that water, please.…”
Gunner called out for Nolan: “Snake—get up here quick!”
The Whiskey CO arrived seconds later—but he couldn’t believe what he saw either.
Even as he stood in the doorway, looking at her in her silk top and tight jeans, all baubles and bling, in full princess mode, his brain refused to process what his good eye was taking in.
“She says she wanted to see Gottabang,” Gunner told him feebly.
Nolan was speechless for ten long seconds.
Then he finally growled at Gunner, “Tell them…”
“Tell who … what?” Gunner replied, confused.
“The pilots,” Nolan said through clenched teeth. “Tell them to take off again and go back.…”
But Gunner asked: “Go back? Go back where?”
He was right. Turning around and leaving now would fuck up everything. They’d have to return to Yemen, land, refuel, take off, find her yacht somewhere in the Red Sea, land, refuel, take off, fly back to Yemen, land, refuel, take off, then fly all the way back to the west coast of India.
They’d lose at least twenty-four hours screwing around like that. And with this mission, time was of the essence.
When all this became clear, Nolan gave Gunner a look. He got the hint and left the cabin, closing the door behind him.
“Is he still getting my water?” she asked once he’d gone.
Nolan was beyond furious.
“This cannot be,” he told her sternly enunciating every syllable. “You cannot be here. This is a serious mission, for serious money, and…”
She laughed a little, interrupting him. “That depends on what you consider ‘serious money’ home-boy. I made a hundred million last year just on DVD rentals … and I didn’t have to lift a finger.”
Nolan was so livid, he had to fight for his next breath.
“Why are you here?” he managed to ask her. “And spare me the bullshit about seeing one of the worst places in the world.”
She blew on her recently coated fingernail. “OK, how about this then: Maybe I just like helping out the common people.”
“Like those hostages, you mean?” Nolan shot back at her. “For all you know, that ferry sunk on the way back to Aden.”
“I’m sure we would have heard if it sank,” she replied in an annoying sing-songy voice. “And for your information, I believe I gave them all airfare home, too.”
“Well, considering many of them were from the Gulf area anyway, that must have set you back, what? A few hundred bucks?”
“They should be grateful they got out with their lives,” she said, blowing on her nails again. “They were rotting away there until I got kidnapped. If it wasn’t for me, they’d still be with those Somali monkeys.”
Again Nolan had to fight to take a breath. It came slow and hard, but he used it to calm down. Then he started again. “OK, please explain to me why you’re here. The real reason.”
She shrugged again as she applied more polish. “Maybe that whole kidnap thing was kind of a rush. I mean, skydiving? Bungee jumping? Doing meth? Same old stuff gets old pretty quick. And I get bored easily, so I got to keep feeding the monster.”
“So you’re an adrenaline junkie? Is that it?”
“Is that so hard to believe?” she replied. “Swimming with the sharks. Running at Pamplona. Getting kidnapped. Getting rescued. Real stuff gets the heart pumping—and it’s good for the street cred. Plus, it looks great on Twitter.”
She blew on her fingernails again. “Hey, what do you think is in that Z-box thing?” she asked him out of the blue. “I’ll bet it’s porno of Kennedy or someone.”
Nolan still couldn’t believe this was happening. “Do you have any idea how dangerous this is going to be?” he asked her sharply.
“They’re just pirates,” she replied. “I read a pirate movie script once. They’re not so scary.”
“These pirates have guns,” he corrected her. “Just like the last ones you saw. And they’re desperate people. If you really thought deeply about this…”
She cut him off. “No one in my business ever ‘thinks deeply’ about anything,” she said. “You should remember that. My world is all surface and bullshit. I do what I want to do—and that’s the way I like it.”
“But you have to realize what we do is real,” he shot back. “You saw it for yourself in that pirate camp. Bullets fly. Explosions go off. Things go zipping through the air and when they hit you they can kill or maim you for life.”
He pointed to his eye patch. “How do you think I got this?”
She looked him up and down for a