Feeding the Fish

The Kozanostra is slowly drifting out to sea, lazily turning sideways with the retreating tide. I can't slow my heartbeat... it is pounding after the exhilaration of our liberating the yacht. It all happened so quickly. Nine men dispatched, and one made prisoner, all in a matter of ten minutes time. Two of our friends lay dying and I fear there isn't much we can do for them. Chris can be saved, if he wants to be. But I think Bear is on his way out.

"Hey..."
I turn away from my thoughts and Lou waves me up toward him.
"We need to search the rest of the boat. There was a whole crew when we were here last, I want to make sure they aren't tied up in some storage locker somewhere."

This time we go together, starting with the lower deck where I had killed four men. We make our way down the steps.
"Chris? It's Lou and Jake. Safety your weapon... okay?"
Silence.
Lou looks down at the two bodies in the hallway, "Your handywork?"
I nod.
"Chris?" I wave an empty hand around the corner and pull it back quickly. Then chance a look. He is laying there, eyes still open, Uzi still in hand but lowered to the mattress. Lou steps in behind me and steps over the two pirates that Chris iced and then walks over to him, removing the Uzi from his lazy grip.
"Oh shit... " He looks at the bloody stump where his foot had been, and the puddle of blood in the sheets. "We need to get him some help, like now." He takes his pulse, then lifts his eyelids one at a time. "You in there?"
Nothing.
"We better make a quick sweep of the boat and then fire it up and get back to Puerte Barrios. They will have a doctor there."

After kicking open a lot of doors and storage lockers, opening hatches and even checking bilges, we find no one. It is only the four of us and our new hostage.
We find the armory that I had seen on our last visit when Jorge gave me the walking tour. Not a priority at present, but we know where extra fire power is if we need it.

We step up onto the flying bridge and eye the controls.
"Can you manage this?" Lou wiggles the throttles and then flips a couple of switches and the panel lights up.
"Yeah, no problem." I throw the switches marked blower and vent the engine spaces. "What are you going to do?"
"I am going to find the medical kit and see if there is any morphine... anything to get Chris right before we head out. Then I'm gonna have a little talk with our prisoner... ten questions I think, then I will start to get to the really important subjects."
That freaks me out a little.
"Hey, what about Blanco?"
Lou looks out into the darkness, then reaches over onto the panel and turns on the ship to shore radio. "Try him on this. If he doesn't respond, then try the horn." He taps on the button and the air-horns scare the shit out of us.

Before I get ready to fire up my engines I hear a couple of seconds of automatic gunfire, then another few seconds of gunfire followed by the sight of the two runabouts that were tied to the fantail taking on water alongside us.

With that I am left to maneuver us out of the bay and out into the open ocean. I start both engines and allow them to idle for moment or two before putting the huge boat in gear and heading out over the small breakers into the deep blue of the Caribbean. As I power up to quarter speed, I see a light signaling me from about a thousand yards off my port side. Blanco must be watching from the Morgan with the field glasses. I rap on the air horn a couple of times to acknowlege his signal, then power up even more to close the gap. I take it from the horn play that Lou will know what is going on.

Within a minute I am approaching the Morgan, my engines in neutral and then reverse to stop us in the water alongside Blanco. As I get closer, I hear two big splashes.
"LOU?"
I watch as Blanco throws a line to Lou on deck somewhere near the fantail and out of sight beneath this deck of the ship.
As if on cue to my still unanswered question about the splashes, the ship is engulfed in a halo of light beneath the water line. On my control panel, a switch that reads "Swimming Lights" glows. Lou has lit the macabre feeding frenzy of a couple of dozen tigersharks, six to ten feet long if they are an inch, tearing away at the flesh and bone of the pirates we killed upon boarding. I turn my head at the sight of it, but then am drawn back out of morbid curiousity.
There is another huge splash and the fury of the feeding sharks grow. The churning water is crimson as the last body is tossed on top a writhing tangle of shark leather.

"LET'S ROLL, JAKE." Lou calls from the fantail and I push both throttles forward. The last I see of the pirate meal is the dashing of several large tigers with whole limbs in their grasp, dodging the other predators while they try to ingest their take.
I turn to the darkened skys to our west and power up for Puerto Barrios. Before long, I hear someone coming up the steps to the bridge. Blanco steps beside me and stands for a moment in admiration of the craft we are on.
"Louis... he want you." That deep calm voice doesn't seem to be rattled by anything; death, torture, a six pirate happy meal for local sealife.
"You'll like her... " I give a nod to KOZANOSTRA, "It's like steering a condo complex."

