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Connor
The four of us reached the rendezvous point, three hundred feet from the ship. The hull was visible only as a silhouette, but we could make out lights along the decks and on top of the bridge.
“Leo and Juan, starboard side,” Johnny said. “Connor and I will take portside. Everybody use the sleds until you get about a hundred feet out, then abandon them and swim the rest of the way. We don’t want anybody hearing us approach.”
“How do we get up there?” I asked.
“Leave that to me,” Johnny said. “Remember, once you’re onboard, use your earpieces and microphones. Hopefully Eve can reach us, but if she can’t, we can still talk to each other.”
Johnny and I split off from Leo and Juan and used our sleds to approach the left side of the yacht. The closer we got, the taller it seemed to loom above us.
A hundred feet out, we left our sleds bobbing in the water and swam the rest of the way. When we reached the side of the ship, the waves slapped me up against the hull like a cork bobbing against an iceberg.
Johnny put a finger in front of his lips. Quiet. Then we waited.
Someone walked across the deck, footsteps approaching slowly, then steadily receding until there was only the lapping of waves again.
Johnny reached into his floatation vest and pulled out a pair of eight-inch-diameter suction cups with handles. Then, like Tom Cruise in a Mission: Impossible movie, he attached the suction cups to the hull and pulled himself up, arm-length by arm-length, until he reached the deck. The entire time, the only sound the suction cups made was a slight squishing as they locked on, and a hollow pop as he removed them.
Once he was onboard, he tied a knotted rope to the railing and threw down the other end to me in the water. I climbed it hand over hand, my AR-15 knocking against my body as I made my way up the side of the ship. My equipment and water-soaked clothes felt fifty pounds heavier, and my arms were burning by the time I reached the end.
I pulled myself over the metal railing onto the deck beside him. Johnny had already unfastened his AR-15 from the strap; I followed suit, setting it on single-shot and undoing the safety. The silencers were still attached to the barrels – although I knew from experience that they didn’t work like in the movies. Instead of a nearly silent whup sound, it would be as loud as a hardback book slapping the ground. At least there wouldn’t be the sonic boom of a gunshot, but we weren’t supposed to fire until absolutely necessary. Doing so would be as good as ringing the doorbell and announcing we were here.
We both pulled Bluetooth headsets out of waterproof bags inside our vests and put them into our ears.
“Eve?” I whispered into the microphone.
“I’m here,”came her familiar voice.
Relief flooded through me.
“Leo – Juan – you onboard?” Johnny whispered.
“Huah” and “Yes” sounded in our ears.
“Have you got visuals on the cameras, Eve?” Johnny asked.
“Yes.”
“Alright then, people, let’s do this,” Johnny said.
He nodded at me. You’ve got this, man, he seemed to be saying.
I just prayed he was right… and that I’d see him alive again when this was all over.
“Good luck,” I whispered.
“You too,” he said, then opened the door to the inner hallways of the boat and disappeared inside.
I continued down the deck towards the bridge, where I hoped my fiancée was waiting.
I’m coming, Lily. I’m coming.
