Hostage to Fortune

'How do you know this is the real me and not just an act.'

'Because the new Will is there 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You could never keep it up if it was all an act.'

He took my hand in his, kissed the back of it and looked up into my eyes.

'You know, coming so close to death does things to you. It makes you look at your life from a different angle. You think `Is this really me? Is this what I want to be? Is this how I want to be remembered?' I suppose I decided the answer to all those questions was no.'

I got off the desk and bent down to give him a hug.

'Well, I like the new Will Wainwright even more than the old one. Now, what did you want to talk to me about?'

'I think I've found someone to sort out the life jacket company in Ramsgate.'

Chapter 13

Samantha was surprised to find a strange man standing in the cockpit of the boat. He was about five feet ten inches tall, thick set with a swarthy complexion and a thick moustache. As she came out on deck, he took off his dark glasses and smiled. He offered his hand.

'Madam Wainwright. I'm Davut Osman from the ministry of the interior. I need to talk to yourself and Mr Betts.'

Samantha shook his hand while wondering what it was all about. She called Ryan to come out on deck.

'Please sit down Mr Osman.'

They both sat and waited for Ryan. When he burst out on deck he came to an abrupt halt on seeing Mr Osman. Osman got up and offered his hand.

'Are you a cop or something? Are we under arrest?'

'No, no, why would you think that? Have you broken the law?'

'No! I don't think so.'

'Then we have nothing to worry about.'

Both Ryan and Mr Osman sat down.

'Madam Wainwright, Mr Betts I have to ask you about your plans. How long do you intend to stay here on our Island?'

'I don't know.' Ryan replied. 'Until I get the full use of my arm back.'

'So another week, yes?'

'Well maybe, as I said it depends how quickly I get my arm working.'

'You misunderstand me Mister Betts, it was not a question. In one week I expect you to be gone.'

'I don't understand, we've done nothing wrong.'

'Not here Mr Betts, no you haven't, but the British Police have issued arrest warrants for both yourself and Mrs Wainwright.'

'Well yes but you've got no extradition treaty so it doesn't concern you.'

'What concerns me is that if our little island gets known as a place to hide we will have every wanted criminal hiding out here. We don't want that Mr Betts. Neither of you has any links to Turkey or Cyprus. We have no obligation to protect you. One week Mr Betts or I will have you arrested and deported as undesirable aliens.'

Mr Osman stood and offered his hand first to Ryan and then to Samantha. As he shook their hands, he reminded them both.

'So my friends, I seven days you will be gone, yes?'

They both nodded as he shook their hands. When he turned and left the boat Sam looked at Ryan.

'I thought you said we'd be safe here.'

'We are safe. No one has arrested us. In a week I'll be fit enough to continue. We'll be in Syrian territorial waters in no time. After that, it's plain sailing so to speak.'

'Just where are we going Ryan? Will we ever be safe?'

'We're going to Mauritius where we'll get new identities, then we'll be safe. We could go and live in Thailand or somewhere.'

'And where are we going to get the money to pay for all this?'

'From selling this baby.' He said slapping the seats of Bee Jay's cockpit. 'She worth a small fortune, more than enough to buy us new identities and set us up for the rest of our lives.'

'No you can't sell Bee Jay, Will loves this boat, it's his baby.'

'When it's the difference between selling his boat and going to gaol for ten years or more, then yes I can sell it.'

Samantha was unhappy, but couldn't think of an alternative. Whenever she found any reference to their situation in the English language newspapers, they painted her as a scarlet woman. She read stories about how she'd conspired with her young lover to murder her husband and inherit his fortune. She desperately wanted to return home, to give herself up. However, she was also frightened of the consequences of such a move. The thought of going to prison terrified her. She didn't know much about life in prison but what she did know frightened her. Maybe Ryan was right. With new identities, they could go almost anywhere, anywhere bar the only place she wanted to go, home.

She thought about her parents, they must have been going through hell dealing with the press and the police. She thought about Will. Could she really be a party to him losing his beloved Bee Jay forever? She desperately wanted to talk to him. He would know what to do. Will always knew what to do. In the short time they had been married, she'd come to depend on him for everything. Why on earth had she decided to stay at home when he'd flown off on his business trips? She wondered how he felt about her now. Could he possibly still love her?

