Free Fall: A Prelude to Hidden Order Read Free

features, and those features had played havoc with Harvath’s plan to take the ship tonight. Within twenty-four hours of being harvested, the khat plant rapidly lost its potency. Its consumption also induced dryness, which caused users to consume large amounts of liquids. Those two factors meant that the pirates on the Sienna Star were in constant need of resupply for their habit.
    On average, the pirates were sent a resupply boat from their base of operations every thirty-six to forty-eight hours. The last thing Harvath wanted to do was conduct his operation with a khat delivery pending, but he’d had no choice. Tonight was the only night there’d be sufficient cloud cover to attempt their jump unseen. They would have to deal with the supply boat if and when it became a problem.
    After stashing the weapons taken from the dead pirates, they proceeded to an interior stairwell and cleared the next two levels, but those levels contained neither hostages nor pirates. They had to keep going.
    Harvath looked at his watch as the team took a moment to catch its breath. The resupply boat, along with its armed crew, was going to arrive sometime in the next hour to hour-and-a-half. They needed to wrap this up and be in control of the ship before that happened.
    Flashing Sanchez and Kass the thumbs-up, Harvath took point and led the men up the stairwell.
    They were about to crest the fourth story landing, when Harvath heard voices and signaled for his team to freeze. It sounded like at least three men, and they were arguing in Somali. Over what, Harvath had no idea, but it was an opportunity they weren’t likely to get again.
    He gestured quickly to Sanchez and Kass as to what he wanted. When they nodded in return, Harvath led them onto the landing and stopped.
    Taking a deep breath, he counted to three, exhaled, and spun out into the hall.
    Less than twenty feet away, three of the pirates were squatting on the floor, playing a traditional Somali board game called Shax. Harvath drilled all three of them with two shots apiece. Six rounds in less than two seconds. None of the men even had a chance to reach for the rifles propped up against the wall behind them.
    Two doors down, the team found the crew being kept in a recreation room. There was only one pirate with them, and Harvath nailed him with two shots to the chest and one to the head.
    While Kass stood guard at the door, Harvath and Sanchez assessed the hostages and then identified each of them via the photographs they had been issued. The dead navigator’s photo was X’d out. Part of their assignment, though, was to secure his body for repatriation, but they could do that later. Right now, they needed to make sure every crew member was present and accounted for. They weren’t. One was missing.
    “Where’s your captain?” Harvath asked.
    The ship’s engineer, who spoke English with a thick Greek accent, replied, “They took him.”
    “Took him where?”
    “Off the ship.”
    Harvath looked at the engineer more intently. “When?”
    “After the first rescue attempt,” the Greek replied.
    “Son of a—” began Sanchez, but Harvath interrupted him. His antennae were up. The team had been discovered before even getting close to the ship. They had been lucky to escape with their lives.
    “How do you know about any rescue attempt?” Harvath asked.
    “Mukami told me.”
    “Who’s Mukami?”
    “He’s their engineer from Kenya. The pirates brought him to captain the ship. There have been some mechanical issues. He asked me to help. He speaks English.”
    “And while working together, that’s when he told you about the rescue?”
    The Greek nodded.
    “Did he tell you where they took your captain?”
    “To the pirates’ port.”
    “Where specifically in the port?”
    The Greek shrugged. “He just said the captain was their insurance policy against another rescue attempt and that the pirates took him to their village.”
    This was beyond bad. The owners of the