I find Lou on the fantail, his pirate captive whimpering over the loss of what looks like a pinky finger on the deck next to him.
"Get any answers?"
"I haven't asked any questions yet."
"What happened to his finger?"
"Bear is dead."
I am not much for torture, but in this instance I feel it is justified, especially after what these guys have done to Bear, and Chris, and our buddy Agaki.
"What about the crew? Jorge? That Captain? Shit, man there had to be a dozen people on this boat."
"I asked him about the others. He said that he got here after they took the boat, that those people had gone over the side... that he didn't have anything to do with their deaths."

All dead. This is a fucked up deal to say the least. I just want to get the hell out of here and back to El Corazon. I am done with this shit.
"What now?"
Lou stands and stretches, "Well, I gave Chris a double dose of morphine. We need to drop him off in Puerto Barrios and then we are going to go find this little fucker's boss." He puts the boots to the pirate, who screams like a little girl as he tries to fend off the attack.

It takes a fraction of the time to make the marina in this behemoth. We actually shut her down a ways out and transfer Chris to the Morgan to let Blanco take him in. The less anyone sees of the KOZANOSTRA, the fewer questions will be asked.

"Now Whitey, you tell the doctor that this man was attacked by a shark and you rendered assistance. Don't mention the pirates, the yacht, us, or anything else and we all might get out of this without a hassle." Lou looks to him for understanding and gets it with a shallow nod. Lou reaches out and grabs his forearm in a friendly and respectful shake. "You're a good man, Whitey. We'll all do some drinking, eating, and fucking when we are done with this, okay man?"
Blanco smiles widely and gives us a wave as he climbs onto the Morgan and casts off.

We watch him as he motors toward the lights of the town and then we turn to our captive. Lou squats down next to our pirate.
"You, little shit, are going to tell us where we need to go. Got it?"
He nods.
I look at Bear's body, "What about old Bear, we can't take him into to town... too many questions."
"I think we will bury him at sea. He would have liked that."

After we are underway, I set the GPS/NAV system to hold a course while we take care of Bear. Lou already has a bottle of very expensive Scotch and three cigars he found in the bar. We light ours and put Bear's in his shirt pocket. We both take a long swig off the bottle... I don't care much for Scotch even if it is the best money can buy, but in this case it goes down with reverence. Lou has already cut the bindings that held him as he was tourtured. We cap the bottle and put it under his shirt, then send him and the chair over the side.

This whole ceremony hasn't done much to improve our moods. Out comes the knife and Lou steps toward the pirate. I would have just as soon see the bastard dead and this whole thing done with, but it is never that simple. We came down here to get rid of these stones, and these guys won't stop coming until we do.
Lou cuts the rope, leaving the one around his hands, and pulls him to his feet. He is dragged to the bridge where we have him tell us everything about who he works for, where they are, and what they want. He seems most co-operative. A course is layed in and we turn slightly as the computer adjusts our heading.

We are going to rendezvous with an old Costa Rican Navy ship turned private yacht ten miles out to sea from where the KOZANOSTRA was at anchor in the cove. This is where we will find her. Yes... her. These pirates, the men in the planes, the men that sank the boat and killed Arnold Menton/Arturo Montoya, all work for one woman. Why she wants the diamonds, and what it will take to get her off our backs isn't part of this guys common knowledge. He is a just a worker, and even with the prompting of several cigar burns, he doesn't seem to know anything else.

There are handcuffs in the armory that we use to confine our pirate once again. While we are down there, we take stock of what ole Bear has in inventory. Lou pulls an FN/FAL .308 automatic rifle and a couple of clips of what he says are armor piercing rounds.
"If we are going to get into a fire fight with another ship, you might as well have something that can penetrate... and this is it." He pulls the clip from the rifle and then works the action. "Someone has taken good care of this stuff."
I look at the fifteen or so rifles and submachine guns... all Greek to me. "I'll take one of those."
"What the fuck... your not shopping for Polo shirts. One of what?"
"What you have?"
"Sorry, only one. And if you don't mind me saying so you couldn't handle this gun. It will walk right out of your hands and you would blow your own head off."
"Oh... yeah? Well what do you suggest then?"
"Go and get that Uzi from Chris' room and the one you had earlier and double up some clips, all you can find." He pulls four clips from the top drawer of the armory that are meant for the Uzis. "If it comes down to a gunfight, you'll do your best work just spraying the living shit out of them."

