Pirate Lair: Chapter 2
Gulf of Aden, off Somalia, 3:17 A.M.
The room exploded in blinding light!
Reacting to Carlos’s urgent yell, Tarita had closed her eyes just before he’d fired the flare gun. The flare had thumped into the man grabbing her and gone off.
She and Carlos opened their eyes as the burst of light began to fade. The pirate hit by the flare had let go of Tarita and was falling backward. The other four, temporarily blinded, pointed their guns aimlessly.
They were young, brash and grimy. Thousands like them had attacked hundreds of ships in these waters. They had taken over a thousand hostages, with ransoms totaling hundreds of millions of dollars.
Tarita grabbed a heavy metal sextant6 from the bridge console and slammed it against one pirate’s head. He dropped to the deck. Carlos brought his elbow up hard into another pirate’s chin. The man staggered back into the bridge console and slid down it to the deck.
The two men still standing, their vision returning, turned toward Tarita and Carlos. Tarita instantly launched a kick at one, her leg whipping up in a practiced Taekwondo move.
The gun flew from his hand as her foot struck it.
At the same time, Carlos chopped down with his hand’s edge onto the other man’s gun hand. He jerked the gun from the man’s loosened grip.
Carlos stepped back and pointed the gun at the two unarmed pirates standing before him. He wrapped his free arm around Tarita.
Carlos: “You okay?”
Tarita: “I’m good.”
Carlos looked inquisitively at the pirates.
Carlos: “Either of you speak English?”
One of the men nodded his head.
Carlos: “Where’s my crew?”
Pirate: “Locked up below.”
Carlos: “Tar, keep those other characters covered while I talk to this guy. And please — cover up a bit. You’re distracting me.”
Tarita: “Nice to be noticed.”
In fact, she was one of the world’s most noticed women. Her allure and athleticism had attracted millions to the nine action films she’d made for Fisk’s Pandora Studios. So it perplexed her when the lusty Carlos seemed indifferent to her…attributes. She was not indifferent to his.
Carlos drew the English-speaking pirate aside. He would use him to get back on plan. He and Tarita wanted to be captured so that their kidnappers would lead them to one of the pirate warlords. They wanted to be taken hostage…but not killed.
The pirates’ aggressive action toward Tarita had forced Carlos to stop them. Now he needed the pirates to become captors again, benign ones.
And Tarita would be his Trojan horse.
Carlos: “Don’t you guys know who you’ve got here — who she is?”
Pirate: “The woman? Who is she?”
Carlos: “Only one of the world’s biggest movie stars — Tarita Lee. She could bring you more ransom than your buddies got for those last big oil tankers they hi-jacked — the Centauri Star and the MV Smyrni. She could be worth millions to you.”
Pirate: “Why do you tell this? What is your want?”
Carlos: “I want half the ransom. And I’ll find you the people that’ll pay it. After I meet your warlord. He’s the only– Aaagh!”
A muscular arm wrapped around Carlos’ neck from behind. Another arm yanked back hard on his arm and gun hand, forcing him to drop the gun.
Tarita heard the clatter of the dropped gun. She whipped to see Carlos being choked from behind. She couldn’t shoot for fear of hitting Carlos.
Carlos tried to break the chokehold. Tried to stomp the man’s foot, elbow him. Nothing worked. The guy was good. Good enough to control Carlos, a 6' 4" former pro athlete skilled in martial arts. The other pirate nodded his approval.
Pirate: “That’s one way to stop your arrogance.”
The choker behind Carlos muttered something in Somali. A question. The pressure on Carlos’ throat was cutting off his oxygen. He was getting woozy.
The older pirate spat a reply in Somali, passing his hand across his throat.The vice-like grip tightened. Carlos started to black out. The last thing he heard was Tarita screaming.
Tarita: “Nooo!”
Read Chapter 3 here!