The cargo ship was riddled with holes, but the captain still had no intention of stopping. He knew that if the ship’s engines shut down, none of them would meet a good end.
But the pirates had no intention of letting up.
When more than a dozen hand grenades were thrown aboard, I nearly gave up all hope of surviving.
Explosion after explosion sent the ship rocking violently. The blasts left me dazed and disoriented. Flames blazed everywhere, mingled with the sailors’ screams.
I didn’t know which unlucky bastard had been wounded. Maybe someone would save him; maybe no one would. It made no difference to me. Either way, he wouldn’t live much longer.
Before the shockwaves from the explosions had even faded, a rocket-propelled grenade came screaming toward us, trailing a long tail of flame, and slammed into the bridge.
A massive fireball rose into the air, and the explosion was deafening.
I was just around the corner from the bridge. The rocket-propelled grenade exploded diagonally above my head, and the blast wave swept me up and hurled me hard against a shipping container.
The impact nearly knocked me unconscious, but the pain jolted me awake.
My ears rang, and sparks danced before my eyes.
I tried to move, but every bone in my body felt like it had come apart. I couldn’t budge.
It took a long while for me to recover enough to endure the pain and crawl somewhere relatively safe.
By then, I could clearly feel the ship slowing down.
I turned to look at the bridge. Flames flickered inside, mingling with billowing black smoke.
The cargo ship’s electronic equipment had been destroyed, and its power system was malfunctioning. Most importantly, the captain had gone silent too. I didn’t know if he was dead or alive.
There was nothing I could do about it.
The powerless ship soon came to a stop. In less than two minutes, the pirates had boarded.
All the things we’d prepared beforehand were completely useless against AK-47s and RPGs.
The sailors stopped resisting. Some surrendered, while others hid.
I hid in the narrow gap between two shipping containers. Gunshots rang out across the ship, sometimes accompanied by screams.
I knew someone had been killed.
Soon, they dragged me out too. Facing the dark muzzle of a gun, I didn’t dare resist—and I didn’t have the strength to, either.
They grabbed me by the hair and dragged me onto the deck like a dead dog. Three sailors were crouched on the ground nearby.
They had sailed through the Gulf of Aden before and encountered pirates before, but never had they been this crazy. The pirates had even resorted to rocket-propelled grenades.
I stole a glance at the men. They were sweeping the area with their guns, as if searching for something important. They seemed to have little interest in the cargo.
After a while, the pirates returned to the deck from all over the ship and reported to a man wearing a beret. It looked like they hadn’t found what they were after.
They chattered away for ages, apparently arguing about something.
I couldn’t understand them, but I could guess from their expressions. Most likely, they were discussing what to do with the few of us still alive.
Finally, the pirate in the beret pointed at us and made a throat-slitting gesture.
Now I understood. It didn’t help; I couldn’t save myself.
The next moment!
The pirate standing beside me raised his gun and pressed the muzzle against my head. Strangely, with death staring me in the face, I wasn’t afraid anymore.
I was going to die either way. There was no point in being afraid. I might as well get it over with and have him make it quick.
“Bang!”
A gunshot rang out!
At that moment, my heart convulsed violently. All the strength drained from my body, and I crumpled to the ground like a pile of mud.
But I soon realized something was wrong. I was still conscious, and I could still hear gunshots. It seemed I was still alive.
When I opened my eyes again, there wasn’t a living person beside me—or, more accurately, there wasn’t a living pirate.
In just a dozen or so seconds, all thirty-plus pirates had been wiped out without exception. And the ones who had done it were just four people—four fully armed soldiers.
They stood there like Reapers. The killing intent washing over me made me shudder, and their terrifying pressure far exceeded that of the pirates.
No one knew where they had come from or why they had appeared aboard the ship, because everyone who had spotted them was dead.
“Hey, handsome East Asian boy, don’t be afraid. You’re safe now!”
The speaker was a female soldier. She stood with her arms crossed and looked rather aloof. Her face was covered in camouflage paint, making her features hard to see, but she was tall and voluptuous, practically perfect.
As soon as she spoke, the tense atmosphere eased, and the oppressive feeling vanished.
She spoke English. Luckily, I was pretty good at foreign languages, so I could just about communicate with her.
“Who are you?”
I’d just come back from the Gates of Hell. My body and mind were both on the verge of collapse, and even my voice was weak.
“Can’t you tell? We’re soldiers—or, more precisely, mercenaries!”
A burly man spoke as he examined the pirates’ corpses. Whenever he found one who wasn’t quite dead, he put another bullet in him.
He didn’t even blink when he fired. God knew how many people he’d had to kill to be so unbothered.
There was always a smile at the corner of his mouth, but his eyes were as cold as those of a merciless beast. There wasn’t a trace of humanity in them.
I struggled to my feet, leaning on the ship’s rail. My gaze swept over them, and I found the courage to say:
“The pirates’ target must have been you, right?”
“Kid, being too smart isn’t always a good thing. Look at your companions. They don’t have so much to say.” A hint of killing intent showed in his smile.
I turned to look at the three surviving sailors. They sat on the ground, heads bowed and mouths shut tight. They looked even more frightened than they had when they first encountered the pirates.
I thought I understood. I stood quietly to one side, not daring to ask anything else.
“Guys, get ready to pull out. The little cuties’ reinforcements are here.” The man who had been standing on the deck like their commander suddenly spoke.
Little cuties?
At that nickname, I nearly choked on my saliva.
Only people even more terrifying than the brutal pirates could call them little cuties.
“Roger!”
The female soldier beside me answered, then casually patted my shoulder. “Goodbye, East Asian boy. I’m War Goddess Navier. Don’t forget—you owe me your life.”
With that, she smiled faintly, kicked the pirate corpse lying at her feet out of the way, and turned to jump overboard.
But she didn’t see a hand grenade fall from the corpse’s hand as it rolled over.
I’d never used one, but I knew enough from what I’d seen to recognize it: the hand grenade’s safety pin had been pulled, and the lever had sprung loose. That meant it was already armed and would explode in five seconds at most. If it had been modified, the delay might be as short as three seconds.
In the urgency of the moment, I had no time to think. I threw all my strength into tackling Navier.
I’d only meant to knock her down, but I’d used too much force and couldn’t control my body. We both plunged headfirst into the sea.
As soon as we hit the water, a tremendous boom sounded from the deck. It was the last thing I heard.
I don’t know what happened after that. I choked on water and passed out as soon as I fell in.
If I had a second chance, I don’t know whether I’d save her again. That instinctive act changed my life forever. I said goodbye to my ordinary life and could never go back.
This was both the beginning and the end.
War Goddess Navier!
I came for her, and I left because of her.