Indian Ocean Invasion - 20. IOI Chapter 20

“Well you will require a legal arrest warrant for that, so that means that this now meeting is over, good day to you gentlemen” Franco said as he stood up and walked to the door, to let the men leave. “I suggest that you stay onboard this yacht, and that you go nowhere until we return with a warrant” the lead officer said to me, as he walked towards the door.

“Sorry, but we can’t do that, as we are on a charter at the moment, with paying guests, if you want to catch up with us, we will be in Genoa, on the day after tomorrow, you can meet us there if you have a warrant by then” the Captain said from the doorway, as the two men stormed out of the dining room and off the yacht.

I was a little shocked at what had happened over the past half an hour, and I turned to speak to Mr Wagner, but he was talking to someone on his phone in Italian, so I sat down again and waited for him to finish.

“Right, everything is organised, we will stick to our routine for the remainder of today, and part of tomorrow morning. On our way to Savona tomorrow, we will stop briefly at Albenga, at approximately 1100 hours tomorrow morning, where we will take onboard an extra deckhand to replace you.

Tonight, you need to pack all your luggage, and be ready to fly out with the twins, when a helicopter lands on the yacht, the twins will take good care of you while you are with them” Mr Wagner said to me. “Err, where exactly are we going? I asked nervously.

“This is just between Franco, myself and the twins, so don’t say anything to the crew, and that includes my house staff member, there is one small country in Europe that does not have an extradition treaty with Australia, and that country happens to be the home country of my late maternal grandmother. We still own her property, and we have caretakers who have been keeping it clean and tidy for the twins and I, as we spend a week there each year” Sebastian said.

Just at that moment the twins walked into the room, closing the door behind them. “Where exactly is this country?” I asked, wondering where this place is, and the twins chuckled. “Believe us, you will love it, the house is quite large, and is in the village of Ruggell, just 1.5 kilometres in from the Austrian border, and 2 kilometres from the Swiss border in northern Liechtenstein” one of the twins said to me smiling.

“Wow, that is amazing, so how do we get there?” I asked, “Easy, we will have the helicopter transport us from the yacht, directly to the Riviera Airport, just out of Albenga, where a private jet, will fly us directly to the nearest airport to Liechtenstein, which is just across the border in Bad Ragaz, Switzerland, which will take just one hour.

From there we will be collected by car and just ten minutes later, we are across the border into Liechtenstein, and half an hour later, we will be at the house” the other twin replied. “Wow, it sounds all too easy” I commented, “hopefully it will be, as long as we keep this plan secret” Sebastian stated.

For the rest of the day, I kept myself very busy, taking just one hour breaks instead of two, and at the end of my shift, I had a small meal, then headed straight to bed, to get a good night’s sleep, knowing I had a fair bit of travelling to do tomorrow. I slept in till just before 6am, and skipping breakfast, I went straight to work on cleaning the outside windows on the main deck.

Shortly after starting work, the captain gave the order to prepare for departure, so Charlie and I got to work to release all the lines and monitor the sides of the yacht as we left the jetty. Once we were away, we continued with our work until 9am, when we were both scheduled to take a break, but for me, it would be the last time I would be working on the yacht for however long this issue would be resolved.

I had packed all my bags last night, before going to bed, and all I had to do was grab them and get aboard the helicopter. At 10.45am the captain called for deckhands to prepare to anchor, and that was my cue to get ready to leave, and I had changed out of my uniform, into neat casual clothes.

While the deck crew were busy, I carried my luggage through to the Sundeck lounge, and up to the Helipad, where I noticed that the furniture had been packed away, and that the side barriers had been lowered, with the twins standing around with their luggage also near the top of the stairs.

“All set to go?” one of the twins asked me, “Yes, I think so, I managed to get up here without being noticed” I replied, as I spotted one of the deck grew standing at the foredeck, ready to release the anchor on the Captain’s command, but since I no longer had a radio with me, I could not monitor what was happening.

A few minutes later, we heard then saw the approaching helicopter, which landed smoothly on the helipad, and I saw that there are two doors on the side of the chopper, so I guessed that it was a 4-seater.

When one of the twins opened a small door behind the seating, and began loading his luggage, I ducked down and stepped towards the chopper and handed over my luggage, before being directed around to the other side and told to get into the front passenger seat.

A few moments later, with all the luggage in and everyone strapped in, we lifted off the helipad of the yacht, just as I heard a sound in my headset. “Yacht Huon to Chopper” I heard the voice say although it was a little hard to tell who it was because of the noise of the chopper in flight, “Message for Commander Shaw, good luck and we will see you soon, Captain of the Yacht Huon, over and out”.

I smiled as I looked out the window, and saw the Captain, Sebastian and Wyatt on the top deck, waving goodbye to us, and I waved back to them, feeling sad that I was leaving the yacht, with an uncertain future ahead of me. “Don’t worry Lewis, you will be back someday, and in the meantime, we will take good care of you” one of the twins said through the headset.

Yacht Huon Captain’s POV – The following day.

As we were docking at the Jetty in Genoa, I saw the two men that we had seen a few days earlier, but this time they had three Italian police officers with them, and once the yacht was secured and the gangway was in place, they came onboard, without an invitation, so I headed downstairs to meet them, where we found Wyatt talking to them.

“I will deal with this thankyou Wyatt, you can return to your duties with Mr Wagner” I said to the young lad. “Yes sir, you are welcome to them” Wyatt said as he walked off to find his boss, who was packing to prepare to leave the yacht, to fly back to London. “Captain, we have an Interpol arrest warrant for Commander Lewis Shaw, where is he please?” the lead Australian Federal officer stated.

“Well I am not sure exactly, he left the yacht before lunch time yesterday, in Albenga I think it was, he said he was leaving, packed his bags and left, after we stopped briefly, to allow him to leave the yacht, that is all I know Officer, you are welcome to search the whole yacht, but I can guarantee, that he is not onboard this yacht” I said with a small smile.

The 5 men left the yacht, annoyed that they had been tricked, and last I saw of them, they were having a heated discussion at the end of the jetty. A few minutes later, the senior crew gathered to farewell the guests, including Wyatt and Mr Wagner, and once they had left the yacht, the crew got to work to clean up, before having a well-deserved night off on shore.

On the bridge, I sat and relaxed a while, laughing for a bit about how we had outsmarted the Australian Federal police, knowing that the Wagner twins and Lewis were now relaxing somewhere in Liechtenstein, out of reach from being arrested or extradited back to Australia.