“Why don’t we just find all the big red buttons and press them?”
“Works for me let’s do it before they catch us.”
So that is what we started to do. We ran around the engine room pressing any red button we could find. The engines still ran on. We really could use that engineer to appear. The engineer did not appear what did happen was a barrage of gunfire erupted; fortunately none of them hit us.
“Lay down your guns and we will not kill you” A voice from somewhere above us shouted as soon as the gunfire had stopped
I checked our position. I could not see anyone, which meant that they must be to the opposite side of the bulky control panel.
“What do you reckon Lachie?”
“I say we fight because no matter what they claim they are going to try to kill us”
“How many flash bangs you got left?”
“Two. What about you?”
“Just the one”
“How much ammo you got?”
“Four clips and a few in the one I am using, plus the Mossberg with about twenty rounds for that.”
“This engine panel should stop most of the small arms fire, but if they have anything heavy then we will be screwed?”
“Andy. We shoot better than they do let’s just hold them off as long as we can and take as many of them with us as we can. It should buy Abdalla and Hans some time. They will want to save their ship, rather than a few hostages. I think I can make it to that other control panel over there if you give a bit of distraction. That way we can force them to shoot at two targets. Which will leave them open to our attacks.”
I pulled the pin on my one remaining flash bang and mouthed the words ‘One, Two, Three’ on three I lobbed the flash bang towards where the gunfire had previously come from. Lachie waited another two seconds and then rolled towards the second control panel as the flash bang exploded and reverberated inside the engine room. The thing about flash bangs if they don't actually cause any real bodily damage, unless of course you are actually sat on top of one that is. What they do, is they disorientate. The brilliant white flash causes temporary blindness. Then there is the compression wave from the actual explosion, it can literally knock the wind out of you. Then the noise from the explosion can make you temporarily deaf. I closed my eyes so as not to be blinded by the white light flash, I also kept my mouth open. When Lachie had reached his position, I slid over two of my spare clips.
“Andy did Abdalla say that these BAE electronic sights are blue tooth?”
“He said lots about them but he lost me when he started talking computer generated synopsis of target acquisition. You know me Lachie I am a relic from an age of slate and chalk. I like the things they do but don’t understand how they work.”
“I am sure he said they were and I know our PDA units are blue tooth, as I have seen Jane send the info to them that way. If I am right then we should be able to connect the Sights on our Sig Sauer’s. Fire a couple of shots at them and I will see if I can connect my sight to my PDA.”
“OK whatever you say.” I carefully peeked out and saw where a man was crouched behind a large pump of some form. I could see his feet from my position and put a red dot on one of them and carefully squeezed of a single shot. I was rewarded with an agonising scream. I knew the bullet had struck perfectly on the ankle bone. It would have entirely shattered the bottom section of both the tibia and fibula. It had in all probability completely destroyed the talus bone. The bullet would have crippled this man for life, were he to live long enough to have one. As he fell sideways his head came into view and I recognised him as the man who had previously tried to shoot us down with the RPG. Several months ago I would have felt empathy to him as a wounded man. My life had changed in some ways for the better. I was financially set for life. Other ways I had changed and these were not for the better. I knew if I let this man have a second chance at life, he would not change the way he thought, nor would he become a kind and gentle person. He would be the same evil scumbag, as no doubt he had been for his entire adult life. Automatically I shifted the red dot to the centre of his forehead. I knew he had seen the sudden flash of red as the laser sighting had moved across his face on its pathway to the ultimate destination between his bushy eyebrows. The dot had centred right in the middle of the blue ink swastika that was tattooed there. He knew this was it, even as his brain calculated the chances of escaping and had come up with the answer of zero. He would have closed his eyes had there been time between the adjustment in the pressure from my finger to the trigger and then the firing pin striking the priming cap which had instantly allowed the powder inside the casing to explode with enough velocity to send the bullet on its path from my pistol to the back of his head and out into the space beyond. No doubt to strike a piece of metal and then bounce off and fall to the ground with its forward momentum finally spent. The life cycle of a newly born bullet ended just as quickly as the brain that it had exited from.
