“What if they threaten to kill some of the officers if we don’t show ourselves? What should we do?”
“Fuck,” Slate said softly.
“You stay where you are,” the admiral said sternly. “Under no circumstances should you or anyone else put yourselves in danger.”
“I’m not sure I can sit here and listen to them kill the men I’ve become friends with,” Rachel answered.
“I wish I had a better answer for you,” Mustang told her. “I wish I could tell you that the pirates would be bluffing and they won’t actually kill anyone. I wish I could say that if you, or anyone else, went up to the bridge, they’d not follow through with their threats, but there’s no telling what those men will do.”
“And I’m a woman,” Rachel whispered.
“And you’re a woman,” Mustang agreed. “We’re coming,” he assured her.
“I don’t know how the pirates got onboard,” Rachel said, “but there’s a hole in the very front of the ship. Not a hole, but like…an access port. Shoot, I don’t know the official word for it. Where chains and stuff can be used without putting them over the railing. But when we got a tour, Walter joked that it was big enough for someone to fit through. With the bridge being at the back of the ship, and the containers stacked high, no one would see you if you came aboard that way.”
Mustang saw his teammates smiling. They weren’t making fun of her, it was obvious the woman was scared yet still doing her best to try to help, which was appreciated. But it was also obvious Rachel hadn’t thought through the logistics of what she was suggesting. Getting onboard a moving vessel through the very front of the ship was dangerous as hell, and there wouldn’t be very much cover on the forward deck.
“Thanks for the suggestion,” Midas told her diplomatically.
“You’re welcome.”
“Stay on this frequency,” Pid told her, “so we can communicate with you.”
“But, then I can’t hear what’s going on with Walter and the others on the bridge,” she said.
Mustang nodded at his teammate. It was a good suggestion. If the shit did hit the fan, none of them wanted her to hear it. “We can,” he told her.
“Oh, right. I’d forgotten. Okay. Will you— Never mind.”
“What?” Mustang asked.
“It’s stupid.”
“What?” he asked more forcefully.
“I was just going to ask if you could come onto the radio now and then and let me know that you’re still out there and still coming to help? I’m terrified, and knowing someone is coming makes me feel a lot better.”
“Yes,” Mustang told her. “We’re going to be in constant contact because we need to know what’s going on below decks where you are.” That was only partly true. Since Pid had patched them into the channel one of the officers had opened on the bridge, they had a direct line to the most important room on that ship. But that wouldn’t help them if the pirates split up.
“Okay. Thank you for coming. And be safe. These guys sound really…angry.”
When was the last time someone had told them, a notoriously badass Navy SEAL team, to be safe? How about never? “We will,” Mustang told her. “Try to relax, and you be safe too.”
“I’ll try.” There was a slight pause, then she asked, “What now? Do we say over and out or something?”
Midas chuckled softly.
“No need. We’ll be in touch,” Mustang told her.
“Right. Okay. Um…bye for now then.”
Mustang shook his head. Damn. She was adorable. And it was completely fucked up that he was thinking that about someone in the middle of a damn op.
Then he didn’t have any more time to think about Rachel Walters as Pid turned up the sound on the radio channel he’d tapped into on the bridge. They had intel to gather, a plan to make, and a ship of almost two dozen crew members to save.
Chapter Two
Elodie felt better after talking to Scott. She’d never met a real live Navy SEAL before. She didn’t know what she’d expected, but he was so…normal sounding.
Listening hard, she didn’t hear anything from outside her hiding place. Her legs were hurting from being scrunched up in the cabinet for so long. She wasn’t super tall at five-six, but she also wasn’t quite small enough to be able to fit in her hiding place for long without discomfort.
Her heart beat fast as she made the decision to venture out. Moving slowly, just in case one of the pirates had been left behind as a sentry, she peered out of the cabinet.
The lights in the pantry were still on, and she didn’t see anyone in the storage room. She awkwardly climbed out and stood, stretching her muscles so they would hopefully work correctly if she needed to make a fast getaway.
Putting the radio in her cargo pants pocket once more, Elodie crept to the door. She listened and, after hearing nothing but her own heartbeat, slowly cracked the door open.
The hallway was empty. She couldn’t hear anything but the hum of the freezers nearby and the rattling of dishes caused by the vibration of the ship. It had taken a bit of getting used to when she’d first come aboard, but now she barely even noticed it.
She wasn’t sure where she was going or what she was doing, but just knowing that someone was going to be coming to help them made her feel a little braver. She crept into the galley and saw one of the packages of water bottles she’d put on the counter was now gone, as was some of the food. Good. Her plan had worked…for now.
For a second, Elodie thought about doing what Steven Seagal had done in the movie Under Siege, making a microwave bomb, but she immediately dismissed the idea. First of all, there was no way to time it correctly to go off just when one of the pirates was in the vicinity. She never understood how that had worked in the movie. But second of all, and more importantly…she had no idea how to make a microwave bomb.
She wondered if Scott would know.
“He might, but he’s not here,” Elodie said softly.
She was walking through the galley when something caught her eye. The block of knives she used while cooking.
No one onboard was allowed to have a gun. She’d been relieved when she’d read that in the rules and regulations she’d received from the shipping company. Now she realized that it put them at a decided disadvantage against the pirates. But just because they didn’t have guns didn’t mean they couldn’t still arm themselves.
Her knives were sharp. Very sharp. She made sure to keep them in top condition. The thought of actually using one against someone made her physically ill. But if it was stab someone or be raped and tortured, she’d choose to protect herself every time.
Briefly, Paul Columbus flashed through her mind. The man was seriously unbalanced. It made no sense whatsoever that he’d decided she had to die simply because she’d refused to do as he asked. Who does that? But if it came down to staying alive, or being at the mercy of Paul, any of his henchmen, or the pirates, she’d choose life. And if that meant using one of her cooking knives to buy her some time, so be it.
Elodie didn’t have a good way of transporting the knife, no holster of any kind, but she quickly realized if she chose one of the more slender blades, it would fit through the belt loop of her pants and the hilt would keep it from falling to the ground. It wasn’t ideal; if she fell, she could seriously hurt herself. But she definitely didn’t want to be unarmed.