The Journey of Kyle Gibbs Box Set

by Wayne Marinovich

  ‘A simple signal from me and you will all die where you stand,’ he said.

  Chilemba raised his hand and placed it on his fiery friend’s shoulder, whispering to him in their native Kikuyu dialect. ‘You have shown our hand too early, my friend. Back down and let’s wait for our chance to skin this vulture.’

  Jackson slipped the pistol into his belt and took a step back, never breaking eye contact with the Arab Captain.

  ‘Forgive my friend, like all of us, he is eager to get to Europe,’ Chilemba said.

  ‘Europe is five thousand dollars per person. Cash.’

  ‘We will never be able to get that type of money.’

  ‘Well then, my friend, there is only one other option, you could take out a slave debt with me. I will take you safely to Europe and sell your debt onwards after that. European men will pay me for the debt, and then you will work for them to pay off the amount you owe them.’

  Chilemba looked around at Jackson and the other two. They all had the look of men who had been running for a decade. He nodded at Jackson, who nodded back. The other two men also nodded their consent. They simply had no choice, but to all agree to his price.

  ‘You have a deal, Captain,’ Chilemba said, offering out his hand.

  The captain shook his hand. ’The Khalil is that big sailing ship over on the deepest side of the harbour. It leaves in two days. Leave all your weapons. You will all be searched before boarding. Is that clear?’

  ‘We’ll be back in two days.’

  Chapter 16

  Fishguard, Wales, UK - 2028

  The old army truck bounced along the valley road to the waiting steam train. In the rear of the truck, Killey asked. ‘Was it Markus who smacked you around?’

  ‘He did try to get under my skin a little, but I’ve had worse beatings,’ Gibbs said. ‘Why didn’t you gents get the fuck out of here when you had the chance?’

  ‘And do what exactly, boss?’ Killey asked. ‘Become farmers? In case, you haven’t noticed the world seems to have changed a fair bit. I don’t even understand this whole bloody GGC Phoenix thing. And why do we have a German leading a Special Forces team in the UK? We figured it would be better just to stay together for now.’

  The truck suddenly shuddered to a stop, and all the passengers in the back of the truck were thrown forward. They jumped down from the truck into the bright morning sun and stood around, stretching and yawning, then made their way over to where Christina was standing near a small wooden turnstile leading to a small country track. A second truck pulled up behind them.

  Christina turned to speak to Gibbs. ‘There is an old steam train at the bottom of that lane,’ she said, pointing behind him to the hedge-lined path. ‘Follow Captain Schmidt and his team and get into the third passenger carriage. The train will take us into London.’

  ‘As long as that bloody Rees character doesn’t drive the train like he drives a truck, I’m happy,’ Gibbs said.

  Christina smiled back at him. ‘Move it, Captain Gibbs.’

  At the mention of the word captain, his men stopped and looked at him with raised eyebrows. ‘Don’t look at me like that. It’s all new to me too. Just bloody let it go,’ Gibbs said.

  ‘Yes, Captain!’ they all shouted.

  Gibbs sat by himself on a threadbare train seat and stared out of the dirty window as the train sped through the lush green farmland of the Welsh countryside. Occasional fields of bright yellow rapeseed flowers blurred past, and the strong smell of pollen filtered through a few windows that were jammed in an open position. The last time he had been on a train had been on his way back from the disastrous stint in Angola. He missed those simple days of serving as a soldier.

  ‘Gibbs?’ Christina was standing near him. He snapped back to reality. ‘We need to talk about the GGC and what your role will be within the Phoenix Guard,’ Christina said, sitting down.

  ‘Can this not wait until we get to London? I take it that we will have to go through a briefing or induction of sorts?’ Gibbs asked.

  ‘Of course, we can talk later,’ she said, getting up to leave.

  Gibbs watched the lovely young woman get up and move across to a couch on the other side of the carriage. He suddenly realised that they were alone, as Shredder and the other boys had moved into the adjoining carriage to chat with some of Markus’s team.

  ‘Christina!’ he called. He got up and walked over to her. ‘I’m sorry, I was miles away thinking about the past, we can talk now if you’d like.’