When I return to the armory with my weapons, Lou has my clips taped and then sets a box of cartidges up on the counter. "There is only six clips, so reload what you used earlier and start with those. Then you can use the doubles."
He gives me a nudge... "Look what I found."
With that he pulls open the bottom drawer of the armory and reveals what looks like a couple of rocket launchers.
"Holy shit."
"Damn right."
"What is it?"
"That is an RPG-18 Soviet type rocket propelled grenade launcher. Not much on the battle field. Kind of old, short range. But out here at sea, in close, we could probably sink just about any pleasure craft. It will sure as hell blow a hole below the water line in a steel hull."
"Great."
"Hey..." Lou seems pissed that I don't realize the beauty of this. "This is a hell of an advantage, man. This fucking thing will penetrate twelve inches of conventional armor. If this bitch turns out to be someone that can't accept the fact that we are through with this shit, then we will give her something else entirely to worry about."

Boarding Party

Seconds pass like minutes as we stand frozen in the sand, listening for any sign that we might have been discovered during our murderous hunt. While I watch the yacht in the silver of the moonlight, Lou silently steps by me and into the water that is lapping at the beach. He doesn't make a sound as he glides into the knee deep, then waist deep water. He has wiped the diving knife and now returned it to the sheeth and is holding his pistol at the ready.

I am still, just the wind in my ears as the warm breeze off the water whispers up the beach. I watch as Lou clamps the pistol in his mouth and reaches up and grabs hold of the line that holds the ship to the beach. Now he works, hand over hand, until he is up to the bow, his climb rocking the KOZANOSTRA slightly with each swing. It is not discernable from the motion of the sea.
My turn. I wade out into the surf, make the rope and hold the forty-five in my teeth until I get a hand on the line. I use my free hand to pull the pistol and tuck it in my waist-band... too heavy to chomp on all the way out to the bow of this ship.
The rope is thick, almost too thick to get a good hold of. I feel my hands slip with every swing, only saving myself from falling with the new purchase a few feet up the line. Before I know it, I feel Lou's steel grip on my arm, helping me up and over the bow.

Nothing but silence as we crouch in the bow of the ship. There are no windows forward except on the upper deck. Near the anchor windless is circular alcove of seats that we dive into. There is a stark contrast between our dark appearance and the white of the gel-coat on the ship. We get as low as possible and check our weapons and clips. Both of our clips were dunked when we waded in. With a quick sling into the night air, the bulk of the water is cleared and we place them back in our pockets.
Lou gets behind me now and his hands come up, one across the front of me... cupping my chin, the other palming the back of my skull. He gives a quick movement to show me what would need to be done, then turns me to look at him. He repeats the motions, this time without my head as a visual aide. His motion is quick and forceful. This is what it will take to bring one of these men down silently.
Oh great.

We do a little recon work now, slipping down the side of the ship, crouching under windows... sneaking a peak to see if anyone is in the lounge or the galley. No one visible through the windows. There is a door amidships. We open it slowly and listen. There is a lot of commotion somewhere below decks, a group moving to the aft part of the ship.
"I'm going to cut her loose." Lou whispers in my ear. "That should add to the confusion." He pauses for a moment when we both hear yelling somewhere below decks. After a beat, he continues... "You make your way to the engines and disable them. When they come down to check it out, you take them out."
I look at him, "Okay. What are you doing again?"
"I will make my way back and see if I can take a few of these guys out to equal things out a bit."

With that, Lou is gone an I am crouched in an open doorway at the top of a set of steps. Oh shit. He obviously thinks I can do this... so I will. I take the steps slowly, stopping after the second one to recheck the round in my pistol, still there. Now more steps, circling around until I can see the carpeted passageway. I wait and watch for shadows coming or going but see nothing. I peer forward and then aft as quickly as possible, looking for any sign of these guys. This is all staterooms. I see no one, and no engine room. If there is a way to get there from here, I cannot see it. With a quick move I check each room looking for hostages, or bad guys, but find nothing but a cigar in an ashtray and a couple of half eaten sandwiches.
I have to find the damn engine room.

