Reboot

On the fourth day we found them on radar.

“Wasn’t very difficult,” said Sark. “They’ve created their own island with all the ships they’ve stolen. Look at that mass.”

I looked at the screen over his shoulder. It wasn’t green like the old radar screens, it was a computer-enhanced re-creation of what it was targeting. So we could see the actual boats.

“You can tell that the smaller boats were on the outside of the “ring”, then getting progressively bigger as you neared the center. In the bullseye, there was a giant yacht. At least a hundred and fifty meters long. The diameter of the “boat island” is five hundred meters. They’ve been busy.”

“My guess is they have a hierarchical system that begins on the outside. You work your way in towards the middle as you get more brownie points,” said Dutch.

“Where are the children”? I asked.

“Well, where would you put them?” William asked.

“Mm, right, lemme see.” I doodled on a piece of paper for a few seconds.

“I’d want them somewhere far enough away to be able to sleep without hearing them screaming at night, but close enough to keep an eye on them.” I drew a couple of circles and pointed to a spot about midway between the center and the outer perimeter. “I think we should look for a big boat in that area. Something with a big hold.”

“Ok, I agree,” he said. “How many people would you have watching them?” Was he testing me?

“Well I don’t see why they’d need very many. I mean where are they gonna go? In fact, I’d avoid the “guard” situation altogether. I’d put mother and father figures around them to slowly bring them into the fold. I’d treat them as well as possible. Wouldn’t you? I’d have them all in one area, well cared for, like a school or summer camp and I’d take my sweet time brainwashing them.”

“Yes. That’s what I’d do also. We found two probable targets.” He pointed to the radar screen. There’s a large mass here, and another one there. One of them has to be it.”

“Or both,” said Sark. “We’ll use the RIBs.”

“Wazzat?” I asked.

“The ship has two “Dinghies,” said Sark. “You’ve been in them. They’re actually called RIB’s. Rigid-hulled inflatable boats. Their shallow draught, high maneuverability, quiet speed and relative immunity to damage in low-speed collisions are advantages in these types of missions. RIBs can also generally cope better with rougher seas. High-Performance RIBs can operate with a speed between thirty and seventy knots depending on the size and weight. We might need that extra speed.”

“I’m more concerned with its noise level,” I said.

“We’ll be able to gauge our speed and thereby noise levels according to on site needs. And you’ve heard the noise it makes, we have new electrical motors that are almost completely silent. The only noise comes from hitting the waves. That can be managed.” Sark talked like a techie, especially when discussing the mission. It made it seem more mathematical, less dangerous.

We organized two teams of four people. One team per RIB. The first group was me, Dutch, William, and Sark. The second was the captain and three of his men. Our job was simple. We would each head towards our goal, which was one of the larger ships we thought could contain the kids and ascertain their position and defenses. If indeed the children were there, act accordingly.

We prepared.

Black face, black everything, black weapons, dark thoughts. Silencers, knives, swishing noises when things slip into their pockets. We were all in a room below deck. The mood was somber, quiet. William and Dutch came to see me and checked me out to make sure I had put everything on the right way.

“Nervous?” William asked.

“Well shit,” I answered, “a few weeks ago I was bartending in a vacation village, now I’m G.I Joe.”

“My grandmother kicked G.I. Joe’s ass once. He cried like a baby. You’re better then G.I. Joe.” He smacked my back. I smiled back. “But my granny could woop you silly though.” I laughed. He wanted to calm me down and it worked.

Then we went on deck. Captain Chenoweh was there waiting for us, similarly garbed. He looked us over, paid extra attention to me since I was the only non-soldier there. But he seemed satisfied and moved on.

“Gentlemen. Your goal is not to kill pirates. Each contact with the enemy adds a measure of uncertainty to your mission. Avoid them at all costs. Engage as a last resort and if you must, do it quietly, efficiently and move on. Get those kids out of there. Our boys in the Independence will take care of the rest,” he said while walking along our row, facing each one of us in turn. Looking at us directly in the eyes. Not threatening; oddly comforting. He backed up smartly, facing away from us. Then turned around again to face us.

“Are you ready?” He didn’t raise his voice. We all nodded once. Quietly. No “Huuaaa” like in the films.

We hopped into our respective boats and headed off. Both RIBs heading in slightly different directions. Slowly and quietly. It was a very dark cloudy evening and the sea was a bit choppy which was perfect. The small waves covered any noise we might make and even covered us up, made us invisible.