By my calculations they were now down to between six to ten men. Small arms fire erupted once again from the gantries above the engines. I made my body as small as possible behind the control panel. I could hear the ricochet of bullets as the bounced of the metalwork that I was hiding behind.
“Can you see any of their positions Lachie?”
“I can’t see them Andy, but I know where they are. There are two men to your left and one man somewhere directly above me.”
I connected my BAE sight and my PDA via the Blue-tooth option and was amazed to see that it worked really well. Whatever I pointed the sight at now appeared on the screen of the PDA on my wrist. Carefully I set the sights to thermal and then pointed it to the area directly above where Lachie was. The screen showed a shape crouched behind a wooden crate. What I would have given at this moment for one of the AS50’s, which would have shot clean through the wooden box, but at least I knew where he was.
“Lachie I can see the man above you on thermal he is behind a wooden crate. Set your BAE to thermal and then press the blue tooth button on the side of your sight that should allow you to see them on your PDA but without you sticking your head up for them to take pot shots at”
“OK Andy I have them I can see their feet at the edge of the railings”
“Do you think you could take a couple of shots at their feet, you never know it might make the guy behind the box move into the open, then we will really see if this system is with worth the half million pound price tag.”
“OK Andy, count you down on three.”
As Lachie counted down I steadied my sight on the thermal behind the box. I brought my sights up to a point just above the edge of the box, where I thought the man would move into when Lachie started to shoot at the feet of the other two. It seemed like every minute of my life would bring me to new horrors of war. Nothing like the original life I had signed up for. I had to face facts I was now a battle hardened sniper and assassin for the SIS, as were all the members of Team Seven. Even my father was taking pot shots at living beings. The woman who I hoped would be my future bride and who I had planned to propose too when we were on vacation in Iceland, she was a hired killer like me. Could we ever just become normal people again? At this point I doubted it. Four rapid shots from Lachlan’s Sig Sauer brought me rapidly back to where we were now. Just as I had hoped the man behind the box came up with the intention of firing down at Lachie. I put three rounds into a two inch space just above the box as he came up. All three rounds hit the man in the throat. The consequence of which almost completely severed his head from the rest of his body, which fell backwards behind the box but not before it had spewed about a pint of arterial blood over the box and down towards Lachie’s position.
“What the fuck?”
“Better his than yours Lachie. Did you get them all?”
“I am not sure Andy”
As if to answer the question, a spray of bullets rained down on my position. Fortunately they were using something like an Uzi Micro. Whilst it had a high rate of fire, it was not did not have the velocity of bigger guns. The control panel I was still hiding behind protected me.
“Lachie do you think you could find them with thermal and pin him down for a few seconds.”
“What’s your plan Andy?” to get below him with the Mossberg and put a single slug up through the walkway. It could be that when you shot at him that the metal walkway was strong enough to stop your 9mm. The 12 gauge single ball should work out. If you can put him in the crossfire and that will give us the advantage. How are you doing for ammo?”
“I have a clip and half”
“Use a full clip that will give me more time.”
I gave Lachie a few seconds to change out the clip and then counted down from three. As soon as I heard the second shot from Lachie I half ran and rolled across the back of one of the big engines. Lachie was still firing when I reached the point, where I was directly under the man who was crouched on the walkway.
“Change clips now Lachie and be ready.”
