As soon as she heard pirates were headed their way, Shehnaaz’s first reaction was to look to Rashmi. “Miss Desai! What’s going on here?!”
Rashmi rushed to the side of the deck and looked out to the sea. The white speedboat was getting closer and closer; she could now see the savage faces aboard the boat.
“What on earth?!” Rashmi’s hands tightened on the ship’s railing, her expression incredulous. “Where are the guests I invited? That’s the speedboat I booked for them, I’m sure of it!”
If the people on the speedboat were not the guests she had invited, then where had all the guests gone?
Shehnaaz was about to say something, but Deepak had already grabbed hold of her arm and dragged her back to their suite on the third floor, where they had left their belongings.
Once they were inside their room, Deepak grabbed his phone and called Sidharth and Rohit. He also sent them text messages.
The dial tone sounded a few times, but no one answered. After that, a song began to play. The singer sang a few lines of lyrics.
“…They’re in the middle of a mission,” Deepak muttered.
The song was a secret code, indicating that the Special Ops
soldiers were currently in the middle of a mission and could
not answer the phone.
Shehnaaz looked at him. “Brother Deepak, what did you just say?”
Deepak was honest with her. “Mr. Shukla is currently in the middle of an urgent mission. He can’t answer the phone.”
Shehnaaz did not say anything.
She knew that for Sidharth, his missions always came first. She could never compete with his obligations as a soldier, and had never tried to.
She had wished only to occupy a small corner of his heart— a small, insignificant place, just big enough to accommodate her.
Shehnaaz lowered her head and looked at the box of gun parts Deepak had brought with him. She said calmly, “We’ll just have to save ourselves, then.”
Deepak sent an urgent message to the Special Operations Forces military base in C City of India. As soon as Sidharth and Rohit had
wrapped up their mission, the base would relay his message to them.
He turned off his phone and began assembling the guns with Shehnaaz’s help.
The gun parts he had brought with him could be assembled into a sniper rifle and a M1941 semi-automatic light machine gun. There was also a box of bullets in the pocket compartment of his suitcase.
The two of them fell silent as they quickly assembled the two guns.
“Bulletproof vest. Put it on.” Deepak handed Shehnaaz a long bulletproof vest, before strapping on his own bulletproof vest.
Shehnaaz took it, and went to the bathroom to change. She removed her dress, put on a T-shirt and shorts, and strapped on the bulletproof vest. She asked as she walked out of the bathroom: “What if I fall into the sea?”
“Not a problem. This is the most advanced bulletproof vest from our country, the latest tech—it works as a life jacket, too.” Deepak winked at her.
It was a joke. How was he able to joke at a time like this? Shehnaaz did not know, but she was impressed by his mental fortitude. He was truly one of the elite soldiers of the Special Operations Forces.
The joke worked like a charm: the unease in her heart vanished.
Deepak extracted a box of bullets from his suitcase pocket and loaded the bullets into a bandolier. He wrapped it around Shehnaaz’s waist like a belt. “Use them sparingly. These are all we have.”
Shehnaaz took up a sniper rifle. This was one of the guns Sidharth had trained her with.
Deepak was armed with a much more powerful weapon: a semi-automatic submachine gun. His waist and shoulders were wrapped in bandoliers; he looked
formidable, like a hero out of an action movie.
“Let’s go. Time to see who these pirates are, and why they’re stupid enough to mess with us.” Deepak and Shehnaaz exited the cabin.
Rashmi paced restlessly before the door to their cabin.
When she saw the two of them come out of their room fully armed, her jaw dropped in disbelief. “…You have guns?!”
“Target shooting is my hobby,” Shehnaaz said nonchalantly. “I brought my guns with me because I was thinking of hunting sharks while on this ship.”
Rashmi stared at Shehnaaz. She did not believe a single word she had said, but now was not the time to quarrel. Right now, it was only logical for them to band
together against their common enemy.
She gathered herself together and said, “You have weapons, good. Let’s head to the ballroom. The chefs and sailors are all there. We can get them to fight with us against the pirates.”
