Page 242 of Bossy Hero

Swiftly and silently, I enter the engine room, creeping behind a man at the control panel. He doesn’t notice our approach, possibly thanks to the noise of the engine. I slip my arm around his neck and squeeze. Gasping, he grips my forearm, attempting to free himself.

“Shh. I’m not here to hurt you.” To prevent him from hitting an alarm or continuing to fight me, I yank him by the neck away from the console and press my SIG to his temple. “Do everything I say, and you won’t be harmed. Understand?”

Frozen in panic, he offers a paltry nod of agreement. More than likely, he speaks English.

“Hands up where I can see them.”

He complies immediately. Definitely speaks English.

Over the comms, Mia instructs my team to lower to this deck via the hatch and use the intersecting hallway to search for Katia and the baby. I tune it out to focus on disabling the engine.

Maintaining a firm grip on the engineer’s neck, I calmly explain, “We’re law enforcement. This boat cannot leave the marina. How do we shut it off from here?”

With a shaky hand, he points toward a large red lever. “Emergency stop.”

“Very good. What’ll happen when we flip that lever? Will someone come down here? Call you on the radio? Sound an alarm?”

Rather than answering, he offers a feeble protest. “If you’re the cops, why are you attacking me?”

I squeeze his neck tighter. “Because I don’t trust a fucking soul on this ship other than my men. Answer the question. What’s the procedure for emergency shutdown?”

“Alarm.” He nods, his voice shaky. “It’ll sound an alarm on the bridge. They’ll call me for a status.”

“You’re doing great. I’m gonna sit you down and release your neck.” I glance at Patterson. “Bring that chair over here.”

He follows my instructions, then helps me restrain the engineer with zip ties at his wrists and another tie to hold him to the chair. I don’t want to use Patterson’s handcuffs.

He’s gonna need them when we find Lenkov.

In this new position, I look into this frightened young man’s eyes. “When they call you from the bridge, is there anything you could tell them to buy us some time? Nothing that’ll have them sending people down here. Be honest. I’ll know if you’re lying.”

His mouth opens and closes wordlessly while he mulls it over. Eventually, he stammers, “No. I don’t-I can’t think of-of anything that won’t be suspicious. If it were anything routine, I’d have called them with an explanation by now.”

“New plan. Forget the emergency shutoff. What else can we do to disable the engine that will cause the captain to hold the yacht in place? Cut a fuel line somewhere? Sugar in the gas tank? What have you got for me, kid?”

He shakes his head, his eyes nervously pinging between the butt of my rifle over my shoulder and my face. “Fuel line has backups. Cooling system might be something. Uh...”

Henderson’s panic-tinted voice causes my spine to straighten. “Boss, you’ve got tangos incoming.”

Abandoning the interrogation, I dart the two steps toward the door. It looks clear from my limited vantage point.

“What’s wrong?” Patterson asks, reaching toward the emergency shutoff lever.

“We have incoming. Stay there,” I order him, then address Henderson through the comms. “I don’t have visual, Henny. What did you see?”

“I’m at the corridor intersection a few feet from you. I heard someone coming down the stairs and voices getting louder. It’s silent now, though.”

“If they try to get in the engine room, can you take them out?”

“Depends on how many there are. I’m solo at the lookout point. Aaron and Josh are midship, looking for Katia.”

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

“Mia?” I ask, hoping she has something for me.

“Aside from your body cams, I don’t have eyes down there, Boss.”

“Henderson, keep your ears open. If they breach the engine room, we’ll attempt to subdue them while you swoop in from behind. Hold fire unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

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