Free Tampa Star (Blackfox Chronicles Book 1) by T.S. O'Neil Page B

to the north and south of the Tampa Bay Inlet.
    “I am thinking that John’s Pass might be the place to use to get in and out of the gulf” said Tommy.  John’s Pass, a cut into Boca Ciega Bay made by the hurricane of September 1848. It occurred from September 25th through the 27th and was the most destructive storm ever to hit the Tampa Bay area while scattering destruction along sixty miles of along Florida’s Gulf coast. 
    Tommy was a virtual fountain of information concerning the ship and floating casinos . “The Star of Tampa displaced about 50,000 tons,” he told Char. The passengers would not be allowed to gamble until they were seven miles out, so they would at least go out that far, but they would want to avoid rough water and conserve fuel.”
    Other than that, Tommy was unsure of what course the ship would take. It didn’t really matter as long as they had a good boat to shadow them and they did: the banker’s 60 foot Hatteras.  It was powered by two 275 horse V8 diesels with a fuel capacity of over three hundred gallons.  She had the range and speed to shadow the ship, and handle rough seas.
    Even better, the owner was never around, but the marina crew maintained it at the ready should he appear and being that the owner was from New York and it was still hot and muggy in Tampa—the lack of his presence was virtually assured. 
    Char would be the gunman for the robbery, Finnegan would pilot the boat and he had a few ideas as to where they might recruit some possible co-conspirators—his brother and a couple of knuckle draggers who worked at the club. Tommy had met Guy Handley at
    the Ybor City Burlesque club where his brother worked. Handley was an ex-cop who had been fired off from the Tampa police force for shaking down prostitutes for money and blow-jobs. He now worked as a bouncer who would crack a skull without a second’s hesitation to protect the soiled virtues of the dancing debutantes.
    Tommy introduced Char to Handley on one of their thunder runs through various Tampa Strip Clubs.  Char had seen this type before during his time in the army—some asshole hiding behind a Drill Sergeant’s Smokey, an MP brassard or some other veil of authority—looking for any opportunity to fuck over their fellow man. The world was full of dickheads—no reason they should be lonely. He had serious reservations about involving malignant bastards like this in the business at hand—he hoped there was a better way.  
    The first cruise of the casino boat would service the high rollers of Tampa and St. Pete along with a few high rollers that would be flying in from Miami. Between the gold and the cash on board, both in the cashier’s booth and among the passengers, he figured they could in theory net over a million and whatever else they could loot from the cashiers and passengers. 
    Char had his sights set on an Armalite AR-15, a weapon he had used in Viet Nam while working as an Advisor on his second tour.  He liked it because it was light, yet had a high rate of fire and could be intimidating.  Still, he would settle for an M1A1 or M2 carbine, the selective fire version of the M1 carbine, a shorter, lighter version of the original M1 Garand that fired a thirty caliber pistol cartridge. It would be almost as effective as the AR-15, given the close range and he really did not intend on killing anyone, but if everything went to shit, the fully automatic feature would come in handy.
    He wanted to avoid something like a grease gun, the M3, a .45 caliber submachine gun designed as a cost effective substitute for the Thompson submachine gun, which was visually similar to a mechanic’s tool for applying grease to the hubs and axle of a car. The weapon might have a good intimidation factor, but Char figured it could prove difficult if he had to take out one point target such as a hero who wanted to challenge them during the robbery, as the weapon was notoriously inaccurate and could only fire on full