Do I really love him? She asked herself. She thought she did but why then had she taken up with Ryan. Surely if she loved him, nothing would have kept her from his side. The more she thought, the more questions came up. In the end, she decided not to make a decision, at least not yet. She would wait until they got to Mauritius. From there she could get a plane home, or go to Thailand with Ryan. By then she might have a clearer idea of what to do.

It was another five days before Ryan felt sufficiently fit to set sail again, He wanted to be sure he could handle the boat without Sam's help. She seemed more disturbed since Osman's visit and he half expected her to disappear any day. He was surprised when she came out to help as he prepared to set sail. They left Kyrenia mid-morning and by mid-afternoon, they were in Syrian territorial waters. He headed south down toward Lebanon and Israel. Three days later, they docked at Port Said.

Ryan had assumed that passing through the Suez Canal would be a simple matter of paying the passage fees and sailing through. Instead, he was forced to join a convoy of tankers and cargo ships. This meant a twelve-hour delay. A delay that left him nervously watching the quayside for signs of impending arrest. It was a great relief when the Canal company official told him to prepare to set sail.

'What's the position in the Wainwright case?' Inspector Davies asked

Sergeant John Robson looked at his computer. 'Well, Guv we managed to get the Turks to force them out of Kyrenia. As before, he's been staying in territorial waters. Now they are docked in Port Said.'

'Port Said? Oh shit!'

'What's wrong with Port Said?'

'It's the entrance to the Suez Canal meaning he's going through to the red sea, then down to Mauritius. Wainwright said it was madness to do that.'

'It seems sensible enough to me. ' The sergeant said looking at his screen. 'It looks like an excellent shortcut to me.'

'Look at the coastal waters he'll be sailing through.'

'Oh shit! --They wouldn't be interested in a sailing boat surely. It's only tankers and container ships that interest them.'

'Wainwright thinks they'd be interested and don't forget He paid six million for his little toy and that boat is a lot easier to seize than a tanker.'

'Nothing we can do about. We've got to wait for them to stay somewhere long enough for us to have them arrested.'

'Maybe, maybe not. I'm going to talk to the Chief Super, if we've got a shipping protection vessel out there we might not have to wait.'

'Why are you so keen to get this one Guv? I mean it's just another rich bloke's toy. I'm getting the idea that you like this Wainwright bloke, or is it the lovely Miss Fletcher you're interested in.'

'I'll have you know that I'm a happily married man, well a married man anyway. The lovely Miss Fletcher is a great piece of eye candy John but right out of my league. No, I just don't like being made to look stupid and young Mr Betts has been doing just that. I don't want to let him get to Mauritius and disappear.'

'And that's it is it? You think he's taking the piss.'

'The little shit tried to commit murder, and he damn near got managed it. Since then he's kept one step ahead of us. If I'm right and he's planning to sell the boat, by the time we complete extradition proceedings he'll be gone and the boat will be unidentifiable. We can't let that happen, John. If I can't get the old man to involve the navy then I'm going to see Wainwright, to see if he can lean on people.'

As they emerged from the canal, the convoy didn't break up immediately. The space between the vessels opened up but they all continued along the north coast of the red sea. As they travelled along the coast of Saudi Arabia, the traffic thinned out as some of the tankers anchored at the oil terminals. They sailed on down to Djibouti and Yemen. Ryan stayed with the convoy hugging the coast of Yemen. They were out in the Gulf of Aden when Ryan started to break away from the others. They passed to the east of the island of Socotra and he laid in a southerly course towards Mauritius. Samantha noticed Ryan becoming more relaxed.

'You seem happier has something happened?'

'No not really it's just that we're on the final leg of the journey. Only a few more days and our worries will be over.'

'How can you be sure they won't be waiting for us in Mauritius, they've not been far behind us so far? Maybe they know where we're going.

'No one would expect us to go through Suez. No one takes a sailing boat through there; they consider it too dangerous being so close to all those big ships.'

'So why did we go through it?'

'Because this is no ordinary sailing boat, and we did use the engine all the way through. --No, they'll be waiting to pick us up in Gibraltar.'

'So where are we now?'

Ryan went up on deck and returned with a chart that he spread out on the table. 'We are here.' He said, putting his finger on the chart. He moved his finger. 'This is Mauritius, and we are making 15 knots, so we should be there in three or four days'

'What is this land over here?' Sam asked running her finger over the chart.'

