Electra, page 17
But how to get down there?
He wished he had the normal complement of climbing gear SEALs normally carried and in which he was well-trained. But then, as he stared down at the black lagoon below, he had a different idea. He glanced at his watch: eight minutes elapsed, seven remaining. He heard the footfalls and voices of two people descending the stairs high above him and knew it was time to act. He could probably search about the deck for some rope or braided nylon line, but he was pretty sure that if he acted right now the simpler method would also work. Pretty sure.
Maddock glanced left and right to make sure no one was looking his way. Looking over the ship once more, he double-checked that the vessel was no longer moving. They were anchored in the shallow lagoon. Good as it’s going to get.
Maddock leaped off the deck. He did his best to straighten his body during the twenty or so feet before he hit the lagoon so that he entered the water feet first, minimizing the noise from his splash. He felt the warm atoll water wash over his head, the sensation of sinking. Then, not surprisingly, he felt the crunch of sand between his toes as his feet hit the lagoon’s bottom. He pushed off and knifed upward, his eyes locked on the blurry moon through shimmering the water’s surface.
He emerged alongside the ship and immediately looked up along the deck rail to see if anyone had noticed the man overboard, but as far as he could tell, no one did. He looked up once at the massive, dark wall stretching up before him and kicked toward it. He would have to be very careful. Even at anchor, the ship rolled a bit with the swells and should he get too far beneath the hull, it could crush him easily, or knock him out.
He gripped the explosive in his hand as he swam up to the metal wall. It moved a little and he waited to make his move while he timed the motion.
Up...down...Up...down...Now!
Maddock stretched out the hand holding the bomb and kicked forward. He felt a panicky adrenaline surge when his hand started to arc back down through only air, thinking he had fallen short of the target in the darkness, but then he was met with a sudden, firm resistance as the hockey-puck in his hand clapped onto the ship’s side...and held. He treaded water for a moment, watching the LED blink red. The bomb was holding, staying in place.
He activated the light on his watch and checked the time: four minutes remaining.
Maddock scissor-kicked into motion along the side of the ship toward the stern work deck. He swam underwater as much as possible to reduce the noise and chances of being seen, and because it was still a fast stroke. Even so, the ship’s long body seemed to stretch out forever in front of him, almost as if it grew longer each time he surfaced for a breath. He began to worry. If he was not out of the water when the explosive detonated, his body would be subject to the concussion waves. And this time he wasn’t even wearing a wetsuit.
He swam faster, eyes open in the darkness, seeking the blurry form of the monstrous hull lest he stray too far out into the lagoon or even worse, stray beneath the ship. He suppressed the strong urge to stop and look at his watch. Just kept swimming like he was in a race against an invisible opponent. Before long he could hear the shouts of men and he knew he was approaching the stern work deck. He began to look for the boarding ladder.
Up ahead, still an Olympic pool length away. Again Maddock resisted the urge to check his watch and pushed on. He swam harder than he ever had in his life, even during BUDS training. Told himself not to look up, not yet, he wasn’t there yet. He forced himself to count to thirty before checking his progress.
...28 Mississippi...29 Mississippi...30 Mississippi...
He raised his head, and there it was: the iron rungs set into the side of the ship, maybe fifty feet away. And just beyond that, the shadow of an airplane limned against the moonlit sky, hanging half over the rail. With Bones hopefully still undetected inside.
Maddock swam to the ladder and began to climb, his first priority to get himself out of the water where he would be much less vulnerable to the underwater explosion. When he had climbed about halfway up the side of the ship he stopped and consulted his watch, hanging there like a rock climber on the side of a huge, smooth face.
00:04...
Four seconds to detonation. Maddock braced for impact, careful not to let his body touch the ship itself, only contacting the rungs.
He closed his eyes and held his breath.
Chapter 31
Maddock counted down to zero and gripped the rungs on the side of the ship.
Nothing happened.
He turned his head to the right, as if to look down to where he had placed the bomb and witness an explosion so small that it hardly had any effect here. And then he felt it.
The bomb exploded, a tongue of fire bursting out of the side of the ship. He heard the muffled boom and felt the vibrations in his hands and feet as he clung to the ladder. He held on tightly, not sure how bad it would get, but after five more seconds, when the rumbling had ceased, he focused his attention upwards.
The work deck. Bones. It was time to move. He was certain the ship had been crippled, though couldn’t be sure how bad the damage was at this point. Regardless, many men would be focused on responding to it, and then fixing it. This was the distraction he had sought, his opportunity to act.
Panicked shouts filled the air as Maddock monkeyed up the rungs. He slowed as he neared the top and looked to his left toward the model plane. He saw it, though not where he remembered it to be relative to his position. Either the crew had already moved it while he was gone, or else the blast must have moved it, because now it hung much lower to the water, and closer to the rungs, too. He was actually looking down into the cockpit, and...there was Bones! Still in the cockpit but now in a kneeling position, looking around.
