Chasing Gold

CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT

Alicia piloted the small but speedy craft with one hand, picking off terrorists with the other. All in all, if Crouch and Terri weren’t in danger, and good men and women hadn’t already lost their lives, it could be classed as a good day.

Russo backed her up smartly from the side. The return fire was poor at best; it was rare that a bullet found the hull of the boat. Alicia saw the approach of the oil tanker and worried deeper as the boats approached. Vino radioed over that more than half a dozen police choppers were on their way, backed up by a coastguard vessel and a full-size ship. In the end, Agent Merriweather had been forced to call in a huge force.

Alicia guessed they were twenty five meters behind the second terrorist motorboat when it started slowing to come alongside the oil tanker. She’d been wondering how they might board the vessel and now she knew.

Figures could be seen on deck, throwing rope ladders over the side and securing them up top. Alicia counted seven winging their way down. It was going to be a fast ascent. Ricci in the lead boat came alongside and slowed his vessel to a crawl. Then he ordered two men up, it seemed. Alicia squinted to make it all out. Maybe these men would cover for the rest. She poured on the speed, quickly closing the gap to the oil tanker.

Ricci forced Crouch up next and then jumped on right behind him. From her vantage point Alicia thought the leader appeared to be shoving the older man up, rung by rung. Other ladders were grabbed and utilized. Alicia was forced to swerve violently as men in the nearest boat opened fire on the chasing vessels.

She hit the deck, letting the wheel choose for itself. Across the way most of the FBI agents did the same.

Easily, she discerned that the number of guns being fired was rapidly dwindling. That meant all the others were heading for the rope ladders.

She rose and fired low, knowing Crouch and Terri were climbing. She allowed her aim to drift across, taking a bead on the other shooter. Before he could bring his weapon to bear on her, she put a hole through the front of his face. He tumbled backward in a haze of red, the gun falling from limp fingers.

Now she saw the scope of their task. All the rope ladders were swinging as men climbed rapidly to the top. Most were over halfway to their goal. Two were climbing over the tanker’s top rail and already taking aim. Alicia saw Crouch struggling and Terri alongside, trying to lend a hand.

Ricci jabbed his gun into Crouch’s thigh. Alicia couldn’t hear anything but guessed the threat would be ghastly, especially when she saw him turn the weapon on Terri.

Crouch climbed.

Alicia knew her ex-SAS and Ninth Division boss wouldn’t even consider leaving Terri behind, or risk her life. He would die first. She brought their boat in fast, bounced off the rear, then the side of a terrorist vessel, and then started running. She leaped from one boat to the next, landing sure-footed on the wooden deck. Russo was a shadow sprinter at her side. She climbed the boat’s rail and reached out for one of the rope ladders swinging against the side of the tanker.

FBI agents lined the climbers up.

Alicia saw them driven down by the men at the top of the tanker, probably Ricci’s best sharp-shooters. Agents loosed several shots but none found their mark. Most pinged off the side of the tanker. The cover fire raining down from above was too precise and thick to risk anything.

She took hold of the rope in both hands, put one boot on the lowest rung and started to climb. Russo grabbed the one to her left. She noticed an FBI agent snagging another. Some of the others were lining up for a rope, waiting, but most still favored their cover.

The terrorists climbed. Alicia grasped rung after rung, heaving herself up, practically running up the sheer side of the tanker. Russo fell a little behind. She found her stride and stuck to it. Her weapons were ready and within easy reach. Occasionally, she looked up to check her progress but for the most part she concentrated on the climb.

A bullet winged its way past her shoulder, continuing down into the sea. She swore. What the bloody hell are the FBI doing? A moment later she heard a sharp volley from below, the agents protecting the climbers. Far up at the top of the rope ladders the shooters flung themselves backward to cover.

Alicia saw more terrorists climbing over the rail; Ricci and Crouch getting closer and closer to the top. Terri struggled with her captor but soon stopped when he wrenched one of her arms away from a rung and pointed at the rolling sea below whilst waving his weapon.

The tanker began to thrum then, its sides vibrating just a little. Alicia glanced down at Russo.

“I think the assholes started their engines.”

He nodded, not wasting words. Alicia knew he was saving his energy for the climb and what awaited them after that, but she couldn’t help but think he worried desperately about the berserker inside him too.

She knew she would.

It was the surprise element — not knowing when it would emerge or in what situation. What if it came at the wrong time? What if he caused damage to innocents? The red haze blinded him to everything. It was lucky Alicia had been at hand.

She continued to fling herself up the side of the huge tanker. To her right now ropes wriggled as agents climbed too. Luckily, this particular oil tanker wasn’t high enough that a drop into the ocean would kill you; this fact gave everyone increased courage to climb quicker.

If Crouch was somehow helping to slow the ascent, he was doing a good job. Alicia was only six meters below the last man, who carried a knife between his teeth. The trouble was he was only three meters from the railing.

Coming closer, she heard the familiar whump-whump of helicopter rotor blades and a roaring engine. What had been specks were now distinct shapes to the south. Hopefully too, the coastguard vessels would be approaching from further down the coast. The game was surely up for Ricci and his hellbent cronies.

As Ricci, Crouch and several others disappeared over the railing, Alicia paused. She fully expected guns to appear and more shooting to start. The agents were ready below to retaliate, Vino among them. But nothing happened — those on the tanker were preparing something else.

With the lull in hostile aggression the agents fired up at the two remaining terrorist climbers. One took a slug directly in the back, lost his grip, and fell amidst a haze of blood. The other, the one with the knife in his mouth, didn’t flinch as two bullets impacted right beside his climbing arm. He was already at the top.

He swung himself over.

A third bullet skimmed the top of his head and then he was gone.

Alicia scaled the tanker’s side faster, approaching the top herself. Agents were not far below. Those still on the boats took a steady aim to protect their colleagues.

When she reached the top she paused, then raised her head quickly and dropped it back down again, taking a quick peek.

The first thing she noticed was not the deck of the ship. It was something far more worrying. Over the far side, approaching from the north, was another set of helicopters. That meant two different groups were inbound.

What did it mean?

She couldn’t even begin to guess. A second quick recce revealed that the terrorists and their captives were running over to the other side of the ship, angling toward the front. They weren’t hanging around either, Alicia saw, just charging in a large group.

Weirder and weirder.

“You nodded off?” The voice came from a meter below.

Alicia looked down at Russo. “Just trying to figure this shit out. They didn’t try to stop us boarding the ship. They’re jogging on right now as if their arses are on fire. And there’s another set of helicopters coming.”

“What?” Russo climbed up alongside her for a look.

Alicia relayed her words across the radio too.

More agents joined them at the top. Alicia shrugged. “No point hanging around here, guys. Let’s get to it.”

She checked once more and then leapt aboard. The deck was flat, rusty in places and dirty, and smelling of thick crude oil. It forced her to breathe shallowly even though her heart heaved with all the exertion so far. Helicopters still bore down on them from two different directions.

“FBI choppers,” an agent came over to her, “are the ones to the right, coming along the coastline. The ones from the north are not ours.”

“Wouldn’t it have made more sense for our terrorists to let their choppers collect them from the shore?” Russo asked.

“Maybe.” Alicia was already starting to jog carefully in the terrorists’ wake, keeping them in sight. “This could be Plan B. They didn’t have a whole lot of time at the beach. Or maybe it’s something else.”

“I’m bloody dying to find out what,” Russo growled.

Alicia looked at him. “Dammit, Rob, you should know not to say shit like that by now!”