Checkmate

13

Fisher started down the ladder, then stopped and returned to the helm console. It took five seconds to find what he was looking for. He keyed his subdermal. “Grim, you there?”

“I’m here.”

“I’m looking at a computerized helm console with both a USB and an IR port on the front.”

“Excellent,” she replied. He could hear the excitment in her voice. Like a kid at Christmas. Grim lived for this. “Sync up the OPSAT and I’ll scan the system,” she said. “Let’s see where the Duroc’s been.”

Fisher punched a few buttons on the OPSAT. The screen replied,

Fisher aimed the OPSAT at the console’s IR port.

Grimsdottir said, “I’m in. Downloading… Ah, that’s beautiful… look at that. Jackpot.”

“Pictures of Brad Pitt?” Fisher asked.

Grim snorted. “God, no. I prefer my men a little more… roughened. And mature.”

Oh, really? Fisher thought.

“Okay, I’ve got it. You can disconnect. There’s a lot of data here, Sam. I’ll get started on it.”

“Time check?”

Lambert replied. “We’re tracking the FBI’s boat. Twenty more minutes and you’re out of there.”

“Understood.”

Fisher took the ladder down one deck. At the bottom was a single door, which he assumed led into the salon. To his right was a steel hatch. He pressed his ear to it and heard the hum of engine noise.

He crouched down and snaked the flexi-cam beneath the door. The salon was lit only by a few nightlights — probably run by emergency backup power — but even in the washed-out glow of NV, Fisher could see the salon was well appointed: cream-colored Berber carpet, a leather couch and matching club chairs, and teak wall paneling.

Someone had spent a lot of money on the Duroc. Who, though?>

He played the flexi-cam around until he spotted a man sitting in the far right chair near the lamp. Feet up, head back, mouth open, newspaper splayed in his lap. Fisher smiled. He loved lazy guards. Made his job so easy. Perhaps this was the right time for a little experiment.

He retracted the flexi-cam, then drew the SC-20 and thumbed the selector to Cottonball. He turned the doorknob and eased it open. He stepped inside, shut the door. The man didn’t stir. Fisher picked up a magazine off the coffee table and tossed it onto the man’s chest. The man gave a grunt and sat up. Fisher fired.

He heard a soft thump, followed by a faint pffft.

The man shook his head as though he’d been slapped, said, “What the—” then slumped sideways in his chair.

I’ll be damned, Fisher thought. He hadn’t doubted Redding’s word, but there was no substitute for real-world testing.

He dragged the man behind the couch, then smashed the two nearby nightlights and keyed his subdermal. “Napper; clean.”

Only two left, Fisher thought. The boss — Lei — who was awake and presumably no longer occupied in the main cabin’s bathroom, and the last crewman, location unknown. Fisher checked his watch: No time to go looking for him. Keep moving.

There were four cabins in the salon passage, two to port, one to starboard, and one at the end — the captain’s cabin. Facing the door, he found himself grateful he’d frisked Chon the guard. The door’s lock was card-key access. There was a downside, though. Like most card-key doors, this one would do two things when the card slid through the reader: flash a green light and give a solid thunk as the bolt was thrown back.

Fisher did a check with the flexi-cam. Unlike the salon, the cabin showed no emergency nightlights. In the glow of the NV he could see a figure lying on the queen-sized bed. This was Lei, he guessed. The man’s eyes were closed, hands folded across his chest. The cabin was small, perhaps ten feet by twelve feet. If Fisher moved quickly enough, he could reach the bed in less than a second.

Fisher drew his pistol, then took a few seconds to mentally rehearse his entry. He slid the key through the reader and pushed in.

Lei was immediately awake, sitting up in bed, hand reaching toward the nightstand.

Fisher fired once. Lei yelped and jerked his hand back, his hand shattered by the 7.62 slug.

“Next one goes in your eye,” Fisher said, shutting the door behind him. “Lay back down. Hands back on your chest.”

His face twisted in pain, Lei complied. “Who are you, what do you want?”

“The boogeyman, here to kill you if you move again.”

Fisher was impressed. Lei was the boss for good reason. Most men, shot in the hand, facing a ghostlike apparition, would have been cowed. Not this one.

“You’ve made a mistake, friend,” Lei said. “You don’t know who you’re dealing with.”

“Funny you should say that. Tell me who I’m dealing with.”

“No.”

Fisher fired again. The bullet slammed into the pillow beside Lei’s head.

Lei jerked to one side, but the scowl on his face never wavered.

Very tough. Plan B, then. Fisher had brought an extra flotation vest for this very contingency. They already had one prisoner; two was better. The interrogators could work on Lei’s attitude.

“Sit up,” he said. “You and I are going on a little trip. Move very slow—”

Fisher heard the thunk of the door latch being thrown. In that instant, as his eyes instinctively flicked toward the door, Lei had moved. His good hand was coming up and around. Fisher saw a blade flashing toward his face. He jerked his head backward, felt the blade slice the space where his neck had just been. The door opened. In his peripheral vision Fisher saw a figure standing at the threshold.

“Run!” Lei shouted. “Blow it! Blow it now!”

Fisher fired. Lei’s head snapped back. As he fell backward, Fisher saw a black quarter-sized cavity where Lei’s right eye once was.

“Warned you,” Fisher muttered, then turned and rushed out the door.