Chapter 1 #2
He nodded. “Both have been beaten. The little boy will need hospitalization. He’s not very strong, and his immune system is compromised.”
“Could be fighting pneumonia already then,” Kane noted.
“They’ve been lashed to the front, and she’s under the impression that these guys were trying to get up the nerve to abandon the boat and to leave them tied up where they were.
They couldn’t seem to kill the two of them outright, but they also didn’t know what to do with them.
She doesn’t speak their language either.
I suggest we rouse one of these assholes and figure it out. ”
Just then Oakley called down. “Ask about the crimper used on these bloody cables. How do we release that crimping? I’m not getting anywhere with these cables.”
Kane turned to Trent. “I’ve worked with cable a lot, so let me take a look.” With that, he headed out to join Oakley.
Trent faced Julius and said, “Put out a call to the submarine. We need a hand. The little boy needs medical attention. The pickup must be imminent and tell them we have several prisoners.”
Julius immediately went up on deck to contact them, and Trent looked around the small space.
Cigarette butts were everywhere, along with empty booze bottles and minimal food.
Most of it appeared to be black peasant bread with chunks of cheese.
Nothing appeared to be affluent or abundant about this trip.
He checked the cubbyholes but found absolutely no documentation, nothing to show what these men were doing or why they even were here in the first place.
When he resurfaced, Julius met him, sharing, “Dayton and Stephan are almost here.”
“Any news from the sub?” Trent asked.
“We’ll rendezvous with them for a pickup,” Julius added. “They’ll send a couple seamen to bring in the yacht too.”
“Good idea,” Trent muttered. “We don’t want it left out on the waters alone. How is Kane doing on the cable?”
“He’s not. We’ve asked the sub to bring some heavy-duty equipment to help cut it,” Julius stated. “I can’t believe these kidnappers thought that would be the best answer for two live prisoners.”
“Yet, if they intended to leave them on the ship and didn’t want them to get away, that was absolutely the best answer because even we don’t have anything that can cut through all that cable,” Trent snapped, his tone more abrasive than usual.
“The fact that it was on board is already suspicious. I think this must be a drug-running boat,” he surmised.
“I don’t think they expected to lose the boat either, and I’m pretty sure these men on board are not the lawful owners.
I’ve not seen anything in the way of paperwork and no sign of anyone else on the ship. ”
“Meaning?”
“I suspect it’s an illegal vessel. From the looks of this yacht, the old girl has seen better days but probably hasn’t had a good owner in some time. She’s not been taken care of in any way, which is pretty depressing.”
“It is,” Julius agreed, “because even a small yacht like this doesn’t come cheap. Somebody put money into her.”
“Yes, but not necessarily to look after her.”
“Agreed. It could be in a lot better condition.”
“She’s got pretty decent engines on her,” Trent shared, as Oakley now joined them, “but I’m not sure very much else is going for the poor girl. Seems she’s been used hard and heavy. If they have to lose her, it’s not a great loss. Care to make a guess?”
Oakley nodded. “Drug runners,” he agreed immediately. “Everything’s good under the hood.”
“You checked?” Trent asked.
“Yeah, it’s got a hell of a couple of engines on it, but I don’t think it’s had very much maintenance otherwise. It almost seems as if the drug industry hasn’t been very good for them lately.”
Trent snorted. “It probably hasn’t been. Apparently the Coast Guard is out dealing with some big seizure right now, or at least that was the hope anyway,” he clarified. “So, it remains to be seen if the two events are related.”
He walked back over to see Naomi huddled as close as she could to protect the little boy.
Even in this state, she was more worried about the boy than herself.
“We’ve got more help coming to get you out of those cables,” he shared, trying for a calm tone, which was hard for him, considering she was shivering badly.
“Meanwhile we’re bringing up some blankets for you two now. ”
“What’s next?” she asked.
“We have transport nearby, although it’s probably not what you were expecting,” he told her. “Don’t worry. We’re on this.”
She nodded and whispered, “Ricky needs to be out of here.”
Trent got that loud and clear. The boy was not in good shape.
“This whole environment is just impossible.” She was holding up well, yet obviously struggling, and he couldn’t blame her.