'That's Somalia, and that is Kenya.'

'SOMALIA? Are you mad? I may not be all that bright Ryan but even I know what goes on in Somalian waters. That's what you meant when you said no one would expect us to come this way. You meant that no one thought we would be that stupid.'

Ryan grabbed her wrist and sharply pulled her hand away from the chart. Sam winced at the pain.

'Don't EVER call me stupid. There is nothing stupid about it, I know what I'm doing. We're a hundred miles out. The pirates don't come out this far, and even if they did, they are only interested in tankers and cargo vessels. They hold the vessels and the crew for ransoms of millions of pounds. They're not interested in a private yacht.'

'How can you be so sure? This boat is worth a lot of money, you said so yourself. I know Will would pay plenty to get her back, probably more than he'd pay for me.'

Ryan let go of her wrist and moved to her side. He put his arm around her shoulders.

'Relax, you know I'd never let anything happen to you. We are too far offshore for any of that sort of problem. Believe me, Sam, we are perfectly safe and in a few days we can start our new life.'

Sam let herself be comforted by his arms as tears ran down her cheeks. She wiped her eyes and turned to face him.

'Ryan, I've made a decision, I'm not going with you.'

'Don't be daft, of course, you're coming with me. What else would you do? Where would you go?'

'Home, I'm going home. I'll tell them you dropped me off in Mauritius and sailed away. I won't help them find you.'

'But why? They'll arrest you when you get off the plane, you'll go to prison.'

'I don't care. I'm not like you I love my parents. I feel terrible knowing what all this is doing to them. I can't bear the thought of never seeing them again.'

'You're lying. You're going back to him aren't you?'

'Men! Why do you try to turn everything into some macho contest? Do you seriously think he wants me back after what we've done? I'd like the chance to explain to him but I don't expect anything from him now. No, it's my family, my friends, England. I can't live without them. I'd rather be in prison in England than free in Thailand, always waiting for the fateful knock on the door.'

'But what about us.'

'There never was an us Ryan. We've got a few more days, let's just make the most of them.'

A disappointed Ryan folded up the chart and took it aloft to stow it. When he came back, he looked at Samantha with puppy dog eyes.

'Does that mean I can move back into your cabin?'

Samantha smiled and kissed him. 'Why not?'

Ryan woke with his erect penis pushing into Samantha's bottom. He moved so that his cock nestled in the crack of her arse and pulled her closer to him. Samantha moaned and wiggled her arse, pushing back against Ryan. His hand moved up to her breast and he started kissing her neck. As she turned her head to kiss him, they heard a thump and the boat shuddered. Ryan rolled away from her.

'What was that?' Samantha cried out.

'We've hit something.' Said, Ryan, as he pulled back the duvet and sprang out of bed.

He was just pulling his jeans on when the door burst open. Two men came into the cabin. They were short thin and black. Each one carried a Kalashnikov assault rifle. The men turned and pointed the guns at Ryan and Samantha. They barked out orders in a language that neither Sam nor Ryan understood. Samantha sat on the bed with the sheets pulled up around her neck. All she could do was scream as the men kept shouting and gesticulating with their guns. Ryan was still struggling into his jeans when a third man with came in with a pistol in his hand. He waved the gun around.

'Where are your crew?' he asked in English.

'What crew? This is it, just us.' Ryan replied.

'No! A boat this size needs a crew of four or five. Now, where are they?'

'I'm telling you it's just us. The boat is all automatic she almost sails herself.'

'You two will come with me.'

'I need to get dressed. ' said Samantha.

'So get dressed.' He turned and gave orders to the other two men, who left the cabin. He pointed the gun at Samantha.

'Get dressed, NOW.'

They could hear shouting from on deck, followed by banging. Ryan looked up.

'What are you doing up there?'

'Nothing that concerns you, now get dressed quickly.'

Sam gave up expecting the man to turn his back and did her best to preserve her modesty, as she got dressed. Once she had clothes on the man waved the gun motioning for them to leave the cabin. Ryan went first and the man followed close behind Samantha. As they reached the cockpit, Ryan grabbed a flare pistol from its place on the cockpit bulkhead and turned to face the man with the gun. Three shots rang out and Ryan fell to the deck. Samantha tried to go to him but the man pulled her away dragging her out into the cockpit.

