The Tears of Dark Water Read Online Free PDF Page A

officers weren’t paying attention. Ismail smiled thinly. They’re making it easy for us .
    He glanced across the water as Gedef’s skiff broke away. Their strategy was simple. They would approach the ship like the pincers of a scorpion. Gedef’s team would fire warning shots at the bridge, and Ismail’s team would board the ship just forward of the stern. Ismail and two other attackers would make for the bridge while the rest of his men located the crew. For being the first to board, Ismail would receive triple the sami , or ransom share, of the other attackers, except for Gedef, who would take half of the gross to cover expenses and pay himself and his investors.
    When the skiffs were less than a mile out, the Jade Dolphin finally sounded the alarm. In seconds, the ship accelerated and made a hard turn to starboard, then back to port, churning its wake into waves. This attempt at evasion came far too late. The skiffs fanned out to avoid the chop and zeroed in on the Jade Dolphin ’s stern, racing across the sea like bull sharks moving in for the kill.
    The Somalis drew their guns and aimed them at the tower. Through the binoculars, Ismail saw movement on the bridge—black shadows of men scurrying and gesticulating. Adrenaline surged through his body as he readied himself for the attack. He pictured his sister then, as she was in the world before—the delicate oval of her face, framed by an embroidered hijab , or headscarf, her small nose and lips and wide eyes that glowed when she smiled. Yasmin, innocent as a flower. She was his pole star, his secret reservoir of courage. Gedef knew nothing of her existence, nothing of Ismail’s true motivation, or the lengths to which he would go to set her free.
    Suddenly, gunfire erupted from Gedef’s skiff—the signature rat-tat-tat of the AK-47 known in warzones the world over. One burst, then two and three, all directed at the bridge. As Ismail watched, the Jade Dolphin ’s crew dropped out of sight. Then something happened that took him completely by surprise: he heard the high-pitched crack of a rifle. Then another.
    He jerked the binoculars toward Gedef’s skiff and terror seized him. One of the attackers was slumped over the gunwale, his arm dragging in the water; another was holding his bloody chest. Gedef was shouting at his cowering crew, as he fired back at the tower. Then he, too, took a bullet in the thigh. His leg collapsed beneath him, and his gun fell overboard, disappearing into the sea.
    At that instant, Ismail knew what he had to do. He dropped the binoculars and took the tiller from the terrified helmsman. His men were screaming at him to break off the attack, their dark faces tortured with fear, but he had no interest in their cowardice. He had heard only one rifle, which meant there was a single shooter. He was good, but he couldn’t be everywhere at once. If Ismail could get aboard, he could flush him out. He had done it before on the streets of Mogadishu.
    He opened the throttle to the max and pointed the skiff at the fantail of the Jade Dolphin . The huge ship loomed above them like a castle of hardened steel. Ismail focused on the open windows in the vertical stern. They were at main deck level, thirty feet off the water, but they were accessible. The hook ladder his crew carried had been engineered precisely for this purpose.
    He heard more rifle shots and glanced toward Gedef’s skiff, one hundred yards away. His eyes widened as his brain registered the spectacle. Gedef was crouched in the center of the boat, balancing a rocket-propelled grenade launcher on his shoulder. It was the most powerful weapon in their arsenal, but it was meant only to cement the threat, not to be used against a ship. Ismail waved his arm wildly, trying to catch Gedef’s attention before he turned an act of piracy into an attempted murder.
    What happened next shook Ismail to the core. Gedef raised the RPG launcher toward the Jade Dolphin and pulled the trigger. As the