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“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to see how badly they want us to stop.”
Navarro left Garcia looking confused and went out on deck, crouching as much as he could to avoid the hail of bullets. He spotted a length of heavy chain hanging next to an old fishing net hoist and took it with him.
He went down to the hold. Torres was still lying on the floor, and the two guards cringed every time more bullets hit the hull. Sweat poured off their brows. Their lips were set tight in fear.
Locsin looked at Navarro with a vicious gleam in his eyes.
“Having some trouble up there?” he asked, grinning as he relished their predicament.
“You two cover him,” Navarro ordered his men. They raised their rifles and pointed them at the prisoner.
Navarro pulled out his cuffs. “Locsin, turn around and give me your hands behind your back. Put them both between the same bars.”
“I don’t think so. I’ll wait right here for now.” He closed his eyes. “Let me know when we reach Dapitan City. That is, of course, if we do.”
Navarro drew his pistol. “The captain suggested that I dump you over the side. We all have a duty to uphold, but if you don’t follow my commands precisely, I will shoot you myself and accommodate the captain’s request. Now, what’s it going to be?”
Locsin sighed and opened his eyes. Without a word, he stood, stepped up to the front of the cell, and turned, inserting his hands between the bars.
Navarro turned to his men. “If he tries anything, don’t hesitate. Kill us both, if you have to. Understand?”
The two officers were stunned into silence by the command.
“Do you understand?” Navarro yelled.
They nodded.
Navarro carefully snapped the handcuffs around Locsin’s wrists. The prisoner didn’t resist.
“Now step back.”
Locsin complied. After putting aside his sidearm and knife, Navarro took the handcuffs on Torres’s belt, unlocked the cell, and went inside with the chain.
He held it up to Locsin. “I’m going to wrap this around your waist. Don’t move.”
Locsin regarded the chain with amusement and shrugged. Navarro wound it six times around his midsection and cinched it tight so that Locsin wouldn’t be able to squirm out of it. Then he snapped Torres’s cuffs on the chain to secure them.
Navarro stepped out of the cell and took back his weapons. “We’re going up on deck. If you try to escape or attack any of my men, I will push you overboard and you’ll go straight to the bottom, thanks to that chain.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t miss this for anything,” Locsin said. “I can’t wait to see what you’re going to do.”
“Come on, then,” Navarro said. Locsin sauntered out of the cell. Navarro grabbed Locsin’s meaty arm and put the pistol’s barrel against his head. “Lead the way. Slowly.”
They went up the stairs together, one step at a time, with one officer in front of them and the other trailing.
When they were up on deck, Navarro walked him to a point where he could see the escort boat, making sure to put Locsin between him and them. Just one officer remained alive up top. The other two were sprawled on the deck, rivulets of blood draining into the scuppers. The hijacked police vessel was less than a hundred yards away now, so he was confident they would realize his prisoner was no longer in the cell. If they tried to shoot Navarro, they’d have to go through their leader to get him.
The chattering of the machine gun stopped, but the boat kept coming.
Navarro pulled Locsin with him so that his back was against the hoist, Navarro peeking past Locsin’s ear. The prisoner reeked of body odor and a putrid smell akin to garlic oozing from his pores, but enduring the stink was preferable to dying. Not even the best marksman in the world would be confident of hitting him instead of his hostage.
When the men on the escort boat saw that they didn’t have a shot, they came up behind the prison transport until they were only fifty feet away. Navarro made it clear that he had a gun against Locsin’s skull. The remaining three officers either had their rifles pointing at the escort boat or at Locsin. An opening in the railing was conveniently close by in case Navarro got the impulse to shove Locsin into the ocean.
Navarro didn’t need to shout for the pursuers to back off. His threat was clear. If they attempted to board, Locsin would die before a single one of them could set a foot on the deck.
“What are you going to do now?” Locsin asked. “Hold me here until we get into the harbor at Dapitan City?”