She could see four men running across the deck. They were hacking at the ropes bringing sails crashing down. The man with the gun shouted out orders and two of the men on the deck ran back and jumped down into the cockpit. They disappeared below and soon returned carrying Ryan. Sam thought at first that they were going to put him in the boat tied alongside. Instead, they held him by his hands and feet and threw him overboard.

'NO!' Samantha screamed, and she tried to get away from her captor and run to Ryan but the man grabbed the waistband of her jeans and pulled her back.

'Get in the boat' he told her

Samantha struggled to get free. 'You killed him, you bastard'

'Get in the boat or I'll kill you too.'

As he pushed the gun into the small of her back, she reluctantly climbed over the side and into the waiting boat. She looked back at a forlorn looking Bee Jay. Her sales were either down or flapping uselessly in the wind. She cried. She cried for Ryan, she cried for Will who would be heartbroken to see his boat, she cried for herself, not knowing what would become of her now.

The man with the gun climbed into the boat and pushed Samantha down onto a seat in the bow. He shouted more orders to the men on board Bee Jay. All four scrambled back across Bee Jay's deck and jumped down into the boat. One man untied the boat while another started the engines and took the wheel. They manoeuvred their boat up to Bee Jay's bow and attached a rope to the forward cleat. As they pulled away from Bee Jay They tied the other end of the rope to the stern of their launch. As she heard the engines roar, Samantha could only feel deep despair. She'd come within three days of going home and now she wasn't sure that she'd ever see home again.

HMS Truebridge was a type 22 Frigate of the Royal Navy. She'd been dispatched to the Indian Ocean as shipping protection vessel. Her job was to protect British registered vessels from attack by Somali pirates. However, so few cargo vessels were registered in Britain these days that Truebridge spent most of her time patrolling from Cape Town to the Persian Gulf and back. Her captain, Robert Jeffries, was proud of the job he did. Protecting British shipping is exactly what he thought he should be doing in peacetime. He looked at the orders he'd just been given. He was not a happy man.

He walked over to the radar screen. He tapped on one of the targets.

'What's that?' he asked.

'I don't know sir, it's too small for a cargo vessel. It could be a patrol boat of some kind but it looks a bit big for the sort of thing that operates in these waters.'

'Could it be a large, like about sixty foot long, sailing boat?'

'Yes, Sir that would certainly fit the bill.'

'What's her speed?'

'Well she has been making 16 knots, but she seems to have come to a standstill now.'

Captain Jeffries made a note of the position of the target and walked back across the bridge to his first officer. He handed him the location.

'Lay in a course for this position Number one, and get Lieutenant Roberts up here.'

Lieutenant Roberts arrived on the bridge already dressed in his flight suit.

'You wanted to see me, Sir.'

'Yes Mr Roberts, It seems we've been turned into her majesty's policeman. We've been ordered to recover some rich bugger's toy boat.'

'But what about the commercial shipping?'

'What indeed Mr Roberts? It would seem that her majesty's government think it's more important for us to apprehend a couple of scallywags who've stolen a yacht. Believe me, I'm less happy about this than you, but we have our orders.' He walked over to the radar screen and tapped on Bee Jay's position. 'I want you to fly out to this location and check that it is a white sixty-foot ketch. Make sure they know you're there, it'll give them some time to think so that by the time we get there they won't offer any resistance.'

'Is there likely to be any shooting sir?'

'I shouldn't think so, but if there is you get to hell out of there. Is that clear?'

'As crystal sir.'

'Very well, break out the Lynx and get airborne. We'll keep you briefed on any changes.'

Lieutenant Roberts hadn't got airborne before the radar operator called out to Captain Jeffries.

'She's changing course, Sir, moving erratically but the general direction seems to be towards Mogadishu.'

'Oh shit, that's all we need.'

On the launch, tempers were fraying. As they tried to tow Bee Jay in one direction, she would try to turn in another. The only English-speaking pirate grabbed Samantha's arm and pulled her to her feet.

'Who is on the boat? ' He asked.

'No one. There's no one on the boat, you killed Ryan, there is no one else.'

'So who is steering the boat. I pull one way it goes the other. Someone is steering the boat?'

'It must be the computer. Didn't you switch it off?'