We were two thousand meters away. Our speed was about the same as walking speed, about four to five kilometers an hour to be on the safe side. We’d get there in about thirty minutes.

It was a long thirty minutes. I spent the time worrying about every conceivable catastrophe that could happen, and then, at eleven minutes, we started to see a glow. They were pretty well lit up. You could see the clouds above reflecting the light made by all those boats. I guessed they saw no reason to save energy.

We kept at it. We soon heard music. Very loud! Didn’t they sleep? I was worried that if they were paying attention at all, with all that light, we’d get noticed. So we opted for a peripheral examination first. When we reached a reasonable distance of about three hundred meters, we started circling around our half of the “boat island” to get a better idea of their defenses. William had been correct. The pirates were cocky. They didn’t expect to be hit so they were very casual with their security. We only saw two guys along a quarter of the circumference of the circle. We’d have to take them out before heading inward. We guessed the other team had to deal with a similar situation. We came back to our spot between the two guards.

“Do you think we could just head between them nice and slow? Looks like they might miss us altogether. We could just leave them alone,” I whispered to Dutch.

“No. I don’t think so. If they catch us on the way out, we’re fried. Or if they notice us at any point, all they have to do is raise the alarm and we’d never get another chance at those kids.” He looked at William. “You take the one on the left and I got that one. Ok?” William nodded and without a word they both slipped into the water. They only took their knives. I watched them swim towards the boats, each of them swimming at ninety degrees from each other. I could only see the top of their heads. We watched with special binoculars. Everything was green, but very clear.

I saw both William and Dutch disappear into the mass of boats, which were all tied together closely. They swam between them. Then nothing for a while. Anxious seconds were spent looking everywhere for signs of disaster. Next time they reappeared, almost simultaneously, I only saw a hand and the glint of a knife. The hand was over one of the men’s mouth and the knife flashed as it was quickly jabbed just behind the ear. Both guards dropped. Quietly.

They waved us over.

We parked the RIB’s and melded into the boat island. Invisible. Just two more boats in the pile. Dutch and William came back to join us.

“William and I will go scout the hold to see if the kids are there and then we’ll come back before we do anything.” And they left together immediately.

We waited very impatiently for about five minutes. If we were seen by just one person, we’d had it. But nothing happened until William and Dutch came back. There were sounds coming from the center of the boat island, the music we’d been hearing, but it was dampened by the other noises, waves, boats knocking into each other, bells softly dinging with the seesawing motion on the water. So the music sounded more like a whimper, or a child crying.

“We were right. There are only two people with the kids and they seem more like aunts and uncles than guards. In fact, they were sleeping with a bunch of kids around them. What do you think, should we try and take them with us?” said William. But he already knew what we would say.

“Definitely. Good idea. They might help with transition. If they make any attempt to alert the others, then we’ll see,” I said.

This time I went with them, and we took the rope with us. I followed Dutch who was following William. Sark stayed with the boat. We treaded silently in the water through the maze of boats. Everyone was asleep. The boats were in good condition. Yachts and fishing vessels, various types of sailboats. It looked like they chose their quarries carefully. I was thinking that they probably got rid of the lesser quality boats in favor of the better ones with more room, better sleeping quarters and good kitchens. That’s what I’d do anyway. If I were a pirate.

“Ooohhh, that’s a nice one.” William whispered as we went by a gorgeous wooden speed boat called a torpedo. “I’m taking it.”

“What would you do with it?” I asked while swimming behind him…

“Shhh, don’t bother me with details.” He smiled.

“You could keep it as a souvenir, tie it behind the Independence,” said Dutch as he giggled.

“Dunno. Give it to someone back on the island maybe. Anything is better than blowing it up. That thing is a work of art.” As we passed by it, William gave it a loving pat with his big paw. I smiled. The man was navy after all. His love of all things floating came through once in a while.

After about fifteen minutes we came upon our obvious target. It was an old double decker ferry, about sixty-five meters long. You could squeeze a lot of people in those. There was a hold for cars and many seats in the level above. The kids had to be in the lower hold. There were only two ways in and out through staircases, easy to guard.

We made our way up on deck. William pointed to his eyes and then out towards the bow where the door was.

Then we went below.

We had to be careful because if we startled anyone, they might scream and start an escalation from which we couldn’t extricate ourselves. Our plan was to start with the two guardians and hope that they’d be on our side.

There was one older woman and a man. Both were sleeping as William had said before, kids all around them, and both were Indian or Philipino. Hard to tell which. It was dark.

