"Good as I'll ever be," she said. "I wish I had an RPG instead of a small gun and some pens."

"You think the pens will work?"

Emma nodded. "I do, despite what Stark said."

Sumner nodded. "I'm with you. It's all we've got going for us at the moment."

There was a roar as the a.s.sembled boats began their charge.

"Here they come," Sumner said.

53.

EMMA WATCHED THE SKIFFS SHOOT TOWARD THEM. SUMNER held the Dragunov, and he stepped out onto the deck as they approached. He waited in the shadow of a small overhang along the wall for the moment that they were close enough to hit. The pirates began their own volleys at three hundred meters away. They fired in unison, launching grenades at the Kaiser Franz, aiming high. The luxury boat shook with the force that hammered into it. Explosions rocked the ship, blowing out windows, sending shards of gla.s.s catapulting twenty feet into the air, and raining bits of metal and splinters of wood everywhere. Two grenades shot past Emma's hiding place, too high to hit anything. She could smell the sulfuric chemical burning at the rockets' tails as they whizzed by.

Sumner stepped out of the shadow and returned fire. Emma watched the driver in the lead boat drop. From twenty feet to Emma's right came the burst of their own RPG being fired. Ha.s.sim held the weapon. Emma could see him standing at the very edge of the deck rail. His back blast nearly scorched a life ring hanging on the wall ten feet behind him. Ha.s.sim's grenade traveled straight toward his target like a heat-seeking missile. The first skiff's hull shattered at the prow, sending planks flying upward. The pirates screamed, jumping out of the craft into the water. Emma heard more shouts as the men landed in the jellyfish-infused ocean.

Sumner fired again, but it did little to slow the pirates' progress. They unleashed grenades at the ship in sporadic bursts, and as they neared, their aim sharpened. Most of the ordnance met its target. They were close now. Sumner picked off pirate after pirate, but the sheer number of them ensured that they would succeed in boarding the ship. Emma saw the flash of steel as the first grappling hooks flew over the railing thirty feet to the left of them.

The hooks cued Cindy and Marina, who emerged from their hiding places behind a door. They crouched over as they slid four flat dishpans across the deck. Marina shoved one under the first hook, which had been thrown next to a ladder built into the Kaiser Franz's side. Cindy pushed hers beside it, in line with the first. Three more grappling hooks flew into the air, clattering onto the deck. Cindy yelped when one grazed her shoulder before it fell onto the planking. The metal p.r.o.ngs rattled as they were drawn back. Two fell harmlessly into the water when their hooks failed to grab on to anything. The third caught the base pole of the railing and stuck there. Cindy rammed another pan under the last. Both women scuttled back to the metal door.

The Kaiser Franz emitted a huge metallic sound, belched a cloud of oily smoke, and groaned to a start. They were moving. Emma heard m.u.f.fled cheers from the pa.s.sengers hiding in the lower decks. The ropes attached to the grappling hooks pulled tight while the boat hauled them along. Sumner moved closer to the railing, firing shot after shot into the attached skiffs. Emma sidled up next to him, removed the safety on her gun, and glanced over the side.

Four skiffs dragged in the cruise liner's wake, each one filled with Somalis. Two aimed a.s.sault rifles upward. One fired off a volley at Sumner and Emma. Sumner dove to the deck, but Emma was already as flat as she could get, so she concentrated her attention on the shooter. She responded with her own series of shots, catching the man in the shoulder and causing the others to dive for cover. Empty bullet casings ejected from the pistol's side, flying to the right and landing on the wooden planks with plinking sounds. She held the gun with two hands, as Ha.s.sim had taught her, but she still had a difficult time controlling the weapon's recoil.

Six more hooks flew over the railings at various points. Sumner crawled next to her, lay on his belly, and aimed at the men. He started picking them off as they grabbed on to the ladder to haul themselves upward. The vessel's movement served to slow the pirates' momentum, but even so they were climbing fast. The ones using makeshift ladders fell off them when they hitched sideways from the combination of ocean waves and moving target. Emma reloaded with the last of her ammunition. Each shot was going to have to count.

