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Captain Gert Fourie sat in his padded leather chair in the air-conditioned bridge of the SAS Talana, sipping a mug of coffee.
He projected an air of calmness in the face of the mounting excitement building in the voices of the officers and sailors around him. They had listened to the radio transmissions between Tactical HQ and the Rooivalk crew, and the men and women on the bridge had cheered when the news came through that the hijacked Oryx had been downed.
A suspect vessel was out there somewhere ahead of them, and their job would be to intercept and board it, as soon as they had taken the Rooivalk on board and refuelled it. With the help of the gunship they would also have to search for and apprehend the pirates who had left their downed aircraft. It would be a busy day and the fi
