LITMIR.BIZ

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      Turning around and seeing Nacho and Javi, his face quickly went from anger to embarrassment, and then an attempt at innocent neutrality. But his brothers knew him from birth.

      “Who were you talking to?” Javi asked, in a tone of naive ignorance.

      “A girl,” Pablo replied, without looking at his brothers.

      Javi and Nacho looked at each other and smiled. The baby of the family had always been very leery of relationships. He had only introduced one of his girlfriends to the family, but everyone knew that there had been several more.

      “Well,” Javi said, partly to avoid an awkward silence and partly because he was dying of curiosity. “What are you going to do with the job they offered you?”

      “Accept it,” Pablo said matter-of-factly.

      His brothers smiled.

      “When were you going to tell us?”

      I just decided two seconds ago, thought Pablo.

      Chapter Three

       “Mohammed!”

      The man being called quickly went to his boss’ office. There was no mistaking the deep roar he had in his voice. It always seemed on the verge of breaking, but he always finished his sentences.

       “Yes, Sir?”

       “Did you take care of Mukhtar?”

       “Yes, Sir. We paid them and I have given him the necessary instructions so that they will be available again in a couple of weeks.”

       “Good,” he growled. “He’d better not disappear or try to pull a fast one. Are they being watched?”

      Mohammed nodded.

      “There are lots of freebooters in Somalia,” continued his boss. “But this kid is special, and after everything we’ve spent training them, I don’t want to lose them and have to start from scratch. Are you sure he doesn’t know who you are?”

       “Absolutely, Sir. We’ve never seen each other, and I’ve led him to believe I represent a Western insurance company.”

       “Very well, no one can link us to them. No one, do you understand?”

      Mohammed nodded fervently.

       #

      Pablo and Reyes sat in Guerra’s office waiting room. The previous day they had begun working and had been discussing possible modifications to the ship.

      They had both decided to propose their requirements to the shipbuilders and let them come up with the solutions. After all, that was their job. Pablo had insisted on speed. BAMs, as the Navy had conceived them, had two great advantages: autonomy and low fuel consumption. With twin screw propellers, one on the port side and one on the starboard side, and a diesel engine for each shaft, they could reach a maximum speed of twenty knots without excessive expense. In addition, each shaft also had an electric motor that got its energy from the power generation system on board (four generator motors), which had very low fuel consumption.

      However, Pablo wanted a faster boat, and Reyes didn’t think Gotthelf would mind the extra expense. Neither of them was an expert on the subject, so they wanted to present the problem to the engineers and see what solution they offered. Pablo was hoping just a minor modification would be enough since he knew that a major change to the propulsion plant could delay the delivery date of the ship considerably.

      He also knew there was another option. One that was used by the Navy to propel their escort ships: gas turbines. Derived from aircraft engines, turbines provided much more power and were generally more reliable, but their fuel consumption was through the roof. Besides, he had never heard of such a small vessel ever being propelled by turbines because space could be an issue.

      The other means of propulsion used by the Navy was nuclear, but that was completely unfeasible. Only the large submarines, cruisers and aircraft carriers of some navies used it.

      As far as weapons, they had been discussing the usefulness of a 3-inch gun. Reyes maintained that it was a very important deterrent, but Pablo insisted that they needed a weapons system that would provide them accuracy above everything else. For him, the ability to hit a small and fast target from relatively far away was essential, while firepower was much less important. He was tired of reading about incidents in which the inability to discern whether the shot would hit the outboard motor or the pirate ended up in not being able to open fire.

      BAMs were by far the Navy’s ships that were better equipped for this kind of scenario, with two 25 mm machine guns remotely operated from the combat information center (adjacent to the bridge), and controlled by an electro-optical fire control system (basically a camera and a computer for the computations), a laser range finder, and a fire control radar¹. In addition, the associated camera could be used for search and track purposes. They also had planned to bring numerous small arms on board. However, Pablo wanted that kind of precision in all his weapons.

      In any case, they had decided to voice their concerns to Guerra to find out if he could come up with any solutions, and Reyes had called a friend in the world of naval armament to see if he knew of anything that could help them.

      They had also decided to give Guerra a list of the unnecessary equipment and asked him to give them a series of proposals on how to maximize space utilization. In addition to what Pablo had said when they met, they thought they also would not need some of the communications equipment, especially that which was specifically for military use.

      Finally, Pablo thought it was necessary to have an extra RHIB just in case. The boat had two, with specific stowage places and lifting cranes to lower them into the water, but in a somewhat long mission if one of them broke down it could leave them high and dry. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to store one in case they needed it. They had also raised the possibility of a faster launching system like the ones the US Coast Guard used. This consisted of a small jetty or beach in the stern of the boat from which to drop the RHIB into the water. The problem was the practicality of the work at this stage.

      A few minutes later, Guerra invited them into his modest office. Nothing like Gotthelf’s, Reyes thought. After they shared their concerns, his first reaction was not entirely positive, as this could pose a significant workload. However, he immediately reacted recalling that, after all, they were his clients. Then, Reyes and Pablo could see his face light up as he got to work. It was clear what part of his job he truly enjoyed.

      “Well gentlemen,” the engineer said. “I'm glad to see that you have thought about it and that you know exactly what you want. As you know, what’s going to give us the most trouble is the propulsion system. I will raise the issue to that department and see what they tell us. In any case, here in Puerto Real we only work with diesel engines, as for the turbine, which by the way strikes me as very ambitious, we would have to contact our branch in Ferrol. And what’s more, acquiring a turbine is always more complicated than a diesel. Virtually only Rolls Royce and General Electric make turbines for ships.“

      “As for the cannon,” continued Guerra, “I can try to get something from the arms companies that we usually deal with but I have no record of anything like what you’re asking for, either in Spain or abroad. Removing some of the equipment and the extra RHIB shouldn’t be a problem.”

      Reyes took the floor, “Excellent Mr. Guerra! We’ll let you get back to work. We’ll keep in touch, but if anything comes up please call me with any news. And when you can, please give me an estimate of when the boat will be ready.”

      “Will do.”

      The two men were heading towards the door when Reyes recalled the other decision they had made.

      “Oh, one last thing. We will call it Albatros.”

       #

      A couple of hours later, Reyes and Pablo addressed the next issue, the crew. Reyes, the methodical man that he was, wanted to organize the work before they began.

      “What do we

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