“We need to stop the ballast tanks from draining completely,” Maria said. “We’ll be too top-heavy if that happens. Once we reach a critical angle the other direction, we’ll flip right over.” The list continued to decrease.
“Do you think they have explosives?” Eddie asked Juan.
“If they had enough to put a sizable hole in the ship, they would have planted it on the hull outside.”
“They had grenades,” Maria said. “That’s how they sank the lifeboat.” The vision was seared into her memory.
Juan turned back to her. “What stations can you operate the ballast tanks from?”
“Just the bridge and the engine room.”
“What’s your cargo?”
“Cars and SUVs on all the decks except the bottom one. We’re carrying construction equipment there.”
“Can we get from the cargo holds directly to the bridge?”
“Yes.”
“He’s probably sabotaged the bridge controls,” Linc said. “That’s what I would have done.” Maria didn’t ask how he would know that, but given how these men were armed, she was quite sure they weren’t from any standard commercial vessel. They had to be former military. But she didn’t get the sense that they were pirates. Too helpful and concerned about her welfare.
“They’re going to outnumber us at least two to one,” Juan said, “so taking them head on is risky. We’ll have to try outflanking them. Are you able to travel, Captain Sandoval?”
“Maria. And yes. Why?”
He took a small computer tablet from his pocket. To her amazement, Juan brought up a detailed layout of her ship on its screen.
“Where did you get that?” she said.
He grinned at her. “Remember that research I told you about? I need you to show us the fastest way to the engine room.”
The accommodation block ended at the halfway point of the Ciudad Bolívar, and the weather deck covering the ship’s back half was a flat expanse of metal ringed by exhaust vents. Juan and his group would have to traverse one of the vehicle decks during their journey. Maria stayed with them. Not only was it risky to leave her alone with Dominguez’s team scouring the ship but she insisted on coming.
The list continued to lessen, which was fortunate because climbing down to the engine room in the aftmost bottom deck using ropes would take hours they didn’t have. Maria knew her ship better than anyone else and she estimated that they would have ten minutes of relatively easy travel when the deck would be transitioning from thirty-five degrees aport to thirty-five degrees astarboard. If the pitch were any greater, they wouldn’t be able to keep their footing without belaying ropes.
Of course, everything would be moot if the draining procedure caused an unforeseen imbalance in the ship’s center of gravity or if one of the vehicles came loose and caused an avalanche of them to pile up against one side of the ship. Then the end could come so suddenly that they wouldn’t have time to find an exit. The Ciudad Bolívar would become their tomb two miles under the surface of the Caribbean.
As they picked their way down the staircase by standing on the railings, Maria said, “Do you think the risk of sinking unexpectedly will keep this Dominguez from sending men to the engine room?”
Juan threw a look at Linc. “Unfortunately, we’ve met the lieutenant before and he recognized Linc from an encounter where we made him look bad to his superiors, so there’s a personal angle. He’s the type who’ll want to make sure we don’t get out of here alive even if that means risking his own life to do it. If he returns with anything less, Admiral Ruiz will have his head on a pike.”
“Maybe literally,” Linc added.
Maria’s eyes went wide. “Admiral Dayana Ruiz?”
“You know her?” Juan said.
“I met her only once when I was serving in the Navy. She was three ranks above me. She’s a brilliant tactician, but she has a reputation for being ruthless.”
“Now you’re finding out just how ruthless. We think she’s been sinking your company’s ships to put it out of business and bankrupt the owner for her own political gain.”
“How do you know that?” Maria stopped climbing. “Wait a minute. You weren’t just on a passing ship. You knew this was going to happen, that my ship was targeted.”
“We tried to warn your company, but they wouldn’t listen, so we made the trip out here ourselves.”
“You’re American, but you’re not in the military. What’s the connection?”
“I can’t tell you that, but let’s just say that Ruiz and Dominguez are not too happy after our business dealings with them.”