She had just finished speaking when a stream of bullets punctured the side of the cruise ship.
“Let’s go.” Deepak led the way.
The three of them entered the ballroom on the second floor. Eight chefs and ten-odd sailors were already gathered there, fear written across their faces.
As soon as he saw them come in, a pudgy chef in a white chef hat asked Rashmi nervously: “Miss Desai, what’s going on? Who are those people?!”
Before Rashmi could reply, someone shouted from outside the ballroom in heavily accented English: “They’re here!”
Shehnaaz turned to look. What she saw made her pupils constrict with fear.
The men had already climbed aboard the cruise ship!
These men were black as coal, and equipped with a large assortment of guns: pistols, rifles, and even semi-automatic submachine guns!
It was obvious they were here to kill—the murderous intent rolling off them was palpable.
“Pirates! Run!” The chefs and sailors gathered inside the ballroom shouted and ran out the other exit, quick as rabbits.
Once they were outside, they immediately jumped off the deck and into the sea!
Shehnaaz stared after them, dumbfounded. These people were amazingly quick at running for their lives!
Deepak grabbed Shehnaaz’s hand, his handsome face icy cold. He raised his semi-automatic submachine gun with his other hand and unloaded on the pirates who had just rushed into the ballroom.
The pirates leading the pack immediately crumpled to the
ground.
The other pirates immediately found places to hide. Some of them dropped to the floor to avoid getting hit.
Deepak turned, grabbed hold of Shehnaaz’s hand, and ran to the third floor.
Rashmi clenched her jaw. Her eyes, wide with shock, flickered between Shehnaaz and Deepak: these two were highly skilled shooters, and were able to remain calm in the face of a sudden attack by armed pirates. Who were these people, really?
She did not have time to wonder, however; she turned, saw the pirates getting up to chase them, and immediately ran after Shehnaaz and Deepak, up to the third floor.
They were chased by a constant stream of bullets. The brand new ship was now riddled with bullet holes.
“Don’t bother running! There’s no escape!” The pirates cackled in savage glee behind them.
“Someone put a 10 million dollar bounty on your heads—dead or alive.”
Deepak led Shehnaaz back to the suite on the third floor and pushed her head down behind the bed. “Don’t move. If they get in here, jump into the sea.”
“What about you?” Shehnaaz rejected his suggestion. “I’m sticking with you. We can watch each other’s backs!”
Deepak hesitated.
Unlike Rohit and Sidharth, Deepak’s talents did not lie in melee and close quarters combat.
Even so, he had undergone intensive training with the Special Operations Forces. The average person was no match for him.
“Wait here. I’ll go take out a few of them.” Deepak opened the door and found himself face-to-face with Rashmi.
“Do you have night vision goggles?” Rashmi asked nervously. “If you have them, I’ll turn off the main power on the ship.”
With night vision goggles, they would be able to see the pirates, but the pirates would be completely in the dark. The odds of them winning against the pirates would be a lot higher.
Deepak did not know when the military base would be able to get ahold of Sidharth and send him to save them. He did not know how skilled these pirates were, either; he had to use every advantage available to him.
“Get to the power switch and turn it off. I’ll go see how many pirates there are.” Deepak nodded to Rashmi, before turning to Shehnaaz and giving her a Look.
Shehnaaz winked at him, indicating that she understood.
Deepak found his glasses and put them on.
His glasses functioned as night vision goggles. They were also capable of recording and transmitting video.
Rashmi ran in the other direction and quickly shut the main power for the cruise ship.
The brightly lit cruise ship was immediately plunged into total darkness.
Deepak, armed with his semi-automatic submachine gun, hid himself behind the large pillars within the ship as he crept through the ship floor by floor to investigate the number of pirates and where they were located. He reported his findings to Shehnaaz as he went.
