The Command

The boarding officer clicked off. Then, seconds later, on again. “We got a man overboard situation.”

“What?”

“Machete had to uh … accidentally … We got a man overboard. Off the starboard side. We’re talking the RHIB around to pick him up now.”

“Machete or the crewman?”

“The crewman.”

“Have you got him in sight? Keep him in sight.”

Strong said disapprovingly, “Someone went overboard?”

Dan told Hotchkiss, “Get the leading corpman aft on the double.” He told the commodore, “Sir, let me get this sorted out. I’ll make a report after we have things under control.”

“Captain? Master of the Karnataka on Channel Sixteen.”

“I want to see the boarding officer myself, when he returns,” Strong said. “It sounds to me like your men are a little too John Wayne about this. I warned you, they have to know the ROE cold and act accordingly.”

Dan thought violently that this was exactly what he needed at the moment, a lofty Anglic voice pontificating on what cowboys his men were. He switched his handheld to sixteen, catching an agitated voice speaking broken English in midsentence. “—filing a complaint on you,” the voice said angrily. “Beating my men up. Injuring them. UN will hear of this. I will file complaint, swear to seeing this with my own eyes. Captain, is captain there?”

“This is the commanding officer of USS Horn,” Dan told him. He rubbed his fingers across his forehead, listening to a torrent of threats and vituperation as beside him Strong shook his head sadly. His hand came away dripping with sweat.

* * *

Both inflatables searched for three hours. It was not so rough they wouldn’t have found someone if he was still afloat. But they came up empty-handed. Cuffed, the crewman had gone straight down into the blue-green sea. And never came back up.

At last Strong ordered him to let the ship proceed. The State Department would check out the provenance of the cargo. If necessary, the Saudis could board again before it passed through the Bab el Mendeb. As to the death, they’d deal with that through appropriate channels. He’d look forward to Dan’s report at his earliest convenience.

Dan had Cassidy and Marchetti report to his sea cabin. They showed up sweaty and stained, still wearing pistol belts and float coats, boots dripping with the betadine-and-water footbath the boarding parties had to wade through coming back aboard. Otherwise, given the conditions of sanitation aboard the ships they inspected, Horn would be fighting bugs around the clock. He closed the door. “All right. What happened?”

“That was one uncooperative bunch of ragheads,” Marchetti said.

“Let’s hear it from the boarding officer first.”

Cassidy said angrily that the crew had been restive and mouthing off from the moment they came aboard. The master did nothing to control them. They complained about being kept out on deck, in the sun, but that was the only place he could keep them in view. He’d ordered the most aggressive cuffed. At that the others started pushing their way aft. The security team pushed back. The bigger American sailors were winning when one of the restrained men broke into a run. Marchetti went after him. The crewman attacked Machete and the senior chief punched him out and somehow he went overboard.

“He physically attacked you?”

“Sure as shit,” Marchetti said.

“I thought you said he was cuffed.”

“He was cuffed. Son of a bitch butted me. Hard, too.” He tilted his head back, and Dan saw blood bright on his tongue.

“You saw that happen?” Dan asked Cassidy. The ensign hesitated, then nodded. Dan asked him again and got a firmer affirmative.

“Okay, that’s physical resistance. By the rules of engagement, we can respond to that with the degree of force necessary to control the situation.” He looked at Marchetti. “But we’re also responsible for the safety of people under our control. How did he go over the side?”

“All I did was hit him, to get him off me. The lifeline snapped and over he went.” Marchetti spat blood into a paper towel from his coverall pocket. “He’s in cuffs, he can’t swim, he acts up, too fucking bad. Now he’s snake food.”

“That’s hard, Senior,” Cassidy said disapprovingly. Marchetti shrugged.

“The master said he was going to file a protest.”

“He’ll just have to file,” Dan told them. “I’m not happy someone died, but I told you to use necessary force. This sounds like an accident, especially since the lifeline broke. If there’s heat, that’s what they pay me to take. Sean, I’ll need a written report. Close of business today.”

They stood glumly. He went on, fighting his own depression over things going so wrong, “Okay, new subject… we’re taking a long time to do these boardings. I know you’re not getting enough sleep, or much else done. Anyway, can we speed up the process? It’s just taking too long considering how many ships we have to go through here.”

“No, sir, not and do a thorough job,” Marchetti told him.

“Sean?”

“Senior chief’s right, sir.”

“The commodore says the Aussies do this in half an hour,” Dan told them.