on the boat were firing off fell onto the leaking fuel—and that’s when the huge explosion came. There was a ball of fire, a second deafening bang—and then the dhoni was gone.
Gunner pumped his fist in triumph—but the celebration was short-lived.
Unlike after the first dhoni was sunk, the pirates didn’t stop for even an instant this time.
If anything, they began attacking the ship with renewed vigor.
* * *
NOLAN’S KNIFE WAS finally gone.
Bent, twisted and dull, he’d lost it somehow in the frenzy of the battle. His pistol, empty and useless, he had thrown away on purpose. His M4 was serving as little more than a battering club now, his allotted twenty-three rounds gone long ago. He had dispatched so many pirates by hitting them with the assault weapon’s stock his hands were bleeding from holding its slender barrel so tight.
How long had the battle been going on? He had no idea. A few minutes, a few hours? He really couldn’t tell. All he knew was that his plan to defend the ship was in shambles. Pirates were being killed. Their bodies were splashing into the sea with grisly regularity. The Koreans were running up and down the deck, their wheelbarrows sizzling, their hands horribly burned, pouring the flaming oil on the attackers whenever and wherever they could. And the Senegals that he could see were stabbing, slashing and simply manhandling a lot of the Bom-Kats back over the railing. But just like Nolan, they’d been forced to use their rifles, too—in fact the gunfire sounding out around the ship was nonstop now. Just what Alpha didn’t want to do.
And still, the pirates kept coming.
* * *
JUST A FEW seconds after Nolan had ducked away from another incoming barrage of tracer fire, he heard someone come up behind him.
He spun around ready to whack them with the butt of his empty M4 when he realized it was Gunner. He had scrambled through the bridge to get away from the fighting on the port side.
“It’s really bad over there,” Gunner managed to say. “They’re so many of them coming over the top now, we can’t stop them.”
Gunner was still holding his Streetsweeper and his cleaver. But blood was running down his right side. Nolan was stunned to see he had a serious wound on his shoulder.
They had to duck as another barrage of tracer fire crackled above their heads. Though the Senegals and the Koreans were still fighting pirates climbing up the sides of the ship, it was clearly a losing battle.
“Might be time to go to phase two,” Gunner yelled to Nolan.
Nolan grimly agreed. He let out a loud whistle. A predetermined signal, it cut through the sounds of the battle.
All at once, everyone fighting the pirates on deck pulled back, retreating to the forward cargo hatch. This was a ten-foot raised section of the ship located right behind the bridge. It had a stout safety railing around it and it gave an almost 360-degree view of the deck. It was a perfect fallback position to defend—though to Nolan’s mind, it was a little too much like the Alamo.
Only after all of the deck defenders had climbed up onto the forward hatch, did Nolan realize he was the only one among them who wasn’t wounded. Gunner had the huge gash in his shoulder and two of the Senegals were bleeding from stab wounds to their legs. Two other Senegals had head wounds, the fifth was bleeding from his chest. Even the four Korean crewmen had sustained wounds to their arms and legs, plus their hands had been burned from handling the hot hydraulic fluid.
The pirates were pouring over the railings now and heading for the small clutch of defenders atop the cargo hatch. Nolan had the Senegals kneel down and form a firing line. Then he and Gunner stood behind them. Nolan was now armed with Gunner’s Beretta pistol; it had just four rounds left. Unarmed and defenseless, the Korean sailors took cover behind him.
The first line of pirates advanced on the cargo hatch.
“On my call!” Nolan yelled above the din. “Acquire target—one shot only. Fire!”
The Senegals’ five M4s exploded at once, hitting five pirates closest to them.
“On my call!” Nolan yelled again. “Acquire—aim—fire!”
Again, another barrage spewed out from the M4s.
Five more pirates went down.
“Acquire! Aim! Fire!”
Another barrage came—then another and another. It went on like this for more than a minute. Every shot counted; every shot either killed or wounded a pirate.