Shadow Tyrants Read online

  She nodded. Murph didn’t even look up.

  Juan sprinted out of the room with Eddie, Linc, and MacD toward where the yacht was tied up to the command ship.

  As he ran, he radioed to Gomez, “Make sure nobody gets an airborne advantage in that helicopter.”

  * * *

  —

  The smoke was starting to clear, and it was obvious by now that the fake assault had been a diversion. And Torkan saw how it had been done. Small drones littered the deck, all of them destroyed by the explosives they had carried.

  He saw another one appear, just visible behind the helicopter. Torkan took aim, thinking it was coming toward him for an attack, but it settled onto one of the Huey’s twin rotor blades.

  As soon as it touched down, a small grenade went off, disintegrating the drone and snapping the blade in two. It clattered to the deck.

  “There’s no one here, and the Huey is no longer functional,” Torkan said over his radio to Mallik. “Are you back on the yacht?”

  “Yes. I’m interfacing with the Vajra system.”

  Torkan could see the 300-foot Paara moving away from the command ship.

  “I saw the launch,” he said. “It looks like we’re in the clear.”

  “Not yet,” said Mallik. “Someone in the mission control room is trying to deactivate Vajra.”

  “Kapoor?”

  “I can’t tell. You need to go back in there and shut them down.”

  “Understood.”

  Torkan waved for his eight men to abandon the search for intruders and come with him to the mission control room.

  They were halfway to the superstructure access door when it flew open and four men came out. Torkan immediately recognized the black man and the Asian man from his previous encounters with them.

  Two of his security team were taken down in the first volley. Torkan ducked behind a stanchion and radioed Mallik as a vicious firefight raged.

  “Getting to mission control is going to be a problem.”

  “I don’t care if you have to sink the whole ship!” Mallik screamed. “Just shut them down!”

  Torkan looked at the damaged helicopter. They had been planning to take it up to intercept the incoming boat before it disappeared from radar.

  “Is the observation window in the mission control room bulletproof?” he asked Mallik.

  “It’s reinforced safety glass, but it’s not bulletproof.”

  “Then I’ll destroy it from the outside.”

  “How?”

  “I put an RPG launcher on the helicopter when we thought we were going to take out that incoming boat.”

  “But you said the helicopter is nonfunctional.”

  “Trust me, Romir,” Torkan said.

  “I do, Asad.”

  Torkan instructed the rest of his security team to give him suppressing fire while he ran toward the disabled Huey. He snatched the RPG launcher and a spare rocket from the open passenger compartment.

  Then he called for one of his men to join him. They sprinted to the stairway leading down the command ship’s floating dock and the speedboat that had returned from the satellite launch platform.

  * * *

  —

  From his position crouched behind a deck crane support, Juan saw Torkan and another man run down the stairs.

  “He got an RPG from the Huey,” Juan said to Eddie between shots.

  “Gomez told us there was a speedboat tied up down there. What’s he doing?”

  Juan thought about the big picture window in the mission control room.

  “He’s going to attack from the outside . . . Linda, where are you?”

  “Idling on the starboard side of the ship by the superstructure. I just saw two men jump into a speedboat.”

  She was only a hundred feet away from Juan’s position. “Prepare to pick me up.”

  He said, “Eddie, cover me.”

  Juan dropped his weapon and his gear and dashed toward the edge of the ship. Bullets ricocheted around him as he ran, pinging against the deck plating and bulkheads. Without breaking his stride, he dived over the railing and into the sea below.

  SIXTY-SEVEN

  “Eric, two fish in the water!” Max radioed from the fake bridge of the Oregon. “Give me thrusters in reverse.”

  “Thrusters full reverse,” Eric replied.

  The Oregon crawled backward. Max willed her to move faster, but there was nothing else he could do.

  The torpedoes sped by, missing the bow by just a few yards.

  The captain of the Kalinga was a good shot. Next time, he might not miss. The Oregon was already sitting low in the water from the flooding caused by the last torpedo. Another one could sink her, especially because she wouldn’t be able to correct any list by filling ballast tanks.

  “Hali,” Max called, “tell Murph that we need that satellite disabled or we’re dead.”

  * * *

  —

  Murph was getting ticked-off. Every time he shut down the satellite targeting the Oregon, Mallik switched it back on.

  “I just got a call from the Oregon,” Raven said. “The Kalinga is getting ready to sink her. Isn’t there anything you can do to disable that satellite?”

  She indicated the screen listing all the Vajra satellites. Their current problem was caused by number seven.

  “Not unless we can figure out how to stop Mallik,” Murph said in frustration. “The Chairman said the yacht moved away from the command ship, so we can’t get on board to stop him.”

  If the Oregon had its weapons, they could just send another Exocet to take it out, but that wasn’t happening. And nothing they’d brought with them was powerful enough to destroy a 300-foot yacht. It would require a massive rocket . . .

  He looked up at the screen. There was one rocket he could use.