I had already cocked the Mossberg before I made my move. The pump action shotgun was loaded with the new brass cased hollow point 12 gauge shotgun shell by Oath Ammo. It can expand to 2.5", literally to the size of a fist. The centre had a stainless steel ball bearing which was housed in a Solid copper cylinder with pre-sliced outer in order for the Copper to flatten into a star shape on impact. These shells were not just designed to stop trucks these were designed to go through doors and people standing behind them. If you wore a bullet proof vest there was a really good chance that the stainless steel ball would make it through. Either way you would be going down, dead or alive. I had no idea who came up with this form of ballistics but I doubt that they ever made it out on to the battlefield and saw the mayhem for real. They would see it used on a pig’s carcass, which might have the same flesh type as us but that was where the similarity would end. Pig skin is thicker and stringer than ours and pigs have a much more solid layer of fat. So the type of injury that this slug makes on a pigs carcass is nowhere near as destructive as it is on a live human being. This was a weapon that would commit mass destruction on any living thing that stood in front of it. I saw no other option to save both Lachie and myself. I looked at Lachie and nodded. Then pointed the shotgun at the body above me on the walkway and fired once and then ratcheted another shell into the chamber and fired again at the shadow above. Blood flowed freely through the grating of the torn walkway. The air was filled with the smell of cordite and the unmistakable copper-like smell that fresh blood gives off. I had never noticed it before SIS got their hooks into us. It was a smell that I could never get used to. I held back the churning in my stomach that wanted to cast my dinner all over the engine room floor. There should now only be a few bad guys left. The odds were now were becoming even. Actually I thought that now they were stacked in our favour. We went around the bodies and collected up their firearms. I picked up an Uzi Micro and almost laughed at the irony of Neo-Nazis using Jewish weapons made in Israel. By buying Uzi’s directly supported the economy of the state of Israel. We still had to find at least four men, one of which should be the Chief Engineer so that we could disable this ship. Lachie and I had pressed every red button that we could find and the engines were still throbbing on. We checked the rest of the engine room and could find no others.
“Let’s get back on to the main deck and hook up with Abdalla and Hans. Worst comes to the worst we can always sink the ship!”
ACT 43
We made our way up the stairwell and all the way up to the main bridge area and the wheelhouse without any incidents. As soon as we were there, we made contact with Abdalla and Hans. After informing us that all the hostages along crew members including the engineer had been picked up by either Sandy or Stu and that they would be returning to pick us up just as soon as they had them on board the Catherine May. I asked Abdalla if he had seen anything of any of the other members of the Nazi crew. Abdalla said that apart from the initial contact with their guards they had no contact.
“Do you think we should check out some of the containers?”
“We might as well Mr Andy, while we wait for the boats to return.”
We split up, with Abdalla taking the outside port side, Lachie on centre port, Hans on centre starboard and myself checking the line of containers on the outside starboard. This way we were able to check all the rows of containers. We quickly worked our way towards the bridge area making sure that all the containers still had their seals intact. It was Hans that broke radio silence
“The seals on one of the containers in the starboard centre row are missing.”
We all moved over to the row where Hans was standing. The container doors appeared to be closed but as Hans had said the two seals were missing from the latches.
“How should we do this Hans? You are the expert in this sort of thing.”
“Andy we should assume that they still have heavy firepower as in RPG as they have used that on us already and none of us have found one lying around. Let us assume for the moment that the missing men are hiding in here. That being the case as soon as we open the doors there will be a volley of lead and other items coming our way out of the front. So let’s hook some rope over the door handles and hide down the sides of the container, and then pull the ropes to open the doors without us being deliberate cannon fodder”
“That sounds like a reasonable plan” I replied and continued
“I think before we do we should check and see if there are any thermal signatures.”
I played my BAE sight across the sides of the container, nothing showed. Finding two lengths of rope on board a ship is not as easy as you would think. Abdalla had to go back to the front of the ship and retrieve the two safety ropes, that they had used to lower the hostages down to our waiting crafts. When he returned we made loops on the end of the ropes. Hans carefully and quietly hooked a rope over one door and Abdalla did the same on the other I stood behind Hans, Lachie was behind Abdalla with our weapons raised ready to shoot anything that came around the front of the containers. Abdalla counted down and then on one both he and Hans pulled the doors open. We were not hit with a barrage of machine-gun fire or RPGs but with an enormous explosion that was projected forward out of the container doors. Even though we were not directly in front of the doors we were still rocked by the massive concussive blast. More explosions sounded from deep within the bowels of the ship. When I picked myself up I checked on my comrades. I had to do this physically as the explosion had deafened me at least temporarily. This sort of thing was starting to become a bad habit for me. I knew that I would suffer some form of permanent hearing damage from all the explosions and gunfire that I had started to become exposed too. My comrades all seemed to be in one piece even though I was sure none of us could hear. Hans said something, I grabbed hold of him and gave him a shrug. He said something, and again I still could not make out what it was that he was saying. Eventually I got him to mouth the words to me.
