Going Down
"That's it... they shut us down." I try cycling the switches and go for a restart. Another muffled explosion and now the fire suppression light comes on for the engine compartment.
"FIRE."
Lou lifts Jerry off the deck and brushes him off. "Can you make it?"
Jerry gets that sly look in his eye, "Fuck yeah... I can make it. Give me a gun."
Lou looks at me. "Let's empty the armory and bring it all up here on deck. We aren't going down without a fight."
The three of us make our way to the armory and grab armfuls of loaded rifles and shot guns. Jerry picks up a speargun.
"We won't need that." Lou tells him.
"Just in case." Jerry throws the strap over his shoulder. We take a couple of ammo cases loaded with clips, and a couple of shoulder belts stuffed with shotgun shells.
"I can't believe that she is trying to kill us." Lou says to him.
"Who?" I turn and follow the two of them out of the armory and back up toward the flybridge.
Their ship is only five hundred or so yards back. They will be on us within the minute.
"Abigail." Lou stops at the ladder leading up to the flybridge, "the Reina Mortal is Abigail."
He turns and climbs to the flybridge with us in tow.
"No shit."
Jerry nods, "She had her boys beat the shit out of me looking for those diamonds."
"What did you tell her?" Lou doesn't look at him, but at the ship on our tail. It is slowing now and about to come up on us.
"Nothing. I told her I was down here on a run and that was it. I didn't know where you boys were or where you were going." He grabs an M-16 and pulls the clip, tapping it on the deck and then slapping it back into place. With a quick move the bolt is pulled and the gun ready to fire. He tosses it to me.
"I'm sure glad you guys showed up when you did. They were going to throw me overboard."
"Hey, what are friends for." I put the M16 strap over my shoulder.
Jerry does the same for three more rifles and then picks up a shotgun and starts loading shells into it. "She's lost her fucking mind. You know what those stones are worth?" He waits for beat, sliding a couple more shells and then jacking one into the chamber. "Almost ten million dollars. She says they are perfect five carat stones... that they will bring a couple of hundred thousand dollars per carat for a stone of that size."
They fire the deck gun for effect. Because they are following us there is no way they can hit us without overtaking our boat.
"There HEEERE." Lou calls to us, as though company had just shown up for cocktails.
Gunfire errupts from their decks and we immediately engage them. Lou uses the FN-FAL and with single shots picks off two of their members.
I fire back with one of the Uzi's as another pirate pops up to take a shot. I spray him with 9mm ammo and he goes down. The boat is almost stopped, gliding by us... thirty feet off our starboard beam. The deck gun will be on us is a heartbeat.
"JAKE... get down to the engine room and see if there is anything left."
"What about them?"
"Me and Jerry will deal with them."
Jerry peels off a three round burst from the M-16 and another pirate goes down. Another blast and the runabout that they craned on board bursts into flames as the fuel tank is ruptured.
I grab the other Uzi jam a couple of clips down my shorts as I race off the flybridge under a hail of bullets fired from the other ship.
I have no idea what I will find, or what I will be able to do. As I race through the salon to the back to the ladder leading to the crew quarters and engine spaces the deck gun opens up. Two rounds blast through the hull and whistle through the salon and explode on the port bulkhead, the explosion blowing me down the stairwell. There are no more shots from the big gun... not yet anyway. Lou must have silenced the gunner and no one has the balls to take his place.
The blast has me disoriented. I shake it off. My ears are ringing. Red lights are flashing from the fire suppression system that had been activated in the engine compartment. Halon most likely. That stuff will kill you just as easy as the fire if you are in the wrong place at the time.
I look through the small porthole in the door and see that the fire is out.
I open the compartment hatch and set the hold open catch. I am met with the smell of diesel and the choking existance of spent Halon, but much of it has vented. There is a hole through the bulkhead and the starboard engine is totally blown. I can see the hull of the other ship now right outside. That is why they have ceased fire. They mean to board us and get those diamonds. With their ship so close, the deck gun is ineffective.