  Murph turned to Kapoor and said, “Mallik locked out the launch sequence. What about the descent of the first stage?” He knew the booster was reusable. After detaching from the orbital insertion package, it was supposed to return and land on the launch platform using its retrorockets.

  Which meant it still had fuel aboard.

  Kapoor hesitated until Raven shoved her assault rifle in his face.

  “Okay, okay! It’s not locked out.”

  “Show me how to change the landing coordinates,” Murph said, before nodding to Raven for emphasis. “Or she will find someone here who doesn’t want to die.”

  * * *

  —

  Juan climbed aboard the surfaced Gator and opened the hatch as the speedboat jetted off and rounded the stern of the command ship.

  “Gomez, hand me one of the AT4s. Linda, go after that speedboat.”

  The Gator rose completely out of the water, and Linda gunned the powerful diesel.

  Gomez reached up through the hatch with one of the recoilless weapons they’d brought along for air defense. It was a single-use tube armed with an unguided anti-vehicle rocket.

  They raced around the command ship and saw the speedboat come to a stop directly beneath the mission control room. Torkan was already putting the RPG launcher over his shoulder.

  Juan raised the AT4. He didn’t have time to aim carefully. He squeezed the trigger, and the rocket shot toward the boat.

  For a millisecond, he thought he might get lucky, but he hadn’t compensated enough for the fast-moving Gator. The rocket detonated in the water ten yards in front of the speedboat.

  That was just enough to throw Torkan off, though. The explosion rocked the boat. He fell backward just as he pressed his own trigger. The RPG shot up and over the command ship.

  Juan called down to Gomez. “Get me another one!”

  Torkan took his driver’s assault rifle and let loose a spray of bullets at the Gator. Linda turned a hard right, nearly throwing Juan off
the boat. She veered away, and Torkan began to reload the launcher.

  Juan took the radio clipped to his belt and called on the same frequency Torkan had been using.

  “Asad, it’s me. The guy who killed your brother.”

  Torkan lowered the RPG and stared at him.

  “The Novichok really did a number on Rasul,” Juan continued. “It looked very painful as he choked to death right in front of me.”

  Torkan’s face twisted in anger.

  SIXTY-EIGHT

  As Linda lured the speedboat away from the mission control room and around the stern of the command ship, Gomez passed an AT4 rocket and a P90 submachine gun up to Juan. He’d have to make the rocket count. It was their last one.

  Torkan came into view when they were halfway down the other side of the large command ship. Linda drove the Gator in a zigzag pattern at Juan’s instruction to bring the speedboat as close as possible for his shot. Juan had the AT4 slung over his shoulder while he shot bursts from the P90, bracing himself using the hatch cover.

  If he could hit the Iranian saboteur with that weapon, he would, but its effective range was far shorter than the assault rifle Torkan was using. Bullets peppered the Gator as they weaved back and forth.

  When the speedboat got within fifty yards, Juan dropped the P90, which slid off the deck and into the water. He put the AT4 up to his shoulder and was about to pull the trigger when a rifle shot hit his artificial leg, knocking it out from under him. Juan fell to the deck and was barely able to keep both himself and the AT4 on the boat.

  At the same time, the Gator’s diesel started smoking, and the boat shuddered as it slowed down. The rifle fire hit the engine as well.

  Torkan smiled at his shot and told the driver of the speedboat to turn around.

  By the time Juan got to his feet again, Torkan was nearing the stern of the command ship. A rocket launch by Juan now would require too much luck to hit the speedboat.

  As Juan jumped down through the Gator’s hatch with the rocket launcher and closed the lid, the radio on his belt crackled.

  “I only have one RPG left,” Torkan said, “and I don’t want to waste it on you. But, don’t worry. After I kill your friends, I’ll come back.”

  Juan ignored the taunt. “Do we still have battery power?” he asked Linda.

  “Yes,” she replied, “but we won’t be able to pursue them with our diesel out.”

  “We don’t have to pursue him,” Juan said. “Dive the boat.”

  * * *

  —

  For his second try at destroying the mission control room, Torkan made sure to take his time and guarantee the shot would count. After they got the speedboat in position, he reloaded the RPG.

  He was about to center his sight on the big picture window when he heard a gurgling noise. He turned and saw the boat he thought he’d just disabled erupt out of the water twenty yards behind them.

  The hatch flew aside. Torkan was stunned to see the man who killed Rasul pop out and aim the rocket launcher at the speedboat.

  Torkan tried to swing the RPG around, but he was too slow.

  The AT4 rocket leaped from its tube. The last thing Torkan’s brain registered was the impact of the warhead turning his boat into a fireball.

  * * *

  —

  From the stateroom on his yacht, Mallik heard an explosion and hoped it was Torkan taking out the mission control room.

  He reset the controls on Vajra, but they were altered yet again by his unseen nemesis.

  “Torkan,” he called on the radio, “what’s your status?”

  An unfamiliar voice called back. “His status currently is that he’s dead.”

  “Who is this?” Mallik demanded.

  “This is the archenemy of the Torkan family.”

