THE MODERN PIRATE
By F.G. Baker

I did not intend for my life to turn out as it did. I originally wanted to live an interesting life and somehow manage to write as well. I was off to a good start but then circumstance got in the way and I had a temporary change of plan. It seemed temporary at the time but it drove me onto another track all together. I don’t think I would change anything about my life now. Not that I could. But I like my life as it is. It is as exciting and adventurous as I could ever have imagined. And for the writing? Well, it has taken a back seat until now. At least I have stories to tell and something interesting to write about. No, I would not trade my life for that one I had planned. I like being a modern day pirate.

I would love to tell you more, but at the moment my first-mate is hailing me from top side of my ship, The Lionshark, and I must stop writing for the minute. I will return to the story when this sudden opportunity is over.
***
“Captain! Come on deck! We have the Silver Knight in sight on the starboard rail.”

I dropped what I was doing and looked out my cabin window to starboard. The Silver Knight! So she is in these waters as our agent had said. There at the edge of my view lay the elegant beauty that we had been seeking. A worthy trophy if ever there was one.

I ran out of my cabin and climbed up the ladder two steps at a time to the flying deck. I rushed onto the deck and ran to the starboard side of our ship where Diego stood with field glasses pressed to his face. On my approach, he quickly handed me the glasses. I brought them up and stared at our query as I adjusted the range finder. Ten miles separated our ship from the Knight.

“Can you make out her course Diego?”

“She is sailing to the northeast, perhaps bound for Hamilton in Bermuda. She seems to be moving fast in this chop, maybe 15 knots.”

“Can they see us yet?”

“No, Captain. We can only see her because of the lighting advantage and her sails. And we are dark on radar. Have been since we came within fifty miles.”

“So they don’t know we are here yet. Let’s keep it that way. Let’s go to the operations room and plan a course of intercept.”

Diego led the way to the control room that lay below the main bridge. This was the room we had reconfigured for ship security, communications and navigation. It contained the controls to all the extra features and systems we had built into the ship to control ship cloaking and jamming for operations like this. It also was the nerve center for any combat operation we might initiate.

Diego brought up the navigation computer and used the touch screen to select the target ship, the sailing yacht Silver Knight. He pressed the intercept key and modified the planned course for a night interception.

“OK, Sir. We are two hours away from sunset now. If we select an intercept course that keeps us out of visual range until after dark, we run dark and increase speed for intercept in a more direct course, we can intercept them at 11pm. They will still be about two hundred miles from Hamilton at that time. That should give us plenty of time to move them out of the main sea lane and negotiate for their release before anyone comes searching for the ship.”

“Very well. Make it so.”

Diego locked in the required course and within two minutes we could feel the engines respond to the request to increase speed to twenty knots. The automatic pilot adjusted the heading slightly for the nearly parallel course.

Diego looked wistfully at the computer screen which now displayed the new heading and all performance information. “It’s not like the old days in the South China Sea, is it Sir?”

“No. We have come a long way from those days of desperate chases and overheated diesel engines.”

“It was dangerous work all right.

But it was grand steering through hell and gunfire as we closed on our prey. God! It was exciting, wasn’t it man!”

“That it was, Diego. That it was!”

We motored on until dark before they brought the heading around and the engines up to direct intercept speed. Now we flew along at thirty knots on the now calmer sea. We expected the Silver Knight to increase speed as well as the chop diminished. The intercept program made the necessary corrections. But the wind fell off dramatically and we saw the Knight drop all sails. She proceeded on diesel power from that point. We closed on her quickly.

“There are her running lights, Sir. We are within a half-mile now. Should I launch the drone?”

“Yes. Launch the drone.” I directed the two seamen on the foredeck to launch the small aircraft and pilot it toward the Knight. It would approach silently and provide night vision and infrared surveillance of the opposing craft. It was small enough to not be detected, even on the state of the art radar the Knight had at its disposal.