The port engine looks untouched. The problem is the metal fuel line. Shrapnel from the starboard engine burst must have torn it in half... hence the fire. It is a half inch line, with no chance of repair without a special kit or new line. I look around in the compartment as quick as I can. There is a garden hose with a spray nozzle coiled on a holder on the bulkhead next to the open hatch. I go to the small workbench and start yanking out drawers until I find what I am looking for.
Small arms fire can be heard as Lou and Jerry exchange volleys with the pirates. I hear someone land on the fantail above me, then another. They are boarding. I make quick work of the hose and cut a nice two foot long piece. I look back over my shoulder at the ruptured line and the ragged edges on both sides.
"Damn it." I turn and look for something to smooth the ends so I can slide the hose over them. I find a pair of dykes and run over to the torn lines. As quick as I can I bend and try to quickly smooth the edges. I feed the hose over to the engine side and up about three inches, then work it on to the fuel supply side, all the while being drenched with diesel as it gravity fed from the tanks.
All the while I can hear a fierce gun battle going on above my head. The unmistakable sound of the FN-FAL as Lou peels off one shot at a time. Shotgun blasts... I can hear them in the salon. Jerry must be fending them off as they come on board.
I wipe the lines with my shirt and then take some electrical tape I found in the drawer and seal the ends of the hose patch.
I search the control panel and flip a couple of switches... nothing. I look at the bulkhead and see a red reset button. I slap it and then return to the panel.
"Fuel pump on." I hear the sound of the pump running.
"Blower." I say to myself, jumping slightly with another shotgun blast as it comes from above... closer now.
"Okay, baby... lets go." I turn the switch and engage the starter. It rolls for a second or two and then fires. It is the most wonderful sound I have heard today.
I look for the intercom button and hail the bridge. It monitors... all I hear is gunfire and Lou cursing whoever it is he is shooting at.
"LOU."
Nothing.
"LOU... ENGINE IS RUNNING. GET US OUT OF HERE."
More gunfire and then the intercom goes silent.
"Oh for CHRIST SAKE." I look for the engine room controls put this thing in motion. I find them in the tangle of metal between the two engines. Pushing it forward and engaging the boat in that direction is not going to happen. But reverse looks good. I pull the safety and bring the lever to the reverse position.
The big ship lurches and almost knocks me off my feet. I run to the control panel and give it all she has to give... well maybe eighty percent. Don't want to blow her up out of panic.
I run from the engine room and pull one of the UZI's from around my neck. I slap in a double clip and then eye the stairwell.
You can hear the ships collide and the sound of scraping metal. With that and the diesel screaming along it temporarily drowns out the battle raging on above my head. I take the steps as quickly as possible, looking aft to the fantail first to make sure no one is at my back. Then I look from the top of the stairs into the salon.
Jerry has been shot... again. I can see him pressed up against the bulkhead near the stairwell that goes down to the staterooms. Abigail and one of her men are still standing, two others are down and dead from the looks of them.
"DROP your gun, Jerry." She peels off a shot and it splinters the corner above his head.
"I don't hear your friend's big gun any longer." She chides him, "He is dead, Jerry... and you will be as well if you do not stop this foolishness."
As if on cue, the firing resumes from Lou's big gun. But in return the deck gun from the other boat is firing back now. You can feel the impacts as the gunner walks his shots down the side of the ship and then the bow.
"HEY."
Abigail turns, as does her bodyguard. I let the Uzi rip and draw a couple of lines across the two of them. The man folds with three slugs in his chest. Abigail, whom I wish I had a good hour or two to talk with to find out what the FUCK she is doing out here, drops her gun and clutches her neck and shoulder.
"JERRY... You alright?"
"No, I've been shot... AGAIN. But yes, I am alright." He stumbles into view and we both disarm our two guests. The man is definately dead, but Abigail is still alive. She is bleeding pretty bad from the neck wound.
"GO... " Jerry kneels down next to her tearing his shirt and wadding it. He presses it to her neck. "Go help Lou."
I make it to the fly bridge to find Lou with one hand on the ships wheel, the other struggling to reload a clip. His arm and hand are covered in blood. I see the wound, on the outside of the upper arm. Looks like a through and through.
