Assassin

Chapter Twenty-Four

Nantucket Island

ALEXANDER HAWKE SEIZED KERIM IN A BEAR GRIP, CLASPING both arms around his violently twisting body, pinning his arms to his sides, and saying to the man standing above with the machine gun, “If you want me, you have to go through him.”

The man laughed.

“We’re all going the same place tonight, my friend.”

“Maybe. Maybe not.”

“Paradise by any other name,” the man said with a smile in his voice, “would smell as sweet.”

“Doesn’t matter a damn to me, Shakespeare.”

“I am a Sheikh, not Shakespeare. I write only death sentences.”

“Spare me.”

The man grunted as he bent down and lifted the metal hatch-cover by one corner, positioning it with his foot, keeping the gun on Hawke and his own struggling son. He fitted one edge of the cover into the hatch and let it fall with a heavy metallic clang.

“No!” Kerim cried in the sudden darkness. “Father!”

“You heard Papa, Kerim,” Alex said. We’re all in the same boat, as it were.”

“I can’t breathe!”

“Then drop the bleeding pistol like I told you to do. Ready?”

“Shit!”

“Exactly my feeling.”

Hawke tightened his grip sharply and the boy dropped the Browning. Hawke immediately released him, seized the weapon, and brought both his knees up off the floor, catapulting Kerim over his head and slamming him against the bulkhead. There was a whuff of expelled air, a groan, and then silence. Hawke sat up and turned to face the one-time officer of the Dark Harbor PD.

Single portholes on either side of the engine room allowed him just enough moonlight to make out the dark shape crouching by the portside engine. One hand out, crabbing across the greasy metal floor, the boy was searching for something to throw at him, no doubt. Looking for a loose wrench or a screwdriver. Above, sounds of Kerim’s father moving about, making final preparations for his oceangoing jihad. A scraping noise above just then, a large piece of furniture being shoved into place, sealing the hatch-cover.

The stink of motor oil and fear sweat down here would make the hold a lousy tomb.

“Don’t even think about it!” Hawke said, squeezing the trigger. The vicious crack of the round was enough to send Kerim scuttling back into hiding behind one of the diesels. Hawke felt the sensation of water now moving past the hull. After a second, he heard the thin whirr of the electric prop coming from the stern. Kerim’s father was out on the swim platform, steering Running Tide into the westerly current where it would soon drift down on Blackhawke.

If Hawke had this scenario right, time was rapidly running out.

He fired another round and blew out the porthole just above the boy’s head. “Hello?” Hawke said, “Still with me?” He squeezed the trigger once more and heard the sharp click of a dry-fired hammer. Empty.

“Y-yes?” the boy said, as the weapon clattered across the steel deck.

“Has to be a rechargeable flashlight mounted somewhere on the engine room bulkhead, Kerim. Where?”

“I d-don’t know.”

“Right. I forgot. You’re a policeman, not a sailor.”

“I like being a policeman.”

“You should have thought of that earlier.”

“I like Maine, too. I like America. I don’t want to die. I have…a friend. The most beautiful girl. Her name is Millie and—”

“Let’s make sure I understand this. A cop running around the Maine woods in a suicide belt who loves America.”

“My father, he made me do this. Wear the belt. He hates America. He and my mother have killed many Americans. When she injected the children at the—”

“The woman who posed as the nurse, murdered all those children. That was your mother?”

“Y-yes.”

“And the girl who killed the Slade family. Your sister.”

“Yes.”

“Chief Ainslie never suspected you? Surely there was a background check.”

“We come from Pakistan. But we lived in Athens for many years before coming to this country. My father met a man there. The Emir, he was called. He and my father killed a poor farm family named Savalas and we took their identities. I’ve been a police officer for five years. Three locations. Decorated for heroism in Seattle. A fire.”

“And your mother?”

“She is a registered nurse. Trained at Mt. Sinai. Really. Good cover.”

“Christ.”

“Yes. We are highly trained. We spend years learning how to weave threads into the fabric. Once we strike, we move on to another town and begin again.”

“Schoolchildren, Kerim. Babies, damn you!”

“My people have suffered, too. This is blood vengeance. We seek only justice.”

“You call it justice? Your mother poisons children. Your sister slaughters a mother and two children sleeping in their beds. Bloody hell, boy, it’s murder!”

“I—saw them in that house. The children. It was horrible. I believe that—I am sorry for what my sister did. Truly sorry.”

“Beyond nauseating what now passes for evangelism. Religious fascism. Talk fast, Kerim. Tell me what you and your father are doing on this boat. Now.”

“We have—a bomb.”

“Bomb. I assumed as much. Where?”

“Up in the bow. He packed TNT up there. Almost half of a ton—”

“Who dies for righteousness this time? The good citizens of Nantucket Island?”

“No. You, Mr. Hawke.”

“Me? I’m hardly worth the effort.”

“Our plan is to go along beside your boat. Pretending to have engine trouble. Then explode the bomb.”

“And you’re just along for the ride.”

