Taiwan Strait
HANNAH SLADE DIDN’T know it but at noon that day she was less than fifty nautical miles from HMS Sutherland as it steamed northwards towards the coast of Taiwan. The Type 23 frigate’s Merlin helicopter was deployed and airborne, scanning the ocean for a medium-sized 16,000-tonne commercial ship with its AIS beacon switched off.
But Hannah was not on that vessel.
Somewhere to the west of the southern tip of Taiwan, just outside the maritime boundary and at a latitude close to 22 degrees north, her captors had transferred her to a small and barely seaworthy fishing boat. Still hooded and with her wrists tied behind her, she was sitting on the heaving deck on a coil of thick ship’s rope, beneath a metal cowling. At one point she could just make out the faint sound of a helicopter in the distance. The sound grew louder but she refused to get her hopes up. Before long it had faded away. The Sutherland’s Merlin had gone off to search elsewhere.
Two hours later the boat carrying Hannah joined dozens of similar vessels as they crowded into the fishing port of Keziliao, just north of the city of Kaohsiung. It attracted little interest from anyone as it moored beside the bustling quayside. No one paid any attention to the crew as they unloaded their small catch, contained in white crates, or the large roll of green tarpaulin that was swiftly hoisted onto the back of a small truck. With a crunch of gears, the vehicle turned and made its slow and inconspicuous way out of the port area. Soon it was on the road and heading for the Central Mountain Range.