The other ship is steaming toward us, backward so as to keep the gun trained on us. Lou must have dispatched the good gunner, because now the shots are not hitting us.
"Take the wheel." Lou steps back and I take his place. Just as I thought I was going to get out of this without a scratch a bullet whizzes by and splits my ear open about a quarter inch from the edge. It stings like a mother but I don't even say a word in the wake of my buds getting shot up much worse.
"You better move side to side a little, I have been giving that shitbag a go of it. He hasn't his me with anything for about six rounds."
Hardly a second passes before the deck gun blazes off four shots in quick succession. All of them find their mark and the whole boat shudders.
"Weave, Jake, WEAVE the fucking thing."
"They TOOK those shots before you TOLD me."
I crank the wheel from one side to the next. She is real sluggish and it looks like we are getting closer to the water.
"She's going down, Lou."
"Oh, that's great." He stands and draws a bead.
"Hold her steady for a second."
"Which is it, swerve or steady? I can't do both."
"STEADY Goddamnit."
Another two rounds from the deck gun hit home before Lou lets a clip fly on the FN-FAL in full auto mode. The gunner's head on the other ship explodes and the gun falls silent.
We watch as the pursuit boat slows and then seems to stop. They then change course and head for landfall. They are low in the water and I can only assume that the holes I put in them have been a little too much for the pumps. They are sinking and are trying to make it to the shore before they end up on the bottom.
"We better do the same." Lou looks at the compass. "I think we have been heading out to sea this whole time. We might just be screwed."
He turns the ships wheel until we have the stern pointed back toward Belize. Then grabs the radio and calls out a MayDay.
I turn and head down to the salon to check on Jerry. As I see the waterline from the main deck I realize we don't have much time before KOZANOSTRA is reunited with her owner. The only lifeboat on board is a Zodiak that I passed on the way off the flybridge. It is shot all to hell and of no use at all. I can hear Lou yelling his distress call into the radio as I make the turn into the salon. I am thinking of only one thing right now and it is full of teeth and scary as hell. I can only hope it isn't feeding time in this part of the Caribbean.
"FIRE."
Lou lifts Jerry off the deck and brushes him off. "Can you make it?"
Jerry gets that sly look in his eye, "Fuck yeah... I can make it. Give me a gun."
Lou looks at me. "Let's empty the armory and bring it all up here on deck. We aren't going down without a fight."
The three of us make our way to the armory and grab armfuls of loaded rifles and shot guns. Jerry picks up a speargun.
"We won't need that." Lou tells him.
"Just in case." Jerry throws the strap over his shoulder. We take a couple of ammo cases loaded with clips, and a couple of shoulder belts stuffed with shotgun shells.
"I can't believe that she is trying to kill us." Lou says to him.
"Who?" I turn and follow the two of them out of the armory and back up toward the flybridge.
Their ship is only five hundred or so yards back. They will be on us within the minute.
"Abigail." Lou stops at the ladder leading up to the flybridge, "the Reina Mortal is Abigail."
He turns and climbs to the flybridge with us in tow.
"No shit."
Jerry nods, "She had her boys beat the shit out of me looking for those diamonds."
"What did you tell her?" Lou doesn't look at him, but at the ship on our tail. It is slowing now and about to come up on us.
"Nothing. I told her I was down here on a run and that was it. I didn't know where you boys were or where you were going." He grabs an M-16 and pulls the clip, tapping it on the deck and then slapping it back into place. With a quick move the bolt is pulled and the gun ready to fire. He tosses it to me.
"I'm sure glad you guys showed up when you did. They were going to throw me overboard."
"Hey, what are friends for." I put the M16 strap over my shoulder.
Jerry does the same for three more rifles and then picks up a shotgun and starts loading shells into it. "She's lost her fucking mind. You know what those stones are worth?" He waits for beat, sliding a couple more shells and then jacking one into the chamber. "Almost ten million dollars. She says they are perfect five carat stones... that they will bring a couple of hundred thousand dollars per carat for a stone of that size."
They fire the deck gun for effect. Because they are following us there is no way they can hit us without overtaking our boat.
