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Locsin shook his head slowly. “Not you.” He tilted his head at Beth, then stared at Raven. “You get to watch.”
Two men pulled Beth and Raven to their feet and manhandled them down the stairs. When they reached the main floor of the warehouse, Beth was shoved in front of the airport crash tender while Raven was made to stand next to it, a gun pointed at her knee by Locsin.
The rest of his men fanned out beside them, except for one who climbed into the tender’s cab. All the trucks in the building must have had the keys in them for easy movement around the warehouse because the engine rumbled to life immediately. The nozzle rose from its slumber and angled around until it was pointing directly at Beth.
“If you move,” Locsin shouted at Raven over the din of the monstrous diesel next to their ears, “you will never walk the same again. Now, I’m going to show you what this water pump can do, and then you will tell me the truth about what you and your friend know about us.”
Raven tensed every muscle in her body as the water pump whined, preparing to fire. She was severely overmatched, but she wasn’t going to let them torture Beth, even if that meant getting killed in a futile escape attempt.
She readied herself for Locsin’s signal, but it never came. A single shot rang out from somewhere in the rafters of the warehouse, drilling a hole through the center of the crash tender’s windscreen. Judging by the placement of the headshot, the shooter was an excellent marksman. The operator inside slumped over dead.
Raven didn’t waste the moment. Locsin and his men were formidable, but they lacked high-quality military training, and she took advantage of that. She sidestepped out of Locsin’s aim and rammed him in the gut with her elbow. He pitched backward, firing as he fell. The round missed her by inches.
“Beth, run!” she yelled and dashed behind the heavy rescue truck. Locsin’s men, who had dived for cover, had been so distracted by the gunshot from above that they began shooting at her too late. The bullets pinged off the metal body of the fire engine behind her.
In the side mirror of the truck, she could see Beth, whose face showed a mixture of fear and confusion, running crouched toward her position. She had almost reached Raven when Locsin came out of nowhere and tackled her. In one fluid motion, he hopped back to his feet and pointed the gun at Beth’s head.
Raven cursed under her breath. Trying to get to Beth now would be suicidal. Expecting Locsin’s men to chase her, Raven retreated to consider options for how to help her unknown rescuer. She stealthily began winding her way through the maze of trucks.
“Don’t shoot again, Cabrillo,” she heard Locsin yell, “or your friend dies.” Raven knew it couldn’t be Juan but Locsin didn’t.
She stopped when a disembodied voice boomed over the warehouse intercom system.
“I don’t know who Cabrillo is, Mr. Locsin, and I don’t know or care about the redhead. My name is Gerhard Brekker. I know you’re a devout communist, but I have a business proposition for you.”
31
The Gator pulled alongside the rear quarter of the Magellan Sun with just a whisper of its electric motors, so silent that even someone standing on deck thirty feet directly above the submarine wouldn’t have heard it. Eddie opened the hatch and climbed out, hefting his MP5 submachine gun, equipped with a noise and flash suppressor. MacD and Murph followed, closing the hatch behind them. In their black clothing, they were nearly invisible. MacD notched the bolt with the rubberized grappling claw into his crossbow and nodded at Eddie.
“We’re ready, Gomez,” Eddie said quietly.
“Hold on,” replied Gomez, who was watching the ship on his monitor back on the Oregon. “I’ve got one guard coming toward you. Man, he’s a big boy. I can practically see the veins popping out of his muscles from here.”
Eddie looked up, prepared to take the guard out if he peered over the side. If that happened, they might still be able to salvage the mission by getting up top fast enough to hide the body, but it would definitely make for a riskier operation.
After a minute, Gomez said, “Okay, he’s passed you and turned the corner around a container. The supply ship has just left with a load, and the rest of the crew seems to be getting the next batch of crates ready for another transfer. No one else is close to you.”
“How many guards in all?”
“I count ten Schwarzenegger types on deck. The rest of the crew look like they’re not Typhoon users.”
“Ten-to-three,” MacD said with a raised eyebrow. “I say we keep out of their hair.”
Murph nodded his agreement with that sentiment. “I love having our eye in the sky.”
“They don’t mess with us, we don’t mess with them,” Eddie said and turned to MacD. “Our elevator cable, please.”
MacD aimed the crossbow and fired. The bolt went between the tubular steel railings and hit the container behind it with a dull clang. The prongs snapped out, and MacD reeled in the nylon line until the claw was snug against the railing tubes.
He handed the rope to Eddie, who clamped on a miniature motorized winch, then attached it to his climbing harness and pressed the switch. The tiny gears inside pulled him up with a soft whine until he was able to grab the bottom railing. He checked for hostiles, pulled himself over, unhitched the winch, and put it in his pack before shouldering his MP5.
Gomez would be able to see anyone already on deck, but there was still the danger that someone inside could make a sudden appearance through a door. They’d specifically chosen this spot fifty feet from the superstructure because the nearest door was far away.
Satisfied that they were alone, Eddie motioned for MacD to join him, then Murph, both of them using their own winches. When the three of them were on deck, MacD retrieved the rope and claw so it wouldn’t be seen by a patrolling guard.
“We’re on deck,” Eddie said to Linda.
“Roger that,” Linda said. “Submerging. Let me know when you want a pickup.” Although the Gator was virtually undetectable on the surface, her orders were to take no chances. She would take the Gator down ten feet so that only the radio antenna jutted out of the water and wait for Eddie’s signal.
