It’s not me,” the pirate
Captain pleaded. Seeing only stone on Alex’s face, he implored the
men. Bill growled. “These young kids. They want blood. They will
accept nothing else. They are… not fishermen; they are
animals.”

“
Huh,” Alex said. “Maybe we
should turn you over to them.”

“
They seem to like human
flesh too,” Vince said.

She glanced at Vince and Trece. Shrugging,
Trece took a step toward the Somali man. The pirate Captain
cowered.

“
We were invited to take
these gentlemen,” the pirate Captain said. “Paid good money for
them.”

“
And you didn’t think to
call me,” Alex said. “Don’t start on my being dead. Jesse Abreu is
dead and he’s here. He’d love to have you join him.”

Jesse threw a spark of electricity around
the room. Horrified, the pirate Captain scooched away from
them.

“
I spent the last hour or
so trying to figure out what to do with you,” Alex said. “Turns out
my commander contacted the UN. You and your crew are wanted for
human rights violations. Imagine that?”

“
The UN has no authority
over me!” the pirate Captain said. “I’m Somali. Somalia has not
been recognized by that capitalistic bunch of
hypocrites.”

“
Yeah well, unfortunately
you managed to violate the rights of civilians who
are
covered by the UN,”
Alex said. “I think if you had kept your raping, torturing, and
kidnapping within Somalia, no one would have cared.”

“
I’m sure we can work this
out,” the pirate Captain squirmed.

“
It’s all worked out,” Alex
said. “I’m supposed to show you this.”

Alex held up her handheld computer.

“
Your phone?”

“
Oh,” Alex looked at the
computer. Trece leaned over to click the button Sergeant Dusty had
set up. “Here.”

She held up the computer again. The screen
showed an image of a burning compound.

“
Recognize this place?”
Alex asked.

“
That’s my home!” the
pirate Captain said. “My wives! My children!”

“
Don’t worry,” Alex gave
him a sick smile. “They are safe and on their way to the US as
accessories to murder, torture, rape, and whatever else. Well, not
the children. They’ve been dropped off at the SOS Children’s
Village in Mogadishu. They should be safe and well cared for
there.”

“
They are women! How can
they be accessories to murder?”

“
Sorry, I said that wrong,”
Alex said. “They’ve profited from the murder, torture, rape,
kidnapping, and piracy. In fact, they told the soldiers they were
quite proud of your activities. Bragged on tape even. How stupid
can you be? I think that’s why they decided to burn the compound.
Did they get the rest of the family?”

“
You can see them right
here,” MJ pointed to a group of men standing near the
compound.

“
Look at that,” Alex said.
“Isn’t that your parents? Your… brothers? Wow, it must suck to be
them. But then again, they’ve lived handsomely off the wholesale
slaughter of human beings.”

For a few minutes, the pirate Captain
watched the video in silence. Vince pointed out the masked soldier
burning various buildings with his flame thrower.