Read Online The Devil's Waters by David L. Robbins - Free Book Online Page B

five years later. Now Barre was gone, the fish too, and the cousins were thieves again.
    “Yusuf…” Suleiman tapped fingers together before his face, thoughtful with his words. He was the older cousin, but no one disputed Yusuf as chieftain. “Have you considered that our day has passed?”
    This was all Yusuf had thought of for the two months since the monsoons. He’d paced behind his walls, watching other crews go out on the hunt. His investors in Kenya and Dubai had sentmessengers to ask when he might lead another venture onto
bad-weyn
.
    Yusuf gave them no answer, because Suleiman was right. The Somali pirates’ day was fading. He’d seen the signs gathering, like rising wind and whitecaps.
    In years past, even last year, freighters plowing the Gulf of Aden had been vulnerable and slow, somewhat careless. Full oil or chemical tankers lumbered low in the water, heavy container ships lacked speed; fishing boats were the easiest of all—a pirate could almost step on board. International crews would not fight to defend someone else’s cargo; captains lacked experience and preparation for hijackings. Ship owners had not spent enough money to protect their sailors and ships, and insurers made a windfall, tripling their rates to cover vessels passing through pirate waters. Governments around the world had turned a blind eye, deciding that moderate Muslim pirates who demanded only money were a lesser evil than Islamist radicals. Hundreds of millions of dollars in ransom had flowed into Somalia, a fractured land that had no other way to bring in that kind of wealth. The pirates had known to preserve this balance: do not kill hostages or steal cargos, never become so greedy that the insurers and owners feel the scales tip away from them.
    Now the pirates were suffering from their own successes. It was inevitable. Silently, Yusuf had watched it happen. Impoverished shepherds and farmers from the mountains and plains, drawn to the coast to make what seemed easy money, brought with them no knowledge of the ocean or boats. The poorest of fishermen, though they knew
bad-weyn
, came to piracy with desperation and anger over their stolen livelihoods. These men and unschooled teenagers took low-paying positions in pirate gangs or formed their own. They went to the sea as hijackers; they failed time and again. Many died on the water. It was not uncommon to hear of pirate crews actually attacking naval ships by mistake. Whenever these miserable men did manage to capturea tanker or freighter, they often behaved in barbaric or violent ways. Chewing
qaat
was giving way to gin and cocaine. More merchant seamen and yachters were being wounded or killed in the hijackings. Some captured crews had begun fighting back, mounting ambushes to retake their ships, costing more lives both Somali and foreign. The cost of ransoms had skyrocketed, and the delicate balance began to unravel. The money these new pirates gained made them more vulgar, and villagers began to resist their presence. This opened the door for Hizb al-Islam and al-Shabaab, fundamentalists who brought with them guns and the laws of
sharia
. Village elders simply exchanged devils, and pirates up and down the coast were being run out of town.
    More and more, pirates like Yusuf also became warlords, hiring private armies to provide order in their villages and protect against the creep of the Islamists in Somalia.
    On the Gulf of Aden, coalition warships took up their mission with more intent and danger. They escorted freighters traveling in convoys, staying close enough to respond in fifteen minutes to a distress call. At the first sign of a speeding skiff or a loitering dhow, the warships closed in, launching helicopters armed to the teeth. The pirates usually veered off, but if they did not, if they pressed the hijacking, more and more of them were shot to pieces. When they did manage to climb on board, they often found ships equipped with panic rooms, strongholds where the crews