Page 83 of Shadow of Doubt

Harvath tried not to think about it. Right now, he had one eye glued to the navigation screen and their GPS location. The biggest problem with theHermesgoing like a bat out of hell was that they were very quickly going to leave the territorial waters of Monaco and be back in France. The commandos needed to start slinging lead.

“Light’em up,” Harvath ordered over the team’s headsets. “Send it!”

Seconds later, the first round from the antimatériel rifle screamed out of the suppressed barrel and rocketed toward the stern of theHermes.

It was perfectly placed and tore right through the rear sun pad area, which covered the engine compartment.

Petro radioed that they had scored a direct hit and then began helping Max set up his next shot.

Once again the heavy rifle fired, and once again they scored another direct hit. Peering into his thermal binoculars, Petro walked Max throughhis next shot, which, thanks to a sudden rise in the bow, went straight through the Lamborghini’s cockpit and shattered its windshield.

Harvath watched through his binoculars as pandemonium erupted on board theHermes.Smoke was pouring out of her manifolds and her engine compartment. More importantly, she was slowing down.

Aware that they were under attack from the rear, several of Tsybulsky’s men appeared at the yacht’s stern, armed with automatic weapons, and began firing.

“Get us as close to them as you can,” Harvath told Barton, concerned that they were quickly running out of territorial runway.

Hailing Max, who had fired his two last shots and was now inserting a fresh magazine, he told the sniper to keep putting rounds on theHermes.He didn’t need to tell Petro that it was now his time to shine.

No longer concerned about remaining hidden, the commando cast off the camouflage blanket and moved quickly back to the cockpit area of the BRABUS.

Flipping open the lid of a rectangular storm case, he punched several buttons, activating the device inside, and then flashed Harvath the thumbs-up.

Looking through his binos again, Harvath could see not only that the red waterfall rounds had disabled the Lamborghini’s V-12 engines, but also that the engine compartment was actively on fire. Crew members sprayed fire extinguishers into the space, trying to put out the flames.

Worried that Tsybulsky’s people might have already radioed for help and, seeing that they were almost at the maritime border with France, Harvath slapped the helm’s console and commanded Barton to go faster.

The former SEAL gave Max a warning up front and then sliced out of the yacht’s wake, pushing the throttles as far forward as they would go.

As the BRABUS’s deep V-hull cut through the waves, Harvath counted down the remaining distance on the GPS, finally ordering Barton to come to a stop.

“This is it. We launch here,” he stated. “Petro. You’re up!”

As the commando used a set of nylon straps to lift the device out of its case and lower it into the water, his colleague had readjusted himself at the bow and was firing anew at theHermes.Little did Tsybulsky or hismen know that something much worse than high-explosive incendiary/armor-piercing rounds was headed their way.

The unmanned surface vehicle, or USV for short, that Max and Petro had brought with them was something new. It was similar to the jet-ski-based, waterborne drones that had proven so effective against the warships in Russia’s Black Sea fleet, but smaller. Called aVodyanykand based on a reworked sea scooter known as SEABOB, it packed a considerable payload and was quite fast.

Not fast enough, however, to catch a vessel that was underway at speed. Ukraine’s USVs were meant to target ships that were either docked or moving quite slowly. That was why Tsybulsky’s boat needed to be stopped before they could send the USV after it.

“Twenty seconds to contact,” Petro announced, using a ruggedized tablet to remotely pilot theVodyanyk.“Fifteen…”

Harvath watched through his binoculars, digitally recording everything.

As Petro announced, “Impact in five, four, three…” all eyes were on theHermes.When the explosive-laden USV rammed into it, the detonation was instantaneous.

As a roiling fireball climbed into the night sky, the shock wave from the enormous blast sent a wall of water all the way out to the BRABUS, soaking everyone on board.

Minutes later, putting their boat in gear, Harvath and the team piloted through the flaming wreckage of theHermes,making sure everyone was dead.

There were no survivors. Everything had happened in Monaco’s territorial waters. Nothing had crossed the line into France. The operation had been a success.

CHAPTER 42

PARIS

“You’re a bad Muslim,” the young man stated. He was seated behind a laptop covered with stickers acquired at French hacking conferences. “We never see you at mosque anymore.”

“You know I changed mosques,” MoMo replied.

---