McCormick concluded, “This was an almost perfect ambush by the Chinese. If we can get out of here alive, it will be a major defeat for them.”
My attention was ripped back into the room as eight of the Unit One commandos began checking their weapons, including Fong's second-in-command.
Dietrich asked, “What are you doing?”
Fong just glared at him and picked up the telephone. He dialed the engine-room and, when McCormick picked up, Fong said, “I wish to discuss cease-fire terms with you.” As he spoke, his second-in-command walked over to the closed bulkhead door that led to the control tower stairs. He opened the door, and eight of the ten remaining Unit One soldiers filed outside, weapons at the ready.
I exchanged glances with Taleb and Dietrich. We all knew what was happening. The other option that Dietrich had left out of his evaluation was for the Unit One soldiers to come out and fight Volodya and McCormick. If they could kill the last two armed Lafayette Initiative members onboard, they could call in reinforcements from Taiwan to take the ship safely into harbor. Fong was staying in the control tower because only he could ensure that McCormick and Volodya stayed put in the engine room. Fong was calling them on the ship's telephone to keep them on the line while the Unit One soldiers made their way into the interior of the ship to deliver a surprise knockout blow.
McCormick responded neutrally, “What terms do you propose?”
Fong paused a moment, trying to drag out the conversation as long as possible. “Well, we have something you want. We have your compatriots. And you, in turn, are in a position to deny us the ability to get off this ship…”
Fong continued describing the situation in the most long-winded way possible, buying his men the maximum amount of time to make their way to the engine room. The other Unit One soldier who had been left behind aimed his Ak-2000 at us, clearly indicating that he would shoot anyone who tried to warn McCormick of the impending ambush.
I looked to Dietrich for any ideas on how to handle the situation. His face was blank as he considered what could be done.
My eyes turned to Taleb. He met my gaze briefly. His eyes narrowed and his cheeks went taut. He mouthed the phrase, “Allahu ahkbar,” then shouted, “TRAP!”
The Unit One soldier fired a three-round burst into Taleb's head, permanently silencing the Palestinian after that one word. However, Taleb's message had gotten across, and the noise of the three Ak-2000 shots served as an equally effective alert.
Fong swore and hung up the phone. He radioed the other Unit One men, presumably to tell them that Volodya and McCormick would not be caught unaware in the engine room. He then said to me, “Your men do not lack for bravery, Cortez, I will grant you that.”
I listened over the radio as McCormick and Volodya quickly and quietly discussed the situation. I pictured the scene from the description of the engine room given in our pre-mission briefing. The engine room was about thirty feet by fifteen feet by eight feet. It was in the rear of the ship, below the water line. The left and right ends of the room each had a door leading to a long, narrow hallway that led along either side of the ship.
Volodya whispered, “Their advantages are numbers and firepower. What are our advantages?”
McCormick answered. “The gecko gloves. We can attack from more than one direction if we can get them out onto the deck.”
Volodya replied, “The problem is they're not going to the deck. They're coming here, to the engine room. They have flashbangs and grenades, so if they find us in a static defense of the engine room, they'll murder us. But we can't just leave, because if they take the engine room, they can restart the engines. If they restart the engines, we either have to let them drive the ship to Taiwan and their reinforcements, or retake the engine room.”
“Which means we have to take them out on their way here,” McCormick said.
“Precisely.”
McCormick considered the issue for a moment. “They're afraid of us, so they're not likely to split up. They'll be highly trained to work as a team, check every corner, and be on the lookout for an ambush en route.”
“So how do you beat an enemy like that?” Volodya asked.
“Surprise 'em. Shake their confidence. Then gut the bastards.”
Volodya chuckled softly. “I like that plan. But I think we should change the order…” Volodya described what he had in mind, and McCormick instantly agreed, and moved off to carry out his part of the plan.
The Unit One soldiers came out of the stairwell on the engine room deck level very slowly. They moved in a staggered formation: one man took cover in an entryway along the hallway and kept his rifle pointed down the hall, toward the engine room. The last man in line then ran forward to the next entryway and took cover, starting the process again.
It was a textbook way to avoid ambush, and everything proceeded along in precisely the manner dictated by the textbook.
Then the Unit One soldiers reached the portion of the hallway next to the crew quarters, about fifty feet down the hall from the engine room.
The Unit One soldier in the lead did his part, looking around the five-bed-tall bunkbeds in the crew quarters and confirming that the room was clear. His seven comrades moved forward, and the first of them reached the very last compartment before the engine room. The soldier in crew quarters was just about to move up when the lights went out.
Volodya had flipped a circuit breaker in the engine room, killing electrical power throughout the ship. That was McCormick's cue.
The American sergeant had, using his gecko gloves, perched himself on the far side of the top row of bunkbeds, as far from the doorway as possible. When the lights went out, he fell silently to the floor. He had not been the best Knight for stealthiness, but he was still a Knight, and his years of training did not fail him now.
In seconds, he was mere feet from the Unit One soldier, who was still looking down the hall, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the darkness. He had just enough time to hear the sound of McCormick's combat knife flitting through the air before McCormick embedded the weapon at the base of the Unit One soldier’s skull, killing him instantly.
At the exact same time, Volodya poked his head and submachine gun around the engine room entryway and took aim at the front-most Unit One soldier, only fifteen feet away. Volodya fired a three-round burst, hitting the man repeatedly in the chest.
Volodya ducked back into the engine room as the other Unit One soldiers opened fire at the entryway. They were providing cover so that the rearmost of their number could run forward and secure the engine room doorway. The only problem was that the rearmost soldier was now dead at McCormick’s hands.
The Unit One soldiers continued giving cover fire for several seconds before any of them realized what was wrong. Fong's second-in-command, third in the column of Unit One soldiers, needed time to consider how to proceed. However, McCormick did not give him such time. Under cover of the thundering Ak-2000 fire, McCormick emerged at the rear of the Unit One soldiers and quickly fired his submachine gun at the last two, who were both in the same entryway just ten feet ahead of his position.
After McCormick had killed those two Unit One soldiers, the sixth and seventh in the column, the fifth Unit One soldier realized what was happening and turned his fire to the rear just as McCormick moved into the entryway that had been occupied by the sixth and seventh Unit One soldiers.