“My father, he knows my true feelings. He made me wear the belt always so I would not warn Chief Ainslie what we were—there is a lock on the belt. I cannot remove it. He has a remote detonator always. He says he will sacrifice me if—if I try to…”

The boy was whimpering now, rocking back and forth with his arms around his knees. Pitiful, if not pathetic.

“Christ. The TNT, Kerim, focus on that. Is it on a remote as well?”

“No. A timer.”

“Where’s the timer?”

“Up there. Wired to the explosives.”

“Don’t move,” Hawke said, “I’ll be right back. Try not to blow yourself up while I’m gone.”

Blackhawke was completely vulnerable right now, Alex thought, feeling his way forward, moving as quickly as possible in the tight quarters of the dark engine room. Good Christ Almighty.

Security levels were at full alert, well and good, but a million-dollar lobster yacht with a Maine hailing port in gold leaf on her transom just might be sufficiently far-fetched to get through.

He found the half-ton of justice neatly packaged in waterproof oilskins, enough to level a city block. The water flowing outside the hull was moving faster. They would be getting close to Blackhawke now. Christ. He’d never find the timer in time. Hawke scrambled back to the love-struck terrorist.

“We’re all out of time, Kerim. The explosives are definitely on a timer, not an impact detonator, is that right?”

“Yes, sir.”

“When is it set to explode?”

“At exactly four a.m.”

Alex looked at his watch. Less than six minutes! They were drifting now, floating with the current towards Blackhawke. Suddenly, a powerful searchlight swept across Running Tide, lighting up her engine room. He heard the muffled voice of one of his own crewmen, hailing the disabled vessel over a loudspeaker. The voice lacked the authoritarian harshness of a direct challenge. They were clearly buying this act. It would be a close thing. Looking feverishly about, he saw the outline of a small door in the aft bulkhead. It must lead to the crawl space beneath the after deck where he’d boarded. There were two access hatches there, aft of the pilothouse, opening directly up onto the outside deck. He’d seen them when he first boarded.

“One more question, Kerim. Who sent you and your family to America? This Emir?”

“No. Another man. He is called by some the Dog.”

“Is this Dog still alive?”

“I believe that he is, yes, sir.”

“What is his real name?”

Silence.

“You dare not speak it, or you don’t know?”

“Yes.”

“All right. I’m going to get us out of here. It will most likely be necessary for me to kill your father. Do you want to come along or not?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Do what I tell you, then. You say you can’t get rid of that bloody vest?”

“No, sir. It’s locked to my body.”

“Christ. Let me take a look. Good God, it’s…”

“Secured with a metal pin through my pelvis. My mother implanted it.”

Hawke looked at the boy’s punctured hip, unable to speak. What kind of mother could do that to—he heard voices above. Time to move. “All right, Kerim. Let’s go.”

“Ahoy, Running Tide!” came the muffled voice of one of his crew. “Captain! Do you require assistance?”

No reply.

The door, fitted into the bulkhead and leading aft, was, as Alex had prayed, not locked. Hawke went through first, followed closely by Kerim. They crouched in the semidarkness of the crawl space, listening. One of the two hatches above was forward of the spot where the boy’s father was now standing.

Hawke drew a breath. The boat’s stern had dipped ever so slightly. The terrorist’s weight had just shifted aft. He must have climbed up onto the transom. Hawke could almost see him, waving his hands, his face a mask of embarrassment and abject apology. The question was, would Tom Quick recognize the Middle Eastern inflection in his voice or would it be lost in the wind? The man’s speech patterns were definitely not Down East Maine.

Hawke pressed one hand up against the underside of the hatch cover and applied pressure. It moved.

“Kerim,” he whispered, looking at the glowing numerals of his dive watch and then at the dark figure crouched beside him. “I’m going up through this hatch. Give me thirty seconds, then you use the other hatch. Come up fast and roll to either side. No matter what you see, just get yourself overboard and swim away from this boat as quickly as you can.”

Hawke wouldn’t wish seeing your own father die on anyone. He’d been there. He saw it still. He would always see it.

Kerim said nothing, just stared at Hawke with an unreadable expression. Alex looked at the sweep second hand of his watch. Coming up on four minutes before the hour. Bloody hell, it might already be too late.

Hawke coiled his body, squatting deeply to get as much leverage out of his legs as possible. He reached up and placed both palms on the underside of the hatch cover, filled his lungs with air, and then exploded upwards in a single fluid movement.

He heaved the heavy cover out of the way as he rolled left across the deck. Kerim’s father, now disguised in the dead man’s yellow slicker, stood atop the transom shouting to a crewman aboard Blackhawke. The gleaming black side of her massive hull loomed above the small yacht’s deck. There were perhaps twenty feet of water remaining between the two rapidly closing vessels.

The hatch cover landed with a thud and the Arab jerked his head around, astounded at the sight of Hawke rolling across the deck. He glanced hurriedly at his watch, then looked back up at the crew lining the rail above him, clearly unsure of which way to play this out in the time and distance remaining.

