The search confirmed Sadeski's fears. Not only had there been a small homing device within Sun Dinghuang's bundled uniform, but a larger one was attached fairly securely to the stern of the boat, just below the deck. Intending to smash the machine, Bob tried to pry it off with a crowbar, but inadvertently launched the device and a small chunk of paint into the Northern Cross' wake. The crowbar nearly followed the homing device into the sea, but Bob tumbled back from the rail with the steel implement, cursing Do Young Kang. Sun Dinghuang tried to defuse the mercenary's anger by offering him the smaller device as a substitute. Bob laid it on the deck, stared down the crowbar's length at the plastic cylinder, then shattered the device with a mighty swing. The pilot kicked shards of plastic and circuitry into the water.
It may have already been too late. By the time Bob smashed the transmitter, the coast of Borneo was beginning to creep above the horizon. It was still early enough to reasonably turn south, but not by much. Pirate country lay ahead. Sun sensed the captain's ire- he would not have been surprised if the crowbar had melted in Sadeski's clenched fists as he stalked back into the cabin. "I'm sorry about all this trouble."
"Not your fault." Sadeski growled. "We were all in the wrong place at the wrong time." Sun followed him back into the control room. As soon as the pilot sat down, a cell phone rang- a decidedly Oriental-sounding ringtone. Bob and Leah Silverstone exchanged glances, then both turned to face Sun, who was holding up one of the ship's spare phones. Bob arched one eyebrow. "When did you get that?"
"Oh, the guy who left gave it to me." Sun seemed completely unperturbed by Bob's expression. "Who is calling me?" He held the phone's screen up to Sadeski's face, a little too close.
Bob drew his head back a few inches, contemplating how Rene Levancon had managed to worry him without even being part of the crew any more. The Frenchman seemed to have a supernatural ability to annoy. He seemed to be using a more direct method this time, however- the display read "Spare Phone #3". Sadeski mentally cursed himself for not remembering to take the phone from Levancon before leaving the now-distant island. "It's the guy who gave you the phone. Answer it."
Sun Dinghuang flipped the phone open. "Hello? Yes. This is Sun." He paused briefly, and Bob heard Rene's voice faintly over the sounds of the boat, distinct in its tone but not loud enough for Sadeski to catch individual words. "How do I do that?" Sun seemed to be trying to look at the phone while talking, rather unsuccessfully. "All right." He fumbled briefly with the phone, then placed it on the table.
"Hello, Bob." Levancon's voice emanated from the speaker. "Who's awake?"
"You've got me, Sun, and Leah here. The others are sleeping or busy." On cue, Zachary Taylor walked in and plopped down into a chair. "And now Zach. God dammit, Rene, you owe me a phone. Two if your girlfriend there still has the other one."
"Two, then." Rene paused briefly. "Just calling to give you all a heads up. Remember how there are Triads here? Well, things changed a bit after you left."
Sadeski could tell from Rene's tone of voice where this was going. He'd heard that tone before countless times. "I offered you the choice to stay. You picked that goddamn island, and it's your problem if you don't like it there."
"No, you've got it wrong!" The emphatic denial was perfectly in line with Rene's French pride, and did not rule out Bob's initial suspicions. "Bounty hunters and more Triads arrived a few hours after you left. They were looking for you."
That certainly debunked Bob's initial assumption. "Well, that's not surprising. We just found some homing devices. Did you see what happened to Rahman?"
"Yeah, it's pretty obvious Mr. Kang set that up. You guys are now a loose end." Rene had paused briefly on "you guys"- it must have been strange for him to stop referring to himself as a member of the crew.
"Did they leave?" Mercenaries in smaller groups tended to have faster boats than Sadeski's floating bunker. A few bounty hunters could easily catch up in a small boat.
Rene made a pensive noise. "Hmmm. The Triads are still here, and a few bounty hunters are still searching the island. Most of the mercs are gone, though."
"Damn. See any of their boats?" Taylor's thoughts had apparently been similar to Bob's.
"No, I found out most of this later from the police. By the way, I'm a cop now. They made me a detective on the spot!"
Bob chuckled, and Leah smiled in amusement- mainly at the expression on Zachary Taylor's face. Zach grabbed the phone. "How the hell did you accomplish that?"
