“Alright, Miss Metry, you’ve got yourself a deal.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
The Red Sea
The next day the group made the drive from Cairo to Suez. They rented two vehicles to move themselves and their equipment, which consisted of four identical coyote-brown Mystery Ranch Overload packs that each had a storage capacity of almost fifty liters. They were each fully packed with Gerber multitools, changes of clothing in their sizes, basic survival gear, Fjällräven Abisko Lite 1 tents, and lightweight Patagonia sleeping bags. There was also a Rapid Access Trauma System medic bag that Shane had stocked with every conceivable medical necessity for Wally’s use, and the men all had their own IFAK medical kits. Shane had supplied each man with a coyote-brown Crye Precision Airlite Convertible Chest Rig decked out with various ammo and admin pouches, reminiscent of the types they had worn on the team. Lastly, there were two Pelican cases that contained top-of-the-line drones that would be used once they got on the ground.
The luggage was rounded out by Ana’s light-blue Away carry-on roller bag, which she had retrieved from her cousin’s house the previousday. It seemed wildly out of place with the rest of the gear being carted around, but then again, so was Ana.
The plan was to drop the vehicles at a rental agency in Suez. Tim and Wally had ridden in one, and Ana chose to ride with Nate and Shane in the spacious Škoda Kodiaq SUV. As they sped along Highway 50 past the Capital International Airport, Shane explained the finer points of the plan for transportation, and Nate made final adjustments for their drop-off location near Yemen.
Ana simply sat in the back and listened. Every so often Nate snuck a look at her, and several times she caught his eye and flashed him a slight smile that made his heart flutter. He silently cursed himself every time it happened and yet couldn’t help but steal another glance several minutes later. There was something about her. Her beauty was obvious, as was her intelligence, but it was more than that. The fact that she had agreed to meet a stranger out of concern for her father and the way she was so defiant in a hotel room full of large men intrigued him. She had moxie, and he found her strong personality easy to engage with.
After a little over two hours they arrived in Suez, turned in the rentals, and made their way to Port Tawfiq. There, they caught a transport boat out to a container ship called theInventi. The ship was Chinese flagged out of Qingdao, Shane explained, and made the round trip through the Indian Ocean and the Suez Canal to Valencia, Spain, every two and a half months. On the return trip it sailed down the Red Sea, around the coast of Yemen, and made port in Dubai. This was precisely the route required to take them where they needed to go, and it was the reason they were on a strict timetable.
The ship would not wait for them, and if they missed this opportunity they would have to wait several months for another shot. Of course there were plenty of ships that took a similar route, but not all had captainswho were willing to make a deal with Shane. The four former soldiers, and Ana, would sail aboard the ship as far as Al Ghaydah in Yemen, where they would disembark. Prior to that, they would provide protection for the ship in exchange for free passage.
While the majority of piracy in the world was shifting to take place in the Gulf of Guinea off the west coast of Africa, there still existed a very real threat in the Gulf of Aden. Flanked by some of the poorest countries in the world, the region was not only one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, it was also an environment ripe for desperate men who were looking to capture vessels and make some money by holding them and their crews hostage. Most often it was more cost-effective for the freighters to carry insurance and pay the ransom when seizures occurred. However, in some instances, companies or even individual captains would opt for preventative measures as well.
Whole businesses had sprung up around shipping security, and contracting companies were paid handsomely for sticking several heavily armed men on board to ward off would-be pirates. In this case, the captain was getting the protection for free. Once they disembarked, the ship would be out of the piracy hot zone anyhow, so it was a win for the crew. The only difference was that this time the crew would have to supply the weapons, a fact that Tim was having some heartache over.
The ship’s armory, which was illegal and undeclared at any port into which they stopped, consisted of several AK-47s and one PKM, a Soviet Bloc gas-operated, belt-fed machine gun that fired linked 7.62mm rounds. The weapons were in terrible disrepair, covered in rust and grime, and it was a wonder they still functioned. It deeply offended Tim’s sensibilities as a former weapons sergeant, and he immediately set to work correcting the situation.
“Hey, Shane,” he yelled as he began disassembling one of the weapons, “can you see if you can rummage me up some oil? Maybe a few rags?”
“I’m sure they have supplies around here somewhere. I’ll ask the crew.”
“And a wire brush if you can find it. Even these ammo belts are rusted!” He clanked the links of ammunition against the wall and pieces of rust chipped off, proving his point.
After coming aboard the ship they were shown to their quarters. They were each provided their own cabin, which was surprisingly spacious and clean. The ship’s lead sailor, Captain Shen, was a gracious host and enthusiastic about their presence. He had previously experienced run-ins with pirates on several occasions, even being held hostage once on his own ship several years prior. He hated them and was happy to have a contingent of men aboard as a deterrent. Shane had provided their backgrounds as Special Forces soldiers and it had been enough for the captain. Shen was a businessman and had no qualms about assisting them in violating the sovereign territory of another nation, particularly one like Yemen. Though he couldn’t understand why anyone would want to sneak into such a place, he was satisfied with his end of the bargain.
They had all gone to sleep and woken up in the morning to find themselves steaming south through the Red Sea. Shen had said the trip would take about a week, with several days spent traversing the Red Sea, which gave them ample time to relax and prepare. They were a day into the journey, which Nate defined as being underway, and he took the opportunity to approach Ana about their deal.
“Alright, Ana,” he said to her as she was pouring herself coffee out of the lone pot in the dayroom. “We’re on the water.”
“Yes,” she said, grasping her mug with both hands, “we are.”
“It’s time for you to honor your end of the bargain.” She was silent a moment before responding.
“How do I know you won’t leave me on the ship when we get there?”
Nate thought about it a minute. He’d be wondering the same thing if he were in her position. The truth was, he couldn’t leave her here. He didn’t trust the crew. They were criminals, which is why they had been chosen by Shane in the first place. Ana might actually be safer with them in a war zone than she would be on this ship.
“I keep my word,” he said. “Besides, I think I’d rather see you with us in Yemen than left alone on this rig.”
Ana seemed to believe him. She smiled, and not for the first time, Nate noticed how beautiful she was. Of course, he recognized that she was pretty the moment he had seen her picture, but it had registered in a clinically detached sort of way. Even at the market and the hotel, he had been so laser-focused on getting the hydrology report that he hadn’t stopped to take in the woman who was sitting in front of him.
He did now. She could have been a model, with her smooth, tan skin, straight black hair, and large, deep brown eyes that he felt himself getting lost in as they seemed to drink him in with both curiosity and something else he couldn’t quite place. The truth was that Anastasia was captivating, and Nate felt something stir inside him that he was wholly unfamiliar with.
Though she was conservatively dressed, his imagination could still make out what lay beneath. She was on the shorter side, but curvy in all the right places. It was evident that she took care of herself, yet didn’t need to put too much effort into her appearance. She was simply, naturally beautiful.
But had she been less so, her sharp intellect and strong personality would have captured his attention all the same. Ana felt like a kindred spirit.
“Alright,” she said finally, snapping him out of the trance her mesmerizing eyes had put him in.
She walked over to her Longchamp bag that she had brought downto the common area and pulled out a thumb drive. Hesitating for only a second, she walked back over to Nate, who was now seated at the table, his laptop open. She held the thumb drive just out of his reach and looked down at him.
“You promise?” she asked with a slight smile, and Nate began to get the impression that she might be flirting with him.
