Pirate - Duncan Falconer [93]
After several seconds he heard a gentle pulsing sound and shortly after someone picked up the other end.
‘Hello,’ a woman’s voice said.
‘SB Ops please.’
‘This is not a secure line, sir,’ the woman said, robotically.
‘I know.’
‘One moment.’
The phone crackled a little and a few seconds later a man answered. ‘SB Ops.’
‘Is that you, Mike?’
‘Bloody hell. Stratton?’
‘Yes.’
‘I can’t say I’d given up hope just yet, mate, knowing your knack for always turning up, but I was starting to get a little concerned.’
‘I should’ve left it a bit longer. I like the idea of you being concerned about me.’
‘Well, there are some here who had given up. We thought the slopes had got you. Where the hell are you?’
‘On board a cargo ship.’ Stratton looked at the chart desk behind the ship’s wheel. ‘The Orion. She’s in the Gulf of Aden, heading west along the transit corridor. I’ve been on holiday in Somalia. We were invited over by a bunch of pirates. Great bunch of lads. Not to mention their jihadi mates.’
‘Jesus. How’d you manage to end up there?’
‘Trying to put some space between ourselves and the Slope Secret Service. They were after the same thing.’
‘Yeah, we got that much from Prabhu.’
‘The Gurkhas OK?’
‘Yes. When they left you, they made it into Oman without a fuss. They weren’t sure whether you’d taken a boat or not. I take it Hopper’s with you?’
For a second Stratton couldn’t answer. He hesitated. Then said, ‘He didn’t make it.’
The line went silent for a moment. Stratton had the impression others were near the phone listening in.
‘That’s not good,’ said Mike. ‘I’ve just got off the phone with his missus assuring her you’d both soon show up. How’d it happen?’
‘Long story. Not the time right now. Basically, we ran into Al-Shabaab. The important news right now is Shabaab have what we came looking for. Dozens of them. And they’re going international. Soon as you can get me on to a navy ship, I’ll get you the details. But we have to move fast on this end. It’s a big campaign. There could be dozens of the things all over the world already, or heading that way. The guy we came to interview in Yemen, he’s one of the main players.’
‘Right,’ said Mike, his mind a whir. ‘Let me pass all that on to Ops and I’ll get back to you. The priority is getting you on to one of our boats.’
‘Roger that.’
‘It’s good to have you back, Stratton. This might sound odd, but, well, if anything ever happened to you, I’d start to think we might actually be losing.’
‘You’re not coming out of the closet, are you, Mike? Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but—’
‘Bollocks. Talk to you later.’
The line went dead. Stratton realised he was smiling and immediately wiped it away. He had no right to enjoy himself whatsoever.
He looked at the chart table to study the ship’s track neatly inside the GOA transit corridor and heading north into the Red Sea towards Suez.
He suddenly felt exhausted. The thought of lying down was alluring. But that dogged soldier in him resisted, for no particular reason. It felt like he was in the middle of some kind of desperate battle and he didn’t want to take the chance of going unconscious. But he decided to loosen up a little and grab some sleep while he had the time. While things stayed quiet because they could kick off again as soon as the nearest naval ship arrived. And it wouldn’t be that far away. The Navy would know where the Orion was now. They knew where every vessel in the corridor was. The Orion’s captain would have registered with the UK Maritime Trade Operations office before arriving in the Gulf and again the moment he had made contact with the pirates.
Stratton went to the bridge door and opened it. The girl stood outside the communications shack looking up at him.
‘Can I use the phone?’ she said.
‘Sure,’ he said, stepping aside.
‘All OK?’ she asked as she walked in.
Stratton thought she looked more exhausted than he had seen her look before. ‘Yes. I’m going to get my head down.’
‘You deserve it,’ she said.
‘You need a hand with that?’ He gestured at