The Somali Deception Episode I (A Cameron Kincaid Serial) (11 page)

“Any resistance?” asked Cameron.

“Nothing up top except the
yacht’s tender,” said Alastair, “tarped and tethered aft of the communications
tower.”

The two quickly crossed back
through the pilothouse and then slipped back down the steps in the event anyone
at the compound or on the break wall could see into the dimly lit room.

Cameron led Alastair into the
clear galley.
 
They each clipped
their night scopes back on.
 
Traversing
the galley, Cameron spun quickly toward the crew’s mess.
 
There was no light emitting from the
stairwell below yet that did not mean the cabin was empty.
 
Cameron floated down the four steps into
the mess squeezing two rounds into the heads of the men sleeping face down on
the table.
 
These devout would not
be waking for prayer.

As Cameron made his way back up
the short stairwell Pepe’s voice tinned into his ear, “Below deck clear.”

Cameron nodded to Alastair
standing at the door of the dining room.

“Main and top all clear,” said
Alastair.
 
“Do you have the
targets?”

Cameron and Alastair waited a
moment for Pepe’s reply then headed for the stairwell.
 
Pepe was rapidly climbing the steps.

“Pepe,” said Cameron.
 
“The targets?”

“What’s going on in there?” asked
Eazy.

Pepe stopped at the top of the
stairs, “In the stateroom.
 
All but
two.”

Pepe began to step past Cameron
and Alastair.

“Hey, where are you going?”
asked Alastair.

“The compound,” said Pepe.

* * *
* *

Abbo’s Compound

Cameron did not need the light
to see the darkness buried deep in Pepe’s eyes.

“Just hold on a minute,” said
Cameron.

Pepe stopped.

Cameron continued, “Let’s get
those people out of here and storm the compound properly.”
 
He placed his hand on Pepe’s shoulder,
“Together as planned.”

Alastair placed his hand on
Pepe’s other shoulder, “Viva Legionne.”

Pepe inhaled deeply, “Viva
Legionne.”

“Sounds like you’re going in,”
said Eazy over the headset.
 
“I need
one of you to come out here and give me a hand with this gear.
 
I think you’ll like what I brought.”

“Sure thing,” said Pepe.

“The captain was down below?”
asked Cameron.

“Yeah, everyone except... and
they look
pretty good
,” said Pepe.

“Great, let me go see if he
wants to pilot this boat out of here,” said Cameron.

Cameron squeezed Pepe’s shoulder
tightly then raised his hand and slapped back down.
 
Then Cameron slid around Pepe down into
the stairwell.
 
At the bottom of the
stairs, the green tint of the scope was far dimmer by comparison to the light
touched upper decks.
 
The lower
landing opened to a hallway that led aft to the main stateroom.
 
Immediately adjacent from the landing
was a double pane glass door shielding a large collection of wine.
 
Hatches to small cabins lined one side
of the hallway, while on the other side only the door to the engine room.
 
Cameron knew that Pepe would have swept
the engine room first for signs of sabotage, not that they expected any from
these captors, only because training is training.

On the floor at the end of the
hall a throat slit body was curled and gnarled with eyes wide and unaware.
 
The door to the stateroom was open and a
dim light flowed out.
 
Cameron
removed his scope and peeked in.
 
The cook and the two women were seated on the large bed along with the
Seychellois.
 
On the sidewall berth
sat the Captain and the two Genovese.

“You know you are liberated,”
said Cameron.

The Captain, aged by the days
and the dark purple contusion along the side of his face, nodded slowly,
“Yes.
 
Thank you.”

“Are you Lewis?”

“Yes.”

“Can you pilot out of here?”

“Yes.”
 
The Captain’s own answer struck him and
his eyes lit, “oh, yes.”

“Good.
 
Come with me,” said Cameron.
 
“The rest of you, I’m sorry.
 
Unless the Captain needs you, you should
probably stay out of sight.”

Those on the bed nodded their
heads while the two Genovese on the berth turned to their Captain.
 
The Captain met eyes with his crewmen
yet directed his question to Cameron.
 
His authority returned to his tone.
 
“Is the yacht clear?”
 

“Yes.”

“Aberto and Donato, you two make
ready the engine room,” said the Captain.

“ Sì,” said Aberto echoed by his
brother.

“The rest of you stay here as
this man said.”

“Okay,” said Cameron.
 
“Follow my light.
 
Watch your step here by the door.”

Cameron made his way back toward
the stairwell.
 
The Captain was a
step behind him.
 
Cameron noticed
the Captain did not flinch at the body on the floor nor did the Italians.
 
Cameron stopped at the engine room hatch
so that the brothers could see to enter.
 
Once inside they switched on the interior cabin light and then Cameron
and the Captain were on their way.

“Thank you,” said the
Captain.
 
“I’m at a disadvantage,
you know my name.”

“I’m Kincaid.
 
Don’t thank me yet.
 
There’s a compound full of enemy
combatants fifty meters from your hull.”

“I see.”

“What shape is she in?” asked
Cameron.

“She’ll motor fine.
 
That’s how we got here,” said the
Captain.

“And Fuel?”

“There’s enough fuel to get
clear.
 
You’re thinking south to
Lamu?”

“I am.”

“We can get there.”

At the top of the stairwell, Alastair
was waited in the dark.

“This is Alastair,” said
Cameron.

“Captain Lewis,” said
Alastair.
 
“Cameron, we good to go?”