“The Ship is BOOBY TRAPPED. They meant it when they said they would blow up the ship. Presumably they were planning to make their escape prior to blowing the ship to bits.”
My ears were ringing and not only could I feel the explosions going off I could now hear them. There were more explosions at the front of the ship so we could not go to the rope ladders that were there.
“Get to the back of the bridge tower, I saw life boats there, like the ones that Stu has”
All of us ran to the starboard side of the ship and then along the walkway at the side. I could tell that the ship was holed and that she was taking on water at an alarming rate. The ship was not listing yet but from the groaning and creaking I knew it would not be long. If we jumped overboard we would never be able to swim far enough away in time. Meaning that we would either be crushed to death by the falling containers, or we would be pulled under in the vortex of the sinking ship. We were literally running for our lives. Another massive explosion tore through the containers at the front of the ship where the hostages had been held. The sky lit up and several containers flew off the deck and into the sea. The breaking of the locking mechanism that held them in place had started a domino effect and a complete row of containers on top of the port side of the ship, pulled each other off the ship and into the sea in a daisy chain.
“Jane do you read over?”
All I got was static.
“Can any of you guys get contact with the Catherine May?”
They all tried but to no avail
“Hans could the signal jammer that we have set up for the Marine band, be interfering with our Storno's?” I shouted as I continued to run to the back of the ship.
“It’s possible but I would doubt it seeing as we were able to communicate previously”
We arrived that the stern of the ship, all at the same time. The explosions were still going off.
“OK now we are here at this big orange torpedo, how the fuck do we operate it.”
“Andy I think they have a self release system controlled from inside the lifeboat and at the moment I would say that the safest place to be with all these explosions going off, is inside that orange tube” Hans said pointing at the lifeboat.
I looked over the railing and down to the water below at the ships wake. Not only was the height of the drop about sixty feet but I could see the tips huge blades of the ships props, kicking out on the surface of the water. This meant two things. One the ship was starting to go nose down in the water and two was that the longer we waited the higher the drop for this lifeboat and the bigger chance of us being dropped right on top of her spinning propellers, which would surely seal our fate. I climbed up the ladder and followed Lachie and Abdalla into the lifeboat that was big enough for about 20 persons. Hans followed me in and pulled the door closed behind and locked it. We were on a set of rails, at an angle of about 45 degrees.
Hans went to the front of the lifeboat and strapped himself into the seat with the small steering wheel in front of it. He flicked several switches and the lights came on.
“Strap into any seat you like, do it now and do the straps tight. As when this baby drops it’s going to hit hard. I think it is like the ones that Stu has on the Catherine May, only not as posh and it’s a much higher drop. Shout out when strapped in.”
I found a seat near the front and strapped in using the full cross harness that was attached to the seat. Hans had started the engines and I could feel the vibrations as the props screamed as they cut through nothing but the salty night air. Lachie and Abdalla shouted they were strapped in. Hans hit a large button marked release, and there was an audible click but nothing else happened. He hit it again with the same result
“Fuck” was all he said
“I think that this is not so good Mr Hans”
“No Abdalla it is not. I think they may have sabotaged the lifeboat release.”
“Mr Hans can it be done from the outside?”
“Yes but the person that does it, would not be able to get back inside in time for the drop”
“Mr Hans I will do it. First though I need to put an immersion suit on so that I do not freeze. Where is the release for the boat?”