  ‘Okay then,’ she said and smiled.

  ‘Did you send me that note wrapped around two keys while I was in solitary?’ he asked, studying her face for signs of panic.

  ‘A note? What note? What keys?’

  ‘Oh never mind, must have been someone else.’

  ‘Don’t leave me hanging, Gibbs. What bloody note?’

  He laughed. ‘I was attacked by thugs on board during an exercise session and was forced to defend myself by throwing one of them overboard.’

  ‘You’re joking, right?’ she said.

  ‘Nope, it was him or me. I am not sure if they pulled him out because I was grabbed by the on-deck guards and taken down to solitary. One of the prison bosses jammed a parcel into my pants when they untied me in the cell. Once they had left, I opened it, and it contained the cell key and a key to a connecting door. It had the message - Your services are required in London. Be ready to leave - written on it.’

  ‘Wow, that is intriguing? So, someone wanted you off that ship long before I got involved?’

  ‘It sounds as if that was the case. I arranged an escape date with the help of the prison screw who gave me the parcel, and well, here we are. You have any ideas who would want us out?’

  ‘There are a lot of very powerful people in the Phoenix Council and GGC who could have organised it, but I have not heard anything about it.’

  ‘Fair enough. I’ll do some digging,’ he said. Patience was something he’d learnt in prison. Days and nights sitting in a cold metal cell gave a man time. Being selected as a Phoenix Guard captain was a perfect way in. A Trojan horse.

  ‘Now, although you’ve given me your word and I trust you to keep it, there are men who believe that you will try and escape at the first opportune moment,’ she said, nodding towards the other carriage. ‘When you get to London, you will notice a lot of armed men around you, please don’t do anything silly.’

  Gibbs smiled. ‘We won’t. We also have our reasons for accepting this deal and are keen to see what London looks like now.’

  Christina was looking at him intently, and he felt himself getting drawn into her blue eyes.

  ‘What the hell has happened out there in the world since they put us behind bars?’ Gibbs asked.

  ‘Nothing good, I’m afraid. After the Saudi oil wars that you were originally involved in, three nuclear devices were detonated in that area, and thousands of people lost their lives. After that it all went south, very quickly,’ Christina said as she started to choke up.

  ‘You okay?’ Gibbs said, watching Christina, surprised at the sudden show of emotion.

  ‘Sorry,’ Christina said and wiped her eyes. ‘Around the same time the Oil Wars ended, they picked up the first strains of the latest bird flu virus in South America and because it had become airborne, all flights were grounded from the Americas, which resulted in me being stuck here.’

  ‘Bloody hell, did you say that bird flu has become airborne, I thought they had found a cure for it,’ Gibbs said.

  ‘They think that one of the experimental vaccines triggered a mutation in the virus. It’s all speculation, but they know that it is not a very robust virus outside the human body, so doesn’t have a large kill radius, but one to one physical contact or a conversation with an infected person usually means that you can get it.’

  Turning her head away, unable to control the waves of emotion washing over her, Christina burst into tears. Three years of sadness and loneliness came pouring out uncontrollably. She
barely felt a strong arm slip around her shoulders, holding her tight.

  ‘Oh God, I am so sorry,’ she said, pulling away from Gibbs.

  ‘That’s okay,’ Gibbs said. ‘I take it you have family back in the Americas?’

  ‘Canada and the US. Everyone I know and love is there,’ she said, already feeling better by talking to the good-looking captain.

  ‘Hopefully, someday you’ll see them again. It sounds like it has been a tough few years for everyone,’ Gibbs said.

  Christina tried to compose herself. ‘None of that is the worst bit, Gibbs.’

  She noticed his eyes widen a little.

  ‘During a ten-month period in 2026, the sea level rose by nearly three metres, causing massive inland flooding of all low-lying areas across the planet. You must have noticed the flood damage in Fishguard Harbour?’

  ‘Not until recently. When you’ve been locked up in a dark hold of a ship for nine years, you don’t get to see much of the land,’ Gibbs replied.

