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“Commander, should we stop for our men?”
“It serves no purpose,” said Ali. “Keep on the present course, as fast as you can possibly go.”
THEY WERE GAINING ON THE SHARK BOAT, BUT VERY SLOWLY.
Da
“Colonel, if the pirates hijacked the Shark Boat, we should just blow it out of the water,” said Da
“I don’t disagree,” said Dog over the Dreamland frequency. “But we’re out of Harpoons. We have no more weapons aboard.”
“What about the Abner Read?”
“I have to check their status, but it wasn’t good a few minutes ago. They’re fighting to save their ship.”
“I have bullets,” said Zen. “I’ll turn them into Swiss cheese if I have to.”
“Slow them down, so we can get a boarding party on,”
said Da
“I think that’s going to be too risky, Da
“If you shoot up the ship, our people on it will die. There were five men aboard when the search parties left to search the area where the Osprey went down.”
“I don’t know if it makes sense to risk your lives to save people who already might be dead,” said Dog.
Aboard the Abner Read
0110
WHEN JENNIFER MADE HER WAY BACK TO THE WEREWOLF
station, she found that Werewolf One had been taken down by the explosion. But Two remained in its orbit to the west, still circling in the holding pattern she’d given it. Roughly twenty minutes of fuel sat in its tanks, but there was no way SATAN’S TAIL
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it was going to get back down to the wrecked deck of the Abner Read. In the meantime, the datalink into the Dreamland circuit was offline; she isolated the problem and decided she could fix it—maybe—with a simple reboot of the computer controlling the communications link.
She pulled on a headset and listened, waiting for a chance to ask Storm about it.
The captain sounded as calm as ever—more so, actually.
The men responded quickly, and she realized that they thought they were going to make it.
How much of the credit for that belonged to Storm?
Some, at least. His calm demeanor as well as his orders had helped steady them during the worst crisis.
“Captain, I have two questions,” she said finally.
“Yes?”
Je
“How slight?”
“Two percent.”
“Do it. Next question?”
“Werewolf Two is nearly out of fuel. If it would be useful to survey the ship, I can fly it overhead and try and get the infrared directly. Otherwise, I should try and land where it can be recovered later.”
“Can you land it on the Shark Boat covering the operations?” Storm asked.
“Possibly. It depends on whether I can get the co
“Captain, Shark Boat One is the boat we’re having trouble reaching,” said Eyes.
Before Storm could answer, someone else broke onto the line, talking about damage to the ship, and Storm began talking to him. Je
DALE BROWN’S DREAMLAND
bothering with a full diagnostic, she tried plugging into Da
“Whiplash leader, this is Werewolf. What’s your status?”
“We’re ten or fifteen miles from shore, pursuing the Shark Boat,” said Da
“What’s going there?”
“We’ve been heavily damaged, but we’re still afloat,” she said. “Are you saying Shark Boat One has been taken by the pirates?”
“We’re not sure, but it looks that way.”
“I can get the Werewolf there,” she said. She hit the feed—she had voice communications, but no visuals on the Dreamland cha
“Could you buzz the ship and take a look at what’s going on?” he asked.
“Yes. Give me your GPS reading so I know where I’m going.”
“Stand by.”
Aboard the Wisconsin
0118
ZEN CHECKED ON HAWK TWO FLYING OVER THE BEACH AREA in a preprogrammed mode, then went back to Hawk One, edging in the direction of Shark Boat One as the control buoy left Wisconsin’s bomb bay.
“In the water,” said Ensign English over the interphone.
“We’re good to go.”
“Zen, let’s take a look at that Shark Boat.”
“Flighthawk leader.”
Zen pushed Hawk One northwestward; he was roughly seven minutes from an intercept.
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“Flighthawk leader, this is Werewolf.”
“Go ahead, Werewolf.”
“I’m headed toward the Shark Boat.”
Zen smiled. “Race ya.”
Gulf of Aden
0120
DANNY COULD SEE THE LOW FANTAIL OF THE SHIP THREE HUNdred yards away. They were finally closing in on them.
Dog was right; risking the lives of the others to take the ship didn’t make sense.
Still, he was boarding that ship.
He flipped the visor into the infrared scan from the Flighthawk, but the aircraft was too far to give him a useful image.
“What do you think, Da
“When the Flighthawk gets here, we see if we can figure out who’s where on board. Then maybe we have the Flighthawk get their attention. We hop on. I don’t think there’s many people there—I can’t see anyone on the rear deck.”
“The rear deck would be pretty wet,” said Dancer. “Going to be very slippery, even with no one shooting at us. Why do you think they haven’t turned to fight?”
“I’m guessing they think we’re on their side,” said Da
“But maybe they can’t see us. Shit.”
“Shit?”
“Hang on.” Da
“I don’t know.”
“Well, check. And have them cut if it is.”
“Will do—look, I’m about ten minutes from you.”
“We’ll be here.”
386
DALE BROWN’S DREAMLAND
*
*
*
ALI LOOKED AT THE SCREEN. IT SEEMED TOO GOOD TO BE
true—the target box squared and locked on the aircraft carrier.
The screen blanked, then came back.
It had to be the target.
“You’re sure it’s the aircraft carrier?” he asked Habib.
“I think so, Commander.”
What did he have to lose?
The element of surprise. The Ark Royal showed no sign that it knew they were there. Ali knew from experience that the Shark Boat could probably avoid radar detection until the very last minute.
If he was interpreting what he saw properly, the Ark Royal had two aircraft aloft. They were flying north of the aircraft carrier near Yemen. They would probably spot him and respond if he fired the Harpoons. The British had only two escorts with her; Ali knew one would be primarily for air defense and the other antisubmarine warfare. More than likely, the Shark Boat would be a match for both in a surface encounter—but only if she were ma
The American weapons would not miss. It was worth the risk.
There was another aircraft twenty miles to the east, close to the coast, and other icons they couldn’t make out. But it was irrelevant—he had to act now. God willed it.