The first group was at the top of the railing, and four swung a leg over to board. Their weapons were slung across their backs, and a quick glance at the first two showed that they wore heavy work boots with thick steel-reinforced soles and long pants. Emma wanted to groan. Although they stepped directly into the dishpans, they didn't react. Even if the tentacles had fired, the men weren't feeling the sting. The first on board managed to stumble over the lip of the pan. He catapulted forward, arms flailing. Emma darted toward him, a pen in her hand. She plunged it into the back of his arm as he fell to the deck.

Emma swung back to watch the other two. One crumpled to the planks from a shot fired by Sumner, while the fourth wasn't quite over the railing. He wore sandals and slammed one foot into a pan. He didn't react but seemed intent on swinging his second leg across the railing. Marina darted from behind a lifeboat. She skidded to a stop four feet from the man, pointed a squeeze bottle at him, and emptied the water into the pan. The man howled, stumbling over the pan's lip and dropping to his knees. Marina spun back to run for cover. There was the sound of a crack, and her body flew forward with the force of the bullet entering it. She slammed face-first onto the deck, and a blooming red stain formed on her shoulder. She lay flat, unmoving.

Emma felt an arm wrap around her throat from behind. The man she'd hit with the pen was choking her. She fought for air as he tightened his sinewy arm on her neck. She could smell his sweat and feel his bicep bulge with his effort. She still held the spent pen in her hand. She dropped it and scrabbled in her pants pocket to grab another. Her fingers closed on the slim plastic piece and she pulled it out, held it low, and plunged it backward, into the man's thigh, which was the only part of his body she could reach. Seconds later she felt him begin to jerk in a spasm. He kept his arm locked around her throat as his body twitched.

Sumner was up and running toward her, his weapon held in both hands. He swung the b.u.t.t of the gun high, above Emma's head, aiming for her attacker. She felt a puff of air as the steel whiffed past her hair. The gun hit the pirate with a thudding sound. He collapsed, taking Emma down with him. She untangled herself from his arm and rolled to the edge of the railing to get away.

Her heart plunged as she looked downward. The pirates were swarming over the side of the boat, slamming makeshift ladders against the side to crawl up. One man, still inside a skiff, yelled orders, his face contorted with rage. He held an a.s.sault weapon at the ready while his eyes raked the ship-looking for what, Emma didn't know. Sumner moved to stand above her, a foot on either side of her body. He continued to fire at the pirates, but it was only going to be a matter of minutes before they were overwhelmed. The raging man's eyes locked on Sumner. He raised his gun to shoot.

From that moment forward, Emma felt her world switch into slow motion. She hauled the arm that held the pistol out from next to her body, preparing to shoot the raging man. Sumner, too, shouldered his weapon to aim, and the pirates continued to crawl upward. The raging man, Emma, and Sumner fired at the same moment. The raging man went down, a bullet in his heart, and Sumner dropped, landing on Emma.

The weight of his landing on her squeezed all the air out of her lungs. She felt the warm flow of blood ooze onto her cheek. Sumner groaned and stayed still, his body heavy on hers. Emma wanted to scream, but her shock at seeing his blood seemed to freeze her lungs. She twisted to slither out from under him. He moaned again, twitched, and slid off her. She watched him reach for the Dragunov with his left hand. Blood poured from his right arm. A pirate loomed over them both, holding his gun like a baseball bat. Emma rolled onto her back, aimed her revolver, and pulled the trigger.

The gun gave a hollow click, barely audible. Nothing happened. The pirate's eyes, which had widened at the sight of her pistol, narrowed. He flipped his own rifle back into firing position. Emma pulled a pen from her pocket and jammed it into the pirate's foot at the arch. She left it hanging there, grabbed another, and jabbed him again. When she glanced up, she saw that the man was shaking, trembling, his mouth jerking. He still held the gun, but it hung down at his side while his muscles spasmed. His finger was curled over the trigger, and the gun erupted. Bullets hammered into the deck in a crazy pattern all around her. She found her voice and started yelling, pushing herself backward, b.u.mping into Sumner, who still lay behind her, while she used her feet to scuttle across the planks.

