Katari scanned the horizon for any pirates. His hope that he would be able to slip into port without attracting any attention was met with disappointment. Picking up his binoculars to check, Katari realized the two boats he’d seen were headed straight toward them.
Aside from warning the crew with a brief announcement, there wasn’t much else he could do to prepare for their looming encounter with the pirates. A few minutes later, the speed boats with machine gun mounts flanked Katari’s ship. With guns trained on the The Ajagar, the smaller vessels made up for their lack of size with powerful weaponry, including a pair of handheld RPGs that had been welded to the front of the boats on swivels.
Katari stopped his ship. There was no need to drag on the inevitable. Besides, he didn’t want anyone on the shore to see what was about to happen to the men who’d just made what would be a fatal mistake. A handful of crewmembers found their way to the deck to see why their ship had suddenly stopped moving. Katari wasn’t sure which boat was in charge until one of the men aboard the starboard side vessel started speaking through a bullhorn.
“Attention, captain of The Ajagar, prepare to be boarded,” the man said. “We intend to do you no harm.”
Yeah, right, and I can pull an elephant around Mumbai on a rickshaw.
Katari smiled and waved, gesturing for the pirate captain to come aboard.
“Sir, you can’t be serious,” said Dalip, one of Katari’s crewmembers.
“I am—very serious.” Katari wagged his index finger. “You be sure to stay out of their way if you know what’s best for you. Just let me do all the talking.”
Moments later, the pirate’s captain ascended the rope ladder that Katari had instructed his crew to drop down. The captain was followed by two other men who Katari labeled as fools.
Before the captain opened his mouth, Katari approached the man and stared sternly at him.
“I suggest you three climb back down that ladder and leave us alone,” Katari said.
The captain broke into loud laughter. “Did you hear that? The good captain here wants us just to go home, perhaps pretend this whole thing never happened.”
“That’s not what I was—”
“Oh, sure it wasn’t,” the captain said as he mocked Katari. “If I’ve boarded one ship out here in the gulf, I’ve boarded a thousand. They all try to convince me they have nothing to hide. But I always find what I’m looking for.”
“And what do you plan on finding?”
“I think you know.”
Katari growled, miffed that the pirates’ ship captain was relentless and condescending. Katari was done listening. “Want to hear what I think of that?”
The captain stopped and glared at Katari. “Please enlighten us.”
“Consider this your only warning. If you think you’re just going to come aboard my ship and start taking my stuff, you’re going to make a grave mistake.”
The captain threw his head back and laughed. “Says the man without a gun.” He turned serious and jammed the barrel of his rifle into Katari’s stomach. “Now, if you know what’s best for you, you’ll sit down and keep your mouth shut.”
“And if you know what’s best for you, you’ll leave now,” Katari responded.
The captain used the butt of his rifle to knock Katari out.
When Katari regained consciousness a few minutes later, he watched the pirates handing loot down the ladder and into their boats. With his head still aching, he staggered to his feet. The captain pointed at Katari and laughed.
“Welcome back, but I suggest you stay down.”
Katari bent over, resting his hands on his knees. He didn’t look up to address the captain. “You were warned.”
The captain laughed again before walking up to Katari and kicking him in the stomach. “Farewell, my friend.”
Katari crumpled to the ground again and grabbed his midsection.
Dalip walked over and put his arm around Katari. “You still glad you did all the talking?”
“You still glad you stayed out of their way?” Katari shot back before grabbing his head.
“You talked tough, but those men just made off with some of our cargo. That won’t sit well with your superiors.”
“My superiors do not care about losing some worthless trinkets. They care about what I bring back.”
Katari motioned for Dalip to follow him to the bridge, where Katari picked up a pair of binoculars. He scanned the horizon before hailing another ship on the radio. At the request of the man speaking on the other end, Katari gave him their current coordinates along with an estimate of the pirates’ coordinates.
“Watch those two ships,” Katari said as he handed the binoculars to Dalip.
After a minute, nothing happened other than the boats speeding farther away. Dalip put the binoculars down.
“What’s the point of this?” Dalip asked.
“To show you that I am a man of my word. I warned that captain. Now he will pay.”
Dalip resumed watching the pair of pirate ships on the horizon. As he was peering across the sea, he spotted a fiery explosion and then another.
“What the hell?” Dalip asked, slack jawed.
“We work for very powerful men,” Katari said. “No one will get away with boarding us again.”
“Certainly not those men.”
“Indeed,” Katari said with a slight chuckle. “But no one better cause us trouble on our return trip, especially any pirates.”
“What are we supposed to pick up at port?” Dalip asked.
“Something very dangerous—something very dangerous to us all.”
CHAPTER 25
RASHID QURESHI MENTALLY RAN THROUGH his checklist while he finished his dinner.
