Shadow Tyrants

THREE

Captain Keith Tao cursed when he saw smoke on the horizon, glowing red where it was backlit by the morning sun. It was directly in his ship’s path, and they didn’t have time to waste. He had a tight schedule to keep. But stopping to render aid to a ship in distress was required by the Law of the Sea. If his freighter was witnessed bypassing a sinking ship, it would raise questions he didn’t want to answer.

“Should we go around?” the executive officer asked.

To avoid being spotted by anyone aboard the stricken ship, they’d have to go at least two hours out of their way, and their timetable was already off because of their delayed departure from Mozambique.

Tao raised a pair of binoculars and could see the outline of a cargo ship coming into view. “Has there been any SOS sent from this area?”

“No, sir. I’ve checked the marine traffic website, and there aren’t supposed to be any other ships within a hundred miles.”

That was what Tao had been expecting. They were far off the main shipping lanes on purpose, so to encounter another ship out here in the middle of nowhere was bad luck.

Tao lowered the binoculars. He’d have to risk being seen to stay on schedule. “Maintain the current heading.”

“Aye, Captain.”

In another hour, the foundering ship was easily visible, and, based on its condition, Tao was surprised it remained afloat.

The ancient tramp steamer, more than 500 feet long, looked like a funhouse mirror version of his own cargo ship, the Triton Star. The vessel was listing fifteen degrees to port and sitting low in the water. Tendrils of smoke curled up from several spots on the hull that had been blackened by fire.

Decades ago, the ship must have cut a graceful course through the sea, with its clean lines and a stern reminiscent of the Titanic’s champagne-glass tail. But now, even without the fire damage, the ship appeared to be on its last voyage. Rust ate at the peeling paint on the mottled pea green hull. The three cranes forward and the two aft of the dingy white superstructure were in such disrepair that it seemed like they could collapse at any moment. The radio antennas were broken in half, possibly hit by debris in an explosion. Overturned oil drums and junk littered a deck encircled by a chain railing that was broken in many places. The ship looked like a disaster, which is exactly what had occurred.

Tao could just make out the faded lettering below the Iranian flag fluttering on the stern’s jackstaff: Goreno.

Now the ship’s condition made sense. Its Iranian registry meant it could be a black market smuggler calling on the world’s seedier ports to pick up its cargo. That also explained why there wouldn’t be any record of it in the marine traffic database.

“Captain,” the XO said, “we’re picking up a distress call. It’s very faint.”

“From the Goreno?” Tao peered at the bridge, but he couldn’t see anything through its cracked and grimy windows.

“No, sir. He says they had to abandon ship.”

A lifeboat came into view as they passed the bow of the Goreno. It looked like it was in even worse shape than the ship, if that was possible. The entire hull had been blackened by flames, and part of the roof was caved in. It seemed to be dead in the water.

“Put the call on speaker,” Tao ordered.

A desperate voice pleaded with them in Spanish-accented English through the bridge’s loudspeaker. “To the ship off our bow, this is Eduardo Barbanegra, captain of the Goreno. We need your assistance. My crew and I have been adrift for three days without food or water.” The signal was weak and full of static. Since they hadn’t heard it until now, it was probably coming from a low-powered walkie-talkie with a short range.

“Should we respond?” the XO asked.

Tao thought about it for a moment, then shook his head. “By the look of it, they’ll be dead long before another ship passes this way. Keep going.”

“Help us please!” Barbanegra cried as the Triton Star passed them without a response. “If you rescue us, we’ll share the gold we were carrying on board the Goreno. Five hundred pounds of it from South Africa.”

The XO rolled his eyes at Barbanegra’s sad attempt at saving himself. With a dismissive sneer, Tao looked through the binoculars at the lifeboat. A bedraggled blond man emerged through the roof. His clothes were dirty and tattered, and his face was smeared with soot. He looked exhausted, his lips were split from a lack of water, and his right eye was covered by a ragged black patch.

But Tao’s eyes were drawn to what he was holding above his head. It was a foot-long gold brick.

“How much gold did he claim to have?” Tao asked as he stared at the ingot shining in the sun.

“Five hundred pounds,” the XO replied. “But sir—”

Tao knew well the price of gold since he was considering how to invest his bonus fee for this voyage. At its current value, a quarter ton of gold would be worth well over ten million dollars.

He put down the binoculars and commanded, “All stop!”

The XO stared at him in disbelief. “Captain?”

“You heard me.” The XO followed his orders, and they began to slow.

“Prepare our lifeboat. We’re going to bring them aboard.”

“Captain,” the XO said after relaying the command, “you can’t really believe they have that much gold on the Goreno.”

“We’ll know soon enough. If that brick he’s holding is a fake, we’ll kill them all and toss them overboard. The sharks will take care of them.”

“And if it’s real?”

“We find out where it is and get the gold off before that ship sinks. Then we kill them.”

The XO nodded in appreciation of Tao’s plan. If Barbanegra was lying, the delay wouldn’t be long, and the potential payoff was worth the trouble.

Fifteen minutes later, Barbanegra and his men climbed onto the deck of the Triton Star. Tao went down to meet them in the mess.