Two images of the other ship came up on separate computer screens in the operations room. The display showed two men on guard on deck, one aft, one forward, each carrying a weapon. Infrared imaging showed several persons arranged in cabins below deck, five sleeping crew members in one cabin aft, one person in the Captain’s cabin, with one crewman in the forward cockpit on duty steering the ship. They could also see images of the three expected passengers below decks in their state rooms, two per room. “Captain, look at this. It appears that the wife is not sleeping alone after all.”

We looked at an image of two people snuggled in bed together in the master suite. Mrs. Spartos apparently had a friend with her for a sleepover. The other two guests were in bed together in one of the guest cabins, as expected.

“Avery! What do you have? I thought you said that Mr. Spartos was in London tonight. That Mrs. Spartos and her daughter and current boyfriend were the only passengers on the ship?”

“Yes, Captain! Our intelligence was that Spartos is in London, confirmed by observation on the ground there. Our other observer saw Mrs. Spartos, her daughter Laura and Mr. Robbins board the craft two days ago in Charlotte Amalie, Virgin Islands. We were told that the three guests would fly out of Bermuda by air to join her husband in London. There should also be the Captain and six crewmen aboard.”

“OK. We apparently have another ride-along on board or Mrs. Spartos has taken a lover onboard with her. Let’s plan for at least one extra person tonight.” I looked over to see Diego by the port hatch. “Diego, it is your boarding operation. Prepare your away team. Chief, prepare the harpoon!”

Men scrambled quietly about the ship to their ready stations. Two men ran to the foredeck and uncovered the harpoon gun there. This was our newest innovation, a gun that could hurl a spear-shaped electronic jamming device up to a half mile onto the deck or into the superstructure of any target ship. The device lodged itself in the ship and began to transmit a burst of electronic power into the electrical systems of the target. The result was to crash all computers, communications equipment and control systems on the ship instantly. Since even the electric lights were electronically controlled, the effect was for the whole ship to go dead in the water and for the lights to go out. All communications and sensing devices would go offline, leaving the crew helpless to call for help or to see what was happening except for what they could see and hear directly.

When we were within three hundred yards of the Knight the men fired the harpoon gun. There was a muffled boom, a short whooshing sound, a crash on the Knight and then all the Knight’s lights went out. The ship suddenly stopped in the water.

I pulled on my black ski mask, as had my crew, even though I didn’t expect to go aboard the Knight right away. I took manual control of the Lionshark and brought her up within fifty yards of the Knight. The surveillance drone, shielded from the electronic pulse, still provided an overview of the ship and showed where the guards and crew were located on board. I could see where the guards had positioned themselves to defend their ship. I knew that any attempt at repelling our attack would be a deadly mistake.

Diego raised a bullhorn to his lips and in Island French shouted out a warning to the Knight’s crew. “Ahoy the super yacht Silver Knight! You are about to be boarded. Put down your weapons immediately and no one will get hurt. Repeat, no one will get hurt! But you must comply now or face certain death if you do not.” He repeated the announcement again in poorly pronounced English this time. The rouse was intended to create some uncertainty as to the identity of the boarding party.

In the moonlit night, I could see motion on the deck of the Knight as the guards and crew positioned themselves. One of the guards shot at Diego who had stood up to deliver his message. One of my snipers shot the guard in the head within seconds. My men had night vision telescopes on their rifles. The second guard made the same mistake and died for his loyalty to his employer.

Diego called over again and told the Knight’s crew that they should give up and not die unnecessarily. Fortunately, the Captain of the Knight saw that he had no choice. He said he would surrender if we promised that no one would be killed once we boarded. Diego told him to have his men come unarmed to their starboard side on the main deck and raise their hands. They did so and no more blood was shed.

I maneuvered with main engine and thrusters against the Knight’s starboard side and we boarded without incident in the dark. We tied up alongside briefly and captured the crew. They were taken below decks and placed in their quarters with hands tied behind them with zip ties. Two of my men tended them there. The Knight’s Captain and the four passengers were brought to the main lounge of the yacht also with hands tied behind their backs.