"There HEEERE." Lou calls to us, as though company had just shown up for cocktails.
Gunfire errupts from their decks and we immediately engage them. Lou uses the FN-FAL and with single shots picks off two of their members.
I fire back with one of the Uzi's as another pirate pops up to take a shot. I spray him with 9mm ammo and he goes down. The boat is almost stopped, gliding by us... thirty feet off our starboard beam. The deck gun will be on us is a heartbeat.
"JAKE... get down to the engine room and see if there is anything left."
"What about them?"
"Me and Jerry will deal with them."
Jerry peels off a three round burst from the M-16 and another pirate goes down. Another blast and the runabout that they craned on board bursts into flames as the fuel tank is ruptured.
I grab the other Uzi jam a couple of clips down my shorts as I race off the flybridge under a hail of bullets fired from the other ship.
I have no idea what I will find, or what I will be able to do. As I race through the salon to the back to the ladder leading to the crew quarters and engine spaces the deck gun opens up. Two rounds blast through the hull and whistle through the salon and explode on the port bulkhead, the explosion blowing me down the stairwell. There are no more shots from the big gun... not yet anyway. Lou must have silenced the gunner and no one has the balls to take his place.
The blast has me disoriented. I shake it off. My ears are ringing. Red lights are flashing from the fire suppression system that had been activated in the engine compartment. Halon most likely. That stuff will kill you just as easy as the fire if you are in the wrong place at the time.
I look through the small porthole in the door and see that the fire is out.
I open the compartment hatch and set the hold open catch. I am met with the smell of diesel and the choking existance of spent Halon, but much of it has vented. There is a hole through the bulkhead and the starboard engine is totally blown. I can see the hull of the other ship now right outside. That is why they have ceased fire. They mean to board us and get those diamonds. With their ship so close, the deck gun is ineffective.
The port engine looks untouched. The problem is the metal fuel line. Shrapnel from the starboard engine burst must have torn it in half... hence the fire. It is a half inch line, with no chance of repair without a special kit or new line. I look around in the compartment as quick as I can. There is a garden hose with a spray nozzle coiled on a holder on the bulkhead next to the open hatch. I go to the small workbench and start yanking out drawers until I find what I am looking for.
Small arms fire can be heard as Lou and Jerry exchange volleys with the pirates. I hear someone land on the fantail above me, then another. They are boarding. I make quick work of the hose and cut a nice two foot long piece. I look back over my shoulder at the ruptured line and the ragged edges on both sides.
"Damn it." I turn and look for something to smooth the ends so I can slide the hose over them. I find a pair of dykes and run over to the torn lines. As quick as I can I bend and try to quickly smooth the edges. I feed the hose over to the engine side and up about three inches, then work it on to the fuel supply side, all the while being drenched with diesel as it gravity fed from the tanks.
All the while I can hear a fierce gun battle going on above my head. The unmistakable sound of the FN-FAL as Lou peels off one shot at a time. Shotgun blasts... I can hear them in the salon. Jerry must be fending them off as they come on board.
I wipe the lines with my shirt and then take some electrical tape I found in the drawer and seal the ends of the hose patch.
I search the control panel and flip a couple of switches... nothing. I look at the bulkhead and see a red reset button. I slap it and then return to the panel.
"Fuel pump on." I hear the sound of the pump running.
"Blower." I say to myself, jumping slightly with another shotgun blast as it comes from above... closer now.
"Okay, baby... lets go." I turn the switch and engage the starter. It rolls for a second or two and then fires. It is the most wonderful sound I have heard today.
I look for the intercom button and hail the bridge. It monitors... all I hear is gunfire and Lou cursing whoever it is he is shooting at.
"LOU."
Nothing.
"LOU... ENGINE IS RUNNING. GET US OUT OF HERE."
More gunfire and then the intercom goes silent.
"Oh for CHRIST SAKE." I look for the engine room controls put this thing in motion. I find them in the tangle of metal between the two engines. Pushing it forward and engaging the boat in that direction is not going to happen. But reverse looks good. I pull the safety and bring the lever to the reverse position.
