Guys Read: Pirate

Abdullah Syed Hari is fourteen years old.

He loves his family and his friends. And he is a Somali pirate. His father and grandfather pulled nets from the waters of Somalia, but foreign trawlers took the catch and poisoned the shore. In Marka, empty nets mean empty bellies.

Recruited by his uncle to join seven fighters aboard a boat called the Habib, Abdullah sets out into the night fog. Their target is a luxury yacht. With an AK-47 slung over his shoulder, he is ordered to guard the captives in a locked cabin. Yet a twelve-year-old hostage proves hard to hate.

When an unexpected choice brings a military helicopter overhead, his life hangs by a thread. A short story from Guys Read: Thriller, edited by Jon Scieszka.

• Action and Adventure: A disguised boat with high-speed twin engines, an armed midnight boarding, and a hostage with a hidden cell phone turn a dangerous mission upside down.
• Race Against Time: Pinned beneath the red target lasers of an attack helicopter, Abdullah has only moments while his crew scrambles to negotiate a deal.
• Unlikely Hero: Remembering his grandfather’s warning that shed blood slows the feet of those who spill it, Abdullah risks severe punishment to show compassion to an enemy.
• Identity and Self-Discovery: In between the violence of the raid, Abdullah wonders if his dreams would be different in a world where children did not have to fight to eat.
• Also by This Author: The Mouse Rap, Patrol and Looking for the Easy Life.