When I come up from below decks I can hear them now. They are yelling, screaming above the pain of their victim as he is mercilessly tortured. It makes my skin crawl. I look out the door and forward to see if Lou is still up front, but he has done his job and is making his way back, probably on the other side of the ship. There is an almost imperceptible movement as the yacht is pulled out to sea by the retreating tide.
I step back inside and enter the main salon. There, through the main room and out onto the fantail of the ship, I can see the pirates. There are five of them in view. Bear is tied to a metal chair and one of them holds a lit butane torch. They are shouting questions that I can't really hear, and then apply the torch to the under side of the chair until he starts to cook. I can't watch, but they can... and that is good for me. Crouching down I make the distance from the top of the steps to the side of the glass doors that will allow me access to another set of stairs. These should lead to the engine room... one way or the other.

The pirates egg each other on, yelling and screaming at the top of their lungs as Bear screams in agony. For whatever reason he hasn't given us up yet. Lou raised doubt in my mind about Bear, but it seems that he is keeping us his secret. But then it comes out... his reason. The pirates remind him that Agaki has been executed, and that he will be next if the truth does not surface soon. I think Bear knows all to well that he will not live. His only satisfaction is to deny these pirates what they want.
While they press him for answers, I crack the door and then slip out and into the circular stairway. As I descend I can hear them slapping him, trying to get him to regain consciousness. There is a curious smell of cooking flesh that I feel I will remember until my dying day.

At the bottom of the stairs I am standing in what must be the crew's quarters. There are voices coming from behind a metal door forward in the compartment. This must be the engine room. As I am contemplating my next move, the handle moves and the door opens. I dive into an open stateroom and try to hide. Inside this room I find Antonelli, thrown on the bed. His leg almost has me pissing myself it looks so bad. Blue from the knee down becuase of a lack of circulation, and the foot gone from above the ankle. There is some dark blood pooled in the bedspread, but he is not dead. I can see life in the slits of his eyes as they follow me around the room.
"Chris?" I whisper, "Can you hear me?"
There is a slight nod.
"How many of them?"
He opens his right hand twice, spreading it slightly.
"Ten?"
Another nod.
"We killed three on the beach. Are they part of the ten?" As I ask my question I can hear someone pissing in a head next to this stateroom. I hold my hands up and let Chris know that I will be back in a moment.
Beyond an open door is the pissing pirate. He is about my size with a rifle slung over his back and a pistol tucked in a broad leather belt. He has no shirt some ratty looking pants. The smell, like a Turkish prison, almost moves me back out of the small room. But I can't go. I have to take care of this... right now.
He is almost finished, just ready to tuck and turn, when I grab him simultaniously from the chin and the back of the head. I grab and pull, following through... so to speak. I snap his neck so quickly and brutally that it is two thirds of the way around and looking at me as the man expires. I drop him like I had just touched dog shit. It scares me how easy that went. I pull his body into one of the crew's bunks and pull the covers over him.

I return to Antonelli's room and he motions to the closet. He communicates to me to turn the bottom drawer pull. I do.
There is a rush of air moving a piston, and then a reveal shows itself with two Uzis and two extra clips. I load one and hand it to him. Without a word he slips it under the covers and then winks. I take the other, tucking my pistol away. I pocket the extra Uzi clip and pull the slide back. With that I leave Chris Antonelli to his fate and seek out the engine room.

There is a circular window in the metal door. I climb the two steps and peek inside. There is one man in the space. I must have just killed the other... his partner. If there were ten to begin with... three gone on the beach, five on deck, then this is the remaining man below decks. I slowly turn the latch and crack the door. There is a lot of noise in the engine room, a generator running to supply the yacht with electricity. When I step in the other man does not turn. He is expecting his friend to return.
The man speaks, something in French... I think. He still does not turn, but flips between blueprints that layout the different spaces and compartments of the ship. If I am going to do this again the time is now. My window of opportunity is quickly closing.
Now a question. He asks it a second time and begins to turn. I am almost on him, but now the element of surprise is gone. To my right is a fire bottle in a holder on a support beam. As I pull it from its spot the pirate sees me, but it is too late. I crack him across the face with it. Even though I have knocked a couple of teeth loose on the man, he still goes for a pistol as I am taking another swing. This one seems fatal as I whip the fire extinguisher across the top of his skull and he folds. His gun clatters to the ground and he follows. I grab an arm and drag him out of the center of the space... out of view of the small window.

