Read Online Operation Sea Ghost by Mack Maloney - Free Book Online Page A

“On this date, in the area of the Mentawai Islands, the USS Messia engaged a cargo vessel of Vietnamese origin which had been taken over by pirates twenty-four hours before. A brief battle using five-inch naval guns ensued. The hijacked ship was sunk during this action but its captive Vietnamese crew was rescued. All pirates either died in the exchange or are missing.”
    The captain gave a grim laugh.
    “Let’s make sure we delete all copies of this right now,” he told the communications officer. “And that’s an order.…”

 
    8
    Aboard The Immaculate Perception
Gulf of Aden
    THE MORNING DAWNED hot and humid.
    The sun was crimson bright, turning the Gulf of Aden blood red. There was no wind. No waves. No sound. It was an uneasy calm.
    The Immaculate Perception was still off Yemen, its Omani escorts in tow, doing long meandering figure eights at barely five knots.
    Nolan, Gunner and Twitch had spent the night taking shifts up on the yacht’s bow, keeping Batman quiet and away from the other guests. It hadn’t been that difficult. While the party had grown wilder and noisier throughout the night, it finally ended with a whimper a couple hours before sunrise. Those guests who’d lacked the stamina to make it to their cabins still littered the decks. Sleeping off their inebriation, they looked like dead soldiers in the aftermath of a battle.
    The sound of a helicopter approaching stirred Nolan from a half sleep. He opened his good eye just in time to see the aircraft fly overhead. It was a UH-61 Blackhawk, painted dark silver, with no markings, but with lots of antennas sticking out of its roof, nose and tail.
    Nolan groaned. Only one outfit flew helicopters like this: the CIA.
    Splayed on the lounge chair next to him, Gunner was now half awake, too. He saw the copter and instantly knew its origin.
    “Why are they out here?” he asked with a yawn.
    “Taking pictures,” Nolan guessed sleepily. “Looking for someone topless.”
    They both expected the copter to just fly on past, but it suddenly turned sharply and came in for a landing on the yacht’s stern-mounted helipad.
    “They’re making a house call here?” Gunner asked. “Really?”
    Nolan was fully awake now. “Maybe they want to talk to the ice princess about her ordeal,” he mumbled, stretching his legs. “Or get her autograph.”
    The copter settled down and a lone passenger climbed out. Nolan and Gunner pegged him right away: the off-the-rack clothes, the bad haircut, the cheap sunglasses, an overall disheveled look; there was no doubt about it. He was from the Agency.
    “Freaking spooks,” Gunner mused. “They really do all look alike, don’t they?”
    The man signaled the copter pilots to kill their engines. They heard him yell: “This might take a while…”
    Then he approached two of the yacht’s clean-up crew and had a brief conversation. At the end of it, the workers pointed not toward Emma Simms’s cabin below, but up to the bow where Whiskey was stationed.
    “Oh fuck,” Nolan grumbled. “What do they want with us?”
    Gunner woke Twitch and Batman while Nolan met the man halfway up the bow.
    “You’re Whiskey?” the visitor asked him.
    Nolan nodded. There were no handshakes, no introductions.
    “I’ve got to talk to you and your guys,” the man said urgently. He was middle-aged, bald and paunchy. This guy was a station chief, Nolan thought. And definitely not a field officer.
    “Talk? Before breakfast?” Nolan asked him.
    “Yes,” the man replied sternly. “As in right now.”
    They climbed up to the bow. The others were waiting at a table right below the bridge deck. Everyone sat down.
    Nolan pulled his chair next to Batman.
    “How are you doing?” he asked him in a low voice.
    Batman gave him an enthusiastic thumbs-up.
    “One thousand percent improvement,” he whispered in reply. “Nothing beats sleeping it off.”
    Nolan believed him. Batman looked much better than the night before.
    The CIA man got right