Several more pirates appeared at the railing, grasping the horizontal slats and climbing hand over hand.

"Sumner, can you shoot?" Emma threw the question behind her. She felt him move in response.

At that moment Block burst out of a nearby door. He stopped, then aimed and shot a stun gun. Emma watched darts attached to trailing wires zip out of the front and connect with a pirate's chest and shoulder. He yelled and dropped to the deck, writhing. Behind Block came Herr Schullmann and Stark, who wielded a long steel pipe. He stepped up to the men at the railing, pulled back the pipe, and slammed it into the nearest pirate's skull. The man let go, falling backward into the sea. Block fired again, hitting a second pirate who had succeeded in getting one foot over the railing. His eyes rolled up in his head when the electricity entered his body.

Schullmann gazed down the deck, and Emma heard him give an anguished cry when he saw Marina lying on the boards. He ran toward her, ignoring the chaos all around him. A pirate aimed at her from the railing, preparing to shoot her again. Schullmann threw himself toward her as the man fired, and his body jerked when the bullet entered his chest. Block was reloading when more pirates reached the railing. Emma stood up and turned to help Sumner rise. His right arm was slick with blood.

"Go to the bridge deck!" Stark yelled. He kept swinging the pipe, slamming it onto the hands of the pirates as they grabbed at the slats to climb upward. A grenade, fired by Ha.s.sim, flew past the railing and exploded when it hit a skiff floating below them. Emma figured he had one warhead left. Ha.s.sim disappeared around a corner, heading to the other side of the ship. She could only pray that he didn't meet a new pirate force on that side.

Sumner was up, but he seemed to sway on his feet. Block reached out to grab his elbow and steady him.

"We've got to retreat up the stairs. Emma, you out?" Sumner's voice was strained with pain.

Emma nodded. "Only the pens."

"Then go!"

Sumner placed the Dragunov strap over his head and jogged to Herr Schullmann and Marina. He checked for Schullmann's pulse, then shook his head at Block. Together the men lifted Marina, Block carrying her body while Sumner held her legs. She hung from their grasp, her hair flowing downward.

Emma reached the stairwell door at the same time as Block. Stark was next. She stepped back to allow Sumner and Block to maneuver Marina's body through the doorway. The young woman's face was parchment white and immobile.

Cindy darted in next. "Here." She shoved some pens into Emma's hands.

Emma stepped in the stairway last, swinging the door shut as she did. A pirate's fingers wrapped around the edge. She grabbed the interior handle with both hands, and the two of them engaged in a tug of war, with Emma trying to keep the panel shut and the pirate attempting to yank it open. She let one hand go long enough to slam a pen into his index finger so deep that she felt it rattle against bone. He let go. She closed the door.

The stairwell felt cool and dark after the heat from the decks, and the sounds were muted. She scurried to the top of the stairs, where their first two buckets sat on the landing. She took a deep breath and held it as she dumped the first bucket's contents into the second. The door opened, and sunlight flooded into the stairwell. The Somalis flowed into the narrow pa.s.sageway. Emma hurled the empty pail at the men charging up the stairs. She didn't stay to watch but ducked through the door leading to the bridge, closing and locking it behind her.

Every window in the bridge was shattered, but only two had actual holes in them. The remaining sections were cracked in a crazy splintered pattern, like the windshield of a car. The panels with the holes were opposite each other, as if a grenade had pa.s.sed straight through. Block and the others were already across the room and out the other side. A long smear of blood left a trail on the floor. Emma wondered if Sumner had taken a bullet in a major vessel and was bleeding out.

She jogged across to the second set of buckets. At five feet away, a wave of toxic air washed over her. The others must have already mixed the gas. The door behind her burst open, and several men staggered into the room, bringing with them a second wave of noxious fumes. One dropped to his knees and started vomiting. His gun skittered across the floor toward Emma. The others gasped in huge gulps.

