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With a walkie-talkie held to his lips, and his other ar bridge and yelled at the helineer to make corrections The throttles were moved in fractional increments to keep the 560-foot vessel exactly where he wanted

A group of ues waited on the dock and watched the operation All but one carried an assault rifle The e holster strapped to his hip He tapped the side of his leg with a leather riding crop and despite the darkness sported mirrored aviator shades

The captain was a large blacka Greek fisherman’s cap atop his shaved head The ainst his white uniforhtly shorter and not aspresence than the captain He exuded authority from his watchful eyes and the loose, casual way he carried hi three stories above the quay there was no chance of their conversation being overheard The captain nudged his co the ar attention to the tricky

“See, eh, Chairman?”

“Right down to the riding whip and shades,” the chair people what they expect to see, either, Captain Lincoln That was a nice little performance with the walkie-talkie”

Linc looked at the walkie-talkie in his big hand The small device didn’t even have batteries in it He chuckled softly As the most senior African-American member of the crew, Lincoln had been tapped by the ship’s real captain, Juan Cabrillo, to act the part for the current operation Cabrillo knew that the representative sent by Saolese Ar with a man who shared the same skin color

Linc looked over the rail once again, satisfied that the big freighter was holding steady “All right,” he bellowed into the night “Let go for

e and aft lines”

Deckhands at the stern and boered thick ropes through the hawseholes With a nod fro their weapons over their shoulders and looped the lines over the rust-coated bollards Windlasses took up the slack and the big freighter gently kissed the old truck tires slung along the length of the pier that acted as fenders Water continued to foaht the current Without it, the ship would have ripped the bollards fro wooden dock and drifted downstream

Cabrillo took just a auging current, windage, rudder, and poith one sweep of the eye Satisfied, he nodded to Linc “Let’s make a deal”

The two stepped into the ship’s ht-lights, giving it a hellish appearance that made its dilapidated state all the more obvious The floors were unwashed linoleu in the corners The ere dusty on the inside while the outsides were riraveyards of all ine telegraph had broken off long ago, and the ship’s wheel was ational aids and the radio in the shack behind the bridge could barely transmit a dozen miles

Cabrillo nodded at the helmsman, an intense Chinese man in his early forties, who shot the Chairman a wry smile Cabrillo and Franklin Lincoln descended a series of companionways lit only occasionally by loatt bulbs in es They soon reached the main deck where another member of the creaited

“Ready to play jungle jeweler, Max?” Juan greeted

At sixty-four Max Hanley was the second oldest e His hair had retreated to a ginger fringe around his skull and his belt line had thickened a bit But he could ht and had been at Cabrillo’s side since the day Juan had started the Corporation, the cohter Theirs was an easy friendship of ers faced and bested

Hanley hoisted an attaché case from the pitted deck “You knohat they say—‘diamonds are a mercenary’s best friend’ ”