JonDlundyn Parker adventure #4
November 15th 2006 18:30
The modern terrorists weapon
Chapter 4
A BIG BANG
Back on deck Roscoe hit the starter and fired the forty-five horsepower 4105 Perkins diesel to life. He then hauled in all three anchors, two by hand and one by electric winch. Once the boat was free of its anchors it started to back slowly out of the channel as the tide now just starting to turn took hold of her keel. He pushed the throttle forward and turned the wheel to nose the ketch toward the small opening road bridge at Swansea. Timing was critical now. Soon the crew on the cruiser would realise what had happened and would be out after them. It was imperative to get the ketch through the open road bridge before the cruiser could follow. It would give them an hour’s start. The bridge once closed would not be open for anyone for any reason until the appropriate time. Lundyn meanwhile worked on the mine. He had disengaged the remote firing mechanism. It was very basic but would have done the job from the safety of the cruiser’s deck. He then reset the arming device to put the mine back to tank mode. That is when the weight of the tank trips the mine and it goes off. He pulled a white plastic chair onto the back deck and set the mine on it.
Roscoe weaved the ketch through the Swansea channel until he was on a straight run to slip through the road bridge channel. He watched what Lundyn had been doing and a huge grin crept over his face. “A bit of his own medicine.” said Roscoe. As they rushed through the road bridge opening with barely seconds to go they could hear a mighty roar from the engines of the Mustang Cruiser coming up the channel. But to their joint relief the bridge was closing. They had an hour to spare. Once clear of the headland’s of the lake and channel Roscoe put the wheel on auto- helm and went below and hauled the unfortunate diver out of the cabin. He was strapped into the plastic chair to sit on top of the mine. His feet were lashed to the rear legs of the chair and his wrists to the front legs. He was in a crouching position. Now he was carried to the fore deck. The spinnaker boom was attached to the mast.
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Alby Woo watched disheartened from his car stopped by traffic at the open road bridge as Lundyn Parker’s ketch evaded the hit squad in the Mustang. Not knowing that a scenario was unfolding on board the yacht that would have far reaching consequences. He looked quickly at his watch and did some quick mental arithmetic and guessed that the Mustang would catch the ketch within about twenty minutes of the bridge reopening. With just an hour and twenty minutes start he thought Parker was as good as dead. There was nowhere to hide; nowhere he could get to with his yacht that would be safe. He tapped a cigarette out of a pack, adjusted his crutch, lit his cigarette and laid his head back on the seat to wait for the traffic to start moving.
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Lundyn had taken a digital photo of their captor and it was on the World Wide Web within minutes. Several of the General’s old war buddies were now working in defence and police forces of small developing countries in Europe and Asia. Mainly
ex-Communist block countries now making their own way in the world. Lundyn wanted what information he could get on the captive would be assassin. He recognised the professional way he had attempted to eliminate them and suspected he was a bit more than just a gun for hire.
To the end of the spinnaker boom a line was attached with a snap shackle that could be opened by pulling on a second small line. The captive’s chair, with him in it was raised up on the end of the spinnaker pole and swung out over the ocean. By now the yacht travelling at a comfortable 6 knots was about 3 miles out to sea. In about another 15 minutes the Swansea Bridge would open again and they would have company. The captive’s hands had been released but his legs were still tied to the chair. He was holding on to the rope attached to the chair and the shackle at the end of the spinnaker boom. He had a look of genuine terror on his face. The anti tank mine he was sitting on was armed, if he moved his backside too much it would set it off. Even if he decided to kill himself as well as his victims on the ketch it would be to no avail. By the time the mine went off with its ten-second delay the ketch would be out of danger.
It was time to interrogate him. Lundyn was asking the usual questions as the hapless captive rose up and down on the swell. His ankles bobbing in the water one moment and the next moment he was soaring 5 metres into the air. He was getting nowhere fast. The man’s features were showing that he knew he was accepting his fate. He would blow up in the water off the coast of Australia but he would take his secret with him. Roscoe emerged from the cabin with a piece of foolscap off the computer printer. “Here he is.” said Roscoe. “A nasty piece of work he is too!” Lundyn read the report. The captor was of Malaysian birth. Interpol wanted him for many international crimes and on two occasions he was recognised as having been involved in unsuccessful attempts to pirate oil tankers off the Philippine coast. He was also on a minor terrorist list put out by the US Justice Department. Not quite the most wanted but a bad guy just the same. He was known as an extremist when he needed to be, fighting for whatever cause would pay him the most. Then just as easily he would just take to armed robbery and murder. The name he was known under was Hamash.
Lundyn took another turn with the interrogation. “So, Hamash is the name you are wanted under. Quite a list of crimes by the way. Probably too many to have done yourself. I’ll bet that some of them weren’t even done by you. They just blame you because it was your style. Why would some one hire you, a specialist assassin and terrorist for a simple job of blowing up me and my boat?” There was no answer but the eyes of the victim were now watching Lundyn, who knew he had not much time. “Why is not so important but who is. Who hired you Hamash?” Still no sign of talking from the hapless Hamash. “You know what is going to happen don’t you. I am going to lower your chair into the water. Then I am going to cut the chair free of the boat. Your hands are free and if you are careful you will be able to stay upright for about fifteen minutes. Then when the chair finally tilts over and your head goes under the water you will shift just enough off the chair to release the mechanism of the mine. Ten seconds later you will join all the dead terrorists in hell. Or…” drawled on Lundyn. “If you give me enough information I can let you go with enough time to be picked up by your mates in the cruiser. They just might stop for you and pick you up. That would give us time to get away. We don’t really want to get into a gun fight with your pals.” Lundyn continued. “By the time they pick you up and you explain to them how to disarm the mine we will be in Newcastle Harbour. Tied up to the police wharf so we will not be in any danger from you or your friends. But I want some information. Something to go on.”
Hamash could be seen plotting out his fate. If he said nothing he was dead, that was for sure. The fellow had offered him a small chance. Not much of a chance as there was no way of knowing if the cruiser would pick him up or go straight for the ketch and go in for the kill. Hamash did not want to be attached to the ketch when they started to open up on the cruiser with the machine guns. The two Heckler and Koch MP-5 9mms on board would cut this old timber boat into scrap. There would be nothing left. He knew also that his only way of getting free would be a death sentence. These men that held him captive were not the normal soft targets he had gone after. He recognised they were trained and alert to everything around them. They would also suspect any lies he told. If he told the truth and lived he would be killed eventually. If he said nothing he was to be blown up. If he lied, well he didn’t even think of that. He merely started nodding his head. “Yes I can tell you, but I don’t know much. I am hired through a web page and the contact’s email is all I have.”
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