My Voyage of Submission Ch. 09

"Three of the other women were impregnated as slaves by their owner. He was breeding them so he could have his own slaves to sell, or to replace his slaves when they were no longer young and pretty. One of them is now back with her family in Bolivia, another we hope to reunite with her family in Morocco. We have not been able to reach the parents of the others yet, but since we now suspect Interpol may have a leak providing information to Mahmoud, we don't dare give them further information to find the parents. My wife is working with the State Department to find any family we can.

"We'd like to find Mahmoud and shut him down for the sake of other young women like Fatima, but for now, I just want to get one more woman out of his clutches. Edgar, formerly of the Special Air Services, is doing my planning for me. Why don't you explain to these officers what we have planned and where we might need support. They indicated they're testing out the ARQ-151 and might be able to provide some aerial surveillance."

"Thanks, gentlemen, that closes the biggest gap I was worried about. We plan to anchor right here," pointing to a big, satellite map on one of the map boards, "off the west coast of the peninsula about 5 miles South of downtown Freetown and about 800 yards off shore. Still gives our snipers a makable shot. This area is still populated, but not as heavily as it would be closer to the port or airport. That makes these hills here the high ground. We have our group from Monrovia sneaking up into those hills as we speak, taking up hidden positions and looking for trouble. Having surveillance of those hills and bluffs would be fantastic. If we can use your eyes, they no longer have the high ground, we do.

"Mahmoud insisted we arrive 24 hours ahead of the exchange, we originally imagined it was to give them time to spy on us and make sure they're not walking into a trap. They know Interpol has been interested in capturing Mahmoud for over a year. But now, we're also worried they may be interested in taking us as well. Rich American, impressive ship, more slave material including six who've already been brutally trained as slaves. The last thing we want is for any women to be retaken. You can't believe the hell they've gone through. If we trusted Mahmoud or his henchmen enough for it to be a simple exchange, this would be easy, but we don't anymore. We found bugs and GPS trackers on our ship, we think, planted by one of two Interpol agents, maybe both. They seem to be keeping a closer eye on us than a simple exchange would warrant. It's why we abandoned Monrovia and moved everything to Dakar without telling them and asked for your help in resupplying.

"We were hoping you could hang over the horizon until after dark, do a lights off approach to this general vicinity, roughly twenty miles off shore with those hills in range of the 5 inch gun. I think we can scare the bejesus out of them and make this the simple ransom payment it's supposed to be. I don't feel like they're suicidal. If they give us the girl, they walk away free. Representative Ward would love to find where Mahmoud's headquarters are. She knows they've kidnapped over 500 young women in North Africa over the last couple years. She'd love to send the Wrath of God down on them, but this is what were faced with and first priority is saving the young woman.

"The ARQ-151 has an on-station time of about 12 hours with infra-red capability. If you can send it over those hills around 0300 and loiter in the vicinity until roughly noon, our business should be done with."

"How do you know that?" Lieutenant Offerdahl said.

"I helped design it," Edgar said. "I knew what the soldier out in the field needed. Joshua turned me loose on some of his engineers and the 151 is what we came up with. I've played with it a lot. It's a damn fine piece of equipment, even if I do say so myself."

"When I say I have an excellent crew, I really do mean I have an excellent crew," Master said. "You'd be hard pressed to find any finer men and women anywhere."

My family.

"There is another supply ship heading this way," Captain Fremont said. "We'll send word for them to hold off Dakar in the event either of us needs more provisioning before you reach wherever you're headed next."

"We plan to go to Casablanca, but we won't put into port there either. Just get close enough for a helicopter trip or two to get the kidnap victim back to the States and bring in the Moroccan girl's parents, maybe take them back. We won't land again until Lisbon. We should be good that far, but I'll let you know.'

"What speed are you planning on?" Fremont asked.

"We don't want to get there any earlier than the agreed upon time," Björn said. "We should be able to cruise at eighteen knots and be to our position by 1000 hours."

"We'll hang back as you suggested. How do you want to get information about what we're seeing with the bird."

"Live video feed should do it," Edgar said. "Any of you have an iPhone?"

"We'll be too far off shore for a cellular signal."

"Right-o. Which is why we're giving you this gizmo." Edgar handed them a box. "Instructions are inside. Uses a satellite link and converts to a cellular signal. Here's the number to call to reach me. We can throw your FaceTime onto the big screen here on the bridge. We use this so we can use our phones anywhere in the world without using sat phones. It uses one of Joshua's secure satellite feeds. It pays to work for a man who makes all these toys. You can keep it if you want. I think the DOD is field testing them now; or we can pick it up when you're done with it. We really do thank you gentlemen. It's going to make my job a hell of a lot easier."

"It's been interesting. Björn, good to see you again," Captain Fremont said. "Good handling on the resupply."

"Thanks, you too, Marty."

"Edgar, a pleasure. Young lady, Fatima was it?" She nodded. "I'm sorry to meet you under these circumstances, but it looks as if you're in good hands now."

"Yes, sir. The best of hands."

Joshua and I escorted them back to the stern room, where Hannah handed them a ten thousand dollar check. "For your recreation fund, gentleman. The next time you're in any of the military clubs in Rota, ask for the Porter stash. Drinks will be on us."

"Thank you," Captain Fremont said. "That's quite generous."

"No, sir. Thank you," Master replied.

"We just do as we're ordered."

"We appreciate it, nonetheless."

As soon as Ethan returned with the tender after ferrying the Navy boys back to the Porter, we increased speed and made way for Freetown.

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