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." He frowned and shrugged."It's a bit.lawless in that area.Lots of drug running goes through there.And thereare.well, I'd hate to dignify them with the description 'pirates,' butthere are people that occasionally attack boats.""And you'll do what about that?" Courtney said, her eyes wide."Throw a whipat them?""There is far more than a whip on this boat, Courtney," Mike said, glancing atthe radar."But I think I'll be on watch for a couple of days."* * *By the next morning they were clear of the wind and rain, but the storm to thenorth was still kicking up the seas to nearly six feet."I managed to make coffee," Pam said, coming up to the bridge with a travelmug."I didn't make a huge mess.""Not much fun being battened down, is it?" Mike said, smiling as he took itfrom her and set it in a holder."It's cleared up at least," she said, looking around."Except for the clouds.""They'll clear off by, oh, tomorrow," Mike replied, shrugging."I won't behappy until we're down to the south of Andros, though.""The pirates Courtney was asking about?" Pam said, looking off to port."There's clear water over there," she said, pointing."Yep," Mike said."And see the breakers between us and that clear water?That's the great BahamaBanks.You can't get a cabin cruiser in there.You can't even get a cigaretteboat in most of it.It's an area where conditions are just right to formcalcium carbonate from sea water and carbon dioxide.Majorcarbon dioxide sink.There's an old land-form that supports it.And it'smostly extremely shallow.There are a few channels in it, but they move andnobody tries to chart them.Also a few very small keys.They're technically uninhabited, but some of them are used as layovers by drugrunners and some have the 'pirates' on them.Really just criminals with smallboats that try to sneak out and pick up.well, the occasional passingyacht like us.They've generally got very small boats, though.What you'dprobably call a john boat.I doubt even they would try in these conditions.But I'm keeping a close eye on the radar.And an eye out in general sometimes they don't show very well on radar.""That's scary," Pam said."I have various methods to convince them we're not a good target," Mike said."Just going up on deck with a fake rifle will usually make them veer off.""And do you have a fake rifle?" Pam asked nervously."Yes," Mike replied."What about a real one?" Pam asked."In case they don't scare off?""No comment," Mike said."The Bahamas is very down on guns.One of the reasonsPage 89 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlthat criminals find local yachts easy pickings since plenty of guns come inwith the drugs.""I noticed that the customs guys didn't actually search the boat," Pam said."They generally don't," Mike said."But they're very down on guns,nonetheless.Using one to defend yourself is nearly as bad as getting pickedoff by pirates.Nearly.""What do the pirates do with the boat?" she asked, gulping."And, uhm, thepeople on board?""You don't want to know," Mike answered."Thought so," Pam said with a sigh.Back Next|ContentsFramedBack Next|ContentsChapter ElevenMike allowed Pam and Courtney to spell him in the late morning, as the wavesmoderated, and caught a few hours of sleep.By the time he got up in theafternoon, things had really started to calm down, but there was still solidovercast.He looked at the tropical satellite update and the general stormtracks.There was another depression forming off Africa, but other than that it lookedpretty clear.He was munching a sandwich for supper, watching the sun go down in the westwith Pam sitting next to him, when the sat phone rang.He'd called in to theOSOL last night, giving his location and destination to the duty officer.Itwas a pain in the ass, but if it was the price of being armed, he was willingto pay it."Jenkins," he said after putting in the optional headset.Nobody but OSOL hadthe number, so it had to be them."Pierson," the colonel said."Go scramble."Mike punched in the code, watched by a puzzled Pam."Go scramble," he said."Mike, what is your position, exactly?"Mike frowned and glanced at the GPS."24, 33, 93 by 78, 46, 21, more or less," Mike said."Why?""Hang on," Pierson said, then sighed."Mike, you have a presidential requestto go operational.""What?" Mike shouted."Pam, could you go below?" he said, more calmly."Hang on,Bob." When she was gone he said: "What?""Mike, we have a fixed location on WMD in movement," Pierson said tightly."Specifically a nuke, probably refurbished Russian in origin.It's located ata key in the outer Great Banks, but it's going to move by tomorrow morningabout four-thirty.We'd forward punched all our teams, trying to intercept itin Europe or the Mideast.We've got no spec ops that can deploy to the Bahamasbefore about 0600tomorrow.If it moves, we'll lose it and have to reacquire.You're inposition.It's less than forty miles from your current position.""What's the threat