The plan has changed a bit. I didn't have to lure anyone into the engine room. Disabling the engines would be a waste of time. I approach the metal door and take a quick look through the window as I start to turn the handle and stop in my tracks. Two more of the motley crew come down the steps from the upper deck and barrel into the stateroom holding Chris. The rapid gunfire from the Uzi stops their two heartbeats. The noise alerts the remaining pirates on deck. Two more race down the steps, stopping short of the doorway into the stateroom, pistols at the ready.
I burst through the metal door and spray both sides of the doorway with nine mil rounds from my Uzi. Two more down.
"Chris... you okay?" I think I whispered that, but my ears are ringing. I step over to the doorway and am careful to slowly show my weapon and then myself. Chris is holding the Uzi at arms length, the barrel still smoking. His eyes are wide with rage. He wants more. I hold up a finger. One more.

Up the stairs I go. I can hear the remaining pirate call out a name, then another. He repeats himself, but then falls abruptly silent. I make the landing on the next deck and then spy around the corner. I can see Bear's feet still tied to the metal chair, the pirates feet beyond his... almost standing on the tips of his toes, and a pair of familiar shoes behind them.

Lou holds the large knife to the man's throat, lifting him with the blade under the back of the jawbone. "You like cooking things you little motherfucker? Huh? I think those sharks out there will eat their meat raw."
"LOU... he is the last one."
There is a bit of a pause. Disbelief I guess.
"You killed the others? Are you sure?"
"Antonelli said there were ten. Three on the beach, two in the engine room, two that Chris mowed down, and two more I killed outside his room. Yep... that is the last one."
"Come here."
I stand and walk over the pair of them. Lou has that knife blade cutting into the first few layers of skin. If Lou makes any kind of move he will kill him.
"We may need to talk to this one." I say with the calmest voice I can muster.
Lou eases up on the man's neck. "Hold my knife."
I reach out and take it. Lou shifts his grip and traps the man in a sleeper hold that drops him to the deck. "We need some rope. He will only be out for a moment or two."

After we have hog tied the pirate and leave him on the deck we check out Bear. Lou finds a pulse but recoils at what has been done to him. Without moving him from the chair, we can already tell from the oozing of melted fat and blood that they have succeeded in burning off much of the flesh that was in contact with the metal chair. He is out of his misery for the time being, unconscious and barely breathing. We decide that Chris may be more of a priority, although it doesn't seem likely that either will live through the night.

Pirates

We have shut the engine down and are silently slicing through the water, using up what is left of our momentum before we are at the mercy of the sea. The sails had come down when we sighted the KOZANOSTRA at anchor some three and a half hours after we had left the marina in Puerto Barrios, Blanco handling the Morgan through some tricky winds and currents.

Lou has been very quiet. It bothers me. So far I have seen him kill a few people and he seems pretty hard when it comes to that kind of thing. But now for some reason his usual spark is not there and he is simmering on something.
"Lou... "
Silence.
"What's your bag, man?"
He turns and looks at me in the darkness with what I can only assume is that "thousand yard stare" that you heard about in regard to the soldiers in Viet Nam. I hold his stare... it is cold and vacant, unseeing.
"Lou."
He pulls back from whatever vision he is having and now is looking at me, I think. "Yeah?"
"Jesus Christ, Lou, you're freaking me out with this shit."
"I think old Bear is one of the bad guys." Lou keeps his eyes locked on mine and fishes in front of him in the cloud shrouded moonlight. He comes up with his beer and takes a long draw, finishing it and then tossing the empty overboard.
Blanco snaps his fingers to get our attention and then holds his finger up to his lips. "Shhhh... "

We can see movement up on the deck of the KOZENOSTRA. Blanco produces some field glasses and peers through them for the moment. He hands them to me and points to the boat.
"Pirates."
On the fantail of the yacht there are a couple of open runabouts with outboard engines tied to the stern cleets. Blanco speaks in low tones with his thick accent, "These Pirates they come silently in the night and board the boat while others sleep. They kill everyone and take."
"Take what?"
"Everything."
"Let me see those." Lou says, yanking the field glasses away from my eyes.
"Hey... "
"We are going to be on them quick enough. We need a plan." Lou reports as he scans the situation. He is the one with the battlefield planning skills. The fact that he is here with us now attests to his success at it.
"Wait... something is happening." Lou whispers.

On the yacht they have turned on spotlights on the stern and aimed them into the water. Even without the field glasses we can see that the pirates have grabbed one of their hostages. From our vantage point we can't see who it is, but Lou can.
"That's Antonelli. They have a rope around him. " He watches for a second, "Oh shit, they cut him."
We watch in horror as they push him off the back of the boat. Before he hits the water the scream from him being sliced open hits the Morgan, then the splash when he is already in and under water.
"They cut him?"
"On the bottom of his foot, it looked like."
"What the fuck?"
"It bleeds more, and he will have to kick it to stay afloat."

