230: Chapter 228 The Professional Savior 230: Chapter 228 The Professional Savior It was 10:30 at night, and both Fernando and Antoncel had woken up.
Ever since coming to, witnessing the corpses on the ship and listening to Gao Yang’s account of the situation, they were both consumed with shock and rage.
Farah told them everything he knew: the ship still needed to sail for twelve hours before reaching land, and it was impossible for Gao Yang and his team to catch up to the pirate ship that was escorting the crew members.
In order to deliver the hostages to shore as quickly as possible, both fishing boats were moving at full speed.
According to the agreement, the first mate would lead his associates and take the ship toward land.
Although there were no ports to dock at and it was impossible for the large cargo vessel to get close to the shore, it was still feasible to enter within twelve nautical miles of the coast, and then they would be within Somalia’s territorial waters.
Ironically, Somalia could be called a pirate nation, but once inside its territorial waters, no matter whose navy it is, they would not choose to forcibly board and rescue hostages.
Doing so would violate Somalia’s sovereignty.
As for the crew members who had not conspired with the first mate, they would be taken ashore and guarded.
They would be used as hostages to extort ransom.
Similarly, once on land, there would be no rescue by military forces; the rationale was the same, such actions would infringe upon Somalia’s sovereignty.
Currently, Somali pirates were holding more than a dozen ships, still negotiating ransom amounts with shipowners.
Some crew members had been detained for over a year.
If the crew of the Cloldylin was also taken hostage, it was very likely they would suffer the same fate.
Three pirate ships robbed the Cloldylin, each around one hundred tons, towing two speedboats.
One of the fishing boats remained at the Cloldylin, with pirates staying aboard the merchant vessel, while the other two fishing boats were escorting Gao Yang and the crew members back to land.
The destination of the pirate ship escorting the crew was a small village on the shore, a gathering place for pirates and their families, with at least two hundred people capable of bearing arms and fighting.
If Gao Yang and his team couldn’t rescue the crew from the pirate ship, they could only attempt a rescue after landing.
For six men to rescue someone from the hands of more than two hundred, the difficulty of this choice was enormous, almost an impossible mission.
Gao Yang and his team had every reason to abandon the rescue and instead try to recover the merchant ship from the pirates.
Although there were eight pirates left on the merchant ship and boarding it was challenging, it was undoubtedly more feasible than rescuing the crew from shore.
After listening to Farah’s briefing, Fernando was silent for a long time, and then said with a pained expression, “Personally, I lean toward rescuing the people first, but the reason things have come to this is because of a problem within my own crew.
I cannot ask anything of you, so it’s up to you to decide what to do.”
Gao Yang could completely disregard the Cloldylin, because if they were only dealing with the pirates, they would never have ended up in such a sorry state.
If the Cloldylin had brought trouble upon itself, then it should bear all the consequences.
Although this was true, Gao Yang didn’t want to let things end there.
Many of Gao Yang’s items and equipment were still on the other pirate ship.
Although they could be replaced, Gao Yang didn’t want to just hand over his belongings to the pirates.
Moreover, he couldn’t let go of the first mate who had double-crossed him; not seeking retribution was not Gao Yang’s style.
For Gao Yang, there were only two choices: save the crew being taken to land first, or rescue the merchant ship that was in the pirates’ hands.
Leaving the scene was not an option under consideration.
After a moment of silence, Gao Yang looked at Antoncel and said, “I’d like to hear your opinion.”
Antoncel was only responsible for taking on jobs, but as far as combat was concerned, he was completely hands-off.
Of course, it wasn’t his place to be involved, so now whether to carry out a rescue or to leave was a decision he couldn’t make.
At most, he could only offer a suggestion.
Antoncel didn’t hesitate, and in a grave voice, he said, “I think we should save them.
We should attempt to rescue the crew members who have not rebelled.
Whether or not we can actually save them is for you to decide.”
Gao Yang nodded and said, “When you were arranging this job, you promised that the ships we protect will be absolutely risk-free.
We are one, so that is essentially our promise too.
Now, regardless of whose fault it is that the merchant ship has been hijacked, we have not fulfilled our promise.
Therefore, I have decided to go and save them.
We should at least make an attempt.”
Gao Yang left another layer of meaning unsaid, which was that they were planning to establish a Maritime Security Company.
If something happened to the merchant ship they were protecting, it would be an indelible stain.
However, if they were able to rescue the crew under these extremely unfavorable circumstances caused by an issue with the merchant ship itself, it would be a highly favorable point for their future company’s publicity.
Fernando had mixed feelings and said, “I’m very glad that you are willing to help us, but I hope there will be no casualties among the crew during the rescue operation.
Otherwise, I would prefer to resolve this by paying a ransom.”
Gao Yang nodded and said, “Understood.
We will act based on the situation.
If we can’t perform the rescue, we will leave.
If there’s an opportunity, we will take action.
Now that we’ve made our choice, we should get moving.
We’ve already lost over three hours.
We can’t waste any more time.”
On a small fishing boat with two captains, handling a little fishing vessel was easy.
After confirming the direction, the fishing boat, which had been drifting on the sea for a while, immediately set sail again.
Before Glolov and the others woke up, Gao Yang had already checked the weapons.
They now had two sniper rifles with all the bullets intact, plus three AK rifles with over four hundred sixty rounds of ammunition.
The number of bullets was not just small considering the condition of the guns; they also had three pistols, though pistols were of minimal use in this situation.
As for protective gear like bulletproof vests and helmets, they had none, nor did they have any equipment like night-vision goggles to enhance their combat capabilities.
The only thing they had were two night-vision scopes mounted on guns, but according to the timing, it would be daytime by the time Gao and his men landed, so unless he planned to wait until night to attack, the night-vision scopes would be useless.
The current arsenal lacked suppressive fire and heavy weaponry, and even the bullets for the automatic rifles were too few.
They could fight a short surprise attack, but the problem was that they also had to rescue hostages.
If they couldn’t quickly resolve the fight and the battle situation turned tense, then trouble would indeed be significant.
Gao Yang was continually pondering how to fight this difficult rescue battle, and at the same time, he lamented that he seemed to have become fixated on rescue missions, whether actively or passively.
Thinking back, he realized that all the battles he had fought recently were rescue operations, which made Gao feel both exasperated and amused.
It seemed more appropriate to call themselves professional rescuers rather than mercenaries.
(To be continued.
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