He arrived to find Barbanegra and five equally pathetic-looking men hungrily devouring cold-cut sandwiches and gulping glasses of water. When they were brought aboard, they were searched without them knowing it, Tao’s crew patting them down as they were helped onto the ship. His men stood around the perimeter of the dining hall with their weapons concealed as ordered. No sense in making Barbanegra suspicious.

Tao went over to Barbanegra, who was still holding the gold brick in one hand, and said, “I’m Captain Tao. Welcome aboard.”

Barbanegra, a tall man whose loose clothes hung on him like he was a scarecrow, stood and feebly shook Tao’s hand. “Thanks for coming to our rescue. We didn’t think you were going to stop.”

“We thought your ship was a derelict. Your radio signal was so weak that we almost didn’t pick it up. This is your whole crew?”

“Half. We lost the rest in the fire.”

“Do you need medical attention?”

“The food and water are enough for the moment. We’ve got a more urgent matter to take care of.” Barbanegra glanced at the ingot. “You’ll help us recover the rest of the gold before she goes down? We’ll give you twenty-five percent of the value.”

So Barbanegra was still well enough to negotiate. Tao had to admire his guts.

“Why shouldn’t we take it all for ourselves?” Tao asked. “You’ve abandoned ship, and given that you’re flying the Iranian flag, it’s reasonable to assume that your cargo is being smuggled. We’re not going through Lloyd’s of London for the salvage contract, are we?”

“That’s true,” Barbanegra said. “But the bars are well hidden aboard our ship, which is taking on water and will probably go under within the next twelve hours. Then neither of us gets the gold.”

“If it is gold,” Tao said. He took a folding knife from his pocket and drew the blade across the ingot’s face, leaving a golden trench in the soft metal. It was definitely not plated lead. He picked it up and guessed the weight at twenty-five pounds. Tao tamped down his excitement at getting so lucky.

“See!” Barbanegra said triumphantly. “It’s real, just like I told you. And there are nineteen more just like it over on the Goreno.”

“Where?”

“Do we have a deal?”

Negotiating was pointless since these men would be dead within the hour anyway, but Tao had to give the appearance that he was reluctantly coming to terms.

“Fifty-fifty,” he said. “That’s our price.”

Barbanegra looked at his crew, who all nodded their agreement.

“You’ve got a deal,” Barbanegra said. He pointed at a huge black man. “Franklin here, my chief engineer, will show your men where they are.”

Tao ordered half a dozen of his men to go with Franklin in the lifeboat, leaving him with eight crew on board. Given how haggard these men were, they’d be no threat.

“Have you had enough to eat and drink for now?” Tao asked.

“Yes, thanks,” Barbanegra said.

“Then you can all join me on the bridge so we can observe the recovery operation.”

Tao glanced at his XO, who silently nodded in reply. When they had the gold in hand, the weapons would come out. Better to have all of their captives in one place when that happened.

By the time they got to the bridge, the lifeboat was approaching the Goreno and soon idled next to it as they latched a rope ladder to the railing. Franklin and five of Tao’s six men climbed up to the deck while the remaining man stayed in the boat. Franklin pointed, and they disappeared into the superstructure.

Everyone on the bridge waited in silence for a radio report that they had reached the gold. Barbanegra, who was beside Tao, collapsed down to one knee. He looked ashen, but he put up a hand and said, “I’ll be okay. Got light-headed. Just give me a second.”

Tao shook his head at how easy this was going to be and went back to watching the Goreno.

A second later, to his utter shock, he felt a pistol’s muzzle pressed against his temple by Barbanegra. The other four men from the Goreno overpowered his bridge crew and took the handguns from their waistbands. It happened with such lightning speed that only the XO was able to fight back and he was knocked down with one chop to the throat. The rest put up their hands in surrender when they saw the guns trained on them.

While his men were being trussed up with zip ties, a stunned Tao gasped, “What are you doing?”

“Shut up,” Barbanegra said, his accent gone. He looked at one of his men. “MacD, once you’ve finished securing them, take your team to search the Triton Star for any stragglers.”

“Aye, Chairman,” replied the man, who suddenly seemed energetic and alert instead of haggard and weary.

Then the man called Chairman spoke to seemingly no one. “We’re secure over here, Max. Take ’em.”

Tao’s hands were tied behind his back, but he hadn’t been put on the floor with the rest of his men. He watched as his crew on the Goreno was marched out of the superstructure with their hands in the air. They were accompanied by a dozen men and women with automatic rifles who aimed them at the man in the lifeboat until he was taken captive as well.

“Good job, everyone,” the Chairman said. “Not a shot fired.” He stepped back from Tao and bent to pull down his rolled-up pant leg. Tao could now see that Barbanegra had a prosthetic limb equipped with a hidden compartment, which the Chairman closed.

Tao gaped at the man who’d taken over his ship with such ease. “Who are you people?”

“It’s pretty obvious, isn’t it?” the Chairman said with a wide grin as he removed the patch to reveal a second sky blue eye. “Peg leg? Eye patch? Come on. You should know a pirate when you see one. Especially when you’re smugglers yourselves.”

“I… I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Tao stammered.

The Chairman raised his pistol and aimed it at Tao’s forehead. The pirate’s grin disappeared, replaced by a deadly serious gaze.

“We know what your secret cargo is,” the Chairman said. “We just don’t know where it is, and this is a pretty big ship you’ve got here. So tell me, Captain Tao. Where did you hide the chemical weapons?”