Marauder by Clive Cussler EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Author: Clive Cussler
- Language: English
- Genre:Suspense Action Fiction
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
STRAIT OF MALACCA
Captain Omar Rahal tracked the small boat racing across the
placid waters of the narrow strait. It was approaching his
California-bound oil tanker from dead ahead, and far too quickly to
be a fishing boat. He’d tried to raise them on the radio, but there was
no response. It meant only one thing.
Pirates.
Using his binoculars, he could see that the boat was full of men
armed with guns, but there was nothing he could do to avoid them.
The Dahar was more than 300 meters long, and the strait between
Malaysia and the Indonesian island of Sumatra was barely three
kilometers across at its narrowest point. The ponderous ship would
be impossible to turn around, and the speedboat would easily
outmaneuver any attempt to ram it.
“Increase to full speed,” he nevertheless told the executive officer.
“We’re not going to make the Dahar an easy target.” Such high
velocity for a ship as big as theirs was risky in these tight confines,
even with calm seas, but he couldn’t let them hijack his ship without
doing something.
As the XO ordered full power, Rahal activated the shipwide
intercom. “Now hear this, men. We have hostiles off our bow. They
are armed and mean to board us. Initiate emergency lockdowns and
go to your action stations. Do not, I repeat, do not attempt to fight
them.” He didn’t want any crew members to die on his watch.
The boat passed behind the bow of the Dahar so that Rahal could
no longer see it. He went to the port bridge wing so he could watch
for it over the side of the ship.
They came back into view, and he could now make out seven men
clad in T-shirts and armed with automatic rifles. There had to be an
eighth driving, hidden by the roof of the tiny wheelhouse. The boat
circled around so it could match the tanker’s speed. Rahal spied a
man holding an extendable ladder.
He called to the XO. “Activate the SSAS alarm.”
The XO flipped open a safety cover and pressed a large red button.
The Ship Security Alert System was a silent alarm that contacted the
ship’s base of operations to inform them that a hijacking was in
progress. It ensured that the hijackers would not be warned that help
had been summoned.
A few seconds later, the bridge phone rang. Rahal picked it up.
“This is Captain Rahal on the Dahar.”
“Captain, this is operations headquarters. We are calling to verify
that you have an emergency in progress.”
“Affirmative. This is not a false alarm.” Rahal recited the code
sequence verifying his identity. “Seven or eight armed men are
preparing to board us.”
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