Mrs. Spartos wore a revealing negligée only and her bedtime companion wore only a pair of shorts. The daughter had the sense to grab a bathrobe and her boyfriend had on jeans. Mrs. Spartos was indignant. “You can not do this to us. We are on a pleasure cruise. You cannot attack us like this! It is piracy! It is against the law!”

I responded in a form of pigeon English that I have developed for these types of situations. “You are right Mrs. Spartos. It is piracy! But we do not intend to harm you. Any of you.”

“How can you say that, you bastard! I heard the gunshots. You have already killed men from this ship. You are criminals!”

“Even as you say, Ma’am. We are not here to kill you or harm you in any way. We wish only to kidnap you temporarily and then negotiate for your release. We are only after money.”

“Money! Money! You attack us on the high seas just for money! You must be a mad man.”

“Yes, it is possible. But that is what we wish to do. Now I would like to have you go with one of my crew to your stateroom and have you put on some other clothing. We are going to have a long night together and I want you to be comfortable.” One of my crew took Spartos below deck to change.

In the meantime my men had attached a steel cable to the bow of the Knight and rigged it to the aft tow points of the Lionshark. We began to tow the disabled craft due north away from the normal sea lane so as not to be bothered by accidental intruders. This was when the dual MAN diesel engines in the Lionshark pulled with all their combined four thousand horsepower and paid for their keep. The fact that they allowed my ship to skip along at close to forty knots on a calm sea was another benefit.

After an hour we contacted Victor Spartos via an internet voiceover that rang through to his personal cell phone and appeared to come from his wife’s cellphone. “Good morning, Victor. How are you today? Is the weather pleasant in London?”

“Yes, it is. Who is this? This is my wife’s personal line. Is she there?”

“Yes, I have both your wife and your daughter right here, Mr. Spartos. You can speak to them if you wish but first we have some business to conduct. You see I am sitting in the beautifully constructed lounge of your yacht the Silver Knight.”

“What? What in the devil are you doing there? Put my wife on the phone right now. This can’t be right. Where is she?”

“Just one moment, please. Here she is.”

“Victor! Victor! Is that you? It is terrible! We have been kidnapped by pirates! Oh my God, Victor! They came on the ship at night. They killed George and the other guard. It is awful. Do something! Do what they want or they will kill us. Oh, my God!”

I took the phone away from the hysterical woman. “You see for yourself then. We have control of your ship, her crew and your family. No one has been harmed except the men you paid to protect the ship. I suppose they died honorably. They tried even though we warned them to put down their arms. Do you now understand the situation?”

“My God! Is this really happening? Who are you? What do you want?”
***
Spartos sat up in bed. It was very early in London and he had not crawled out of bed yet. The sky was just gaining a little light as dawn came slowly to the sleepy city on a Friday morning. The woman in the bed next to him began to move a little and he wondered what her name was. She raised her head to see what time it was and looked at him vaguely before crawling out of the bed naked and rushing to the bathroom. She had a fine body.

Spartos held the telephone to his ear and listened to what he was being told by the man who had kidnapped his wife and child. He listened carefully but was in a fog from the amount of alcohol he had consumed the night before. He asked a few questions and then became stunned.

He said he was listening but he was not well and could not concentrate. Then the tall, sexy brunette came from the bathroom and climbed back in bed and rolled under the covers. The soft word, ‘Cherie” whispered from her lips. She did not at this time appear to be the same beauty he had met in the Regent Hotel bar the night before. He hung up the phone.
***
I could not believe what had just happened. Could we have been cut off somehow? Was there a problem with the connection? It was possible that the connections through several internet nodes and networks had somehow been disrupted. But I suspected that it was a human error that led to the disconnection. I had my tech expert, Connor, recheck everything and then reinitiate the phone call. It rang several times and then Mr. Spartos answered the phone.

“I am sorry but you have caught me when I am not awake and not well. I could not hear and understand what you said before. Do I understand that you have taken control of my yacht and have my wife and child in your hands? It is a shock! Do you understand? It is a shock to hear this information when one is not awake and cannot concentrate.”