Running Tide now lay directly alongside Blackhawke’s towering hull, dwarfed by the yacht. A crewman above was throwing down a line as the terrorist pulled a pistol from inside the yellow slicker and swung the muzzle of the gun towards Alex, who was now rolling right. He squeezed off two shots, the rounds ripping into the teak deck less than a foot in front of his target. Hawke scrambled to his feet, raised the Browning, and put two rounds through the terrorist’s heart. The wallop of the parabellum hollow points slammed the dead man backwards, pinwheeling him into the water.

“Kerim!” Alex shouted, scrambling over the transom and onto the swim platform. “Go! Go!” He twisted the electric motor’s throttle and the Hinckley moved off. It was painfully slow.

The shadowy figure of the boy appeared. He climbed up out of the hold, rolled across the deck, and got unsteadily to his feet.

“Jump!” Hawke said. “Get away as fast as you can!”

“I don’t—the belt! The weight. I don’t know if I can swim.”

“Yes you can. Use your arms. You’ve got to go, now.” Hawke turned away to get his bearings. He heard a splash and saw Kerim’s head bobbing above the surface a few feet away. He was paddling frantically, coughing and swallowing water. He wasn’t going anywhere, but he was afloat.

Alex Hawke knew he now had perhaps three minutes, maybe less. He pushed the electric motor’s tiller hard over and twisted the throttle, angling his bow away from Blackhawke. Every searchlight was trained on him now and sirens were wailing from stem to stern. Crewmen lined the rails on every deck, all of them with automatic weapons trained on the suddenly suspicious vessel. Battle stations.

Twelve feet above the waterline on the yacht’s port side, individual hatch covers slid open simultaneously and a long row of gleaming surface-to-air and short-range missiles protruded, the vessel presenting a very modern version of an English man-’o-war.

But no shots were fired, and no missiles were launched.

Someone had recognized him on Tide’s aft swim platform, and told the crew to held their fire. He could only guess what Tommy Quick must be thinking.

Complete insanity.

He’d opened up almost three hundred yards of choppy water between himself and Blackhawke now. Eyes glued to the sweep secondhand, he could see there wasn’t nearly enough time. He needed at least a thousand yards distance between the two vessels. And an additional thirty seconds swimming to have any hope of not getting killed by the concussion—he looked for Kerim and didn’t see him. He’d either gotten safely away, or he’d gone down with the weight of his heavy belt.

The second hand on his watch was relentlessly spinning towards oblivion. In desperation, he twisted the throttle grip harder, trying to get even a fraction more out of the ridiculously underpowered electric motor. He felt a click and realized the throttle was now locked wide open. Nice time to discover this handy feature, he thought; and then he arched backwards, executing a back-flip off the platform and into the cold sea.

Hawke swam desperately towards Blackhawke, ticking off the remaining seconds in his head. He looked back. Running Tide was maybe a thousand yards away now, maybe just enough, still moving off at about three knots. But, she’d begun a hard turn to starboard! Without his hand on the tiller to counteract the natural torque of the motor, she was automatically veering around. And now, she was once more on a course directly towards Blackhawke.

Christ. He was out of options. He could hardly swim into Tide’s path, hope to reboard her and correct her heading. No time. Nor could he continue to tread water where he was and allow the boat to get close enough to take him out when she blew.

He strained his eyes, looking for any sight of Kerim on the surface. Nothing. Suddenly, his eyes were fixed on the Hinckley. He’d seen movement at the edge of his vision. Something moving at the stern. At this distance it was hard to make out quite what—there! A black figure rising on the platform, climbing up out of the sea. Kerim. What was he doing! It was only a matter of seconds until—wait.

He saw the bow of Tide swing to port, beginning a turn away from him and the big yacht behind him. Kerim had realized what was happening and was manning the electric motor. Yes, that was it. He had her back on a course for open water!

Hawke cupped his hands round his mouth and screamed. “Kerim! Jump! Now!” But the boy either did not hear or did not respond and Alex had no choice but to start clawing the water, swimming furiously away from certain death.

A second later, the massive, blinding explosion of TNT rent the fabric of the air, cratered the ocean, and lit up the night sky. A fountain of fiery debris and burning fuel shot up hundreds of feet into the heavens. Hawke opened his mouth wide in anticipation of the concussion. It was the only way his lungs would survive it.

The outer perimeter of the shock wave hit him hard, blowing him backwards through the water and taking his breath away; burning sections of wood and fiberglass were raining down all around him and a sea of flaming fuel was racing rapidly across the surface. He could feel the intense temperatures of the fireball on his face, feel his eyebrows starting to singe, the surfaces of his eyeballs aching with the heat.

He spun around and took one long look at Blackhawke. He was deeply relieved to see she’d already got three launches lowered away, started her massive engines, and was even now underway, steaming rapidly away from the explosion and the spread of flaming fuel.

He gulped air and dove deep, angling down and away from the burning gas and flaming debris. Two minutes later, he broke the surface and saw the figure of Tommy Quick, illuminated a brilliant orange in the light of the flames, standing in the bow of the first launch, heaving a life-saving ring in his direction. Hawke cast a final glance over his shoulder at what had once been the handsome yacht Running Tide.

She was gone.

Along with Kerim, the reluctant martyr. Blown to Paradise.

A bloody good cop after all.