Shehnaaz had put on a Bluetooth headset which also functioned as a walkie-talkie. She listened to the report: “Second floor, seven pirates, scattered in the direction of three o’clock, seven o’clock and ten o’clock. Third floor, nine pirates, scattered at five o’clock and nine o’clock. Fourth floor… no pirates.”
In other words, there had been at least 16 pirates on the speedboat.
Shehnaaz calmly loaded her sniper rifle. She said in a hushed voice: “I’ll go to the second floor, and leave the third floor to you. We’ll regroup on the fourth floor.” With that, she strapped her night vision goggles to her head, and crept out of the cabin in a low crouch.
Once she had arrived at the ballroom on the second floor, she put her night vision goggles over her eyes, and saw a few pirates moving about the ballroom. They seemed to be looking for something.
Shehnaaz set up her sniper rifle: she kneeled behind the railing around the dance floor, and aimed at the three pirates on her three o’clock.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Three shots rang out. to Shehnaaz efficiently took out three of the pirates, as though they were nothing more than the moving targets she used to practice with at the military base, under Sidharth’s guidance.
This was the first time she had shot at actual, living people.
She did not know whether she had killed them; regardless, she did not feel the slightest inkling of fear. She was not even nervous—in fact, an indescribable sense of euphoria and excitement was coursing through her veins.
Once she had fired the three shots, Shehnaaz clutched her sniper rifle and rolled over to the other side. She had already hidden herself behind the opposite railing by the
time her enemies thought to return fire.
The remaining four pirates raised their semi-automatic submachine guns and haphazardly unloaded their clips in the direction Shehnaaz’s bullets had come from. The hailstorm of bullets turned Shehnaaz’s previous hiding spot into a honeycomb.
But Shehnaaz had already circled behind them.
She calmly raised her gun and aimed at them from behind.
The pirates showed up as red moving silhouettes on her night vision goggles—to her, these silhouettes were no longer human.
Shehnaaz pulled the trigger and casually floored the four pirates, one bullet at a time.
Her shooting skills were inferior to Sidharth’s. She was not skilled enough to kill the pirates with a single shot, but it was easy enough for her to cripple and incapacitate them for the time being.
“Seven pirates on the second floor, eliminated. Over,” Shehnaaz said quietly.
Deepak’s voice sounded over her earpiece: “Nine pirates on the third floor, eliminated. Over.” There was a pause. “Meet me on the fourth floor.”
Shehnaaz nodded. “I’ll be right there.”
She ran to the stairs and was soon at the third floor. She took a quick glance, and saw several men sprawled across the corridor.
Shehnaaz did not stop. She ran up the stairs, all the way to the fourth floor.
The fourth floor was the top floor of the cruise ship; it served as an open-air playground.
As soon as she reached the top of the stairs, Shehnaaz was almost swept away by a powerful gust of wind.
She hurriedly latched onto the ship’s railing as she whispered, “Brother Deepak, where are you?”
“Behind the pool diving board.”
Shehnaaz lifted her eyes and scanned her surroundings.
Before all this had happened, there had been a full moon in the sky. The bright, beautiful moon had gilded the surface of the sea with a sheet of silver.
Now, however, the howling winds had chased dark, billowing clouds over the moon, obscuring it entirely. The surface of the sea was dark and menacing. The waves swelled relentlessly. Shehnaaz was filled with a sense of foreboding, as though the worst had yet to come.
Shehnaaz’s eyelids jumped uncontrollably.
She crouched and felt her way to the swimming pool’s diving board.
Luckily, she and Deepak had been on the ship for an entire afternoon, and were familiar with the layout.
The two of them regrouped. Deepak tousled her hair as he whispered, “Are you afraid?”
“No, I’m not.” Shehnaaz shook her head. “I’d be an embarrassment to Uncle Sid if I were.”
“You did a great job. If you were one of us soldiers, you’d definitely be getting a commendation after this.” Deepak praised her in a low voice as he pulled her over to his side.
