Read Online The Pirate by Katherine Garbera - Free Book Online Page A

and others manned the water. They sprayed the boats as they got within range, but there were four boats and only two working hoses. Daphne came up on deck with her group and he barked an order for them to go back below.
    He left the bridge and drew his weapon as one of the boats got close enough to throw an anchor overboard. It dug into the deck of the tanker, scraping it until purchase was found.
    â€œDamn it, Savage. This is real and we are being taken.”
    â€œAffirmative, Laz. Just make a good show. We are on our way.”
    Four men came over the side of the tanker. They were armed with semiautomatic rifles and laid down a burst of gunfire as they moved quickly across the deck.
    â€œEngaging the pirates,” he said into the wireless microphones he and Hamm were both wearing.
    â€œAffirmative.”
    Laz didn’t say anything else. Keeping to the shadows he moved silently over the deck. There was a speedboat moored off the aft and one man remained on the boat. There were at least ten men on the Maersk Angus . Laz continued doing recon. He relayed all the information through the wireless microphone back to Savage and the rest of the team. He described the pirate boat and the weapons they were all carrying.
    The men all spoke Portuguese, but he recognized them as Somalians. Laz had no real idea if they were part of Samatan’s clan. The Somali people were divided by their ancestors. Men could be half-siblings born to the same mothers and grow up to be enemies. It was a complex system that was made up of loyalty proven by blood.
    â€œMen in the hold,” Hamm said through his earpiece. “I think they’ve got our passengers. I’m going silent.”
    â€œAffirmative,” Laz said.
    Two of the men on the deck went up to the bridge. Laz knew he either had to make a move and maybe stay free or allow himself to be captured. Being captured was part of the plan, but it went against the grain as far as Laz was concerned. He didn’t like to give up his freedom or to back down.
    He tried to stay focused on the end result. They couldn’t capture Samatan unless they allowed him to take the ship. But still it didn’t feel right to back down.
    He eased his way around one of the large shipping containers on the deck and saw two pirates standing back to back. They were definitely Somali, he thought. Tall and gaunt, they held their weapons with an ease that spoke of having held them for a long time.
    He pulled his weapon and moved carefully toward the men when he felt the nudge of a gun barrel in the center of his back.
    â€œPut your weapon down and your hands up,” the man said. “Or you will die.”
    Laz started to fight back. He could take all four of these men, but he knew that for the trap to work they had to allow the pirates to take the ship.
    He put his weapon on the deck and put his hands up.
    The pirates stepped forward, first binding his hands behind his back with duct tape, then shoving him toward the gangway that led belowdecks. He hoped that Hamm would be able to stay free but when he got below to the storage area where the hostages were being kept he saw that wasn’t so.
    For a minute Hamm looked at him like what the fuck are you doing here?
    Laz shrugged and was shoved over to the corner with the rest of the crew and their passengers. The doctors’ group looked scared and a bit shocked. For the first time Laz realized he was too close to the bait. This was the first time he was the one on the front line. Normally he was the one who was in the car or on the boat waiting to ride in and rescue everyone.
    But since he was the only one on their team with real boating experience—his late father had been a commercial fisherman—Laz had been the natural choice for this position.
    But as he looked at Daphne and saw…not fear but anger in her eyes, he realized that maybe the ends didn’t justify the means.
    â€œNo one move and maybe you will