"Well, my record- and a good reference." Levancon sounded smug. "Jao got another vacation from the government to make up for getting shot, so he's down here." A faint greeting in a voice that sounded like that of the scrawny agent could be discerned as Rene finished speaking. "Chariya's going to be here soon too."
"Say hello to them for us." Bob's mood was improving inexplicably. "Good luck. Being a policeman isn't the same as being a merc. Don't forget that."
"Yeah, I won't. I'm supposed to be getting rid of the Triads, but if I do that, I'm out of a job. And I can't just go find a new one." Levancon seemed frustrated. "Anyway, keep your eyes open. Good luck to you too."
"Thanks." Sadeski hung up the phone, then contemplated it as it sat on the table. "Do you actually need that?"
Sun Dinghuang waved his hand dismissively. "I'm dead. Who would I call?"
"Right. I'll be taking that, then." He passed the phone to Leah Silverstone, who accepted it with a smile.
"Watch the boat. Land's too close." Zach's grumpiness had lingered too long to be explained away by sleep. "Let me drive."
Silverstone courteously vacated her seat, dragging Bob to his feet as she went. "Go ahead. I've been steering for a few hours already." If she saw Taylor's grimace, she gave no sign of noticing. She walked out with Sadeski, talking about Malaysian cuisine.
Zach sighed as he took the controls. Sun Dinghuang began humming a traditional Chinese song, and Taylor's face contorted into a silent snarl. The mercenary jammed his headphones onto his head, and Sun, puzzled, left the room in hopes of finding Takeshi Sato. It would be another long and lonely shift in the control room.
***
The trip through pirate territory had been uneventful. Only a few small craft were out in the mid-morning when the Northern Cross passed by, and none had seemed especially intent on picking a fight with the armored vessel. Taylor tried to sail all the way to the pirates' waters in one shift, but had to be relieved by Takeshi shortly before the first boat came into sight. As usual, Mark Birch had secured them a space at a dock, but this one was a run-down quay at the far southwest of the city. It would be a long trip to the airport or to Birch's contact, who would not be in the city for another three days. Worse still, Sun Dinghuang was now in roughly the most accessible place in the city for any would-be assassins.
Zachary Taylor wasn't particularly happy that the discovery of a third homing device near the keel of the vessel justified his dive into the jellyfish-infested water. He wasn't stung, but he didn't particularly enjoy being in such close proximity to not only the jellyfish but a variety of fish and crustaceans which seemed to have no fear of him. After several minutes of attempts to pry the device off, he finally succeeded in bringing it to the surface. Bob and Gordon watched in amusement as Taylor clumsily maneuvered himself onto the boat.
"So they know we're here." Weston mused. "We're going to have a hard time moving the boat since we probably aren't legally supposed to be in this country. It's not a government job this time."
Half of Bob's attention was on Zach's efforts to remove his air tank, punctuated by strings of expletives. "We can't move the boat. With any luck, they won't know which one made it here."
Gordon chuckled. "If they think it's the mobile one, we can have some fun."
"I swear to god, Bob, I'm going to kill you." Taylor hopped across the deck, trying to extricate himself from his wetsuit. "Crowbars don't work underwater quite as well as they do up here."
"So, they know the boat's in this location. They might look here anyway. We're going to have to take our pilot friend somewhere else." Sadeski picked up the homing device, a small red light blinking regularly on its side. "I've got an idea for this."
Shortly afterward, the homing device had found its way onto a city bus. It had taken Gordon almost half an hour to reach the bus stop from their remote dock, and when he returned to the boat, he found a heated argument in progress. Sato was convinced that the best course of action would be to hide Sun Dinghuang somewhere else, while Zach had decided that first strikes against the pirates would dissuade any attempts to kill the pilot. Bob seemed somewhat annoyed that his order to simply keep Sun in the boat and defend if needed was being ignored. Sun himself did not seem to care. Gordon was immediately made the arbitrator of the dispute.
"Right. Bob's the boss." Weston saw Sadeski's plan as being fairly sound, though there was a higher risk of things going catastrophically wrong, as opposed to merely losing the pilot. Taylor's plan was flawed beyond any semblance of workability. "Zach, you do realize you're saying that the best way to hide is by broadcasting our presence?"
"The best defense is a good offense." Taylor muttered.