Shehnaaz was still feeling uneasy. She found it difficult to believe that this was the end of it. If those pirates had been telling the truth, someone had placed a 10 million dollar bounty on their heads. The money was definitely more than enough to hire highly skilled
assassins instead of these bumbling amateur hour pirates.
“Shehnaaz? Shehnaaz? Are you here?” Rashmi’s voice suddenly sounded from the stairway.
Shehnaaz and Deepak turned on their night vision goggles and looked towards the stairway.
A glimmer of light emerged from the stairway. It was Rashmi, walking over to them with a flashlight.
Deepak’s brow furrowed. He said icily: “Turn that off! Do you want to be a walking target?!”
Rashmi quickly turned off the flashlight and ran to them. As she ran, she said: “I think you’ve taken out all the pirates. I was about to ask you if I should turn the power
back on.” When she had reached them, Rashmi added: “I’ve called the police, but we’re quite a distance away from the US. The Coast Guard won’t be able to get to us for another one and a half hours.”
Shehnaaz looked at her, her expression frosty. She said dismissively, “You must be a really fast runner, Miss Desai. The pirates have all been taken out, and I don’t see a single scratch on you.”
“Why, I have to thank the two of you for that, of course.” Rashmi looked at Shehnaaz with an ingratiating smile on her face. “I had no idea you took your hobbies so seriously. When Professor Sen returns, I’m sure he would be happy to hear all about it.”
Shehnaaz was about to retort when the cruise ship tilted without warning.
She almost lost her footing, and hurriedly grabbed hold of the pillars of the diving board.
Deepak held her steady from behind.
“What happened?” Rashmi turned to look at them, surprised.
Just then, a silhouette slipped out of the stairway. His skin was so dark no one saw him in the dark of the night.
When they finally noticed his presence, the man had already
crept his way to a spot a short distance away from them. He raised his pistol and fired a few shots.
In the next moment, everything seemed to happen all at once.
As the flashes of light flared outwards from the pistol, Rashmi threw herself in front of Shehnaaz to shield her.
Deepak raised his semi-automatic submachine gun and unloaded an entire clip on the pirate, turning him into a human honeycomb. The pirate fell into the swimming pool, his blood quickly staining the pool water red. Deepak and Shehnaaz did not see this, however; the darkness of the night was too complete for them to see what had happened.
Shehnaaz’s heart constricted. She saw Rashmi sway and collapse, right in front of her eyes, and immediately swooped to catch her. “Miss Desai? Miss Desai?What’s wrong?”
Deepak turned on the small flashlight, and was shocked to see a gory patch of flesh and blood between Rashmi’s left breast and shoulder.
She had been shot.
Shehnaaz lowered Rashmi to the ground and said to Deepak: “I’m going to get the first aid kit!”
Deepak always packed a first aid kit whenever he traveled, but the kit was in the third floor cabin. He had not taken it with him.
He grabbed hold of her arm. “Be careful. We must have missed that pirate, somehow.” He asked, “Are you sure you killed all the pirates on the second floor?”
Shehnaaz said sullenly, “I don’t know if they’re all dead dead—I just know I knocked them all down.”
Deepak sighed. “Go get the first aid kit from the third floor. I’ll check out the second floor.” With that, he left before Shehnaaz.
Shehnaaz turned to look at Rashmi. She was still knocked out; it should be fine to leave her alone for a few minutes.
She hurried back to the third floor cabin and found the first aid kit in Deepak’s suitcase. When she returned to the fourth floor, she saw that Deepak was already back.
He nodded to Shehnaaz. “There were supposed to be seven pirates on the second floor. When I checked, three of them were already dead, but another three were only injured, so I made sure they were dead. One was missing— it’s probably this guy here, he must have followed us here to the fourth floor. He really should have just pretended to be dead.”
Had the pirate pretended to be dead on the second floor, he would have been able to slip away unnoticed. Shehnaaz and Deepak would never have thought of going back down to shoot everyone in the head and make sure they were all dead.
Shehnaaz did not say anything. She kneeled and helped Rashmi with her wound.