William went towards the woman and Dutch towards the man. They both stood behind their target. They looked at each other and counted to three with their hands. At three, they both put their hands over the person’s mouth. It was imperative to keep them quiet.

Obviously they were startled. But the boys did a good job to keep them quiet and secured. William and Dutch put their index finger on their lips and then the universal signal for “I’ll cut your throat if you don’t do as I say.” They understood and calmed down very quickly.

We brought them together.

I talked to them.

“Do you speak English?” They nodded.

“We are going to save the children. We are taking them with us to a new home where they will be happy and have a good life, with or without your help. Do you want to stay here or do you want to come with us? We will not hurt you either way.”

They both looked around them, at William and Dutch especially who were trying their best to look a little less tough. The guards breathed out as they chose to be relieved instead of scared. Then they said of course they’d want to follow the children. They explained that they were prisoners too. The pirates kept them in line with threats. Escape or cause trouble and we kill some kids. Simple.

“What’s your name?” I asked her. She said her name was Madra. She was wearing a

white sheet, or a Saree I supposed.

“Good, Madra, are there other boats like this one? Other children?”

She nodded, less scared now, more conspiratorial. “Yes. One odda boot. Ova deh.” She pointed in the right direction. So we’d have two groups of children. Let’s hope the other team was as lucky as we’d been so far. I explained the plan to her, she nodded to show she’d understood and we got going. I felt we could trust them. But just in case, I made sure Dutch and William stayed close to them. They woke up the children, one by one when possible, as quietly as possible. But it took valuable time. We had three hours of darkness left.

“Wake up sweety, be quiet please. Go wake up your sister and your brother ok? We’re going to run away now, but you can’t make any noise ok?” Inevitably, the child would nod and give up a small courageous smile. They quickly understood the importance of keeping quiet and because of Madra’s comforting gaze, they felt at ease with us. It was clear that they wanted to get away.

There were at least fifty kids of various ages above six. The oldest was fourteen. I supposed the older ones had been assimilated into the pirate army. Luckily there were no babies or toddlers. What did they do with them, I wondered. I feared the worst. Then there was the other ferry. So altogether maybe a hundred kids. I smiled at the thought of this precious gift I’d make to Mabel. But I was also worried. So many… One scream, one sneeze…

“Some will have doubts,” she had said. “But they will be quiet in the end.” Do not worry.” She seemed very confident in her kids. Once they were all awake, we put them into a line. When we were ready, the line of children moved smoothly out of the big boat and into the water where Dutch made sure they were grabbing the rope securely.. We tried to make it into a sort of game. All smiles, we tried to soothe them and coax them in the water until all the kids were hanging on. The RIB started moving forward very slowly and the string of kids snaked through the boats.. Luckily it was warm.

“Any sharks in these waters?” I wondered.

“No,” answered Dutch, we’re too far out.

It took twenty minutes to get all the kids in the water. One kid after another, reticent, still a bit sleepy, slowly. It took too long, waaaay too long. Each extra minute was a potential catastrophe as the water would start affecting the first kids. It was warm, but not that warm. And, inevitably, as I had feared, some people woke up when they heard some sound. They started popping up on every single boat around us. We tensed and waited for the inevitable alarm followed by chaos and death.

But they did nothing. They just watched. They let us go. They waved, sent kisses to the kids. It was a horribly sad moment. All these people, like wraiths, waving away their own hopes at salvation, satisfied that the children were being saved.

Oh no, no, no, no, no. This was very wrong.

Our plan was to destroy these people. We’d thought they were all pirates. But of course they couldn’t all be pirates. We’d made a mistake. The pirates had a human shield. We needed to evacuate first.

“What do we do now?” asked Dutch.

“We delay the attack and stay behind,” I said. “Let’s first make sure the kids are safe, and then we’ll see. OK?” William and Dutch nodded.

The kids were pulled out as planned, some in the RIB, the smaller ones, about twenty children, and the others were towed carefully out and away towards the Independence, which was now inching closer. Madra had chosen a few adults to go with them. There was some whimpering, a couple of moments when we thought they might make too much noise, but it all went well in the end. It was something to see. Madra had done a good job. I don’t know what she’d told them, but they all stayed relatively silent.

Dutch, William and I stayed behind to talk to these people and to try and figure out what to do. Madra stayed too. I had to trust her to point out to me the people we could trust with us. Pretty soon we were aboard one of the smaller fishing yachts and I was drawing a plan of the boat island. I asked her to point out where the pirates were. She pointed to two spots. The yacht in the center as we’d guessed, but also another group of smaller vessels a bit off towards the outer edge. What had started out as a strafing missile attack now had to be adapted to a surgical strike. And the only way to do that was to go there, make sure which boats we had to hit and get the exact coordinates. The friendlies were in other boats. They were in boats that had no fuel, only sails. They couldn’t go anywhere, but we had to make sure they’d be safe.