level?" Mike asked."Low," Pierson said."Okay, not great for one guy.Seven currently sitting onPage 90 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlthe device.At four-thirty, more or less, there's a cigarette boat coming infor it and there should be five more on the cig.But you should be able to getin position and take down the two groups separately.""Thanks for the morale boost, buddy," Mike snorted."And where is it, by theway?"Pierson gave him the coordinates and Mike blanched."That's inside the Banks,Bob! How the hell am Isupposed to get there? Wade?""Mike, work the problem," Pierson said."They've got a way in and out; findit.""You're not Navy, Bob, that's for sure," Mike snorted, dialing up his charts,for what they were worth."Okay, I think I can see what they're using.There's a narrow channel thatleads up to a cluster of keys.Crap, they're not even named.And that channel is not very deep or wide.Andwho knows when this chart was last updated.I could end up stuck on a mud bankin pirate central.""I'm looking at the satellite image," Pierson said."There are five keys, moreor less in a star pattern.On the center one is a small block building.Thekey is shaped sort of like a kidney, the inside pointed south.The block building is on the southwest side.Our information is that thedevice is on that key.""I see 'em on the chart," Mike said, shaking his head and spinning the wheelto port to turn the boat northwards."I'm already past the Gap.And they'll beable to see me from the horizon if I close inside of ten miles or so." Hethought about it and shrugged."I've got the Zod.It's marginally doable.""You'll do it?" Pierson asked."I'll do it," Mike said."WMD in motion? Of course I'll do it.I just didn'tthink I could actually get there in time.""The President also noted that the reward for stopping a WMD attack is fivemillion," Pierson pointed out."I've got plenty of money, Bob," Mike snorted."But tell the President thankyou.""Hurry," Pierson said."I already turned around," Mike said."Call me if there's an intel update.""Will do," Pierson said."The reinforcements are FAST Three, coming out ofRota.I'll give you a contact frequency.What's your call sign? I think yourusual would be a bad idea."Mike thought about that then shrugged."Use 'Winter born,'" he replied.* * *Mike looked up at the sky and frowned.Crescent moon tonight."Please, clouds,hold," he muttered, then set the autosteer and went below [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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." He frowned and shrugged."It's a bit.lawless in that area.Lots of drug running goes through there.And thereare.well, I'd hate to dignify them with the description 'pirates,' butthere are people that occasionally attack boats.""And you'll do what about that?" Courtney said, her eyes wide."Throw a whipat them?""There is far more than a whip on this boat, Courtney," Mike said, glancing atthe radar."But I think I'll be on watch for a couple of days."* * *By the next morning they were clear of the wind and rain, but the storm to thenorth was still kicking up the seas to nearly six feet."I managed to make coffee," Pam said, coming up to the bridge with a travelmug."I didn't make a huge mess.""Not much fun being battened down, is it?" Mike said, smiling as he took itfrom her and set it in a holder."It's cleared up at least," she said, looking around."Except for the clouds.""They'll clear off by, oh, tomorrow," Mike replied, shrugging."I won't behappy until we're down to the south of Andros, though.""The pirates Courtney was asking about?" Pam said, looking off to port."There's clear water over there," she said, pointing."Yep," Mike said."And see the breakers between us and that clear water?That's the great BahamaBanks.You can't get a cabin cruiser in there.You can't even get a cigaretteboat in most of it.It's an area where conditions are just right to formcalcium carbonate from sea water and carbon dioxide.Majorcarbon dioxide sink.There's an old land-form that supports it.And it'smostly extremely shallow.There are a few channels in it, but they move andnobody tries to chart them.Also a few very small keys.They're technically uninhabited, but some of them are used as layovers by drugrunners and some have the 'pirates' on them.Really just criminals with smallboats that try to sneak out and pick up.well, the occasional passingyacht like us.They've generally got very small boats, though.What you'dprobably call a john boat.I doubt even they would try in these conditions.But I'm keeping a close eye on the radar.And an eye out in general sometimes they don't show very well on radar.""That's scary," Pam said."I have various methods to convince them we're not a good target," Mike said."Just going up on deck with a fake rifle will usually make them veer off.""And do you have a fake rifle?" Pam asked nervously."Yes," Mike replied."What about a real one?" Pam asked."In case they don't scare off?""No comment," Mike