Terror on the High Seas

This wasn't some tourist destination, so naturally there were no private yachts sightseeing at sea.

And speedboats happened to be standard pirate equipment!

These boats were small, fast, cheap, and easy to operate.

So, in several of the world's more "notorious" straits, if you saw a speedboat charging toward you, you could immediately be sure that it was a pirate vessel!

"Quick! Get the high-pressure water cannons out! Don't let them get close to our tanker! I'll call for help!"

The bearded captain roared.

Naturally, he was going to call Russia's naval fleet for help, but whether that worked depended on luck.

If a Russian warship happened to be nearby, it might make it in time.

If they were too far away, then all they could do was pray...

On deck, several crew members had already dragged the high-pressure water cannons to the railings. Sure enough, several speedboats were charging toward the tanker like arrows released from a bow. They were already very close.

From the tanker, they could see several men aboard the speedboats, their heads wrapped in turbans and AKs waving in their hands.

They were shouting something incomprehensible.

There were no weapons on a tanker like this. The high-pressure water cannons were their only means of self-defense.

As it happened, during previous voyages, several tankers usually traveled together and even paid to hire warships as escorts.

But this time, no other tankers had been scheduled to depart at the same time, and the warships had been too busy with their own missions to spare any time.

That was why the Saint Petersburg tanker had set out alone. They had thought they couldn't possibly be so unlucky as to run into pirates on a solo voyage!

But what they feared came true. They had really encountered pirates!