We can hear hollering from the yacht as they bring Bear to the fantail to watch the show. There is yelling from both the pirates and Bear, they want information from him and they are willing to kill his son in front of him to get it.
"We've got to do something." I take the field glasses from Lou as he scrambles down in to the cabin. I look at the magnified scene and see the fins circling the darkened water. His screaming takes on a high pitch as he is yanked down in the water momentarily. They haul him up out of the water and let him swing in the breeze for a moment. The foot is gone and he his bleeding profusely.

Bear struggles between the two men holding him. The pirates swing Antonelli back over to the boat and tie a tourniquet above the calf. Chris hangs from the rope under his arms, passed out from the pain and shock of the attack.
Lou is up on deck now, his face blackened with either shoe polish or something from the engine compartment.
"Fire us up, Whitey. Let's motor around and to the side of their anchorage and we will get off and make our way up the shoreline."
"What's the plan?" I ask him, handing him the field glasses.
"We can't get in close enough with Whitey's boat, so we might as well try from shore." He holds the field glasses up to his eyes and then sweeps the shoreline. "They are close enough to shore that we might have a better chance wading in and then swimming to the anchorage."
"Uh... sharks? What about the sharks."
"Don't be a pussy, Jake."
"I don't think worrying about sharks that just bit the foot off of an old friend makes you a pussy you crazy fucker."
"We will have to take that chance." He drops the field glasses down and looks at me... the old Lou is back.
"Why? You said yourself that Bear is one of the bad guys."
"Bear doesn't matter, Jake. These guys know we are involved. We either stop them or they stop us. Think about it."

I am down in the cabin now. Lou has some foul smelling black grease that he has wiped from somewhere in the engine compartment. I hesitate for just a moment and then wipe it on my face, neck, and arms. I am wearing a darker Grateful Dead tour shirt that should offer plenty of camoflage. I grab the Springfield Armory forty five and check the load. I had topped off the clip when we left the marina. I stuff the extra clip in my pocket and return to the deck.

Blanco has the engine running just above idle, making a couple of knots as we give the yacht a wide berth. We take a down wind course, hoping the slight engine noise we are making will be lost to the sound of the sea. The Morgan makes the point and we slip behind it, working our way up to the beach.
Lou draws his finger across his throat and motions toward the beach. Blanco cuts the engine and noses us in toward the glowing sands. The clouds have cleared, offering a moonlit night that would be the envy of any vacationer. When the Morgan grounds out on the sand, we are over the side. Lou has the diving knife in his teeth and holds the Kimber and extra clip out of the water. I do the same with my gun and clip. With a shove the Morgan is free of the island and Blanco takes her back out into deep water.

Once on the beach, we make quick work of the distance to the point and around. The KOZANOSTRA is close to shore. It is not truly at anchor, but actually has a line running to shore and tied off to a stand of Palm trees.
"Good, they tied her off rather than drop anchor." Lou says over his shoulder as we approach that spot on the beach. "They do that so they can make a quick escape by just cutting the rope rather than wait for the anchor to be hauled up and stowed."
Lou throws up a hand. He motions to a flickering light where the beach meets the jungle. We both drop and lay on the sand, our blackened appearance working against us. There is a laugh and then conversation continues around the fire. Lou motions to me and it is my understanding that we are going to approach from different directions. The last I see of Lou he has the diving knife in his teeth and is headed up the beach to the left of our friends.

I guess I took the long way around. By the time I make it to the fire, one man is already dead and Lou has the other is his grasp, one hand holding his chin, the other pulls the knife in a quick but deadly motion across the man's throat. He sets the man down without a sound and then motions quickly to me... behind me. I turn and see the knife slashing out toward my chest. I leap back, startled and not at all prepared. In an instant I have to consider the noise he may make at any moment to alert the others on the ship, how I am going to kill him without making a sound, how he may kill me. But all of this is mute when I hear the knife zip past me and lodge in his chest.
The look of surprise on his face is as wide as my own as he drops to his knees in front of me, dropping his knife and grasping the base of the diving knife. He pulls it slowly, painfully, from his chest... releasing the air from his lung in a froth of blood and foam. All I hear is a wheezing outflow from him and he falls face first into the sand.

We turn now and face the yacht at anchor. No one has been alerted to what just happened. There is movement at the stern of the ship. They have stopped the torture session for the time being. There might be time enough to slip on board unnoticed, to find out what we are up against. One thing for sure... three less to worry about.