“Yes, you have understood me correctly, Mr. Spartos. Do not try to trace this call. It will be impossible for you to trace even though it says it came from your wife’s phone. Is anyone there with you now? Do you have a security team with you now?”

“No, I have someone here. But she is not my security team. She is just a friend. No one else is here.”

“Mr. Spartos, we have important business to do. If you cannot talk freely now, say so and I will call back in five minutes. OK?”

The line went dead.
***
Spartos leapt out of bed and started to put his clothes from the previous night on. At the same time he shouted for his guest to get dressed and leave the room immediately. Something urgent had happened and she must leave so he could take care of business. She objected but seeing the frantic look on his face and the thousand pounds cash he put in her hand, she decided not to make a scene. She did ask him when they could meet again but he only pushed her out the door with his apologies. When he opened the door she came face to face with Gregor, the head of Spartos’ security team, who had been waiting discretely outside the hotel suite.

“Gregor, Come in. We have an emergency!”

“What is the matter? You look upset.”

Spartos pulled him into the room and told him that he had received a call claiming to have his brand new sailing yacht hijacked and his wife and daughter kidnapped. “You must check the status of the ship. Make contact and see what happened. Call the office and get your full team in now. Alert our people in the investment group to be on standby. If this is true the criminals will want a ransom. We may have to pay. Also contact your friend Carlos that we may need his services but don’t say why? We don’t know how far to go yet.”

“Yes, sir.” Gregor got on his mic and began to assemble his team. “I’ll get ready to go to the office so you can manage things from there. OK?”

Spartos phone rang and he answered immediately. “Yes, I am here. What do you want?”
***
“Good! Let’s get down to business. I want two hundred million dollars. That is what I want for your wife and daughter and your brand new ship. I want it today, within six hours. Is that understood?”

“You are crazy! That is way too much money! I will not pay you. It is not possible.”

“Yes, it is possible, Mr. Spartos. You are one of the world’s great billionaires. You can afford it. Why you just purchased this fine ship on which I am standing. You spent three hundred fifty million for it just the other day. You have plenty of money. All you have to do is give some of it to me.”

“I can’t just give you the money, even if I wanted to. I would have to collect it from many sources and that takes time. You do not know what you are asking me to do.”

“Yes. In fact, I know exactly what I want you to do and I will tell you what to do to make it happen.”

“What do you mean?”

“Mr. Spartos, I know that you could raise 200 million dollars within four hours if you want to. All you have to do is sell the 120,000 shares of Glaxo SmithKline stock and two hundred thousand shares of HSBC stock that you hold in your investment company. And there are many other holdings you could sell. You have sole control of the stock so it should be no problem for you to do now.”

“But how do you know what stock I have in that account? Only I know what is there.”

“Not strictly so. I know and you will do what I say or you will lose what is most dear to you besides money.”

“No. What would you do? Will you murder my wife and child? I don’t think you would do such a thing.”

I thought about what I knew about Mr. Spartos. It is true. I would not do such a thing but he did not know that. But I had studied the man and knew where the real leverage was. “You would be surprised. But I could make more money by simply selling them on the slave market in Qatar. Your wife would not bring so much even though she is still good looking after all these years of sloth. But your daughter is young and beautiful. A good woman of her looks and of child bearing age would sell for a high price to the right party for a harem.”

“You wouldn’t dare! That is inhuman.”

“Not really. But let’s talk about what really matters, shall we. My men are now setting charges at a few key points below decks on your lovely yacht. I can sink the ship and everything on it in a few minutes. So I think you can and will comply. Am I right?”

Spartos thought about it and responded. “But you would not do such a thing. Would you?”

“Do not be so shocked, Mr. Spartos. Remember when Abdul Assis lost his yacht in a storm last year losing all hands? It was a much more elegant ship that yours but he defied me and I had to make an example of his bad behavior. Shall I do the same with your ship?”

“You did that? Oh, my God! There were rumors but I did not believe them. You are a real bastard to destroy a man’s yacht!”

