OUTCAST Ops: The Poseidon Initiative

FIFTY

“Do not move!” The icy male voice issued from a megaphone held by the driver of the inflatable boat that now deployed a special forces team onto the barge.

Tanner and Liam froze with their hands high in the air. They stood two feet from the barge’s rail, on the side facing the president’s yacht.

“We’re on your side,” Tanner stated as two of the team scouted the barge deck for more people.

“Former SEAL Team 6, here,” added Liam.

“Shut up! Keep your hands up!”

They were scared. They trusted nothing. Tanner couldn’t blame them.

“On your knees. Now!”

The pair of OUTCAST operators complied with the instruction.

Their hands were bound behind their backs with flex cuffs and they were taken aboard the small boat, which motored over to the mega-yacht. The entire inflatable was lifted aboard the yacht by crane, and then the two operators were dragged across the deck where the party had been happening, the guests having been cleared to other parts of the ship.

As soon as they were taken inside the door to the salon, President Carmichael was there to greet them, flanked by several of his cabinet and additional security personnel.

Tanner smiled as he looked at the president. The look on the face of the POTUS transformed with recognition. He addressed the Secret Service agents holding onto Tanner and Liam.

“Wait! I know this man! Tanner Wilson?”

Tanner grinned. “It’s a pleasure to see you, Sir. Wish it could be under better circumstances.”

Carmichael nodded before continuing to address his people. “He saved our asses during that god-awful reaper drone thing!” One of the men standing next to Carmichael said something softly to him that Tanner couldn’t hear, but they heard the POTUS reply, “Yes! That’s him!”

“Liam Reilly, here, was there, too, Sir.” Tanner cocked his head at Liam. Carmichael nodded solemnly before commanding his agents.

“Free these individuals at once. See to it that these two men are given five-star treatment. Have them debrief you and then show them to a suite. Now!”

“Yes, Mr. President.” While one of the agents cut the flex cuffs from his wrists, Tanner spoke.

“Mr. President, you should know that we detained one of the terrorists in the barge’s wheelhouse. He’s tied up in there now.”

One of the Secret Service men touched his earbud and nodded. “They just found him. They’re bringing him out on the barge deck now.”

“Can we go out and get a look at him?” Carmichael asked. “Maybe one of us knows who he is?”

The Secret Service agents locked gazes with each other for a second, one of them shrugging before quietly intoning commands into his lip mic. Then the agents held the salon door open while the president and his entourage exited to the yacht’s main deck. Tanner, Liam and the remaining Secret Service men followed.

The door to the barge’s wheelhouse opened and the terrorist was brought outside, literally dragging his feet. An evil grin occupied his face when he looked up and saw the line of people gawking at him from the rail of the Lincoln, but he said nothing.

“I don’t recognize him. Do we know who he is?” Carmichael asked no one in particular.

“Hofstad member,” Tanner said, preempting the Secret Service agent who shot him an irritated look.

“Speak English?” the president asked.

The terrorist said nothing. “Probably Dutch, but maybe English, too,” Tanner explained.

“Anyone speak Dutch here?” Carmichael looked around.

An elderly woman had just raised her hand when the terrorist called up to them.

“You will all die for failing to meet our demands!”

Two agents grabbed the terrorist and began dragging him to a waiting inflatable boat.

“Where will he be taken?” Carmichael asked.

“Your time is up!” The jihadist screamed.

Suddenly a powerful explosion rocked the barge.