Juan Cabrillo and his “Corporation” on board the hi-tech but derelict looking freighter “Oregon” have a new contract. Pirates operating in the South China Sea have been taking a heavy toll on the shipping lanes. Hundreds of ships have been robbed and many of them have simply disappeared. A Far East Shipping operation will pay the “Corporation” two million dollars for each pirate ship they manage to destroy. It seems like a lot to pay but is more than offset by the billions the shipping magnates are losing on almost a weekly basis. The pirates seem to be much more organized and have stepped up from the small ships they usually pester to taking of large commercial freighters.
Juan soon finds that his new contract is much more complicated. The pirates operating out of Indonesia have purchased two huge floating dry docks capable of loading some of the largest ships in the world. These ships are transported to a breakers yard in Indonesia where thousands of workers quickly tear them apart profiting from the scrap. But Juan finds that the pirates he overcomes have been smuggling large numbers of Chinese peasants out of China promising them a new life in the United States but instead shipping them to the Kamchatka Penninsula in the frigid north of Russia where they become slaves extracting gold ore from the foot of an active volcano.
Juan Cabrillo fights the deadly pirates defeating them at their breakers fortress in Indonesia and then must hastily travel to the far north to rescue his operative from the chilly and deadly mining operation. His man infiltrated the human slave smuggling operation and ended up working with the slaves. A micro-chip hidden in the muscle of his leg transmits through satellite giving his location. Juan speeds to the rescue and the Oregon crew have to fight an army of Indonesians plus a highly trained Russian special forces mercenary unit. It is a close battle but the “Corporation” wins out in the end.
I give “Dark Watch” a 9 of 10 on the Weaver meter.