"Sun Tzu, eh? Sun Tzu could take a lesson or two from the British in South Africa." Gordon had explained this particular scenario to his younger counterpart perhaps a dozen times, but it never sank in. "A few dozen British with machine guns are no match for a few thousand Matabele, no matter what the Matabele are armed with." Zach said something under his breath. "We have four trained mercenaries, one rusty pilot, and Miss Silverstone," He looked around, ensuring that Leah was not within earshot, "who is a massive liability in a battle scenario. On the other side we have god knows how many pirates, probably armed with AK-47s and grenades. Some might have torpedoes. Yeah, we're gonna get some pirates for bounties, but we're going to do it the way we always do. Very carefully."
Taylor fell into a grumpy silence. Sadeski shifted from one foot to the other. "Verdict, Gordon?"
"Right. Heads, we keep him here. Tails, we go ahead with Takeshi's plan." Before anyone had time to complain, Gordon had tossed a Thai coin into the air. The one-baht piece rattled as it landed on the control room table, coming to a stop against a mug. Gordon examined the coin briefly. "Which side is which on this... Ah, right. Tails."
"Seriously, it's a good idea." Sato leaned against the wall. "We keep one person on the boat at all times in case someone comes looking for him, and tell them we have no idea who he is. We put him in a hotel and check on him every so often. Hotels are probably cheap around here."
Bob knew the comments were directed at him. "Fine. It's on your head if anything goes wrong, and you're taking the most shifts on the boat unless your leg miraculously gets better." He stalked out of the room.
"I'm fine with this." Sun Dinghuang seemed mildly annoyed that he hadn't had the final say, despite his prior indifference. Nevertheless, he trudged off to collect his belongings.
It seemed like adding insult to injury that Zachary Taylor was the one sent out to find the hotel. He already resented Gordon's stinging rebuke of his plan, but having to carry out the alternative, even if everyone else had a good reason not to, was humiliating. Wandering out along the edge of the city, Taylor chose the first hotel with a sign that read first in English, then in... whatever this unfamiliar language was. The "White Rajah Inn" seemed at least somewhat reputable just from the name. He assured the tall, bespectacled Malay at the front desk that he would be back in a few hours.
At sunset, the entire party excepting Takeshi Sato, who would be spending the night on guard duty, departed the Northern Cross. Sunset, Bob was explaining to Leah, was the best time to move someone you didn't want seen. Not only was it typically a time when people were in transit, eating, or otherwise preoccupied, but the dim light would turn Sun into a silhouette until night fully fell and the lights of the city rendered him visible once again.
The inn looked less reputable by night from the exterior- its neon lighting was in dire need of repairs. Bob caustically remarked that he doubted they'd be able to find it again.
"You have that GPS, Bob. Put this place in." Zach pushed open the saloon-style doors and led the company to the reception desk. "Told you I'd be back. Now, about that room..."
"For all of you, sir?" The clerk raised his eyebrows, but kept his voice level.
"What? No, no... just for my friend here." Taylor brought Sun Dinghuang forward.
The clerk drew his head back, a bland expression on his face. "I see. And you wanted a standard room, correct?"
"Yep. That's fine." Zach enjoyed being the negotiator. He had never acquired Gordon's skill, mainly because the older men had marginalized him whenever it was time to cut a deal with someone. He believed he was at the very least no worse than his captain, whose primary negotiating asset usually appeared to be his temper.
"Good. Room two-eighteen is available. Please come with me, sir." Taylor and Sun followed the Malay toward a wooden staircase while the others stood awkwardly near the entrance. They were in a large, open lobby. Patrons and hotel workers, identifiable by their uniforms, mingled in a lounge area with a small bar. Bob was surprised to find that the staff seemed to be mostly Caucasian, while their guests were generally Asians. He couldn't think of anywhere he would expect such a scenario, except possibly Australia. Sadeski's thoughts had jumped to bounty hunters, knowing that Europeans in this part of the world frequently came as hired guns, but then shied away at the sight of their uniforms. Bounty hunters didn't clean tables. Pirates might, but the pirates would be Malays, Chinese, or Indonesians. They always were.
Taylor returned after a few minutes. "Shore leave!" he proclaimed. A few of the hotel employees looked up briefly, then turned their attention away from the strange party at the entrance. Sailors were common in this area- usually they would be found closer to the city center, true, but by no means was it rare for a group to pass through. This group proceeded out and to the northeast, off to explore the city.
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