“Yes. Please bear that in mind as you direct your people to start selling the stocks. You should be at your office by now. Do what I say. I will text you bank account numbers where to deposit the money when I call you again.”

“I am not at my office now. I will need time to comply.”

“Mr. Spartos, do not stall me. You can call in your orders. If I do not see large sales of those stock hit the market in fifteen minutes, I will think you do not understand our arrangement. Then I will have to do some things to make my point. You do not want that to happen.”

I hung up. If I guessed right, Mr. Spartos would begin to make sales of the stocks slowly to stall the proceedings. I had a few other tricks up my sleeve that I would use to apply pressure to make him believe that I was as ruthless as I talked. I expected Spartos to try to locate his yacht and to try to communicate with his people by other means.

In the meantime, we were well on our way to tow the disabled yacht off of the sea lane. We had restored electrical power to one generator and had one engine operating enough to aid in steering the large ship and helping us tow it away. My men were making a large scene of moving bundles of explosives around the ship and setting them in areas where an explosion would do the most damage to the hull. The hostages were all treated well.

“Captain. There are large blocks of HSBC and Glaxo stocks being sold on the London Exchange. That was quick.”

“Yes. It is a good sign that he may cooperate. See if you can figure out what else he is doing. What are his security people up to?”

“Our man on the scene says that he has assembled his security people at the office, where he is now. They have tried to contact the yacht and family to no effect. It may be dawning on them that the situation is real.”

“Good. We assumed he would want to verify things. Any activity at Hamilton?”

“No, sir. No activity at the airport yet.”

“I expect he may try to have someone do a fly over when it gets daylight. So keep an eye out. It will definitely be a private outfit. They have worked with McCoy Services before, so they are the likely players. Keep an eye on anyone who might scramble a jet on the mainland also.”

I went to speak to Spartos’ daughter and asked her if she wanted to talk to her father. She said yes. I dialed the phone and handed it to her when the call went through.

“Papa? Oh, Papa. They are pirates and seem really awful.” She began to let out the fear she had held in until now. “Papa, what do they want? Is it money? What can we do?”

They talked a bit and I stepped away to talk to one of my crewmen, just at the edge of earshot. I listened to the girl as I talked to my man.

“Papa, they have guns on us and they shot our guards when they tried to fight back.” She lowered her voice. “And they have bombs. They put them around the ship. Are they going to blow up your new ship? Will they kill us too?”

I went over and took the phone away from her. She sat down again and began to cry on her boyfriend’s shoulder. Good, I thought. She bought into the explosives scenario. Now let’s hope Spartos does the same. I said, “We aren’t going to kill anyone as long as your father does what he is supposed to do.”

Two hours elapsed and the sales from Spartos did not look like they were moving fast enough to meet our deadline. I called Spartos to spur him on.
***
“I see from our monitor at the stock exchange that you are not selling stocks fast enough to meet the 200 million target in the time I have given you. You must comply. There is no alternative. If you do not greatly increase your sales I will have to do something to get your attention.”

“What else can you possibly do? I don’t think you can do anything more than you have done already.”

“I see that you need convincing. The fire alarm in your building will go off in one minute. That will clear the building of any innocent parties. It will be a false alarm. Make sure you keep the people you need in the office working on my needs. Do you understand?”

“Yes, I think so.”

Just then the fire alarm began to shriek in Spartos’ office building and I could hear it through the phone. “Keep your key people in the office and keep working.”

“OK. So you can pay someone to pull the fire alarm. So what?”

“You will see. I wanted innocent people out of the building in case I have to be more direct in my persuasion. But now turn on your TV set to BBC2 now and enjoy.”
***
Spartos hung up and signaled for his secretary to turn on BBC2. There was just the usual news show discussing local news and the political scandal of the day, some MP caught with a lobbyist accepting favors. Then the news reader stopped to listen to his producer on his headphone and a news banner flashed across the TV screen, ‘Bulletin!’ The announcer said, “This just in. We have just received an unconfirmed report of a scandal occurring here in London involving the industrial magnate, Victor Spartos, last night. We have video.”