“Bones!” Maddock called out in a strong voice that was less than a yell. He forgot about the cover name, deciding it no longer mattered. His SEAL partner still knelt in the model plane, looking about, but not back to Maddock. “Bones!” He tried again.
This time he saw Bones’ head whirl.
“Over here!” Maddock waved an arm in the darkness from his position on the ladder. This time Bones locked in on the source of the sound and spotted the darkened human form hanging from the side of the ship.
“Maddock? If that’s you give our ops signal.” Maddock flashed a series of hand signals, almost like a gang sign, that he hoped Bones could make out well enough in the dim light.
“What happened?”
“I made up with our friend Shankey. Tell you later. We’ve got to get moving.”
Bones looked up at the deck of the ship. “I think we are moving.” Indeed, the ship had a pronounced list to it now, and it slowly continued to lean into the water on their side. Maddock found it hard to believe the little bomb had done that much damage, but his placement had been strategic. He looked down at the water, noting the angle. He knew that although it started slowly at first, when a ship finally did sink it happened quickly, and one did not want to be in the water with it when it did. The suction of the massive object sinking below the waves had been known to bring men down with it who were not actually trapped on the vessel. Not to mention the possibility of being crushed by the ship itself as it capsized.
“Can you get out of that plane? What’ve you been doing in there all this time?”
“Catching up on my sleep. Get out to where? Overboard?”
“No. Bones, it looks like this thing is going down.”
“Maybe if we jump ship now and swim for the island, we’ll be clear before it sinks. It’s either that or we climb back aboard, but what for?”
Maddock shook his head in the darkness and pounded a fist against the steel hull. How had their mission become so derailed? It was hard to accept. So hard that he made a split-second decision, a rash one, to re-board the ship and take advantage of the chaos to make one more try for a sat-phone. That was the whole point of the explosion, anyhow.
“To make our call.”
Bones was silent. They both knew that if enough time went by the Navy would come looking for them, but with the way things were going there was no guarantee they’d last that long. And an even more uncomfortable thought struck Maddock as he hung there: would the Navy come for them if they didn’t make a call? Because no call meant that things had gone south, and if things had gone south, it might not take much for some top brass to want to wash their hands of the matter; smallpox indeed. If they did manage to make the call, on the other hand, they’d be on an aircraft bound for home in about six hours, their Amelia Earhart contraband safe and sound.
To Maddock’s surprise, Bones stood up in the cockpit of the hanging replica.
“Be right there.” And then he dove from the plane into the water, pushing off of the model, sending it rocking backward to swing from its cable. Maddock tensed, turning around to see where Bones landed. But Bones was a SEAL, and he gave no trace of his presence until his dark-skinned arm thrust out from the water to hook through the first rung. He began to climb, pausing once to point upward, a sign for Maddock.
Go!
Maddock started to climb, attuning his senses to the ship’s deck. A lot of shouts came from farther down the ship where the damage was, but as far as he could tell the stern work deck had emptied out. Nevertheless, he stopped at the top rung and slowly raised his head until he could peer over the rail at the deck. It was empty. He looked down and saw Bones nearing his position on the ladder. He waved him on and then jumped onto the deck of the ship for the second time that night.
Bones joined him a few seconds later, both of them dripping water onto the deck. “Where to?”
Maddock pointed across the deck, over to the lifeboats they’d hidden behind earlier.
“To the superstructure, but that side’s opposite where the damage is, so we’ll probably encounter less resistance if we cross here and go down that side.”
Bones nodded and the two SEALs moved across the deck to the other side. They made their way forward, following the same walkway Maddock had taken earlier. The going was quicker this time, though, as they saw no signs of crew. A shrill alarm began to blare and they heard a loudspeaker announcement in Japanese. They couldn’t understand it but it sounded urgent.
As they progressed, the angle of the deck grew more pronounced. It took effort not to go sliding down to their right.
“You must have done a pretty good job placing that bomb.” Bones pointed to the water lapping at the base of the superstructure. This thing’s going down.”
Maddock eyed the oncoming rush of seawater, then looked up at the listing superstructure. “Yeah, I thought we’d have a little more time than this to look around.”
“Think we can take the radio room now?” Bones gazed up at the leaning tower.
“Might as well try. Here, you get a consolation prize just for playing.” Maddock removed the second K5 from his waistband and handed it to him. Bones checked the clip and reloaded it.
“Well if today’s not my lucky day! Don’t even tell me how you got it.”
“We better hurry up.” Maddock pointed to the walkway that led to the upper gangway he’d taken earlier. They encountered no resistance as they moved along. Even so, he lowered his voice to talk to Bones.
“This room up here on the right is where I saw Tomoaki interrogating Spinney and Carlson earlier.”
Bones raised his K5 to the ready position as he neared the still-open door. But Maddock could no longer hear voices coming from the room and didn’t think they would all be inside in complete silence. Craning his neck around the door, he saw that he was correct. The room was empty. Another door inside the room was open and led deeper into the superstructure building.
