Sea of Greed

The smile came out. “You should probably make a break for it on your own. I could at least distract them.”

Joe shook his head. “There are no circumstances under which I leave you here, so you might as well let that thought go right now. As for escaping, we don’t have to walk out of here. This plane is filled with submersibles, Jet Skis, boats. My plan has us riding to freedom in style.”

“You already have a plan?”

Joe nodded. “Multistep, with different contingencies. Very organized, unlike that fly-by-night stuff Kurt comes up with.”

Priya smiled. “Tell me more.”

“It starts with the guards,” Joe said. “We have to get rid of them.”

“How?”

“We use what we have around us,” Joe said.

“We have nothing around us. This compartment is empty.”

“We have light,” Joe said. “Light means electricity. Electricity means wires. Would it surprise you to know that most aircraft have several miles of wiring running through the fuselage?”

“It wouldn’t,” she said. “I worked on a computer program for Airbus when I was in college. All powered systems were fly-by-wire. There were circuits running everywhere.”

Joe nodded. “This plane also has cranes, ramps, powered flooring to move cargo pallets around. All of it powered electrically from the fuel cells.”

Priya looked around. “I don’t see any wires.”

Joe reached over and rapped his knuckles on a sloped footer at the edge of the wall. The impact made a hollow sound. “It’s because they’re hidden. Though they need to be somewhere they can be easily accessed.”

Priya was grinning now. She could see his plan.

“We have a few hours until dinner,” Joe said. “I might as well get to work.”

• • •

HAVING PLACED two men outside the compartment to guard her captives, Tessa met with her two trusted subordinates.

“Despite everything we’ve done, Austin and NUMA are rapidly putting the puzzle together. I want him eliminated.”

Woods spoke up. “We could talk to—”

Tessa cut him off. “I’m not using any more of your local friends. Austin and his group are beyond their ability to deal with.” She turned to Volke. “He almost killed you down on the LNG carrier. That should motivate you. Who can we reach out to? Who among your illegitimate friends can we use to get rid of Austin once and for all?”

“I have an old acquaintance who could do it for us,” Volke said. “He and his people leave nothing but bodies behind when they act.”

“Paramilitary?”

Volke nodded.

“Do they have the equipment necessary to get at Austin out in the middle of the Mediterranean?”

“His last operation was flying weapons from Albania to rebels across the mountains, in long-range ex — Russian helicopters.”

Tessa didn’t like the idea of involving more outsiders, but she was approaching a critical point. A meeting with Arat Buran and his Consortium was set for the next morning. She needed Volke and Woods with her when it happened.

“Hire them,” she said. “Offer more than they ask for, but make it clear to them that half measures will not get them paid. I want Austin dead. I want his friends and colleagues dead. I want his ship at the bottom of the sea resting beside the Dakar.”

Volke nodded. “I’ll take care of it.”

• • •

THE GUARDS placed outside of Joe and Priya’s compartment grew bored and restless long before the dinner hour came. They’d sat and talked, made crude jokes, played cards and even taken turns napping. Eventually, they got hungry.

“Call Woods,” one said to the other. “Tell him to relieve us or send down some food.”

“If he hasn’t eaten everything in the galley himself,” the other guard joked.

A call was placed and a tray of sandwiches was sent down to them. “Two of those are for the prisoners,” they were told.

The men considered eating the prisoners’ food themselves, but the bread was coarse and dry and the meat gamey and possibly spoiled.

“I’m not eating garbage,” the first man said.

“I’ll give it to them,” the second guard said. “Let’s hope it doesn’t make them sick.”

He walked across the floor of the aircraft and banged on the door. “Step back,” he ordered. “We have food for you.”

Muffled noises that sounded like shuffling could be heard and the guard considered that to be compliance. He unlocked the door, put the key back in his pocket and grabbed the handle.

Sparks exploded from the aluminum handle the instant he touched it. The guard was thrown across the fuselage, hurling the tray up in the air as he went. He landed on his back with smoke wafting from his hand and the scent of burned skin filling the cabin.

The lights dimmed and the sandwich tray clattered to the floor.

The second guard was so surprised that he failed to see Joe charging through the now open door. By the time he looked up, Joe’s fist was hurtling toward his face. The impact snapped his head to the side and put him out cold.

Joe enjoyed throwing a good punch and he felt that was one of his best. He dragged the guards back into the compartment, passing Priya, who remained crouched by the door with the leads of two long wires in her hands.