The big ship lurches and almost knocks me off my feet. I run to the control panel and give it all she has to give... well maybe eighty percent. Don't want to blow her up out of panic.
I run from the engine room and pull one of the UZI's from around my neck. I slap in a double clip and then eye the stairwell.
You can hear the ships collide and the sound of scraping metal. With that and the diesel screaming along it temporarily drowns out the battle raging on above my head. I take the steps as quickly as possible, looking aft to the fantail first to make sure no one is at my back. Then I look from the top of the stairs into the salon.
Jerry has been shot... again. I can see him pressed up against the bulkhead near the stairwell that goes down to the staterooms. Abigail and one of her men are still standing, two others are down and dead from the looks of them.
"DROP your gun, Jerry." She peels off a shot and it splinters the corner above his head.
"I don't hear your friend's big gun any longer." She chides him, "He is dead, Jerry... and you will be as well if you do not stop this foolishness."
As if on cue, the firing resumes from Lou's big gun. But in return the deck gun from the other boat is firing back now. You can feel the impacts as the gunner walks his shots down the side of the ship and then the bow.
"HEY."
Abigail turns, as does her bodyguard. I let the Uzi rip and draw a couple of lines across the two of them. The man folds with three slugs in his chest. Abigail, whom I wish I had a good hour or two to talk with to find out what the FUCK she is doing out here, drops her gun and clutches her neck and shoulder.
"JERRY... You alright?"
"No, I've been shot... AGAIN. But yes, I am alright." He stumbles into view and we both disarm our two guests. The man is definately dead, but Abigail is still alive. She is bleeding pretty bad from the neck wound.
"GO... " Jerry kneels down next to her tearing his shirt and wadding it. He presses it to her neck. "Go help Lou."
I make it to the fly bridge to find Lou with one hand on the ships wheel, the other struggling to reload a clip. His arm and hand are covered in blood. I see the wound, on the outside of the upper arm. Looks like a through and through.
The other ship is steaming toward us, backward so as to keep the gun trained on us. Lou must have dispatched the good gunner, because now the shots are not hitting us.
"Take the wheel." Lou steps back and I take his place. Just as I thought I was going to get out of this without a scratch a bullet whizzes by and splits my ear open about a quarter inch from the edge. It stings like a mother but I don't even say a word in the wake of my buds getting shot up much worse.
"You better move side to side a little, I have been giving that shitbag a go of it. He hasn't his me with anything for about six rounds."
Hardly a second passes before the deck gun blazes off four shots in quick succession. All of them find their mark and the whole boat shudders.
"Weave, Jake, WEAVE the fucking thing."
"They TOOK those shots before you TOLD me."
I crank the wheel from one side to the next. She is real sluggish and it looks like we are getting closer to the water.
"She's going down, Lou."
"Oh, that's great." He stands and draws a bead.
"Hold her steady for a second."
"Which is it, swerve or steady? I can't do both."
"STEADY Goddamnit."
Another two rounds from the deck gun hit home before Lou lets a clip fly on the FN-FAL in full auto mode. The gunner's head on the other ship explodes and the gun falls silent.
We watch as the pursuit boat slows and then seems to stop. They then change course and head for landfall. They are low in the water and I can only assume that the holes I put in them have been a little too much for the pumps. They are sinking and are trying to make it to the shore before they end up on the bottom.
"We better do the same." Lou looks at the compass. "I think we have been heading out to sea this whole time. We might just be screwed."
He turns the ships wheel until we have the stern pointed back toward Belize. Then grabs the radio and calls out a MayDay.
I turn and head down to the salon to check on Jerry. As I see the waterline from the main deck I realize we don't have much time before KOZANOSTRA is reunited with her owner. The only lifeboat on board is a Zodiak that I passed on the way off the flybridge. It is shot all to hell and of no use at all. I can hear Lou yelling his distress call into the radio as I make the turn into the salon. I am thinking of only one thing right now and it is full of teeth and scary as hell. I can only hope it isn't feeding time in this part of the Caribbean.
posted by Jake Allen at 2:10 PM
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