Emma reached for the door, but before she got there, the fumes overwhelmed her. Her eyes burned, and each time she inhaled, it felt as though she were pulling fire through her throat. Her vision distorted and her ears rang. The door appeared to undulate, making it difficult for her to locate the handle to open it. She dropped to one knee, doing her best to concentrate on the doork.n.o.b. She held her breath and grabbed it. The cold metal seemed to be the only stable object in the room. She turned it and threw herself past the opening. She lay there, half in and half out, and gasped in another breath of the gas, which seared her throat. She felt her stomach start to dry-heave, and she closed her eyes. Suddenly a hand wrapped around her wrist and someone dragged her on her back across the floor. She opened her eyes. Sumner's face ebbed and flowed in front of her as he pulled her the rest of the way out of the bridge. Blood covered his torso, and she saw that his arm still bled. His face was sheet white, but his eyes shone with determination.

He hauled her to a landing and started upward, pulling her with him. Her spine b.u.mped over each stair, and she was relieved when he reached the highest level. He pulled her into the sunlight and let go. Her arm flopped onto the boards, and she lay there gasping, with her head turned to avoid the sunlight. Spent ordnance was scattered all around her. She watched Sumner crouch down and crab-walk to the edge of the deck. He flattened onto his stomach beside a steel upright, which was all that remained of the railing. Emma crawled next to him and looked down.

A skiff floated directly below them, surrounded by the jellyfish bloom. In it were Abdul, the American soldier, and a man with angry eyes and the att.i.tude of a commander. He spoke, and the others appeared to jump in response. Emma wondered if he was this Mungabe that she'd heard about. Next to him was a pirate holding an RPG with a piece of red-colored cloth attached to it. These three watched as their comrades climbed a ladder attached to the cruise ship.

The blaring of a huge bullhorn overlay the din of gunfire. It bellowed in short blasts. The third held fast, reverberating through the air in one long howl. A ma.s.sive warship boiled toward them, less than a half mile away. Following the warning blast came the distinctive chop-chop sound of helicopter rotors firing up. A copter rose lazily into the air.

"It's the Redoubtable," Sumner said.

The pirates who remained on the ladders all leaped away from the Kaiser Franz. Some fell onto the skiff, but others landed in the water around it. One man whimpered in panic while he splashed at the jellyfish all around him. The man with the angry eyes yelled at them, waving toward the cruise liner, as if exhorting them to return. Abdul, the American soldier, and the pirate with the RPG and the red scarf yelled as well, but the men surrounded the skiff, trying to pull themselves onto it. The one Emma thought of as Mungabe took out a pistol and shot the first two over the side. Their bodies fell backward into the waves.

Sumner shoved the Dragunov at her.

"Shoot it. I can't. My arm isn't functioning." Sumner's voice was thin. "We only have eight bullets left, so keep it on semi."

"I'll miss on semi," Emma said.

"The switch is near the trigger. I'll help you aim."

Emma took the gun and pointed it at Mungabe. She felt Sumner stretch out next to her, leaning onto her side to steady her. He wrapped his right arm around her body but hissed in pain with the motion.

"Aim at the widest part of him. Take a deep breath and then hold it while you depress the trigger."

Emma closed one eye and sighted Mungabe through the scope. He was a continually moving target as he braced himself against the motion of the little boat on the ocean's waves. He glared at the men all around him in the water before looking up.

Emma took a deep breath, held it, and depressed the trigger. The gun bucked, and she watched Mungabe scream in anger. The bullet missed him completely. He raised his own rifle and fired. Sumner moved his entire torso onto her, sheltering her with his body as the bullets rattled into the side of the ship. Two ricocheted off the upright railing.

"Screw it," Emma said. "I'm switching to auto. Help me hold it in place."

She flipped the switch to auto. She didn't bother to hold her breath, didn't bother to sight him-she just pointed in his general direction and squeezed the trigger. The gun rattled in response, bucking and shivering against her as it let loose a volley of bullets. Sumner wrapped his hand around the b.u.t.t, helping her hold it steady. She moved the weapon back and forth in a sweeping motion. Abdul dropped-if from a bullet, she didn't know-and the American Somali followed. Within seconds the gun was empty.