She could not get the bullet out, but she could put on a tourniquet and stop the bleeding.
Just as she was bandaging Rashmi, the wind howling across the sea grew increasingly violent. The entire ship was now bobbing up and down upon the waves, as though it were nothing more than a flimsy toy boat.
Deepak stood up and walked over to the side of the boat to look out.
Amongst the rolling waves, several speedboats could be seen rapidly approaching the ship from every direction.
Just as he had suspected, the pirates they had taken out had only been the vanguard—the deadlier pirates were on their way.
Deepak’s lips were drawn tight, and his palms were slippery with sweat.
Just then, he heard his phone ring. He hurriedly took the call over his Bluetooth headset, and said in a low voice: “We’re in danger! We’re being attacked by pirates!”
The call was from Sidharth, who had just completed his mission.
He stood on the Cuban coast, his eyes on the stormy, frothing sea. Inside him, a dark fog had welled up from the depths of his heart, darker and more menacing than the storm before him.
“Pirates? How many? What weapons do they have?” Sidharth voice was calm and steady.
Derpak surveyed the multiple speed boats coming from all directions. His gaze was heavy as he used his night vision goggles to take a photo of the surroundings and sent it to the base via an encoded channel on the GSAT-7
system.
“There were the 16 pirates that boarded the ship earlier and said that someone paid 10 million US dollars to kill us off. Sana and I got rid of all of them, but now there are more powerful ones, a total of eight speed boats are coming this way. If I’m seeing this right, they have... shoulder-launching rockets!”
Sidharth grimaced as he instantly understood the pirates’ intentions. He walked along the beach and looked off to the distance at the heavy clouds circling above. The
wind howled and the rolling waves crested like mountain peaks before crashing against the shore.
“Go back now! Hurry up! The hurricane is coming! You have to seek shelter! No one can stay by the shore!” English-speaking Cuban coast guards rushed over to urge Sidharth and Rohit to evacuate.
“You guys be careful and find a place to hide first. Hang on for 15 minutes and I’ll be there soon.” Sidharth made up his mind and turned to the nuclear submarine docked at the military port.
Rohit looked at the weather with unease. “Mr. Shukla, I’m worried as well, but look over there; it’s a hurricane! What are we supposed to do?”
Sidharth ignored him and strode to the command cabin of the nuclear submarine. He gave orders to the communications personnel. “Connect me the to highest authority of the Indian Army, General Rawat. Also, I need a channel to connect to the 6th Military Region.” The soldier
quickly gave him a position. Sidharth took a seat and connected to the personnel at the 6th Military Region base to watch the footage Deepak had sent earlier. The black ocean surface was choppy and the eight white speed boats m stood out. They cut through the waves and the men
on the boats carried shoulder-launched rockets aimed right at the camera.
“F*ck!” Sidharth slammed his fist on on the console, his jaw rigid as he grabbed the communications personnel’s headset to speak to General Rawat. “General Rawat, I request the military to authorize me to borrow the new MiG-35 fighter from the Cuban military.”
“You actually know the model of the Cuban military’s best fighter jet!” General Rawat was amused.
“But, don’t give me the crap about how ‘a general in the field is not bound by the orders from his sovereign!’ You better give me an
acceptable reason!”
Although Sidharth was anxious, he kept his composure and spoke carefully. “Our people are trapped in the Caribbean waters, and I have to go rescue them. There’s
a hurricane in Cuba, so there’s no way to go by boat and I need the best fighter jet to cross the eye of the hurricane.”
“Are you insane?!” General Rawat was outraged at his reasoning when he saw the intelligence and weather report for the Caribbean from his secretary. He put his hand on his hip as he berated Sidharth. “How can you fly during a hurricane?! Don’t you know that the US Air Force’s Hurricane Hunters had set the record for flying a fighter jet through a hurricane?! And it was only a level 3 hurricane at the highest wind velocity! The hurricane in the Caribbean is already at level 4, and it might become a level 5! Do you want to die?!”
