The Storm (NUMA Files 10)

“The Lady Flamborough,” she repeated. “It was a cruise ship. Dirk’s father, the Senator, was held hostage on it in Antarctica. Dirk had to rescue him. If any of us get a chance to talk to Dirk, we play our part and keep up appearances for Zarrina and her thugs. We say what they want us to say. At some point Dirk will fire off a general question about our well-being or what the weather’s like or something along those lines. We just have to smile nonchalantly and say things are going great, like taking a cruise on the Lady Flamborough.”

“That’s a bit vague,” Marchetti said. “What if he doesn’t get it?”

“You don’t know Dirk Pitt,” Paul insisted. “He’ll get it.”

“Okay, that’s good,” Marchetti said excitedly. “So we have a plan, assuming they cooperate and ask you to speak with him. What if they don’t?”

Marchetti looked Paul’s way. All Paul could offer in return was a blank stare. He flicked his eyes toward Gamay and got nothing from her either. It seemed none of them had a plan B yet.

With frowns settling deeper on their faces, Gamay reached over and plugged the chair back in. The massage began anew.

Marchetti looked surprised.

Gamay threw up her hands. “Maybe it’ll help you think.”

CHAPTER 35

KURT AUSTIN HAD SPENT SEVERAL MINUTES RUMMAGING around in the cargo bay of the plane. He’d bypassed guns and ammunition and the rockets he’d spotted earlier, much to Leilani Tanner’s bewilderment.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“A wise general forages from his enemy,” Kurt said.

“Again,” she said. “I really have trouble following you.”

“Sun Tzu,” Kurt explained. “The Art of War.”

“Oh,” she said. “Him, I’ve heard of.”

He pulled a set of zip ties from one crate, the kind used to bind the hands of prisoners.

Leilani stared at the thick plastic loops. “Seen those before.”

“Our friends are p

lanning on taking more hostages,” he said, wondering once again where they were headed.

He slid a handful of the ties into his pocket and dug into the next crates.

“So what else are we looking for?”

“There are probably two or three guys on the flight deck. Two pilots and an engineer, if they have one. Maybe even a fourth in the bunk up top.”

“But we can’t shoot them,” she said. “So how do we fight them?”

“We don’t,” he said.

She pointed. “See, that’s what I mean, the confusion thing. I was with you and then … poof.”

Kurt couldn’t help but smile. He held up a single finger, the way he remembered the master doing it on old reruns of the show Kung Fu.

“To fight and conquer is not excellence,” he said. “But breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting is supreme.”

“Sun Tzu again?”

He nodded.

“Can you translate for me?”