Bad Soldier: Danny Black Thriller 4 by Chris Ryan

cut the netting, then the ropes that bound the Ocean Star to the Enterprise . In the split second before the two vessels separated, he leapt from the smaller boat and caught hold of the rope ladder. He scaled it quickly and efficiently, and moments later he was hauling himself over the railings of the Enterprise and on to deck.
    A fresh wave of driving rain lashed down on them. Danny stepped up to Tony, his chin jutting out. ‘What the hell?’ he hissed at him. From the corner of his eye he could see the Ocean Star drifting away surprisingly quickly. There were already fifty metres between them.
    ‘What?’ Tony’s voice was aggressive, but he didn’t seem to want to meet Danny’s gaze.
    ‘You know.’
    ‘It was a successful op. Where are Santa and Rudolph?’ He looked over Danny’s shoulder, towards the far starboard side of the deck where three Marines were holding the two targets at gunpoint. ‘Caitlin, come with me. We’ll move them to the SF room, then get on the blower to base.’
    He strode off, clipping Danny’s shoulder with his own as he walked. Danny watched him go. Spud and Caitlin, standing just a couple of metres away, did the same.
    ‘He tried to slot me,’ Spud said. ‘The cunt actually tried to slot me.’
    Danny was still vaguely aware of the Ocean Star in his peripheral vision. It had drifted a hundred metres away now, and its lights were occasionally bobbing out of sight among the rough waves. But most of his attention was on Tony, who was striding towards the prisoners with his arrogant swagger, as if nothing untoward had happened.
    ‘You joining your boyfriend?’ Danny asked Caitlin.
    ‘Either of you two call him that again,’ Caitlin said, ‘I’ll slot you myself.’
    ‘Just go with him. Watch the prisoners. We’ll go to the bridge, get on the radio to HQ. Hammond needs to know what’s—’
    He was interrupted by the sound of an explosion. It was a distant sonic boom, coming from the port side of the ship, and almost drowned out by the competing noise of the rain, the waves and the hum of the engines. But Danny could instantly tell where its source was. He spun round to look out towards the Ocean Star . Spud and Caitlin did the same thing.
    There was no sign of the light in the wheelhouse of the boat. Danny yanked a spotting scope from his ops waistcoat and quickly scanned along the horizon. At first his field of view was taken up by a dark, shadowy confusion of waves and dark, stormy sky. But after a few seconds he located the boat.
    Or what was left of it.
    ‘It’s sinking,’ he said tersely.
    And it was sinking, rapidly. Its stern was completely submerged, and Danny estimated that no more than five metres of the aft deck were still peeking above the water.
    ‘Those kids,’ he heard Caitlin whisper. And by the time she’d said it, Danny had lost sight of the Ocean Star completely.
    He lowered his scope, then turned to look across the deck towards Tony.
    ‘What did Tony have in that rucksack?’ Danny repeated the question that he knew none of them could answer. And before any of them could speak, he started sprinting across the deck to where Tony was in the middle of roughing up the two prisoners, while their Marine guards stood helplessly by. Danny grabbed him just as he was planting a fist into Rudolph’s guts, and swung him round so that they were facing each other. He instantly saw something wild in Tony’s face and he knew, without doubt, what was coming. Tony jabbed the heel of his hand up towards the centre of Danny’s face, but Danny was fast enough to knock it out of the way. ‘What did you plant on that boat?’ Danny hissed.
    Tony sneered. ‘What are you talking about?’
    Danny was about to reply, but realised that Spud, Caitlin and the captain had surrounded him. ‘What was that explosion?’ he barked. ‘What the hell’s going on?’
    Tony had a maddeningly smug look on his face. ‘Rudolph and Santa must have had explosives on board. Guess we