to have landed.
The lead ship crew member was a bearded, husky blond man in a neat khaki uniform and captain’s hat. He didn’t look at all happy as he noticed the unconscious Ritter being carried toward him. He shouted to be heard over chopper wash and decreasing turbofan engine noise. His English had a slight Nordic accent. “What’s wrong with him?”
Odin leaned close, pointing to the stricken man. “Medical emergency. We think it’s a stroke. Big oil executive. His wife ordered us to land.”
“She could have gotten you all killed, not to mention my crew.”
“Do you have a doctor on board?”
The captain nodded, still looking annoyed. “The second mate is a paramedic. Follow me.” He turned to the other crew members. “Get that chopper tied down before it rolls off the pad. And deploy fire hoses.”
The crewmen launched into action as Odin pulled McKinney along, following Smokey, Mooch, the inconsolable Ripper, and the ship’s captain. Ripper shrieked, grabbing for Ritter’s suit sleeve and blurting out exclamations in some language McKinney didn’t recognize-possibly Dutch or German. It amazed her how quickly Ripper could transform herself.
In a few moments the captain brought them through a hatchway into the relative quiet and calm of the ship. As they moved down a stairwell, still more crewmen of various ethnicities-Asian, Caucasian, Latino, and Filipino- crowded the hall below and helped lower the unconscious Ritter down a narrow metal gangway.
They reached a pipe- and conduit-lined corridor below, and Foxy called after Odin, “You need us or should we wait, or…?”
Odin gestured to Foxy, Evans, and now Smokey, who had fallen behind. “Is there somewhere where they can make a call to shore?”
The bearded captain called out to another, younger, clean-shaven blond man in a green jumpsuit. “Valentin, ta dem till allrummet. ” The captain turned to Odin. “He’ll take them.”
Odin motioned for the remainder of his team to follow the younger seaman, and they continued carrying Ritter forward with the captain. After a few turns they arrived in a more comfortably appointed section, where the corridors were wider and better lit. There was even a room with a skylight, cabinets, and dining tables with chairs. This area was also painted in brighter colors and had wooden doors with names printed on them in English on black stenciled plaques.
A third Nordic man in a khaki uniform intercepted them. He was athletically built with dark hair, splotchy skin, and old acne scars.
The captain barked, “Joran, they think he had a stroke.”
The man became agitated. “Varfor fortsatte de inte till fastlandet?”
“Just help them.”
The second mate came alongside Mooch. “You should have kept going to the mainland. I don’t have real medical facilities here.”
The captain pushed forward. “The wife insisted they land. Joran, please!” He motioned for them to follow toward a nearby open door.
Odin was already scanning the corridor, surreptitiously inserting his earplug radios. McKinney felt her anxiety build as she noticed there were only three crew members present: the captain, the second mate, and another crewman helping to carry Ritter.
Odin spoke softly. “Execute, execute, execute.”
In an instant Ripper slipped a device from her sleeve into her palm and sprayed something in the second mate’s face, dropping the man as he screamed. Mooch twisted the captain’s arm back while he and Odin shoved him against the wall. Odin rapidly secured the man’s wrists with zip-ties. By the time McKinney was able to look over to Ritter, she could see that Smokey had likewise subdued the crew member there with chemical spray. Both he and Ripper were zip-tying their prisoners, who were groaning pitiably.
Odin pulled the captain forward, as the bearded, barrel-chested Swede shouted, “You scum! Du borde skammas! Taking advantage of our mercy-”
Odin produced the machine gun from his bag. He chambered a round. “Captain! What is your name?”
He stared daggers. “I am Birghir Jonsson, senior captain for W and W.”
“Captain Jonsson, where is your weapons locker?”
“We don’t have weapons on board this ship. We are civilized people.”
Mooch nodded. “If it’s a Swedish ship, I don’t doubt him. Owners don’t want the crew trying to resist pirates. They’d be outgunned.”
The captain stared in rage toward his second mate, who was still coughing and gagging on the floor under Ripper’s knee. “You’re animals…”
“He’ll be fine in a few minutes. How many others aboard?”
The captain spoke through clenched teeth. “Twenty-two crew.” McKinney noticed Odin listening to his earphone radio. “Okay… affirmative.” Odin focused back on the Swede. “Captain, your helm and engine room are now under my control. No one has been hurt, and I don’t want anyone hurt. Just order your crew to abandon ship.”
He eyed Odin with growing rage. “You think you’re going to just sail away with two thousand BMWs? You won’t get far. I promise you that.”
“We aren’t planning on getting far.”
Mooch raised his eyebrows. “Did he say two thousand BMWs?”
The captain was on a rant. “You’ll have no way of unloading the cars from the ship before they track you down. You’ll not reach land.”
“Right on both counts.” He pulled the bound captain toward his quarters and opened the door. “Get on the PA and order your crew to abandon ship. Time is a factor.”
“You are an imbecile, if you think you can get away with this.”
“The safest thing is for you and your crew to abandon ship. Without any hostages on board, the authorities can sweep down on us without innocent people getting hurt.”
The captain just glared at him for several moments.
Odin leaned in toward him. “I saw that free-fall emergency boat. You and the crew get inside and launch. The sooner you evacuate, the sooner you can radio for help.”
Jonsson narrowed his eyes. “There is something else going on here.”
“Get on the PA, Captain.”
“What are you planning on doing with my ship?”
“If I told you, you wouldn’t believe me.”
“I don’t believe you now.”
“Very well. This ship is about to be attacked by thousands of military drones that will kill everyone on board as they cut it to pieces.”
The captain’s face went slack.
“Now, you can either stick around for that or bail out now with your crew and call for help. Which is it?”
He was weighing the matter. “Are you the group causing the distress calls we’ve been hearing?”
“What distress calls?”
“An Indonesian freighter said they were under aerial attack. We haven’t heard from them in the last twenty minutes. Search planes have been dispatched from the mainland.”
“That’s just going to wind up getting more people killed.”
“Killed?”
“We passed that freighter just as it was going under. Did any of their broadcasts make sense to you, Captain?”
The captain struggled to find words, then finally settled for “No. They said dozens of small planes were attacking them.”
“It’s a new class of autonomous combat drone, Captain-ship-cutters. And they’ve gotten loose.”
“You must be joking. Robot aircraft attacking ships?”
Odin grabbed the PA handset from the wall and shoved it in front of his face. “Get talking, Captain Jonsson. The longer you wait, the more likely it is that your entire crew will wind up dead.”