She’d been through a hell of an ordeal, and even now she was stuck out here because they couldn’t get the cables off them, couldn’t get her and the boy out of the cold, and couldn’t stop the pain they were in.
Just then they heard a shout in the distance.
She cried out, “Oh my God, are they coming back?”
He turned to her in surprise and asked, “Who?”
She blinked and added hysterically, “There were more men.” She shivered, then continued.
“I don’t even know how many, but another boat took off with some of them.
I think these guys expected to meet up with them, and then something happened,” she explained, panic in her tone, “but I don’t know what that was. ”
“Good enough,” Trent replied and then sent a hand signal to Oakley, warning of new arrivals. “Just try to stay calm. I don’t know whether this is my team or not, but I can tell you that I have a team out there who’s on their way right now.”
She stared at him in horror. “Unless these guys already took out your guys too.”
He considered her, then asked, “From what you know, is that possible?”
“Yes,” she declared. “You don’t understand these people.
They already threw a couple people into the water, then powered away, leaving them out there.
I don’t—” She took a deep breath and added, “I don’t even know if they’re alive or dead,” she pointed out.
“It was horrible, and poor Ricky was screaming and crying.”
“Did he know them?”
“No,” she snapped, “but that’s hardly the point.”
“I understand that,” he noted, trying not to snap back. “I was just wondering whether it was his family or anyone else you guys knew.”
“No,” she muttered. “It wasn’t anybody I knew. I’m not even sure how we ended up in this nightmare.”
A surprising amount of anger filled her tone, which he could appreciate, but this was neither the time nor the place for that.
Right now he needed to get her and the child out of here.
“We’ll get you out of this mess,” he stated, “and we must go over what happened. I need to know everything. … Any detail you can remember could be important.”
She snorted, her eyes full of tears threatening to spill. “I can’t tell you very much, and Ricky can tell you even less.”
“Start small then. Where were you?” He needed to calm her down, so he hoped specific questions would help her to focus.
“We were on the dock, … waiting for Ricky’s family,” she began.
“We were all going on a sailing trip. While we stood there, several men approached us with guns. Even though I tried to explain who we were and what we were doing, they declared we were not supposed to be there. They said we were spying on them, but I have no clue as to what they were worried about us seeing.”
He let her talk because she needed to get it out.
“When I explained further, they didn’t even seem to know who Ricky was, much less care,” she added, tears in her eyes. “If they didn’t care, I had no leverage to keep him alive.”
“So, they knew nothing about who he was?”
“Nope, and I had no way to communicate with his family. Our phones were tossed, and Ricky had a medical ID bracelet that he always plays with on his wrist, but they ripped it off and threw it away too. He lost it at that point. I told them to stop tormenting him, that he was different. They didn’t like that,” she noted.
“Honest to God, it made them treat him even worse.”
“Did you get the sense that anything personal was in that?” Trent asked.
“No, not at all. I think they’re just assholes,” she snapped, with the return of that same blunted anger.
“I don’t really know what they thought they would get from us because we didn’t have anything to give them.
We had our bag with clothes for two weeks, and that’s about all.
As far as I know, that bag is down below, but I can’t even be sure about that. ” She shivered again.
Trent noted, “Hang on. Let me see what’s holding up the blankets.” As soon as he turned, he was met with a fist across the jaw that sent him reeling.
She cried out, but he was on his feet and back up again—even as Oakley came around the far side and was on the newcomer in seconds, dropping him hard to the deck.
Oakley told Trent in an apologetic tone, “Sorry, I don’t know where the hell he was hiding.”
Trent nodded at Oakley and added, “Let’s make sure he doesn’t have any other buddies lurking around.” Then they both quickly tied up the newcomer, who was coming to again, and put him with the others, stashed nearby topside.
As soon as he saw his friends, he stared furiously at his two captors. “Where are the others?” he growled, his tone furious.
Trent shrugged. “Depends. If they raised their guns at us, they’re dead,” he snapped.
The man closed his eyes, then started to swear in what seemed to be an unending promise about making them pay.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, you’ll make us pay,” Trent repeated, his tone mocking. “Sorry to burst your bubble, but you’ll have to stand up and take the punishment for what you’ve done before you get around to making anybody pay.”
The man glared at him, his gaze going to the little boy and to Naomi at the front, but he didn’t say anything.