hands on her knees. She looked like she was trying to wipe away any evidence that she had fired the AK-47.
She relaxed a little once she realized he was there. Reaching out to grab his hand, she asked, “How are my people below? Did any more pirates make it down to the mess hall?”
Nolan shook his head.
“They’re all fine,” he reassured her. “Though I’m sure they’re worried about you.”
She watched the injured crewmen hose off the last of the blood from the deck.
“Do you always feel like this after one of these things?” she asked Nolan.
“Why? How do you feel?” he asked her back.
“Sick,” she replied. “Sick to my stomach. Sick in my head.”
Nolan shrugged. “Well, you have to be alive to feel sick. That’s the upside.”
Her tears returned. “But I feel like such a criminal,” she said. “Do you know how many times I’ve done something like that in one of my movies? Mown down a bunch of bad guys with some kind of machine gun? But all I was ever concerned about was how my hair looked. Now, I’ve done it for real … I killed how many people? Ten? Twelve? I’ll never be the same. I can’t be…”
“You saved our lives,” he told her. “And not just us, the people in the mess hall, too. The pirates would have killed them all—or left them to die.”
She wiped her eyes again. “But you’ve got to know I’m the cause of all this. You’re all here because of me. I made you take me along. I made you rescue those poor people. I made you steal this boat. Why didn’t I just stay on my yacht?”
He sat down beside her. He resisted the urge to put his arm around her, but kept hold of her hand.
“What do you remember about that night in the refugee camp?” he asked her. “Right before we decided to take the Untouchables with us?”
She had to think for a moment. “The whole thing is like a dream to me now. Why?”
Nolan took the diplomatic route.
“Let’s just say you’ve become a different person,” he told her. “And I’ve been in this business a long time, and I’ve got to tell you, you’ve shown more guts in the past twenty-four hours than some guys I’ve spent years with. Now, try to stop dwelling on what just happened—the world is better off without those mooks. The idea here is to save those poor people in the mess hall, and that’s what we’re going to do. Capeesh?”
She managed a smile. Even in this condition, she looked absolutely radiant.
“Mio capice,” she replied in a perfect Italian accent.
He raised her to her feet. “Your friends in the mess hall will be very glad to see you. The wounded guys are down below, too.”
She wiped her eyes again and then started making her way aft.
But she turned, stepped back to him, and said softly, “Thank you.”
Then she kissed him on the cheek and walked away.
* * *
NOLAN WAITED UNTIL she was out of sight before climbing up to the ship’s bridge again.
It was now 0400 hours. It was still dark, still brutally hot and the sea was still ominously calm.
With the injured crewmen’s help, he got the ship’s balky radio working again. He went up and down the dial, hearing a cacophony of chattering voices speaking countless languages at very high speed.
He eventually found one frequency that was clearer than the rest, and just listened. The participants were speaking Hindi, but with a few English words mixed in. After just thirty seconds, he knew it was the Bom-Kats, talking about what had happened less than an hour before. It didn’t take long before he heard the name Emma Simms.
It just reconfirmed his worst fears. Yes, the Bom-Kats knew the world’s most famous actress was aboard the old ship. And like the Somalis who’d snatched her earlier, they undoubtedly knew she would be worth tens of millions of dollars in ransom—and that was after they got through doing whatever they wanted to her.
So, yes, Alpha Squad had foiled the Bom-Kats three times now. But judging from the radio chatter, Nolan was certain the pirates were going to try again. What would happen then? Alpha Squad was out-gunned, out-manned, out of their element, and out of touch—with anybody who could help.
But then one of the crewmen began tapping him urgently on his good shoulder. The man pointed to the eastern horizon where Nolan was heartened to see a bright light approaching. He knew