  ‘Of course,’ Christina nodded her head. ‘It came to light that for many years, the human race had ignored the growing methane threat on the planet, and once both the permafrost in the Arctic and the deep sea methane crystals melted, the earth’s temperature spiked and well, ice and glaciers pretty much melted all over the world. The resulting floods were catastrophic. It was devastating as hundreds of millions of people had to evacuate their homes to higher ground, leaving coastal cities deserted.’ Christina stopped and stared into the distance, biting her lip.

  ‘Why don’t we leave the doom and gloom for another time then?’ he said.

  She nodded and wiped her eyes with a tissue.

  • • •

  A thick morning fog welcomed the old train as it pulled into Paddington Station. Gibbs and his men were escorted out of the station and marched in silence towards Hyde Park. They made the journey under armed guard to the waiting rowing boats. Gibbs felt Christina’s gaze upon him as they climbed into the boats, and he gave her a fleeting smile.

  They rowed in silence towards the waiting Queen Rose, black smoke belching from her twin funnels up into the misty sky. In a few minutes, they were all on board, and the barge swung around, just brushing the ground below the water level, and then she moved south-east towards the Thames.

  ‘This is a lot of fucking water,’ Shredder said.

  ‘I don’t know what to say,’ Gibbs said as they sailed past the flooded Houses of Parliament and a silent Big Ben.

  ‘The poor bloody folks who used to live here,’ Shredder said. ‘Where have they all gone?’

  ‘Christina said that folks have either left for the countryside or have stayed in the Floodzone to scavenge a living.’

  Smithy shook his head as he looked back at the flooded parliament building. ‘Well, Guy Fawkes must be laughing his ruddy head off.’

  ‘His grave is probably flooded too,’ Shredder said.

  ‘Now, now, gents. Show a little empathy here. We all have relatives who were affected by this.’

  The five men stood leaning against the front railing of the barge and looked on as they passed through a few bridges that had to be destroyed to allow barges, sailing boats and water taxis to go about their business in the Floodzone.

  The barge cruised into Canary Wharf and pulled up to two huge mesh watergates, which were specially built to stop small boats entering the compound. ‘Boss there is over thirty guards on the gates, and I spotted a nearby machine gun turret,’ Shredder said.

  ‘I see that. Spotted a few snipers as well in the buildings behind the fence.’ Gibbs replied. ‘Look at all those folks queuing at that side gate,’ he said, pointing to the fifty men and woman, dressed in dirty clothes and jackets, who were standing on a floating jetty in the Thames.’

  ‘Welcome to the Phoenix Compound gentlemen,’ Christina said as she approached. ‘We do try to see to all of their issues,’ she said nodding at the line of people. ‘Sadly, we cannot help everyone.’

  Gibbs wanted to say something and then decided to wait until later.

  A thin, young private met them as the moored up on the concrete quay. ‘Private Warren Smith reports to directly to me and will escort you to one of the meeting rooms in the GGC building for a short briefing. I will see you there in an hour,’ she said.

  • • •

  ‘Gentlemen, there is a massive amount of information to take in over the next few days so we will do this induction at a pace that you can handle. Before we continue, I need to make sure that you all still stand by your decision to be here and, therefore, are committed to staying,’ Christina said as she looked around at the five men sat in front of her. One by one they all nodded their agreement.

  ‘Good. Welcome to the GGC building. GGC stands for the Global Government Collective. Over the next few days, you will all be properly briefed and inducted into this organisation, providing you with detailed information on how it was formed and how it operates. It is a global government in the most fledgeling of forms, and you are here to assist in rolling it out.

  ‘It was originally based on a group of billionaires who, fifteen years ago, formed a club of men and women who pooled their wealth to ensure that the dwindling natural resources of the planet were protected.

  ‘After a string of financial crashes and the catastrophic sea-level rise, they stepped up to create the Phoenix Council which included government ministers from around the planet. The Phoenix Guard, which you have been recruited into, serves the Council needs as an elite force of men.