He waved Bones inside the room and they entered. They trudged across the floor at an upward angle, past the table where Spinney had sat, Maddock pointing to a smear of blood on its surface. When they reached the opposite side of the room they each waited on either side of the door. They listened a moment, the blaring siren making it difficult to discern voices, but they didn’t think they heard any.
The entered a short hallway with two closed doors to their right and two to their left. All were unmarked, with no signs denoting what lay behind them, but Maddock knew the bridge would be at the front of the structure, so he motioned for Bones to go left, and they struck out in that direction. As they neared the end of the short hall they could see that the end in fact led straight to the bridge. They slowed as they approached, straining to listen.
A panicked voice. Maddock took a look into the room and was relieved to see there were only two people inside, both Japanese ship’s officers. He recognized the Captain’s insignia on one, and the other, talking frantically into a handheld radio, looked to be the first mate. The array of controls on the panel before them was lit up with flashing red and yellow lights. A cacophony of systems alarms brayed inside the enclosed area. The view from the expansive bridge window was terrifying, offering 180 degrees of water and burning island that made it all too clear the ship was going to capsize.
With hand signals, Maddock indicated to Bones that he would take the Captain while Bones dispatched the other officer. They moved silently into the room, weapons drawn. It occurred to Maddock that perhaps the Captain was taking action right now that could prevent the ship from sinking and that they could be about to interrupt him, but after watching for a couple of seconds it was clear that there was nothing they could do. The ship was going down. In fact, Maddock was more concerned for his safety just by being on the ship than he was being in the presence of the Mizuhi men.
But then the Captain turned around, his eyes widening as he moved to bring the radio to his lips and Maddock knew he had to act. “Drop the radio and freeze or I shoot!” He steadied the gun barrel at the Captain’s chest. The radio clattered to the floor.
The first mate wasn’t as compliant. He bull-rushed at Bones, charging with surprising speed for a man of such considerable bulk. But Bones was ready. He sidestepped the man, clocking him in the head with the butt of his K5 as he passed. His opponent hooked one of Bones’ ankles on his way down, tripping him up. Both of them wound up on the floor, grappling while Maddock kept an extra-wary eye on the captain, warning him with his eyes not to use the fight as an excuse to try anything.
The first mate gripped Bone’s gun hand and banged it against the floor. Bones head-butted him in the face, cracking his nose, which caused the man to release his grip immediately. Bones drove a fist into the man’s temple, slid his arm free and rolled away, springing to his feet once he was clear. He aimed his K5 at the stunned first mate.
“Satellite phone!” Maddock shouted at the captain, who shook his head and shrugged.
“No speak.”
Maddock muttered something under his breath and looked at Bones, who was staring out the window, where the view highlighted the precarious angle of the ship.
“Time to split.” It concerned Maddock that Bones appeared apprehensive, since he didn’t usually worry about much.
Maddock pantomimed using a phone to the captain, who again shrugged. “He’s playing dumb.”
“Why would he be playing dumb at this point?” Bones pointed out the window, where the water level appeared to rise by the minute. “You would think he’d want us to call someone. Anyone.”
“I know you have a satellite phone,” Maddock said to the captain. “The Yoshida brothers told me.” At the mention of the familiar name the captain and first mate exchanged knowing glances.
Suddenly the ship tilted sharply and the man Bones had defeated slid on the floor with the sharper angle. Bones tracked him with the K5 until he came to rest on the other side of the room against the control console.
Maddock hopped over the sliding man and pounced on the captain, putting him into a control hold, one arm locked around his neck, the other bending an arm back. His gun was back in his waistband but with Bones armed he felt he could handle the captain without it.
“Take me to the satellite-phone or I break your neck!” Maddock didn’t know if the man was faking his lack of English so as not to have to communicate, so for effect he applied additional pressure to the control point he had on his neck.
“Okay! I show you! Please stop.”
Maddock eased up on the hold but still maintained firm control of the man, who continued talking.
“Why you want? Do no good. No help coming.”
“So you do speak English.”
“Little,” the captain gasped in Maddock’s hold.
“Take me to the phone!”
“Ship sinks! Must go!”
“After the phone!”
The roll of the ship grew even more pronounced. Even Bones took notice.
“Now or never, Jim.” He gave Maddock a look that said he was seriously concerned for their well-being. Then he pointed outside the window to the water, where the first of the Mizuhi crew could be seen swimming for their lives away from the sinking ship and toward the flaming atoll.
“The satellite phone!” Maddock shook the captain, who pointed somewhere above his head.
“Keith, cover him.” Maddock released the captain. He tried to walk to where he was pointing, but slipped and fell as the ship rolled precariously. Water splashed on the bridge windows. Maddock pushed to his feet and staggered to the section of console where the captain had pointed. Looking up he saw a closed cabinet. He reached up and opened it and saw a black plastic case.
He took it down and opened it.
“Sat-phone!”
“Charged?”
“Always the worry-wart, aren’t you, Keith?”
And then the ship canted sideways until it lay nearly flat on the side where Maddock had blasted a hole.
