Edge of Tomorrow (62 page)

• • •

At 7:00 A.M. Saturday morning, the telephone
on Hatch’s bed table jangled him awake. He checked his watch and
groaned.

Probably the General bugging us to go to
breakfast!

“Hello,” he said.

Sara said over the phone, “Hatch! I’m glad I
tracked you down! Have you seen the news?”

“No. I was asleep. Syd’s still asleep, so let
me call you back on an encrypted channel. I’ll take my Blue Phone
to the other room.”

“Ciao
,”
replied Sara as she hung up.

Hatch retrieved his Blue Phone and went to
the sitting room and called Sara.

“OK, Sara, what’s up?” he asked.

“Sorry I had to call your room, but you
didn’t answer your pager.”

“I turned it off. Syd and I celebrated last
night.”

“Well, I thought you might want to know that
some Greek terrorists took over the Grand Princess cruise ship in
Piraeus last night. Isn’t that the ship your parents are cruising
on?” said Sara.

“Shit! Yes! But they’re safe! They’re here
with me, thank God! I talked them out of returning to the ship last
night,” explained Hatch. “Do you know any details?”

“Not many. It’s all over TV here, so it
definitely will be in Greece. It seems these guys say they are part
of the terrorist group Xanos—very anti-American, by the way. This
group, and others of their ilk, got very active when NATO and the
U.S. bombed Orthodox Serbs in Yugoslavia. You may remember that
Clinton had to cut his visit to Greece short last year because of
demonstrations by the leftists. The news here claims that at least
half of the passengers and crew are still on board, and are, of
course, hostages. If they have made any demands, it hasn’t been
reported to the public yet,” replied Sara.

Hatch paced in his boxer shorts while he
absorbed this information. Then he asked, “What have you done
there?”

“Just preliminary planning—just in case you
decide to get involved. At least, your parents are not a problem.
I’ve got ship data, deck plans. I’ve programmed a satellite to
watch the area and monitor comm channels. I put Lexus and Shadow-4
on standby alert.”

“Good. I’ll go back to Athens this morning
and see what’s what. See if you can monitor any negotiations going
on, and try and determine what responses the Greeks and the Brits
are planning. I’ll be in touch later. I’ll use the Comm/Nav system
on the chopper. I’ll turn my pager back on so you can reach me if
anything hot happens.”

“Fine. Say ‘hello’ to Syd for me,” answered
Sara as she hung up.

Hatch had not wanted to announce his
engagement to Syd over the phone, especially not with a possible
international crisis brewing. Besides, he figured that was
something that Syd would want to do herself. Syd wandered in
wearing her spare shortie nightgown, rubbing the sleep out of her
eyes.

“What’s going on, dear?” she mumbled as she
ran her hands through her mussed hair.

“That was Sara. You’re not going to believe
this,” he answered her, then told her what little he knew about the
ship highjacking.

Syd was now wide awake. She went to the small
kitchenette and started the coffee maker.

“Wow! I’m glad your parents aren’t still on
board! Do they know?”

“If they’re watching TV they do.”

He had switched on the small TV in the
sitting room and was watching the unfolding incident, volume turned
low. He found it on CNN where the commentators were speaking
English.

“Are you going to get involved in this,
Hatch?” Syd asked as she brought two mugs of coffee into the
sitting room and joined him.

Hatch took one mug, blew across the top of it
and took a small sip. “Thanks, Syd. I don’t know yet. Would you ask
that question if my parents were still on board?”

Syd looked at him and said, “Shit! How stupid
of me! Forgive my lack of sensitivity, sweetheart!”

“Forget it, dear. I want to watch the
situation, gather more info. See what the British and the Greeks
do. They may preempt anyone else from getting involved. Let’s see
how nasty the terrorists get. Most of the people on that ship are
Americans, and these Xanos guys are very anti-American.”

They sipped coffee and watched TV for awhile
in silence. The reporters did not really know anything except that
the terrorists had landed on the Grand Princess in a helicopter and
took over the bridge. Zoom cameras showed the black chopper on the
top deck, aft of amidships. Syd got up and sat on Hatch’s lap and
kissed the tip of his nose. He ran his hand along her thigh and
under the gown. She was not wearing panties.

“Umm. That feels good!” she purred. “Fiancé!
You can go a little higher!”