“Abdalla you can’t do this. We will find another way”
“It is OK Mister Andy I have a plan but I do not have time to explain it. I just need to know where and how to release the boat.”
Abdalla was already halfway inside an extra large immersion suit
“Abdalla if you look at where I am seated then the release leaver is level with me on the outside frame. It will be a long bar shaped thing with a pin at the bottom. You will have to remove the pin and then pull the leaver all the way back. After that that the boat will drop. But the boat will drop immediately you free it so there is no time to get back on board Abdalla”
“Mister Hans as I have said to Mister Andy I have a plan so please do not worry. I will see you all soon my friends.” With that Abdalla was out of the hatch at the rear of the boat and he had then closed and locked the hatch behind him. I could feel more explosions going on down below us and I thought that the boat was actually starting to list towards the port side as well as going deeper at the front. I heard Abdalla work frantically on the outside banging away at something. I knew he was willingly giving his life to save ours and he had done so without even a thought for his own. This was just the way he was. Suddenly there was a click and the little life boat lurched and dropped into air. Even though I knew it was coming my stomach was not quite prepared for the sudden drop. Then about two or three seconds later the boat hit the water and even though I was strapped in tightly, my body was forced against the harness and it bit into my body. My body felt like it had been thrown against a brick wall. The previous injuries I had received when my home was destroyed came back to haunt me. The pain immediate and intense it almost made me black out. We continued downwards at the same angle and then it slowed and the nose came up and we shot up to the surface of the waves like a cork popping out of a cheap bottle of champagne. The tone of the engines changed as the props now bit into the frigid North Atlantic. I could not see the ship and I knew that we were moving in the opposite direction at about fifteen to twenty knots. My thoughts turned to my friend from Africa. He had given his life in an unselfish act. He knew he was the strongest and as such would have the best chance of releasing the boat from its frame. We would grieve for him when we were safe on dry land. The others were quiet and I knew both of them felt a deep sense of loss as I did. Suddenly there was a banging sound on the side of the hull. I looked first at Lachie and then at Hans. Hans pulled back on the throttles and the boat bobbed up and down on the waves. The banging continued. I unstrapped myself and went to the entry door at the rear of the lifeboat. I pulled the lever down and the cold spray of salty water hit me as the door opened. Holding onto the frame of the doorway I leaned around to look at the side of the boat. Abdalla was there with one of his arms tied to a piece of rope that was then tied to an eyelet on the side of the boat. I shouted for Lachie to come and help me. We pulled the half drowned Abdalla on to the boat and in through the door before we closed and locked it again. We lay him down on the floor Abdalla was coughing up water and he had a good sized gash to his right cheek that would leave a scar, though it would be difficult to tell with all the tribal scarification that Abdalla already had on his face. I pulled an Oxygen bottle from a clip at the side of the door and attached the soft plastic face-mask to it. After just a couple of minutes of breathing pure oxygen Abdalla started to sit up. We helped him into one of the seats.
“Abdalla, you stupid bastard you knew all the time what you were going to do. We all thought that you had died either setting us free or going down with the ship.”
“Mr Andy, Allah and the profit Mohamed, peace be upon them, have more work for me in this life yet. So I think I have to learn more things before I enter heaven.”
“Well I thank you for my life and for that of my comrades here as well.”
“Do they have Rum on the lifeboat Mr Andy?” He said through chattering teeth.
I unpacked a Thermal Blanket and wrapped it around the shoulders of my friend.
“I don’t know about Rum but there should be some brandy in the emergency kit. I will get some for you. Hans, can you contact the Catherine May? Using the emergency radio”
I found the emergency kit and along with emergency rations there was a ½ bottle of some generic brandy. I could hear Hans trying to raise the Catherine May on the radio, but without response. He then tried to contact the Icelandic Coast Guard using the international emergency frequency. This time he got a reply to his Mayday.
