iron was about to sear her cheek, a mighty explosion rocked the compound from one end to the other. Emma opened her eyes to see the gang leader and the half dozen pirates closest to him had been vaporized, leaving only a bloody pink mist behind. Many more pirates lay broken and bleeding on the ground around her. Emma couldn’t believe it. More than a dozen bad guys had just been killed, yet she was untouched. Just like in her movies.
An instant later, one of the wooden shacks blew up, filling the camp with smoke and flames. This explosion was so violent, it knocked the remaining pirates to the ground. Then another shack blew up. Then another, and another.
Emma’s vision became partially obscured by the dust and smoke, but she could see some pirates getting to their feet and stumbling about. Others ran in panic. One man was covered in blood from his head to his feet. Another was on fire and disappeared screaming into the woods.
Yet some of the pirates had survived the mysterious blasts unscathed. They were shoving aside their horribly wounded comrades and scrambling toward the trucks, determined to flee the camp. But three of them began staggering toward Emma. And this time they weren’t carrying branding irons, but long, razor-sharp knives.
In the middle of all this came an amazing sight: A helicopter appeared out of the darkness, flying below the jungle canopy. Its guns were firing. It was shooting missiles—these were causing the explosions. Streams of phosphorous bullets were flying in every direction, hitting pirates all around Emma, but leaving her untouched.
This helicopter disappeared and another larger one came into view overhead. Armed men were hanging out of its doorways, firing weapons at the pirates below.
This copter, with its engines screaming, slammed down for a sudden, violent landing. The armed men jumped out and began firing on the pirates at close range. These men were wearing huge battle helmets equipped with weird goggles and heavy blue battle suits. They looked like aliens from a bad sci-fi movie.
Some of the pirates tried to surrender, but the attackers weren’t taking prisoners. Other pirates tried to fight back, but to no avail. They were firing directly at the attackers, but their bullets seemed to be bouncing off them. The attackers were staggered by the gunfire, but it was not slowing them down. They moved through the camp like automatons, mowing down the pirates one by one.
Another explosion went off; a missile had hit the camp’s ammunition shack, causing the most powerful blast of all. More streams of gunfire went by Emma; they looked like fireworks all going off at once. With each fusillade, though, the bullets seemed to get closer to her.
And then, the three pirates she’d spotted before emerged from the smoke and confusion. Wild eyed and screaming, each one was bleeding horribly from various parts of his body. But they still had their knives with them and they were still coming toward her.
These men didn’t care about ransoms anymore. They were going to kill her, Emma could see it in their eyes. They were even pushing and shoving each other for the opportunity to stab her first.
But just as the first pirate raised his knife to slit her throat … he suddenly stopped, looked directly into her eyes, then fell away, a bullet hole in his skull.
The instant this happened, a soldier literally fell out of the sky and landed right in front of her. He put himself between Emma and the two remaining pirates and shot them both dead, just like that.
Then he cut her ropes, causing her to fall into his arms.
She looked up at him and said: “Who the hell are you?”
The man took off his battle helmet to reveal a handsome face marred only by a patch over his left eye.
He said, “Snake Nolan. At your service…”
Emma looked him up and down, especially studying his bright blue combat suit.
Then she said, “Well, ‘Snake’ … that’s a very ugly uniform.…”
* * *
TEAM WHISKEY HAD little time to prepare for the rescue mission.
They’d just returned to their headquarters at the Port of Aden after an extended gig in the Caribbean when they got the news: Somali pirates had snatched the American actress Emma Simms from her mega-yacht and would undoubtedly be holding her for a huge ransom.
Horn of Africa politics being what they were, no armed force, military or private, had ever attacked the Somali pirates in their homeland. But this was different. These particular