OUTCAST Ops: The Poseidon Initiative

THIRTY-TWO

Shah stood by his boat’s motor as he watched the Hofstad Zodiac idle up to his craft.

“Speak English?” he tested.

“Need help with your engine?” one of them, the one not driving the boat, called out in the requested language. His tone was not friendly.

“Yes, please! Thank you for coming to help. It was working fine this morning.” Shah pointed to the motor with a gesture of irritation.

“Perhaps mechanic is not your calling,” the other man said. He killed the Zodiac’s engine and tossed Shah a line. Shah tied it to a cleat on his boat, tethering the two vessels together. He was hoping that one of the men might remain in the Zodiac but both of them boarded the larger boat. The three of them huddled around the engine, its cover off.

“Let’s have a look. Go ahead and start it,” the taller of the two men said. Both of them wore jeans and long sleeved shirts. One appeared to be of North African descent while the taller of the two was European.

Shah walked back to the console and turned the key while looking backwards, ostensibly to watch the motor, but really two keep an eye on the two terrorists.

“It’s not turning over at all,” the shorter man observed.

“Like I said, I think my battery is dead,” Shah said. He worried that they were about to poke around in the engine and discover the pulled spark plug — that would be highly unusual since he’d managed to get out here — but then one of them leapt back onto the Zodiac.

“We’ll try to jump it,” the one still on Shah’s boat said, adding, “You should be more prepared before coming out here. You are a fisherman?” He cast his eyes about the deck, examining the piles of netting, buoys and traps.

Shah nodded. “I know it.”

The operator in the Zodiac tossed one end of a pair of jumper cables to his associate in Shah’s boat. He clipped them to the battery.

“Try it now.”

Shah tensed. This was it. He knew the motor wouldn’t start with the missing spark plug in his pocket. When it didn’t, they would double-check the connections, and then once they saw they were good or noticed the missing plug, they would become suspicious.

“Okay, turning the key now.” He looked back at the motor, both of the Hofstad men also staring at it.

Shah turned the key.

“Did you try it?” the one in his boat asked, looking at him.

“Yes. Let me try again.” Shah turned it again, shaking his head when nothing happened as though he couldn’t believe it.

“Check the cables on your end,” the man in Shah’s boat called to his colleague in the Zodiac, who had connected the cable to his outboard motor. That man bent to the task while the one a few feet away from Shah did the same on Shah’s battery.

Shah didn’t hesitate. He snatched his Browning Hi Power 9mm pistol from his waistband and took aim at the man in his boat, who was on his knees, peering into the battery compartment. Shah took aim at the back of his neck.

He pulled the trigger, wishing it was sound suppressed but ready to act out a chain of events he’d already gone over in his mind. His target was lifeless before the sound of the report reached Hofstad’s boat. The terror-fighter on the Zodiac recoiled sharply at the sound of the shot, arm reaching beneath his sweatshirt.

Shah aimed for his chest but a wave caused the boat to move at the instant he fired and the round hit the man in the shoulder. He was pitched backward by the impact of the slug until he tripped over a coil of rope and fell hard onto the deck. Shah saw the man’s firearm fly from his hand and splash into the water. He might have a back-up weapon, though. Shah wasn’t going to give him the chance to get at it if he did have one. He jumped across to the other boat, landing crazily on the man. He slammed his head once into the deck, hard, to stun him into submission, then pulled his arms behind his back.

Picking up the rope the man had tripped over, Shah used it to bound the terrorist’s arms tightly behind his back. He patted him down but found no additional weapons. He did find a wallet, though, with an ID — a Dutch driver license. He took the license without letting the Hofstad man see he that took it and then returned the wallet to his pocket.

He considered whether to take the Zodiac but then looked at the little fuel can and wasn’t sure it would be able to make it all the way back to shore. So he dragged the bound man back into his boat and set him down on the deck next to the steering console where he’d be able to keep an eye on him.

“Just lay there and don’t cause any trouble, and I won’t have to kill you.” Shah pulled the spark plug from his pocket and showed it to his captor, who scowled upon seeing it.

“Maybe mechanic isn’t your calling,” Shah taunted, and then moved back to the motor and popped the plug back in. He didn’t bother putting the motor cover back on, just left it open and jumped back to the console.

He started the motor and picked up the radio.