It belonged to Stephen Shah, with a background of engine noise. And one who didn’t know him well wouldn’t be able to tell, but Dante could detect the stress in his words.
“…could make an exchange. Our woman for your man. Then we go our separate ways.”
Dante held up a hand, knowing Jasmijn had questions, but he needed to hear what came next. He could already tell that a serious situation had developed. Our woman must be Naomi, and your man must mean that Shah had somehow taken one of the Hofstad men hostage.
A Dutch-accented voice, different background sounds. “We sent two men to help you, not one.”
There was a pause before Shah’s voice came back. “One has been eliminated. The other will be, too, if anything happens to the woman. But we can end the killing here. Your man for our woman. It’s up to you.”
“What about your other two people — the two scuba divers — you don’t want them?”
Dante and Jasmijn exchanged a glance.
“Where are they?”
Dante eyed the radio transmitter. Should he break in on the channel to let Shah know they were on the oil rig? But that would be letting Hofstad know, too.
“I don’t know where they are. They were with you, what happened?”
“Forget it. Let us do this exchange.”
Shah’s voice barked over the radio channel. “I’m on my way to your boat.”
THIRTY-FOUR
Dante thought fast. He needed to communicate to Shah that they were on the oil rig, but if he announced it over the open channel, Hofstad would hear, too. He thought back to one of their OUTCAST strategizing sessions on communication, where Tanner had asked who knew Morse code. There had been a couple of snickers and words like “dated” and “primitive” thrown around, but in the end Tanner had insisted that all of them maintain proficiency at it. And right now, as Dante clutched the radio transmitter, he was glad he did.
He keyed the transmitter several times in a row without saying anything, alternating the time he depressed the button. Short-long-short, short-short, long-long-short, repeatedly for about ten seconds:
R…I…G…
He figured Shah would be monitoring the channel and that the duration would be long enough for him to interpret it to mean that he and Jasmijn were on the oil rig. Hopefully Hofstad would just think it was interference of some kind, or not be able to decode it if they did suspect a message.
The Hofstad man’s voice punched through the channel. “What is that noise? What are you doing?”
“I don’t know, but I’m on my way to you. Probably just engine interference, over.”
Shah got it! Why else would he pass it off as interference rather than simply saying, I didn’t hear anything?
But for Shah to go to Hofstad’s boat alone was nearly suicidal. Even armed with his own weapon and those of the two men he’d taken down, he would still be facing four heavily armed terrorists. Hopefully he stopped by the rig before he visited Hofstad’s boat. Dante turned to Jasmijn.
“Step outside and tell me if you can see where Stephen is heading in his boat. I need to monitor the radio, but if he passes near the rig maybe we can catch his attention without the guys on the other boat knowing.”
She nodded, dropped her wet bag of sea anemones and stepped outside onto the square, metal landing area while Dante listened in on the marine channel. He heard no further conversation and so assumed that Shah was en route to the other boat.
“The Zodiac is coming toward the rig,” Jasmijn called. A couple of seconds went by and then she added, “Around back — he’ll pass behind us.”
Dante listened to radio silence for a minute longer and then decided it was time to act. He left the radio on and joined Jasmijn on the landing platform outside. Suspended below the tower of infrastructure, it offered a 360 degree view of the sea around them, but one that was obstructed in places by various pipes and pieces of equipment. He followed Jasmijn’s pointing finger to see the tiny Zodiac skirting around the rig, leaving a small wake as it traveled near the limit of its speed capabilities, about to make the turn around to the side they were on.
“Where do you think is the best place on this rig to get low enough to the water where Stephen will see us from the boat and we can jump down?”
“There’s an access ladder down to the water from this side, too.” Jasmijn pointed between a latticework of metal supports down and to their right.
Dante nodded. “I see it. Let’s go.”
The two of them went back through the radio room, where they heard no chatter coming from the systems, and proceeded to wind their way down through the rig. The whine of Shah’s boat motor grew steadily louder as they neared the access point.
“This way!” Dante led them down a spiral staircase that opened up onto a deck platform made of a rectangular steel grate. Below that was the access ladder. Shah came into view, cruising around this side of the rig, slowing his speed as he neared.
Dante and Jasmijn leaned out as far as they dared over the edge of the platform while they waved their arms above their heads as Shah approached in the boat. Suddenly the boat’s motor cut out and the inflatable fell back in the water.
Shah had seen them.
He idled the small craft up to the boarding ladder. Dante and Jasmijn climbed down to the water and stepped into the boat, carefully stepping around the bound and gagged Hofstad operator, who lie motionless on the deck. His eyes were open, watching.
Shah quickly addressed them. “I’m hoping to trade him for Nay. Weapons?” Dante told them about the pistols they each carried, then continued.
“I doubt it’ll be an even matchup, but we have to go get her. What kind of firepower do they have?” He looked to Dante for the details.
“You took two out, so there’ll be three left on the big boat, all armed with full-auto rifles and handgun backups.”
Shah shook his head as they bobbed in the motorized raft. “We can’t just present ourselves to them like lambs to the slaughter. How about this: Dante, you go back up into the rig with our best long-distance pistol.”
Immediately Dante and Jasmijn raised their eyebrows. They’d only just gotten down from the rig.
“And take the southeast corner, there…” Shah pointed to the end of the rig facing Hofstad’s boat before continuing. “That’ll put you in range to take at least one, hopefully two operators out, and give us the element of surprise so that I can drop whoever’s still standing.”
Dante nodded and showed him his weapon. Shah handed him a long-barreled pistol, trading for the one Dante had and tucking it into his waistband. “Here, take this — a little better range. Fully loaded. Extra magazine, too.” He handed the spare bullets over to Dante, who pocketed them.
“Take these, too,” Shah added, handing Dante the pair of binoculars that had been in the boat.
Then Shah turned to Jasmijn. “What about you, can you shoot?”
“If I have to, I guess. I never have before.” She showed him her pistol.
Shah looked at Dante and pointed up at the rig. “Okay, let’s go. They’ll be getting suspicious.”
“What’s the signal going to be?” Dante climbed up on to the ladder but waited to hear from Shah before ascending to the rig. He had to know when he was supposed to shoot.