  Private Smith will take you to your temporary accommodation and get you settled in. We have an urgent need for a Phoenix Guard unit to be sent out to a resource hotspot in Europe, and you’ll shortly be given more information on that.

  ‘Located on the level below us is the GGC itself, which governs across the various countries and looks after the warlords and mayors, who run the megacities for us.

  ‘I will be responsible for leading your induction, and you will be split up for the briefings and activities. I have managed to access your military files and will go through them with you later. Any questions?’

  Killey raised his hand. ‘When do we eat?’

  Laughter broke out.

  ‘Very soon,’ Christina said.

  ‘Okay, we’re done here, for now, please follow Private Smith. He’ll get you sorted out and then bring you back here at fifteen hundred hours. That’s all, gentlemen,’ Christina said.

  Later that afternoon Gibbs and his men were taken to the Phoenix Chamber. Walking through the large doors, they looked around at all the dark wood panelling and took up their seats in front of the Grand Founders: Lord Butler, Andrei Kirilenko and Jürgen Kohler. After an hour of listening to the three men talk about the vision of the Phoenix Council and how the GGC was responsible for the implementations of those visions and goals, Gibbs could barely keep his eyes open. After a hectic two days, he was relieved to end it all and get some quality sleep.

  Christina then asked everyone to head back to his or her quarters.

  ‘Captain Gibbs, could you remain behind please?’ Andrei Kirilenko said.

  Gibbs nodded and remained in his seat, watching his men all file out of the room. He turned and looked at the men in front of him. His eyes flicked from one to the next. His jaw clenched as he recalled his reason for being here. Could one of these so-called Grand Founders be responsible for him and his men being framed for Mason Waterfield’s murder?

  ‘Captain Gibbs. I’ve studied your military file at length and am pleased that you have decided to join us. Do you have any questions at this stage?’ the Russian Grand Founder asked.

  ‘I have to admit it’s a lot to take in, especially as nothing outside that window is the way it used to be. Just to be clear, you want us to help you build a new global government?’

  ‘Not just to build it, Captain, but secure it. There is still anarchy, chaos and suffering out there and it is going to take a huge amount of effort on our part to stop it from gett
ing worse,’ Andrei Kirilenko said.

  ‘We are looking to set up numerous Guard units,’ Christina added. ‘Led by men like you, to have a presence at certain resource hotspots and help the local warlords and their under-trained armies to keep control. We currently have just such a situation that urgently requires a specialist unit to go out and spend time observing and offering assistance.’

  ‘What happened to all the armed forces that we had?’ Gibbs asked.

  ‘Many died in the Middle East Oil Wars, and the rest were disbanded when the governments collapsed because they couldn’t pay their men. The majority of these men have re-joined the European warlords or us,’ Andrei Kirilenko said.

  ‘Why don’t you send old Grumpy and his goons out there?’ Gibbs said. Andrei Kirilenko looked perplexed and turned to Christina.

  ‘Captain Schmidt and his unit are off to Hamburg and Berlin to assist the warlords there. We also have other Grand Founders visiting potential warlords, negotiating loyalty with other members,’ Christina said, trying to keep a straight face.

  ‘Okay. What situation are you referring to earlier?’

  ‘There is a large nuclear plant near a town called Givet in France. The Chooz plant is quite exposed as a target, and the Mayor of Givet has only a few security personnel to guard this important resource,’ Andrei Kirilenko said.

  ‘I take it we are to go out there and protect the plant, right?’ Gibbs said.

  ‘In a nutshell, yes,’ Christina said. ‘We have assembled a few more men to join you as we need to get your team number up to at least ten.’

  ‘Do I get to pick my men?’ Gibbs asked.

  ‘Yes, however, I would like to discuss your choices before we deploy them if that is okay.’

  Gibbs nodded. ‘I would obviously like to keep my four men, so that leaves another six. When are we expected to fly out?’

  ‘Yesterday,’ Andrei Kirilenko said.

  • • •

  Gibbs and Christina were sitting in her office going over files of possible candidates for his team. Gibbs had the files spread out next to him on the couch in front of the large windows and Christina was watching him from her desk.