pirates were believed part of the Shaka Clan, and the Shakas had well-known links to al Qaeda in Africa. In fact there was a good chance the Shakas had done the kidnapping on the terrorists’ orders.
Having snatched the big time movie star, the gang was sitting atop a two-fold bonanza: They might get tens of millions of dollars in ransom money and generate an avalanche of publicity for the jihadist cause. But for that very reason—that such an incident would generate so much attention worldwide, meaning so many fingers could soon be in the pie—the situation might become drawn out forever, during which time anything could happen.
So, before the political or diplomatic wheels could even start turning, a consortium of movie studios had come up with a ten-million-dollar reward, payable to anyone who retrieved Simms unharmed.
Whiskey took the job.
* * *
THEIR OFFICIAL NAME was Ocean Security Services, Inc. They’d been in the business of fighting pirates for less than a year. Their core group was made up of Delta Force veterans—call sign Task Force Whiskey—who’d fought together throughout the 1990s and right up to the invasion of Afghanistan following 9/11. In fact, Whiskey had been pursuing Osama bin Laden himself, had him in their gun sights at Tora Bora when they were inexplicably ordered by the top dogs at the Defense Department to back off. Whiskey refused. It was a brave but tragic decision, because in addition to getting two of them seriously wounded, disobeying those direct orders got them bounced from the military, and their CO, Snake Nolan, jailed for several years and banned from ever stepping foot inside the U.S. again.
Fronted and financed by the marine transportation giant, Kilos Shipping, Whiskey’s anti-pirate services had been a huge success, defeating brigand gangs from Indonesia, China, Africa and the Caribbean, and getting well paid for it. But when the ten-million-dollar offer came in, they just couldn’t say no.
Because of the time crunch, their plan had to be simple. Find the Shakas’ compound, lay down a surgical barrage of Hellfire missiles, then land a ground force and roll up the pirates before they knew what hit them.
If everything went right, they would rescue Simms and any other hostages the gang was holding, and then fly directly to the movie’s star’s mega-yacht, which, its engines repaired, had reversed course and was now back in the Gulf of Aden, speeding south.
And everything did go just about how they planned. Whiskey first found the gang’s pair of speedboats pulled up on a beach near Kushu, the Shakas’ home village. Then they’d used their OH-6 attack copter’s night-vision capabilities to find the hideout and blow it apart as intended. Utilizing some new body armor they’d agreed to test for a private arms manufacturer, their modest ground force had killed most of the pirates and scattered those few who remained, without getting so much as a scratch. Simms was free and now it was time to get the hell out.
But then, suddenly, they had a problem.
* * *
THE TEAM’S XO, Batman Bob Graves, had piloted Whiskey’s attack copter on the mission. After firing a half dozen Hellfire missiles into the heart of the pirates’ compound, he’d swung around to the trio of smaller buildings located nearby. The team believed more hostages were being held here.
Batman landed the OH-6 and, after shooting the locks off the doors of the three small buildings, indeed found more hostages. Counting Simms’s stylist, there were thirteen in all.
Whiskey had guessed that, at the most, they’d find ten hostages here, Simms included. The rescue force itself was comprised of ten raiders—and that was the problem. There was only room on their two copters for twenty-two people maximum, pilots included.
But now they had twenty-three.
* * *
ONCE ALL FIRING had ceased at the compound, the team’s ground force made its way over to the hostages’ location. The second copter landed; it was a Bell X-1 the team had borrowed, along with its pilot, from the Kilos security force. Batman had the hostages ready and waiting to go. He started hustling them onto the Bell as quickly as possible. When the copter was at its limit, he tried to stuff the rest into the much smaller OH-6 attack copter, leaving room only for the pilot. But no matter how they worked it, they still had one person too many.
Only three people in the rescue force could fly a rotary craft: Batman, Snake Nolan and the pilot of the Bell copter. Batman huddled with Nolan and