We were running out of time. The sun was coming up now. I had so many questions for Madra. Who were all these people? What were they doing with the pirates? Did the pirates have a home base on land? But it would have to wait. With Madra leading, she took us on a hike through a maze of ships. We jumped carefully from one to the other. When someone was awake, she shooshed them efficiently. Then we finally saw it, the big yacht in the center. It was huge and magnificent. All lit up. A clear demonstration of power. There were guards walking around it. About fifteen of them. We went around it about forty-five degrees and headed out again. The sun was coming up. Too fast. We were visible now and had to use the boats to hide.

We bounced from boat to boat again as quietly as possible. Making slow but deliberate progress until we finally came upon the obvious second bandit stronghold. It was a pirate ship. Literally. A large schooner like the one owned by my old Belgian bosses, complete with a black flag with skull and bones. Pirate humor? You could sleep fifty people below one of those, possibly in hamacs. Maybe a hundred more in the smaller boats around it. We got as close to it as possible to take the best possible readings and we sent in the coordinates.

“Madra,” I whispered. “There must be pirates all over the place in other boats?”

“Yes,” she said. “All spread out. But if dese two boots ah gon’, de adders will flee. We will chase dem.”

“Dutch, are we absolutely sure that the Independence can hit the two ships? There is no chance of a miss? Imagine the harm we’d cause.” I looked directly at Dutch. This was very important.

“Believe me Robert. We get the coordinates, the Independence will hit those two boats dead center. No doubt whatsoever. A railgun is very accurate. You can eat breakfast on the next ship over and you won’t even spill your coffee.”

I looked at William for confirmation and he nodded. That was good enough for me. We sent in the coordinates and the new directives, and we started to head back. Brave woman that Madra. She was seething with a deep anger and I could tell she was relishing this. She must’ve seen horrible things.

Along the way back she would stop and whisper to some people, then they would move furiously away from the pirate boats.

After jumping on twelve boats, everything went to shit. We’d been lucky so far but then someone saw us and a siren blew, gunshots started erupting everywhere, people yelling and pointing. We ran, we zigzagged… Bullets whizzing by, people shouting.. But we were a difficult target and the boats made pretty good shields. We could disappear quickly, reappear somewhere and disappear again…

After another six boats, we found relative safety in a steel hulled sailboat where Dutch could settle down and call in the strike.

He was sitting down leaning against a bulkhead, holding onto a microphone. “Team A to Independence, Team A to Independence. Fire, Fire, Fire on both targets, now, now, now.”

We knew that pirates were closing in on our position. Timing was crucial. “As soon as the railgun hits its targets, their attention will be off of us. Pick your man and put him down. And then we’ll bugger off as fast as we can,” said Dutch.

We saw both “bullets” take off at the same time from the Independence and very quickly hit their intended targets with devastating results. The explosions made a horrendous noise that shocked everyone. People suddenly stood still and watched the fireworks. The pirates too obviously because the shooting stopped. We stood up and hit our targets. Seven more pirates out of our hair. We bounced away from ship to ship. We wanted to be as far away from the blasts as possible. People everywhere were fleeing in different directions. Both ships were sunk. Expectedly, panic ensued. Everyone was out of the boats and running in every possible direction. Some people jumping into the water. There was screaming, but also people trying to organize things and calm people down. We figured that the surviving pirates would probably scramble and head towards land to their home base if they had one. Dutch was on the radio.

“Independence. Keep track of fleeing ships, they will be bad guys and should all be heading in the same direction. We need to see which way they’ll be going and if they have another island or home base somewhere else. We want to know where the rest of their boats are so we can destroy them too. Madra!” I screamed. “Please find five brave men you can trust. And bring them back here. Oh and please find out if there are parents of some of those children who would like to get them back.” And she left. I looked at William.

“We have to trust her to be sheriff around here. They have to hunt down stragglers and deal with them as they wish. Then they can choose boats and leave wherever they like.”

William agreed. “Then we should destroy most of the motor boats here. Leave the sails maybe? Pirates can’t do too well with sails, but they can survive.“

“Agreed.” I nodded.

“Except mine.”

“Of course,” I smiled. I spared a moment to wonder about fuel, but I figured they had

found a solution.

