Pirate - Duncan Falconer [22]
After the leader went on board the bulker, he didn’t return for several hours. By then the day had become warm and Stratton’s clothes had dried out. He and Hopper and Sabarak had been given a dish each of rice mush. Sabarak had begun striking up small conversations with the guards. He seemed to understand the language pretty well but wasn’t fluent, judging by the way the Somalis responded to him. Stratton and Hopper had listened, gaining what little they could. Which wasn’t much. Except for one thing.
The commander was called Lotto.
Stratton watched as two of the raiders returned to the mother craft carrying a hefty backpack between them. They looked like two of the original boarders. As they stepped down on to the deck, one of the mother ship’s crew who hadn’t boarded the bulker stepped up to them, put a hand inside the backpack, apparently deciding that a portion of it belonged to him, for whatever reason. He came up with a pair of shiny binoculars. One of the boarders got angry but the crewman walked away to the back of the boat. The situation changed in a second. As the crewman stepped up to the superstructure, the boarder caught him and hooked an arm around his neck. The crewman pushed him off, drawing a knife from his belt. By now a gallery of interested Somalis had formed to watch him. A fight ensued. As the brawl came their way, Stratton and Hopper moved out of the way.
The fight didn’t last long. The boarder went for the crewman’s arm holding the knife but the crewman twisted free and they fell together and he drove his blade right into the man’s guts. He stabbed him several more times, his final thrust going behind the boarder’s ribcage where it skewered his heart.
The crewman got to his feet, his hands and clothing soaked in blood. As he picked up the binoculars and inspected them, Lotto stepped out of the superstructure. The chief shouted at the crewman, evidently looking for an explanation. The crewman’s expression changed as he began to explain his side of the story. The man was frightened. Another Somali spoke but not in favour of the crewman, who argued with him. Lotto listened to the comments from one source and another. Then he withdrew a pistol from his side and shot the crewman in the middle of the chest. The man dropped like a lead weight and the binoculars fell on to the deck beside him. He opened his mouth a couple of times and started gasping.
Lotto shouted another command as he holstered his pistol and went back inside the boat and two Somalis lifted up the crewman and tossed him over the side. The dead pirate quickly followed. One of the crewmen took the binoculars for himself and Stratton and Hopper, with Sabarak close by, were left alone. A large pool of blood had formed in front of them.
By the time the sun set, the pirates had organised themselves, and the flotilla, along with its new and largest addition, continued south towards Somalia. By the next morning, they had changed direction and were heading east. The blood on the deck had dried and cracked across the deeper pools.
It had been a cool night but all of them had slept. Stratton looked over the side. He couldn’t see anything but blue-grey ocean. But the air smelled different. And there were seagulls. Not in any great abundance. A handful flying close to the vessel, inspecting it from on high. The flying scavengers were going to be disappointed though. These Somalis were harvesters of the sea all right, but a much different kind.
Stratton got to his feet and stretched his stiffened body and checked the horizon the other side of the bridge house. The guards were watching him but it was like they had become used to his curiosity and took it to be harmless.
He couldn’t see a distinct coastline but he knew it was there. A strong shadow divided the sea and sky. He looked back at the cargo vessel cruising behind them, attached by several thick steel cables. The speedboats were divided up between the stern of both mother craft and bulker.
Most of the pirates still appeared to be on board the carrier. Stratton could