“Maybe we can fool around for a bit, then go
fetch the General and my mom and have some breakfast. I think I
should put them on a plane back to Miami. This cruise is over for
them, no matter what happens.”

“Good plan! Now, fool with me, you fool!”

• • •

When the Triple Eye chopper landed back at
the Athens Airport, the limo was waiting for them. Hatch had booked
a flight for his parents, after explaining to them what was going
on.

“We have friends on that boat, Hatch!”
exclaimed the General. “I wish I were in charge! I’d handle those
fucking terrorists!”

Carrie said, “I wish you would watch your
language, dear! You’ll burn Syd’s ears!”

“I just want those bastards
exterminated!”

“We’ll just have to wait it out, General,”
remarked Syd, wondering if Shadow-4 was really up there somewhere,
even though Hatch had said it was on standby in Rome. Even so, Syd
could not imagine what even Lexus and Shadow-4 could do about this
situation. The ship was huge: the size of a small city! The bad
guys could be anywhere in that maze!

• • •

After the Lincolns’ plane took off, the limo
took Syd and Hatch back to the Triple Eye chopper. The pilot
arranged to have an Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) connected to the
chopper, then went over to have a cigarette with the limo driver
while Hatch and Syd climbed into the helicopter. Hatch went to the
cockpit and turned on the Comm/Nav computer system, donned a
headset, then made contact with Sara over a secure satellite
channel. Sara was in the Comm/Computer room at the castle in Rome.
She informed them that the satellite was in position over the area
and working well. She gave Hatch some numbers and he typed them
into his computer system. A bird’s-eye view of the Grand Princess
appeared on his console screen.

“Good work, Sara,” said Hatch. “What do you
hear about what’s going on?”

“I gave you the frequency we’ve been
monitoring. It’s the one the chief highjacker—he calls himself
Koko—has been using to communicate with the guy in charge of the
Harbor Police. He seems to be the one representing Greece in this
fucking farce. Since they’re talking in Greek, I patched the Triple
Eye guy on the Greek desk in Langley into a conference call and
he’s been translating for me,” explained Sara. “By the way, how’s
Syd?”

He was itching to tell Sara about the
engagement, but he bit his tongue and said, “She’s just great!
She’s sitting right here. I’ll tell her you asked about her. Did
you clear things with Jane? About the Greek desk, I mean.”

Sara continued, “Yes. I told her you were in
Greece and your parents were on that ship, and we needed to know
what the fuck was going on. She set things up for me at the Greek
desk.”

“Good! You’re getting some political smarts,
finally. I don’t want Jane to get her nose out of joint by us using
Triple Eye resources without her knowledge.”

“Fuck Jane! Now, this guy Koko says he’s from
a group called Xanos, but you probably know that already if you
watched any TV. What you don’t know is what he is demanding. Ten
million U.S. dollars by 4:00 P.M.”

Hatch asked, “No terrorist prisoners to be
released? No televised political statement? Nothing political?”

“No, not yet. We’ve broken the code on the
channel the British are using. A C-130 Hercules will be in Athens
by six o’clock or so—loaded with Special Air Services commandos and
a Lynx MK1 attack helo. Their orders are to retake the ship. You
know what that means.”

“Yes. A lot of people will die! Most of the
passengers on that ship are American citizens. Any word if the U.S.
plans to get involved?”

“No. Only the British. They take the position
that the ship is British soil, even though it’s in a Greek port.
They told the Greeks to wait for the SAS guys to arrive. That suits
the Greeks—they want nothing to do with this mess,” replied
Sara.

“Shit! Too many people will die that way! I
have less than four hours to figure something out. I’m sure if I
do, I’ll need Shadow-4. Go get airborne, and bring Coffer, Gunny,
and any other Lexus guys you can squeeze in. If you hurry, you can
be here by 3:30, or shortly thereafter,” said Hatch. “Any estimate
on how many highjackers there are?”

“Not from anything I’ve heard, but that
chopper on the ship is a Bell 206L Long Ranger and it only holds
seven. So, unless some of them were actual passengers on the ship,
that gives you an upper limit. The guy I can see on the bridge is
wearing a ski mask. I would assume they all are, which means all
they have to do if attacked is whip off the mask and mix with the
passenger population.”

“That’s why flooding the ship with a SWAT
team is asinine. I’ll get back to you, Sara.”

