Lucifer Crusade by Maloney Mack

Author:Maloney, Mack [Maloney, Mack]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781480406681
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2013-04-29T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 25

THE NEXT DAY DAWNED cold and stormy. The seas were rougher than at anytime in the voyage and the crews of the Saratoga flotilla witnessed the beginning of a savage mid-morning thunder and lightning storm. It was as if Hunter’s punches, thrown the night before to break Peter’s spell, had dented some fragile fabric of Nature. Now Nature would seek its revenge …

The sudden bad weather—none of which had shown up on the carrier’s fairly sophisticated meteorological hardware—forced the towing operation to stop. The risk of damage to both the carrier and the precious tugboats was too great to attempt pushing on in the wind-swept seas. Reluctantly, Heath, acting as temporary commander of the operation in Sir Neil’s incapacity, asked Yaz to order the carrier’s anchor dropped. The other ships in the fleet did likewise.

Hunter was still mystified by the bizarre happenings of the night before. No one could figure out how Peter had gotten inside Sir Neil’s room—his SAS guards once again had left him heavily sedated in his box-bed, and they swore they hadn’t left his cabin’s door for a moment. Clara, who had been sleeping with Sir Neil, said she simply woke up and Peter was there, crouched in the corner, the frightening glow coming from his eyes. Peter himself would provide no clues either; he was heavily sedated. The SAS guard watching over him was increased again to four.

The whole day was a series of storms, thunder, lightning, and waves so high they crashed regularly on to the Saratoga’s deck. One gigantic wave hit the stern of the flattop and carried away a frigate helicopter with it, although the chopper was triple-fastened to the deck. While the Norwegian frigates, the Moroccan troopship, the oiler, and the tugs were rugged enough to ride out the weather, the storms were especially destructive to the smaller boats of the Freedom Navy. Several had already sunk—though the loss of life was slight due to heroic efforts of the Norwegians, who managed to pluck many of the hapless sailors out of the rough seas.

Hunter spent most of the day in the CIC. The radio-intercept operations were at a standstill too. But his major concern—next to being thrown around due to the violent up-and-down motion of the carrier—was to maintain some sort of defensive perimeter around the fleet despite the storm.

Around mid-afternoon, Hunter was trying to drink a cup of coffee in the mess when Yaz came in.

“Well, it’s official,” the American sailor told him. “We are in the middle of an authentic hurricane.”

“I didn’t think they had hurricanes in the Mediterranean,” Hunter replied.

“They don’t. But the winds are strong enough to qualify it as one,” Yaz said, trying to drink some coffee himself.

“Any sign of it letting up?” Hunter asked.

“None that we can see,” Yaz said. “Of course, it really snuck up on us. Maybe it will go away just as quickly.”

At that moment, the ship went through a particularly violent shudder, caused by a gigantic wave hitting it broadside. The lights blinked a couple times, then stayed on, though noticeably dimmer.

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