Marauder (Oregon Files 15)

“I welcome it.”

Sylvia didn’t mention the real reason Eric was acting strangely when he hurried off with Julia. He had to tell the doctor one other troubling piece of information he and Sylvia discovered, a fact that they didn’t dare share with her brother.

According to the experimental research in the files, if they didn’t inject Murph with a dose of the antidote within a week, his condition would become permanent.

THIRTY-FIVE

THE TIMOR SEA

As Linda piloted the Gator toward the Shepparton, Juan glanced at his watch. It was just after midnight.

“Merry Christmas, everybody,” he said.

Eddie, Linc, MacD, and Raven repeated the sentiment, and the response was genuine, if a bit halfhearted. This was not the Christmas Juan had envisioned for his crew. They should have been away with their families instead of in the middle of the ocean about to silently infiltrate another ship. Still, all of them were pros. They knew the stakes.

For now, the best thing they could do was to seize the shipment of Enervum. At least they would be able to prevent the same thing from happening to anyone else. Raven had insisted on being part of the assault time, convincing Juan with a steady gaze that she was ready to return to action. He only relented after quietly checking with Doc Huxley.

The semi-submersible matched the speed of the slow-moving freighter and pulled alongside. As with the boarding of the Dahar, all of them were equipped with tranquilizer dart pistols. It was important to capture the crew unharmed so they could be questioned. Juan hoped it would lead to Jin and Polk as well as the antidote they needed for Murph and the rest of the nerve gas victims.

Juan opened the hatch and went up on the Gator’s flat deck. He wasn’t worried about being seen. In the darkness, no one would be able to spot them even if they looked straight down from the railing above.

Linc handed up a special device that Max had created for ship-in-motion assaults. It was a carbon fiber telescoping ladder, very lightweight but incredibly strong. He extended it until the top was even with the ship’s deck and activated the heavy-duty magnets on the top rung. It latched on to the steel hull, securing it in place.

Juan started climbing. When he got to the railing, he looked over the top and didn’t see anyone. He pulled himself over and ran to the shelter of the nearest crane.

While he waited for the others to join him, he scanned the deck of the Shepparton, a break bulk freighter similar in size and layout to the Oregon, except the Shepparton’s cranes were on the side of the ship instead of along the centerline. Unlike a containership, the bulk carrier’s cargo was carried below deck, protected from the elements. Once they had the ship stopped, they would be able to search the cargo bays thoroughly for the gas.

When they were assembled, Juan sent Linc and Eddie to secure the engineering compartments while the rest of them went for the crew areas.

With MacD and Raven’s help, it didn’t take long to dart the crew sleeping in their quarters. They went up to the bridge and found two men on the night watch, tranquilizing both of them and tying them up. When Eddie and Linc called to say that the engine room crew was subdued, Juan told them to head to the nearest cargo bay and check it out while he took MacD and Raven to the captain’s cabin.

He darted the captain in his bed before he even knew that anyone was inside. Juan flipped on the light to see a white man in his forties flailing about on his bunk as the drug coursed through his blood.

While MacD and Raven stood behind him, Juan took a seat at the captain’s desk.

“What’s your name?” he asked.

“Raymond Wilbanks,” the captain said with a slurred Aussie accent. The truth serum had already taken hold.

“Do you know the real contents of what’s in your cargo hold?”

“I don’t understand.”

“Are you in on Polk and Jin’s plan or are you just a mule for them?”

“Who?”

“Parsons did tell us that Polk used a fake identity,” Raven interjected.

“The people who hired you,” Juan said. “They probably didn’t use their real names.”

“I don’t understand,” Wilbanks said.

“I’ll make this simpler for you. What cargo did you bring on board in Nhulunbuy?”

“I don’t understand.”

“Is this the dumbest ship captain we’ve ever met,” MacD said, “or is he more loopy from the tranq than he should be?”