quiet as it would be an hour from now, Bahmad thought.
So far the only real glitch had been in New York aboard Papa’s Fancy, but he had a hunch that even that was going to work out to his benefit in the end. Chevy Chase had already been forgotten, relegated to another section of his brain that was able to deal with failures by forgetting about them while at the same time learning from his mistakes. There would be no mistakes this time. He was sure of it.
Schumatz listened at the captain’s door for a couple of moments. He looked up and shook his head.
“If he cries out will they hear it on the bridge?” Bahmad whispered.
“No.”
Bahmad motioned for him to do it, and Schumatz knocked on the door.
“Captain, I have to talk to you. We have a problem.” Schumatz tried the door but it was locked. “Captain?”
“Just a minute,” Panagiotopolous said impatiently.
Bahmad stepped to the side. Schumatz held the pistol out of sight behind his right leg. The door came open and the captain was there, fully dressed, Green’s pistol in his hand.
“What’s this?” Schumatz stepped back in surprise, almost stumbling over his own feet Sensing that something was wrong, Panagiotopolous started to turn, but he was too late. Bahmad diverted the captain’s gun with his left hand and jammed the barrel of the MAC 10 into the man’s face.
“Your death at this moment would be pointless, Captain,” Bahmad warned in a reasonable tone.
The captain tried to raise his pistol, but Bahmad tightened his grip and jammed the submachine gun harder against the man’s cheek.
“I will kill you.”
Panagiotopolous held himself in check for another second or two, but then came down. Bahmad took the pistol from his hand, thumbed the safety catch on and stuffed it in the belt of his slacks at the small of his back.
“What the hell, Lazlo. I trusted you.”
Schumatz shook his head. “This has nothing to do with you,” “Who the hell is this bastard then, and what is he doing aboard my ship?”
“All in good time,” Bahmad said. “First we’re going to assemble the crew and I’ll make everything clear. But I want to assure you that we mean you absolutely no harm. If you cooperate this will all be over with by morning.”
“Is Green one of yours too?”
“Yes. He’s a little hotheaded, I’m afraid. But he will be reprimanded.” Bahmad stepped aside and motioned for the captain to precede him. “I think the galley will do nicely for our meeting.”
“I knew that something was wrong,” the captain muttered. He led them to the end of the corridor and downstairs.
The lights were on in the galley dining room, otherwise it was deserted. Green and the others had to be hiding in the kitchen. There were four metal picnic-style tables attached to the deck, plus the head table for the officers. Bahmad sat down next to the captain at the head table and concealed his gun between them. The ship’s interphone was on the bulkhead behind them.
“I would like you to call the crew now. That includes Mr. Gunn and the second man on the the bridge, the two in the engine room and the other ten who are off duty. I don’t care what you tell them, but if you try to issue any kind of a warning I will kill you instantly, then we will hunt the rest of them down and kill them, after which we will sink this ship. On the other hand if you follow my instructions to the letter we’ll simply lock you and your crew up, take what we have come for, which is only one very small package, and then leave.”
“How will we free ourselves?”
“I’ve brought plastic explosives. We’ll place a small charge on the door lock with a timer set for eight this morning. It will give us plenty of time to make our escape.” Bahmad smiled sincerely. “Believe me, Captain, I don’t want to kill anybody. There’d be no advantage in it for me.”
Something dawned in the captain’s eyes. “The helicopter is yours?”
“That’s right,” Bahmad said, “Mr. Green will be our pilot. All very neat, all very simple if you will cooperate.”
The captain turned to Schumatz who had stuffed his pistol in his pants pocket and stood by the door. “Lazlo?”
“It’s just like he says, Captain. Nobody’s going to get hurt.”
Panagiotopolous shook his head again as if he couldn’t believe what was happening, but then reached back for the telephone and entered a three-digit number. “Attention all hands,” his voice boomed throughout the ship. “Attention all hands, this is the captain. I want to see everybody in the galley on the double. That includes the bridge and engineering duty crews.” He looked at Bahmad, and repeated the announcement. When he was finished he released the talk switch and hung up the phone. “Where’s Green?”
“He’ll be here in a minute,” Schumatz said.
The phone buzzed and Panagiotopolous picked it up before Bahmad could stop him. “This is the captain.”
Bahmad prodded him in the side with the gun.
“If there’s no traffic within our twenty-five kilometer ring leave us on autopilot, make sure the alarm is set and the both of you get down here. Now.”
The captain replaced the phone.
“Your bridge officer?”
“Yes. He’s a conscientious man. He’ll be along shortly.”
“Then we’ll wait.”
Panagiotopolous gave Schumatz another baleful look. “You had this planned from the start, didn’t you? Was it in Karachi, or was it even earlier than that?”
“That doesn’t matter—”
“Goddamnit, I want to know. If it started in Karachi then the company is involved.”
“The company is not involved,” Bahmad said. “But even if it was, it would make no difference.”
“Yes it would,” Panagiotopolous said. He suddenly looked old and tired. “It would to me.”
The first of the crewmen showed up a minute later. “What’s up, Mr. Schumatz?” he asked. He eyed Bahmad seated with the captain.
“Sit down, the captain wants to tell us something,” Schumatz told him, and the crewman took a seat as others drifted in. Some of them were in bathrobes and had obviously been sleeping, while others were fully dressed and looked wide awake. The two from the engine room, their white coveralls dirty, came in, followed by Gunn and the able bodied seaman from the bridge.
“That’s the lot,” Schumatz said, closing the door.
The fourteen men assembled were curious, but none of them seemed alarmed or in the least bit suspicious until Bahmad prodded the captain to his feet with the MAC 10.
Several of them jumped up.
“Sit down or I shall kill your captain,” Bahmad warned. The first few seconds of these kinds of situations were always the most dicey. Anything could happen if the crew acted in concert.
Some of the men turned in desperation to Schumatz who had pulled out his pistol. But he pointed his gun at them.
“Do as he says, gentlemen,” Schumatz shouted. “Sit down! Now!”
Now they were confused, some of them frightened, others sullen, obviously looking for a way out. But they had lost the moment when they could have done something, and Bahmad smiled inwardly at this little triumph. In general people were like cattle.
“My name is not important,” Bahmad said. “But with the help of Mr. Green and Mr. Schumatz I am taking over this ship for the next eight hours. We’re going to lock you in the pantry dry storage area while we conduct our business. When we are finished you will be released unharmed. I give you my word. The last thing we want or need is a bunch of injured men. It’s not why I’m here.” Bahmad looked at them. There were a couple of men who were obviously potential troublemakers, but it was too late for them to put up any effective resistance, and he could see in their eyes that they were just realizing that fact now.