“Yeah.
 
One more thing Captain, how fast can you
push her?”

“We can hold twenty-five knots
easy in this clear water.
 
The
diesel will burn though,” said the Captain.

“Twenty-five should be good,”
said Cameron.
 
“We only need to
clear here.”

“Won’t they be sending anything
after us?” asked the Captain.

“I wouldn’t worry about them
getting too far from shore,” said Pepe as he entered the cabin.
 
“Our man has some truly special toys.”

“Good to hear,” said
Cameron.
 
“All right Captain, we’ll
leave you to it.
 
Wait for our
signal then haul out of here.”

Cameron and Alastair joined
Pepe.
 
Alastair gestured to what
Pepe was holding in his hands, “What the hell is that?”

“Eazy calls it a lobster,” said
Pepe.

“A robot lobster,” said Eazy
over Pepe’s shoulder.
 
Eazy held up
two more, one in each hand.

The machines were indeed robots
and looked remarkably similar to lobsters.
 
The core bodies were large rectangular blocks lined with coils and
servos along the sides where eight long insect like legs shot out.
 
From the front of the block were two
very long copper antennae and on the tail end a mechanical lobster tail, fin
and all.
 
In place of the claws were
two large black oval discs, obviously sensor plates of some type.

“What are you going to do with
these?” asked Alastair.
 
“Are they
mines?”

“The opposite,” said Eazy.
 
“We detected mines in the water and on
the beach from the satellite shots.
 
These little fellas are going to seek out the underwater mines between
us and the compound and
..
.”
 
Eazy lifted his arms in a makeshift
explosion, “Boom.”

“Heh
heh
,”
said Pepe.

“Are you sure this will work?”
asked Cameron.

“Yes of course,” said Eazy.
 
“It’s biomimetic, a machine designed to
function like a biological system.
 
Works perfectly, like a lobster, swims through the water straight to the
mine.”

“You’ve done this before?” asked
Cameron.

“I’ve tested blowing things
up.
 
I use them mostly for underwater
surveillance.”

“He has a lot of them,” said
Pepe.
 
“If they move through the
water the way they’re supposed to, they’re bound to hit something.”

“Hmm,” said Alastair.

“With what Stratos is paying I
figure I can get some upgrades,” said Eazy.

Cameron took an electronic
cephalopod from Eazy to observe the metal monstrosity more closely.
 
“These will clear the beach too?”

“No, I have something a bit more
conventional for that,” said Eazy.
 
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a .50 caliber dart.

“Is that an antipersonnel venom
dart?” asked Cameron.

Eazy nodded.
 
“This one is empty,” said Eazy.
 
He twirled the long blunt nosed dart
between his fingers, “good thing too because DETA is deadly.
 
I have some modified mortars.
 
These little babies cut through surf and
sand like butter.
 
Whatever does not
go boom is then neutralized by the DETA.
 
DETA is a caustic chemical.”

“Caustic,” said Pepe.

“I would watch my step,” said
Eazy.

“Sounds good to me, when can
these things go into the water?” asked Cameron.

“Anytime the Captain is ready.”

* * *
* *

Abbo’s Compound

The first mine blew the water
above into a high liquid column halfway between the shore and the Kalinihta,
followed immediately by the cascading explosions of two others.
 
Eazy and Alastair did not hesitate to
launch the first package containing the venom darts.
 
The blunt missile shot up out of the
mortar with a loud thunk, arcing above the beach, and then soundlessly
separated to release an uncountable number of shadowless spikes high above the
surf.
 
A wall of quick shimmer
washed in front of the compound as the darts accelerated down.
 
On the metal daggers point of impact, a
rapid succession of detonations blanketed the beach and surf lifting sand and
water high from the shore.
 
Additional liquid columns sprouted up in the harbor as the deep-water
mines began to clear, some in reaction to the darts others to the robot
lobsters.

Eazy and Alastair fired another
package to clear the remainder of the beach.
 
Before the second package had even
arced, Alastair was in the zodiac with Cameron and Pepe.
 
He dropped a knee forward at the bow
beside Cameron as Pepe eased the throttle.
 
The inflatable gently lifted above the surface of the small harbor and
floated forward.

On the bridge of the Kalinihta,
Captain Lewis eased her throttle forward as well and began the journey
starboard out to sea.

So far, there was no movement
from the compound.

No matter
that
the three Legionnaires were no longer ‘active’, elite remains elite.
 
Cameron, Pepe, and Alastair were among
the best of the French Foreign Legion Corsican elite.
 
They had been Green Dragons, members of
the Second Foreign Parachute Regiment.
 
If the scene were to be transcended from the zodiac’s strongan duotex,
the carbon, the steel, and the flesh of the men, to one large piece of marble,
no pose would need to change.
 
In
the spray of the surf, the faces of these men were statuesque.
 
These men, stoic in their deed, were
operating textbook.
 
Pepe was a
master with the throttle.
 
The
zodiac pressed on with varying momentum to negotiate the bomb made swells.
 
Cameron and Alastair each were prone
against the inflated sides of the assault craft’s bow, their weapons set to
discharge on impulse.
 
Though all
three men still had vision gear, none chose to cover.
 
A medley mist of water and harbor bottom
coated brows and cheeks with heavy muddy droplets that ran down, and then
spouted from, each chin.
 
Their
faces contrasts of the dripping white foam and shadows from the night’s last low
indigo hues.