“Andy we have a rescue ship on their way to pick us up and I have asked them to also search for the Catherine May but not to intercept her just yet.”
“Thank you, Hans. What do you think has happened?”
“My best guess, honestly would be, that one or more of the Nazi’s have passed themselves off as the crew of the container ship or as one of the hostages. They have then gone to the Catherine May and will have taken control of it”
My mind raced over all the possibilities, and I feared for the safety of all those on board the Catherine May. It was Lachie who broke into my thoughts.
“Andy if they have switched off the radio on the Catherine May. They think that we went down with the Eva Braun. They don’t know we survived so there is still a chance that we can get all of our families and friends back, along with the Catherine May. Hans can you get your equivalent to the SBS to come and help us mount a night time rescue? I am sure that Stu will not allow the engines to be run at their full capability and that he will do everything he can to slow things down.”
“There is a IDF Coast Guard cutter speeding towards us with instructions not to make contact with the Catherine May and the IDF are following her on satellite.”
“Thanks Hans. Let’s work on a rescue plan while we are waiting for our own rescue.”
Over the next hour we tossed ideas back and forth between us. Some of the ideas would require the help of the IDF. People would die that was certain. What remained to be seen was how many of those would be us? I had a duty of care to those friends of ours who were currently on board the Catherine May. Not just because some were our family, because they had chosen to help us, when they did not have to. What we did not know was, just how many of those who had been rescued by us and taken the Catherine May were Nazi’s? Nor did we know if any of our friends and family had managed to hide, or worse, if any of our friends had already been killed. What I did know was, that there was a serious amount of firepower at their fingertips. This would now in all probability be used against us. After almost two hours of bobbing around in the orange tin can that was our lifeboat, we received a transmission from the IDF Coastguard cutter. And a further fifteen minutes later we were being winched on board her deck. Hans opened the door and greeted the sailor in his native Icelandic tongue. We disembarked from the lifeboat and followed the sailor and Hans to the Wardroom of the Icelandic warship.
“You know who I am?” Hans asked the officer who was standing to attention.
“Yes Sir and welcome aboard. We received instructions while at sea. We have a Commando team on board and awaiting your instructions.”
After we were all introduced we followed the officer to another area towards the rear of the ship. A group of twelve men were waiting there for us. All of them were dressed in black Nomex, like ourselves. One man stepped forward. He saluted and introduced himself just as Yan. There was a table set up with a chart of the sea area where we were.
ACT 44
“This is where we are, and here is where your boat is at, just now. She is heading towards the Faeroe Islands at about twelve knots. We have the ability to make twenty seven knots. So we should be within striking distance in about four hours. When we are within range of your boat we plan to launch four electrically powered RIB Craft. They will be manned with three of my men along with a driver and one of you on each. This will be so that you can identify your team on the fishing vessel.”
“Thank you Yan. Can you please re-equip us? As we used up most of our munitions”
“Yes sir my men will be pleased to sort that for you. Also all commands and radio talk will be in English in order for there to be no confusion.”
“How fast is the Electric RIB?” Hans asked
“They are fitted with the latest 22kw engines and we get between 20 and 25 knots depending on the load. So when the Catherine May is about two miles away we will launch and should be on her in about thirty minutes. The RIB craft will be driven by one of this cutters crew. We will kill all of our ships lighting before we are within range. There is plenty of cloud cover tonight and that will help. As soon as we get along side two teams will climb over each side of the fishing boat. Then the RIB will return to this ship. Do you and your friends wish to take command of the operation when we get on-board?”
“Yes Yan, we know the layout better than your men and the owner has made many modifications since he bought it. So I think it would be better for us to command and for your team to support and act as over-watch for us.”
“I will prepare my men. There is hot food and coffee waiting in the next room for you and your friends Sir”
With that the young officer went back to his men and we were escorted to the next room. I had not realised how hungry I was and tucked into a big bowl of chicken casserole along with a mug of black coffee. We had some s