The Biker's Fate Chapter 370

I held my position and focused on the area where I believed the shot came from; an elevated platform that housed the ship's crane. I could now see a large gunman with a rifle slung over his shoulder, rapidly climbing down the side of the platform via a metal ladder. I stood up, and before thinking, fired off three rounds, hitting the target, causing him to fall with a thud loud enough for me to hear it.

I then pointed my gun directly at the posted guard, who dropped his AK-47 immediately and raised his hands high in the air. "Don't shoot… I'm mechanic… I'm Bogdan… I work ship… I'm mechanic!" he shouted in broken English.

He wore grey overalls that were covered in engine grease. Besides the normal stains one would expect, I could clearly see that Bogdan had pissed himself. This mild-mannered ship's mechanic had obviously been used as a decoy, and it worked.

"Get over there!" I ordered, and motioned him away from the container door. I kicked the assault rifle well out of reach and kept my gun directly on Bogdan. I wasn't about to take any chances. "Agent Kahler!" I shouted as I moved toward where he was still on his side. I rolled him over and he let out a gasp before clutching at his right shin.

"Motherfucker!" he bellowed, wincing in pain, before his eyes rolled back into his head.

"Don't pass out," I said, before removing my belt with one hand, while keeping Bogdan covered with the other. He didn't seem like a threat, but for all I knew our mechanic friend was playing possum; or whatever the Russian version of possum is.

I made a tourniquet from my belt, which I tightened just below the knee. His lower leg was powdered. The bullet had torn through the flesh and bone with ease, doing maximum damage along the way, and he hissed in pain as I tightened it for a final time.

"Kahler, listen to me. I'm gonna leave you here, just for a minute or two. I have to go find the shooter. I hit him and he went down, but I don't know if he's dead."

"My weapon," he said and pointed, still fighting to stay lucid. I picked up the gun he had dropped when he was shot, and placed it in his hand.

"I'll be right back," I said, and headed for the foot of the crane platform, where the shooter had fallen. However, when I arrived there was only a small pool of blood, where I'd hoped to find a dead bad guy.

"Shit," I rasped and headed back to where I'd left Agent Kahler. As I approached, I could see he was no longer alone. Slowly limping toward him was the shooter, gun in hand, covered in blood. I raised my gun and fired a shot, narrowly missing him, but causing him to turn around and face me. Once he did, Agent Kahler put a round directly in the back of his head, ending the shooter's life in a puff of pink mist.

I spun around to see Bogdan standing, arms still in the air, motioning frantically to the container.

"Devochki! Devochki!" He shouted. "Devochki… the girls!"

I could see he was not motioning to the door, but to the dual digital security panels, which were now flashing red and beeping.

"What is that? What does that beeping mean?"

"Vzryv!" he exclaimed, struggling to find the English word, finally shouting, "Boom!"

These sick bastards had rigged explosives to the container and the guard must have triggered it.

"He had a dead man switch!" Agent Kahler called out, pointing to the guard's lifeless body. I could see the switch in his hand, which was released when Kahler shot him.

"Shit!" I moved immediately to the right control panel and could see numbers counting down; :17… :16… :15… I quickly began entering in the code given to us by the captain, as Bogdan frantically called out once again.

"Niet! No!" he shouted as he ran to the left panel. "Oдhobpеmеhho," he said struggling to find the English words. "Must be… same time." He rapidly pointed between the two panels.

There must have been a failsafe and Bogdan, the kindly mechanic, was clearly trying to warn me and help save the girls. Either that, or this was a trick and I was about to cause the premature end of many innocent lives. And possibly mine.

I looked at him and nodded as we began to punch the respective codes in, one digit at a time, in tandem, as the time clock stopped at :06. The beeping stopped, both panels glowed green, and I could hear the internal locking mechanism disengage. Bogdan smiled wide as I breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

"Help me get these open," I said, and he happily complied.

The afternoon sunlight poured into the container, causing its inhabitants to shield their eyes and whimper. They'd been captives for weeks, and who knew the last time they were let out of this mass jail cell. From the smell of things, it had been awhile. There appeared to be over twenty young Russian girls, all in their late teens and early twenties, most of which were frantically crying. There's no telling what horrible fate they must have been expecting, and they certainly had no idea I was a friendly face. For all they knew, I was a buyer, a pimp, or God knows what else.

Bogdan began speaking to them in Russian and their cries became even louder and more intense, causing a brief moment of concern on my part, until I realized these were now cries of joy. The girls, who were all frail, filthy, and obviously in shock, began to hug and kiss us as we led them out onto the ship's deck.

Bogdan began to call out a single name, "Kira!" as he searched through the group. A beautiful, raven haired young woman emerged from the crowd and embraced Bogdan, who broke down in heavy sobs.

After a few moments, he turned to me and said, "My sister, Kira," before embracing me, repeating "Thank you," over and over.

After making sure the girls were okay, I ran back to Agent Kahler, who wasn't looking good at all. I pulled out my phone to call Doc, but before I could, he was directly behind me, followed by Alamo.

"We heard the shots, and then the girls screaming, so we figured you'd either done your job, or you were dead. Seemed like a good time to find out," Doc said as he bent down to examine his latest patient. "What the fuck happened?" he asked Agent Kahler.

"Some Russian prick with a really big gun, put a really big bullet through his leg," I provided, since Kahler passed out cold before he could answer.

Doc took the opportunity to shoot him with morphine, and examine the wound. "You did a good job with this tourniquet, Sparky," he said. "You likely prevented him from bleeding out. Miraculously, the bullet missed the anterior tibial artery, but it shattered the tibia and shredded most of the tissue around it. I need to check on the girls and see if anyone needs medical attention, but first help me move Agent Kahler to the wheelhouse. I want to keep an eye on him while we're driving back to port. We're running out of time, and if we don't get this boat to the harbor soon, Harlan is going to know something's wrong. We still have a lot of work to do, and now we're one man down," Doc said.

"Actually." I smiled wide. "I think we may be a few soldiers up."