Mungabe stood on the boat's edge firing back at her, oblivious to the danger. Then, abruptly, he paused and watched. After a moment a grin creased his face. He reached for the rope that attached his skiff to the cruise liner and pulled closer. He placed a hand on the ladder and started his ascent.

"He knows we're out," Sumner said.

Emma could barely hear him, his voice was so weak. She slid out from under his body.

"Don't move. I'll be right back." She crab-walked back to the stairwell entrance, took a deep breath, and stepped inside.

Pirates lay all around, their bodies draped at various locations in the stairwell. Emma picked her way over them, noting that most were breathing, albeit in short, shallow gasps. She pushed the door open to the bridge. Here the pirates were more alert. Some coughed, while others hung their heads outside a window that had been smashed. They'd managed to get enough fresh air circulating to retain consciousness. Still, none paid her any attention as she sidled in and grabbed the bucket's handle. She worked her way back up the stairs and onto the deck. Sumner hadn't moved. She swallowed her fear and focused on inching her way to the edge.

Mungabe had reached the railing on the deck below. His head was down while he concentrated on climbing the ladder. Emma hovered over him.

"Mungabe!" Emma prayed that she was right and the man climbing the ladder was indeed the pirate leader.

He looked up.

She threw the mixture.

The stream hit him slightly off center, landing on his shoulders but still managing to splash onto his face. He let out an ear-piercing howl. He made a grab at his eyes and fell backward, into the ocean. When his head reemerged, Emma saw him desperately splashing the water into his eyes.

She watched the ma.s.sing jellyfish bloom encircle him. His frantic movements triggered their instincts to sting. His howls reached a fever pitch as the creatures stung him. He thrashed once before disappearing under the water.

The Redoubtable's horn blared again. The pirates who were left in the remaining small craft unwound the ropes that attached them to the cruise liner, tossing them off. They revved their engines and retreated, leaving their remaining crew members in the water to their own fates. Only Mungabe's boat was left. No movement came from it.

Sumner lay on the deck, his eyes closed. The stark look to his skin told her that he was still losing blood from the wound. She inched next to him.

"Sumner?"

He didn't respond. Emma checked for a pulse. She started to cry when she found one, thin but steady. A shadow fell across them. She looked up to see Block standing over her.

"Oh, G.o.d, tell me he ain't dead."

Emma shook her head, unable to speak.

Block squatted down next to her. "Marina's bad. Bullet real close to her heart. Cindy's holding a wadded piece of cloth against the wound, but we need to get these two onto that carrier and to a medic."

Emma heard the sound of the first helicopter lowering onto the pool deck. Block shielded his eyes to watch it land.

"Here come the reinforcements," he said.

54.

BANNER STOOD NEXT TO THE REDOUBTABLE'S MEDIC AS HE worked on irrigating Sumner's gunshot wound.

"The wound isn't bad, but he's lost a ton of blood and taken a h.e.l.l of a hit on his head," the medic said.

Banner nodded. Sumner still hadn't regained consciousness after they'd boarded the Kaiser Franz, and now he wouldn't. The medic had knocked him out with pain pills. Sumner lay on the gurney, looking like death.

Emma stood on the other side of Sumner, watching. Banner thought she looked pale but remarkably good, considering her ordeal.

"What will happen to Stark?" she asked.

Banner sighed. "Hard to say. He has an excellent defense, due to the fact that he notified the authorities about the theft."

"Has he said who the financier was that propped up Price?"

Banner shook his head. "He says he'll take the Fifth if asked. He seems to think he'll be putting his life in danger if he speaks."

Emma nodded, but Banner thought she didn't look too concerned about the possibility.

There was a knock at the door. A man stuck his head in. "Ms. Caldridge? Someone has asked to speak with you."

Emma stepped into the hall.

Stark stood there.

"What do you want?" Emma said.

"I wanted to see if he's okay."

Emma sighed. "The doctor thinks he'll heal."

Stark ran a hand through his hair. "I also wanted to tell you I'm sorry. For everything. I should have spoken up when I realized someone was testing the drug illegally. I was a fool."

Emma didn't reply. People were dead because of him. When she remained quiet, Stark started again.