Hatch signed off and he and Syd stared at the
screen which contained the overhead view of the ship. Hatch briefed
Syd on what Sara had said.

“You know, Syd, any attempt to take those
guys by force while they are on the ship will be a massacre! They
may even have explosives on board!”

Syd nodded, “I agree. You need to get them
off the ship before moving against them, but how do you do
that?”

Hatch stroked his beard as he thought of
Syd’s question.

“Their demands are unusual, and very simple
for terrorists. Just give them the money,” he finally said.

Syd replied, “From what Sara said, it sounds
like that option has been rejected by the British. Why did they ask
for U.S. dollars?”

Without cracking a smile, Hatch responded,
“Because it’s illegal to take more than $500 in Greek drachmae out
of Greece.”

Syd hesitated a moment, then burst into
laughter. “You had me there for a moment! What’s the real
reason?”

“That’s a real law here. But mostly, the
Greeks like to do business in dollars. A 10,000 drachma bill is
only worth around $35. The highjackers’ helo wouldn’t be able to
hold $10,000,000 in Greek money and them, too! Well, I guess all we
can do now is wait this out. And think. We need a plan.”

• • •

Shadow-4 reported in at 3:48 P.M. over the
Grand Princess at 5,000 feet. The pilot was George O’Reilly, former
Air Force pilot; the copilot was Carl Reddy, former Marine gunship
pilot; the Engineer was former Master Chief Tim Norton. Sara was
doubling on Offensive and Defensive Weapons Stations. Lexus team
members on board were Colonel Bill Coffer, Gunny Lamper, Jake
Randall (former SEAL), and Carolyn Carter (former member of Delta
Force). Jake Randall was doubling as field Medic.

Syd and Hatch were still in the Bell 430
watching the ship on their screen and kicking ideas around.

Syd mused, “It’s hard to believe these guys
are political terrorists. If they were of the Muslim variety, they
would have made all sorts of political demands by now.”

“I’ve been thinking of that, too. It’s
possible they are just plain old criminals trying to make a quick
$10,000,000,” agreed Hatch.

• • •

Hatch’s guess was right. The leader of the
six man group was Abas “Koko” Kaoulos, a long-time loser with a
lengthy criminal record. He was betting all the marbles on this
caper. The other five members were also vicious hard cases with
long records. They had spent all their money to acquire the
weapons, ammunition, and other equipment they needed for this
action. They had stolen the Bell 206L chopper.

Abas knew the success of the action depended
on timing and the appropriate level of threat. He figured the
British were sending SAS troops to raid the ship. He needed to have
his money and be gone before they got here. His men had already
robbed all of the passengers and looted the ship’s safe of cash and
jewelry, but he wanted more. He had no intention of shooting it out
with the SAS. He estimated 5:30 P.M. as the deadline for leaving
the ship. It was four o’clock, and the Greeks were still stalling
him. He had to show them that he was serious. He picked up his
handheld radio and called his man down by the gangplank.

“Kill one of them now! They have to be shown
that we’re serious!”

• • •

Syd, Hatch, and the crew of Shadow-4 watched
in horror as a woman walked off the ship onto the gangplank. She
started to run and a man with an AK-47 shot her down.

“Shit!” exclaimed Sara over the encrypted
channel they were using. “Did you guys see that? They’re getting
fucking serious about that money, Hatch! The asshole just told the
Greek colonel to get the money or they would kill more!”

Hatch had Sara on speaker so Syd could hear
what was going on.

“We saw it, Sara!”

Sara continued, “I can see the ski-masked
fucker through the window on the bridge. I could put a .50 caliber
in his ear any time you say, Hatch!”

“Good to know. Not yet. You could start a
massacre. Let’s see what the Greeks do in response to this,”
cautioned Hatch.

• • •

By 4:20 P.M.—based on the conversation
between the Greek colonel and the highjacker, Koko, which Sara
summarized for them as it came in from the translator in Langley—it
was clear to Hatch that the Greek colonel had no authority to
do
anything
, much less
negotiate. Hatch decided he must do something quickly or many
passengers on that ship would die this day. He could think of only
one way, but he was not sure if he could pull it off. All the cards
were stacked against him. He shared his discouragement with the
unfolding crisis, and his plan for solving it, with his soul mate,
Syd. The plan was very risky, and he was out of time.