said."The Bahamas is very down on guns.One of the reasonsPage 89 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlthat criminals find local yachts easy pickings since plenty of guns come inwith the drugs.""I noticed that the customs guys didn't actually search the boat," Pam said."They generally don't," Mike said."But they're very down on guns,nonetheless.Using one to defend yourself is nearly as bad as getting pickedoff by pirates.Nearly.""What do the pirates do with the boat?" she asked, gulping."And, uhm, thepeople on board?""You don't want to know," Mike answered."Thought so," Pam said with a sigh.Back Next|ContentsFramedBack Next|ContentsChapter ElevenMike allowed Pam and Courtney to spell him in the late morning, as the wavesmoderated, and caught a few hours of sleep.By the time he got up in theafternoon, things had really started to calm down, but there was still solidovercast.He looked at the tropical satellite update and the general stormtracks.There was another depression forming off Africa, but other than that it lookedpretty clear.He was munching a sandwich for supper, watching the sun go down in the westwith Pam sitting next to him, when the sat phone rang.He'd called in to theOSOL last night, giving his location and destination to the duty officer.Itwas a pain in the ass, but if it was the price of being armed, he was willingto pay it."Jenkins," he said after putting in the optional headset.Nobody but OSOL hadthe number, so it had to be them."Pierson," the colonel said."Go scramble."Mike punched in the code, watched by a puzzled Pam."Go scramble," he said."Mike, what is your position, exactly?"Mike frowned and glanced at the GPS."24, 33, 93 by 78, 46, 21, more or less," Mike said."Why?""Hang on," Pierson said, then sighed."Mike, you have a presidential requestto go operational.""What?" Mike shouted."Pam, could you go below?" he said, more calmly."Hang on,Bob." When she was gone he said: "What?""Mike, we have a fixed location on WMD in movement," Pierson said tightly."Specifically a nuke, probably refurbished Russian in origin.It's located ata key in the outer Great Banks, but it's going to move by tomorrow morningabout four-thirty.We'd forward punched all our teams, trying to intercept itin Europe or the Mideast.We've got no spec ops that can deploy to the Bahamasbefore about 0600tomorrow.If it moves, we'll lose it and have to reacquire.You're inposition.It's less than forty miles from your current position.""What's the threat level?" Mike asked."Low," Pierson said."Okay, not great for one guy.Seven currently sitting onPage 90 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlthe device.At four-thirty, more or less, there's a cigarette boat coming infor it and there should be five more on the cig.But you should be able to getin position and take down the two groups separately.""Thanks for the morale boost, buddy," Mike snorted."And where is it, by theway?"Pierson gave him the coordinates and Mike blanched."That's inside the Banks,Bob! How the hell am Isupposed to get there? Wade?""Mike, work the problem," Pierson said."They've got a way in and out; findit.""You're not Navy, Bob, that's for sure," Mike snorted, dialing up his charts,for what they were worth."Okay, I think I can see what they're using.There's a narrow channel thatleads up to a cluster of keys.Crap, they're not even named.And that channel is not very deep or wide.Andwho knows when this chart was last updated.I could end up stuck on a mud bankin pirate central.""I'm looking at the satellite image," Pierson said."There are five keys, moreor less in a star pattern.On the center one is a small block building.Thekey is shaped sort of like a kidney, the inside pointed south.The block building is on the southwest side.Our information is that thedevice is on that key.""I see 'em on the chart," Mike said, shaking his head and spinning the wheelto port to turn the boat northwards."I'm already past the Gap.And they'll beable to see me from the horizon if I close inside of ten miles or so." Hethought about it and shrugged."I've got the Zod.It's marginally doable.""You'll do it?" Pierson asked."I'll do it," Mike said."WMD in motion? Of course I'll do it.I just didn'tthink I could actually get there in time.""The President also noted that the reward for stopping a WMD attack is fivemillion," Pierson pointed out."I've got plenty of money, Bob," Mike snorted."But tell the President thankyou.""Hurry," Pierson said."I already turned around," Mike said."Call me if there's an intel update.""Will do," Pierson said."The reinforcements are FAST Three, coming out ofRota.I'll give you a contact frequency.What's your call sign? I think yourusual would be a bad idea."Mike thought about that then shrugged."Use 'Winter born,'" he replied.* * *Mike looked up at the sky and frowned.Crescent moon tonight."Please, clouds,hold," he muttered, then set the autosteer and went below [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]