Madra came back with five men who didn’t have to be asked twice to hunt down the people who had terrorized them for so long. All of them had a perplexing combination of expressions on their faces. Happiness at having been saved, anger at their transgressors, and a look of wolfish hunger that gave me goosebumps. We gave them weapons and they went to it. Others were following with axes and when a boat was cleared, they trashed it and sunk it. Happily. The terrorists had been humiliating, killing and raping their friends and family for months now…

By that time, the Independence was nearby, about a hundred meters away and all the children were on board. Madra wanted to come up too. “We would like to stay wid da children.” She’d said “Dere will be adders too.” That was fine by me. “We can’t go on the Independence now though ok? It will come back soon, but first it has a job to do.” She nodded. She understood. We had to finish this.

The Independence left.

They followed the pirates all the way home, staying far behind them and found a bay on a large uninhabited island with a hundred boats of various sizes in it. Most of them very good quality, high-speed machines. The independence fired on a couple of them, then waited to give a chance for the people to escape before continuing. It didn’t take long. People jumped off the boats like rats and swam to the beach. All the boats were then destroyed in a matter of minutes.

“Good job people. Well done,” exclaimed Chenoweh. We didn’t have too many chances to feel good about anything these days, so this was a chance to appreciate some good news. Everyone exploded in cheers.

William stayed with Madra and helped to sink a few ships, He was worried about his little speeder. There were around a thousand of them, so they’d be at it for many days. It was a joyous and therapeutic endeavor for the captives. They hacked at the ships with abandon. They kept the sails for themselves.

The pirates were landlocked. We’d taken out a serious threat to our friends with minimal loss of life. Maybe they’d find another way to make a living. Though I didn’t think so. You do what you know, and these people only knew how to take.

Madra and about twenty of her friends wanted to follow the children, as we had discussed. The others, about a hundred and fifty people who had been enslaved by the pirates decided to take a few sailboats and follow their own path. Go back home, look for lost loved ones, or push on to follow their dreams, or destiny, whichever came first. So we headed home to Tetepare to drop everybody off and say our goodbyes one last time before moving on to the USA.

I spent the entire trip back in Joanna’s quarters.

“Thank you for the pebbles,” she said to me when we met again.

“You liked them? I thought maybe it was a bit silly,” I answered.

“No. It was romantic and I loved it,” she said as she tenderly bit my neck sending fabulous shivers down the side of my back. Wow. Who does that, bite your neck?

“I was worried about you. Had trouble sleeping. It helped if I held one in my hand.

Then I slept.” She smiled.

Before I left, I had left her a bag of white rocks with a note. The note said: “Each one of these pebbles was a moment in time when I was thinking of you. I saw your beautiful face every time I picked one up”.

Yes. A little corny. But it made her happy and I couldn’t hope for a better outcome.

“Tell me about it,” she said as we sat on her bed in the dark. I could just see the reflection of a few stars in her eyes.

“I didn’t like it. We killed people Johanna.” She was playing with my hair.

“You had to. No other way. And fewer died than was planned at first. I’m proud of

you.”

“Yes. No. I can’t think of any other way. Of course, you’re right. But it feels like a waste anyway. As if I didn’t have the brains to come up with a better solution, you know?”

“They took children, Robert. Probably killed many others. You can’t explain that away. You can’t say we might’ve done the same in their place. There are limits.”

“Yes, of course, you’re right.” But I was sad anyway. She saw that and stopped talking. She took my head in her arms and we sat like that for a long time until I fell asleep. Sometimes when you’re sad, it’s best to just be quiet.

In the morning I went to find William. He was looking at his new speedboat as it was being towed behind us.

“I’ll take it for one ride before we go,” he said as I approached him.

“-Resist the temptation to buy a boat- my father once told me,” I answered.

“Well I didn’t buy it did I? I stole it. What does your dad say about that?”

“That was further down the list. Next to “only gamble other people’s money.”

He laughed. “I like him already.” He went on, “Feeling shaky?”

“Yeah. I keep wondering how else we could’ve handled this. I come up blank.”

“It’s normal. I get it too. You always do. Best to just think of the positive and put the bad stuff away. Besides, we’re about to go into another unknown. Try to get your head around that. This was easy. We knew how to handle a bunch of pirates, but we have no idea what to expect next, and we won’t have a warship to defend us.”

I turned away and started off. He stopped me. “You did good Robert. I’d take you by my side on any mission.” He slapped my shoulder and I felt better. I once read that the measure of a man could be ascertained by the quality of his enemies. What about the quality of your friends?