  A sonic boom shook the yacht. It was the sound of the booster stage returning to earth. Mallik looked out the window but couldn’t see any sign of it.

  “You killed both my brothers-in-law?”

  “To be fair, they did try to kill me first.” By the sound of amusement in his voice, the man was clearly enjoying himself.

  Mallik smiled when he saw that the twentieth satellite had reached orbit. Its indicator went green. Vajra would wipe out electronics worldwide in sixty seconds.

  “It doesn’t matter,” he said into the radio, mirroring his antagonist’s glee. “You’re too late to stop me.”

  “Are you sure about that?”

  Mallik heard the roar of a rocket engine. It had to be the booster firing its retrorockets, but it was too loud. Then the view of the launch platform began to shimmer as if it were a mirage, and he felt heat bake the air.

  With a horrible realization, Mallik finally understood what was happening.

  “Do you realize what you’ve done?” Mallik screamed into his radio. “You people have doomed the human race!”

  “I hope not,” the voice said, “but you won’t be around to find out.”

  * * *

  —

  In mission control, Murph watched the screen showing the feed from the camera on the booster stage that was pointed down at the engine. He could see crew members on the yacht looking up in terror as they scrambled to jump overboard.

  When he had it centered over the portion of the yacht where Kapoor said Mallik’s stateroom was, he switched off the retrorockets, and the booster plunged to the deck.

  The camera went black, and a second later they heard an ear-rattling boom from the explosion of the booster.

  Suddenly, Murph had complete control of Vajra. There were thirty seconds left before it went active.

  “The system will activate automatically,” Kapoor said. “There’s no way to turn off the satellites now.”

  “I’m not trying to turn them off,” Murph said as he tapped on the touchscreen.

  “What are you trying to do?” Raven asked.

  “I’m turning them around.”

  Kapoor gaped at the screen as he saw first one satellite, then another, and another, rotate one hundred and eighty degrees.

  At the count of zero, all of the satellites initiated their EMP beams. But now they were harmlessly aimed out into space.

  Murph let out a sigh of relief.

  “That was close,” Raven said.

  “I have one more thing to do,” he said. “While I’m busy, maybe you should call the Oregon.”

  * * *

  —

  Max was still on the fake bridge, watching the onrushing Kalinga with dread. The frigate had just launched two more torpedoes. This time, they wouldn’t miss.

  His radio squawked. “Max, this is Hali. Raven just called. Murph took down the Vajra satellites. We should be getting our systems back any second.”

  As Hali finished speaking, Max felt a hum beneath his feet as generators and equipment on the Oregon came back to life.

  “Eric, what do you have working?” Max asked.

  “I’ll be able to tell you in twenty seconds,” Eric said. “We need to finish rebooting.”

  They wouldn’t have main engines back right away even after the computers came back online, but they did have thrusters. “Turn us one hundred eighty degrees. I want our port side facing those incoming torpedoes.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  The Oregon pivoted around, and Max went to the other side of the bridge, kicking a couple of Murph’s stray Red Bull cans as he walked.

  By the time the turn was complete, Eric called him over the loudspeakers instead of the radio and said, “We’ve got everything back except the modified weapons.” It meant that Eric could hear him on the bridge microphone.

  “Launch an Exocet at the Kalinga,” Max said.

  “Launching.”

  The anti-ship missile shot into the sky and passed over the torpedoes bearing down on them.


  “Now get a firing solution on those fish with the portside Gatling gun and destroy them.”

  “Firing,” Eric said.

  The Gatling gun buzzed to life. With the computer control now aiming the weapon, it required just two seconds for Eric to take out both torpedoes.

  With the threat to the Oregon gone, Max turned his attention back to the Kalinga. The Exocet streaked toward it and smashed into the side of the ship. The explosion ravaged the hull directly below the torpedo tubes. The blast set off the remaining torpedoes, and the Kalinga blew apart like a volcano. Black smoke from the shattered frigate rose in a mushroom cloud.

  Max leaned his head against the railing as he caught his breath.

  Then he stood up and said, “Hali?”

  “Go ahead.”

  “Tell Murph I owe him a case of Red Bull.”

  * * *

  —

  Five minutes later, Juan joined Murph and Raven in the command ship mission control room. Kapoor had been taken away, and the other engineers sent to their quarters. He sat down to inspect his combat leg. The prosthesis had a large gouge in it from the bullet strike.

  “I heard you saved the Oregon,” Juan said to Murph.

  “And I heard you saved us.”

  “That’s what teamwork is all about.”

  “Thanks for bringing me onto the team,” Raven said. “I’ve never worked with a more impressive group. Speaking of that, where are Linc, Eddie, and MacD?”

  “After the explosion on the yacht, Mallik’s surviving security operatives on the command ship gave up. Eddie’s watching them and Kapoor while Linc and MacD help the crew of the command ship pick up the yacht crew who jumped overboard.”

  “Why don’t I go help them, sir . . . I mean, Chairman,” Raven said. She waited for Juan’s nod and then left the control room.