The TV screen showed video of Victor Spartos sitting in a booth at the Regent Hotel bar with a tall and scantily-clad woman sitting on his lap. They were obviously deeply involved in kissing and were touching each other in very familiar ways.
“This footage was shot last night at the Regent Hotel lobby bar and the two were seen going upstairs to a room for the night. Our reporters have been able to confirm that Mr. Spartos’ wife Jean and his daughter are currently out of town on a Caribbean cruise on Spartos’ new super-yacht, the Silver Knight at this time. This is important news since there have been rumors that Spartos and his wife may be getting a divorce which would split the assets of Spartos Industries at a crucial time in its merger with Global Hydro Services. Oh, my! While the cat is away, the mice will play.” The station ran the video over and over again.

Spartos stood up and threw the TV controller against the wall. His face was bright red and he looked like he could kill someone. He shouted for everyone to get out of his office even though he was not in his office at the time. His cell phone rang.
***
“I just heard the bad news, Spartos. Do you think the story will affect your wife’s decision to give you one more chance before filing for the divorce? Of course if you complete our deal, I can make the story disappear. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, you bastard. I understand. Did my wife see the story?”

“No. There is no need. Now finish the stock sales. I am texting you bank routing and account numbers now. There are ten accounts, each to receive twenty million dollars. Begin the transfers now.” I hung up the phone.

The first transfer occurred twenty minutes later. Then another took place. This was a sign that Spartos had bought into the idea of payment. As soon as the money arrived in each account, I had my computer whizz, Connor, electronically disperse it to other accounts around the world. There would be no way to trace the funds.

By this time we had reached our destination and had detached the cable to the Knight. We pull the Lionshark up alongside again. The sun began to rise from the sea. A cloud bank to the west indicated that a squall was moving into the area.

“Sir, McCoy Services has a crew at the airport and they are preparing an aircraft for takeoff. What shall I do?”

“Let them take off. It will take them two hours to get here to look for us. Let them think everything is all right. When they are half-way here, set off the small onboard charge to damage their rudder control. That will cause them to turn back and prevent anyone else from having time for a launch our way.” I stood up and said out loud. “Really? These guys are that predictable.”

The last transfer payment arrived at mid-morning. The funds were dispersed to my accounts shortly afterward. My men removed the explosive charges from the Knight and cleaned up any evidence that we had boarded the Knight. We moved the passengers and Captain of the Knight into the crew quarters. I said my farewell to them there.

“Captain, we will return your ship to your control soon. You will have one engine and two generators at your disposal. If you make course for Hamilton, Bermuda, you should arrive there by dark or a little later. Unfortunately, we must keep you all here in these quarters until we are well on our way. So we will place a time lock on the door. It will open in one hour and you can go about your business. Thank you for your cooperation.”

We locked their door and my men left the ship. After a double check to leave no evidence behind, we boarded the Lionshark. We brought the large engines up to maximum throttle and laid down smoke as we sailed away so that no one on board the Knight could describe our ship. We soon reached thirty-five knots.

I told Avery to fire the explosive on the McCoy aircraft. It only took a few minutes before the plane reversed course for Bermuda. Avery checked and found no other potential threats in the area. We had made a tidy profit for a few days’ work.

Diego and I joined the crew in the lounge later for a hearty toast to our success and their share of one million dollars each. Diego got ten million dollars for his good work and I kept the Captain’s share as usual. The remainder went to the corporate account for Seaborne Enterprises.

Somehow the news story about Spartos was found to be unconfirmed. There was a rumor about London that one of his competitors who also wanted to merge with Global Hydro may have been behind the story. The woman involved was never located. Spartos denied that it ever happened and met his wife and daughter at Heathrow Airport when they arrived after a harrowing cruise aboard the new yacht. Spartos announced that an unusual electrical failure had left the ship disabled for an entire day while the Captain and crew had heroically brought the yacht into harbor in Bermuda. Of the true events that day, no one was the wiser.