this ship also had things like a pool where people could surf, a twelve-story rock-climbing wall, art galleries, movie theaters, huge casinos, a concert hall, even its own symphony orchestra.
“It’s called the Queen of the Seas,” Commander Beaux said. “It just started cruising the Caribbean a few months ago. It can hold almost 4,500 passengers, and there’s about the same number of crew.”
Crash was astonished the ship was so big.
“Bigger than the Titanic,” Ghost said.
Crash laughed. “I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not.”
“You’ll get a chance to judge for yourself,” Commander Beaux told him. “We all will.”
Crash was confused. “You mean?”
Beaux nodded. “It’s our next mission point,” he said. “This is the biggest target floating around the Caribbean at the moment. And from what we can tell, they have zero in the way of worthwhile security. There could be undesirables running all over that ship right now. Or, all it would take is one passenger, or better yet, one member of the crew to help four or five people aboard—and, boom, you’ve not only got a huge pirate problem, you’ve also got a huge hostage problem. Considering what’s happening out there right now, and the fact that this behemoth is fairly close by, I’d think we’d be remiss if we didn’t look into it.”
Crash just shook his head.
Wait ’til Whiskey hears about this.
* * *
LESS THAN AN hour later, the IX-529 was under way, beginning its pursuit of the massive cruise liner under a clear, star-filled sky.
Crash was riding up top in the open hatch as the ship left its protected spot in the cay’s tiny inlet. He was serving as the vessel’s lookout; his job was to yell down to the control room should they have to avoid anything nearby, especially other vessels.
Finding the Queen of the Seas wasn’t any harder than punching up Google on the Sea Shadow’s main computer. The massive cruise liner had just left its Fort Lauderdale base of operations two hours before, heading for an overnight cruise to Puerto Rico.
The SEAL team was just forty miles to the north—and thus started a dash that got them up to nearly fifty knots, with the vessel’s power plants working full out for the first time since Crash had hooked on with 616. He thought the Dustboat could move well atop the water. With the Sea Shadow’s engines at all ahead full, he felt like a ghost flying above the water. Silent. Stealthy. Invisible.
It might have been the most exciting half hour of Crash’s life.
* * *
THEY SPOTTED THE huge cruise liner just south of Hollywood, Florida, in the process of turning southeast, toward Puerto Rico.
It was now almost 8 P.M., and with no moon, it was perfectly dark for 616 to do its thing.
Ten minutes of intricate maneuvering followed, this while Crash kept lookout on top of the mast, Smash, Elvis and Ghost monitored the IX-529’s battery of exterior video monitors, and Beaux and Monkey steered the ship. All the pieces fell together, and they were soon riding in the cruise liner’s wake, heading to a particularly dark part of the seas.
There was no need to use the SDV this time; in fact they’d left it behind, hidden in the small inlet. After Smash drew the short straw on who would have to stay onboard the Sea Shadow, the four remaining 616s, plus Crash, scrambled aboard the massive ship using their rope ladder hooked on to the service balcony at the bottom of the hull. They were all dressed in tourist wear, clothes that 616 for some reason already had on board. These duds were so bad—they all wore white belts and white loafers—they were guaranteed to mix in smoothly with the 4,500 passengers currently on the ship.
Once aboard, Elvis volunteered to stay near the service balcony, a laser designator in hand. Using this device, he could stay in touch with the Sea Shadow, which was soon riding about a half-mile off the cruise ship’s massive stern, and signal it when it was time for the team to leave.
The other four moved on, stealing into a hallway and then blending in beautifully with the other passengers. Crash was videotaping as always. Ghost, being the electronics wiz of the group, was carrying his small toolkit in a beach bag, along with a laptop.
They walked the length of the ship, mostly on the sixth deck, which was the main deck. It was fantastic in all respects. It literally had neighborhoods—groups of stores, eateries, businesses and