“General Rawat, the American records are meant for me to break, not admire.” Sidharth said dryly, his fingers lightly tapping on the console. “If General Rawat grants me the authority this time, not only can we obtain valuable flight data through crossing the eye of the hurricane, but we can
also test the feasibility of entirely using the GSAT-7 system to navigate with zero pilot visibility.”
General Rawat was not particularly concerned about the rescue mission. Although Shehnaaz’s origin was unknown, she wasn’t that important. Compared to his favored successor, Sidharth Shukla, Shehnaaz and Deepak’s lives were on a completely lower level of priority. Therefore, General Rawat
could never agree to allow Sidharth risk his life to fly through a hurricane to rescue them.
However, Sidharth has purposely said that this mission could test the navigation capabilities of the GSAT-7 system and also provide data of the fighter jet flying through a hurricane from all angles and no restriction. He found himself unable to refuse the offer.
“General Rawat, time is running out. Please make a decision now.” Sidharth felt the seconds slip by. The pirates actually had shoulder-launched rockets, and if he delayed any further…Suddenly, Sidharth was afraid to think of
the outcome.
“Fine.” General Rawat finally made the decision and Sidharth curtly ended the call. He connected directly to the highest commanding officer in the Cuban military to borrow the aircraft; he didn’t hear General Rawat’s last words to him: “You are too rash. After this is over, I’ll put you in isolation for two months!”
With the support of the highest authority in the Indian military and also the facilitation by the Consul General of India in Cuba, the fighter jet was successfully
obtained. Ten minutes later, Sidharth and Rohit boarded the MiG-35—the best fighter Cuba had just imported from Russia. The Cuban Air Force Generals and
soldiers stood at the airport and saluted the two men departing. They watched them as though they were martyrs being sent to their deaths, their eyes full of respect as the fighter ascended and flew into the low clouds of the violent storm. No one expected them to return alive. Even the best
American fighter jets and the best American pilots hadn’t been able to challenge the eye of a level 4 hurricane, so what could an unknown pilot from India hope
to accomplish? Although they risked losing the MiG fighter, India would compensate them handsomely and it would not be a loss.
Above the Cuban waters, Sidharth gripped the control stick as he raised the altitude of the aircraft. The howling wind and heavy rain pelted its body incessantly. The field of vision grew blurrier as the fighter jet ascended into the storm clouds, as though their heads were plunged into the ocean: all they could see were dark grey clouds and water pouring down the windows. Their visibility was reduced to zero and the compass on the console spun wildly as the
fuselage was tossed in the wind; Rohit felt his stomach come dangerously close to losing his lunch.
Sidharth connected to the Nandou system and sent all the data to the GSAT-7 command center in India. At this point, he could only rely on the GSAT-77 system to navigate the jet because he couldn’t see a thing.
…
Shehnaaz watched Deepak hang up the phone and asked nervously, “Will they come rescue us?” Because Rashmi was beside them, Shehnaaz and Deepak didn’t say Sidharth’s name.
Shehnaaz didn’t even say “Uncle Sid,” because they both knew who they were referring to.
“Yes, but we have to hang on for 15 minutes.” Deepak anxiously looked at the increasingly large waves and the incoming speed boats. “Hurry up and go hide. They have shoulder-launched rockets!” As soon as he finished
speaking, a great boom sounded from the water surface and a rocket whistled through the rain and collided with the mechanical room on the lowest level of the ship. The seawater gushed in as the cruise ship began to tilt and sink.
Shehnaaz clutched Deepak’s arm, her voice cracking.
“No! They want to sink the ship!” It turned out that the pirates had no intention of crossing fire with them on the ship, but had instead chose to sink the ship instead.
“Go!” Deepak carried the unconscious Rashmi on his back and left the fourth level to dash towards third level.
Suddenly, more rockets hit the Princess cruise ship and water flooded the ship. Soon after, the second floor was flooded and the seawater slowly rose up the third floor.
*
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I hope you enjoy reading it.
Love you all.