Khamis entered *Malkia-7* through the service hatch. The barge rolled against its fenders. Inside the bridge, Kenga forced Daudi to read a prepared statement declaring the route change safe. Rehema stood near the valve panel, blood at the corner of her mouth but attention fixed on the controls.
Khamis took the barge handset. “Salma, do you receive me?”
Her voice returned through the dock speakers. “I receive you.”
He placed the handset close to the panel so the room itself entered the broadcast. Asha repeated the time and said community receivers were recording. Kenga stared at the speaker. He had built power through private conversations that could be denied; now every sentence came back from several radios.
Daudi sat bound to the captain’s chair. The prepared statement lay before him, his signature still blank. Khamis moved it into the radio camera’s light without taking it. Daudi read the first line, then added, “I am reading under coercion.” Kenga struck his head. The blow went out over the channel.
Kenga told Khamis he now had evidence of violence, but warned that another word would open the tanker. Khamis did not move toward the switch. He asked Daudi to identify the system. The captain named its manufacturer and said the main valve used a foot brake beneath the console.
Rehema traced 909 through the fog on the panel glass and pointed to the third red light. Khamis repeated the number. Outside, workers began following the corresponding pipe.
Kenga ordered the radio shut. Khamis refused. Kenga then pointed to a cassette deck and demanded that Khamis erase his father’s recording in front of Rehema.
Khamis stamped on the deck. Its cover sprang open. No tape lay inside.
“The reel is already with many people. You cannot erase it.”
Kenga changed weapons. He demanded Khamis tell the audience what he had done eight years earlier. Khamis looked at the open radio and admitted he had deleted part of his father’s voice out of fear. He named his action without claiming it had protected anyone.
Asha did not turn the confession into an interview. She stated his name and time, then opened the line to Rehema. “I heard you,” Rehema said. She did not offer instant forgiveness. The truth removed Kenga’s blackmail without forcing the family wound to close.
Kenga pushed the valve switch halfway. The 909 light turned amber. Daudi threw his weight down and found the emergency brake with his foot. The bridge jolted. Rehema kicked a metal tray into Kenga’s gun hand. The weapon slid beneath the console.
Khamis did not dive for it; that would put him in the switch line. He pulled Rehema behind the console while Daudi sawed one cable tie against the metal edge and tore the other with his teeth.
Kenga tried to recover the pistol. Rehema kept it trapped beyond his reach with the broken deck. Daudi held the brake and called the rising pressure. “If you open 909, no one unloads oil,” he told Kenga. “You spill it into the sea.”
Kenga said he would blame the spill on Khamis. Asha repeated the threat over the public channel. He cut the bridge radio, but Khamis had already connected a second handset through *Sahani*’s line. The room remained audible.
Rehema wrote pressure readings on the glass. Workers outside repeated them. Daudi explained that the damaged valve had to be isolated from the dock before pressure could fall. Khamis now faced the choice clearly: pursue Kenga or remove the hostages and deliver the tanker number to the team.
Kenga opened the crane door and threw the warehouse remote into the sea. It no longer mattered. Njoroge had a cutter; dockworkers held the outer panel. Control was leaving Kenga one mechanism at a time.
Salma asked whether the service line was clear. Khamis confirmed it and ordered no valve moved until Rehema verified the number. Asha relayed the instruction. Njoroge requested the barge engines shut down.
Kenga fled up the crane stairs. Khamis saw him go, but Daudi collapsed as the brake kicked back and Rehema was bleeding. He chose them. He gave Daudi his shoulder and guided Rehema toward the service hatch.
Before descending, Rehema wrote 909 across the outer bridge glass so the dock could see it even if the radio failed. Daudi gave Khamis small panel keys and warned that Kenga held the crane masters. Khamis passed the panel keys down to a worker instead of pocketing them. Every device returned to the team.
On the walkway, *Malkia-7* struck the bumper. Pressure rose again. Khamis stayed until Njoroge and Salma had Daudi and Rehema safely below. Daudi then explained that the line lock must be cut before pressure was released. Rehema repeated the instructions herself. Biko confirmed the tanker route from the GPS.
Asha asked Khamis if he was safe. He answered that he was alive and Kenga was moving toward the crane. He did not use the moment to defend himself. The confession was already public; the next task was physical.
The barge hit the bumper a second time. The red panel light intensified, and tanker 909’s alarm began to ring.
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