Silence.
‘Hey, mate.’ Gibbs shouted, sticking his head through the small window. It was pitch dark outside.
After waiting a minute longer, he slowly walked back into the restaurant and sat down opposite Christina.
Chapter 40
Charles de Gaulle airport, Paris, France - 2028
The dew was beginning to settle as he moved through the long grass. He’d easily cleared security at the base because most of the guards were either sleeping or more interested in people breaking in. He went down on one knee and used his night vision binoculars to have a look at the farmhouse in the distance. With the help of the full moon, he could see a guard standing near what seemed to be the main door leading off a wide veranda. The man was oblivious to Gibbs’s presence, so he carried on scanning the nearby buildings and adjacent fields for any other guards but didn’t see any. The hair on the back of his neck rose.
He moved along a stone wall for a hundred yards and then back out onto the main road. Once on the dust road that led to the house, he scuffed his boots on the road to alert the guard of his presence. The guard quickly slipped his sub-machine gun off his shoulder and directed it straight at Gibbs, who was walking towards him with his hands in the air.
‘Captain Gibbs?’ the man asked.
Gibbs nodded and walked towards him. The guard, who was dressed in dark brown pants tucked into black boots and a green shirt, kept his weapon trained on Gibbs.
‘Please place weapons on the table,’ he said, English not being his first language.
Gibbs looked to his left at the small wooden table on the veranda. He slowly reached behind his back.
‘Slow please, Captain,’ the guard said, moving his sub-machine gun closer.
Gibbs nodded and removed his Sig226 and a large hunting knife. ‘That’s all I have, mate,’ he said and turned to face the guard, who looked down at Gibbs’s chest. He followed the guard’s gaze and saw a red laser dot over his heart. He smiled.
‘Thank you for your co-operation.’ The guard frisked him quickly, and then with a quick head gesture signalled Gibbs to enter the building.
Gibbs made his way through the main door into the dark interior and stood there for a minute as his eyes grew accustomed to the dark. He could see light filtering down the passage from another room. He walked forward and into what was once the kitchen. On the table were two candles and a large book. Gibbs was looking down at the book when he heard floorboards creaking from another passage to his right.
With his right hand, he released his knife that was hidden inside his left sleeve and spun around to see a man pointing a taser at his chest. Before he could say anything, he heard the puff of the taser exploding which sent barbed charges into his chest. The pain escalated as the charge pulsed through him and he fell to the floor, convulsing in a heap.
• • •
Gibbs’s throat felt like sandpaper as he slowly opened his eyes and looked up at the wooden ceiling. He tried to sit up, but every muscle in his body ached from the convulsing caused by the electrical charge. Light was filtering into the kitchen through gaps in the closed window shutters. He was surprised not to have been tied up, and even more surprised to see his knife and a pistol lying on the table alongside his watch. Eleven-thirty a.m. He quickly checked and found his pistol was still loaded.
He chambered a round in the Sig and slowly walked back down the wooden-floored passage to the back door, the pistol raised in front of him. A quick glance through a crack in the window revealed that the coast was clear. No guard to be seen. He slipped out the door and into the bright morning sun
He tried to get his head around what had just happened. Where was Vargen? Why subdue him, only to let him walk the next morning?
‘Christina,’ he whispered as the reality of the diversion sunk in.
He broke into a run up the dirt road and then veered off to his right through the tall dry grass to collect the kit that he had left in the field. ‘Rookie mistake, Gibbs,’ he said and upped his pace.
The three GGC guards were surprised to see him running up to them, only to flash his ID then run up to the main terminal. Slowing down, his heart sank as he saw that there was only one DC-3 standing on the apron. Had Christina left already or had his men been sent off without him?
Gibbs was walking towards the operations room when Shredder caught up with him. ‘You okay boss? It looks like you’ve been sleeping in a bloody bush. You two have a bit of a rough night?’
Gibbs glared at him. ‘Have you seen Christina at all this morning, Shredder?’
‘Yeah, I saw her at breakfast. She took off about two hours ago,’ Shredder replied.
‘You saw her get on the plane yourself?’
‘I was half expecting a ‘Gone With the Wind’ moment, with you running out of the terminal to stop the plane,’ Shredder said, and then frowned. “Where have you been and why didn’t you see her off?”
‘I’ll tell you later,’ Gibbs said and marched off towards the operations room.
Gibbs entered the ops room and looked around at the four GGC men who were seated in small cubicles. He glanced up at a large whiteboard that had the different air operations and sorties written on it. A young blond soldier who was sat near him looked up as he walked over
‘Has Deputy Minister Anderson’s plane landed yet?
The young man grimaced and pulled off his radio headset. Then a voice from behind him said. ‘Good day, Captain. What may we help you with?’
‘Can you confirm that Deputy Minister Anderson’s plane has landed safely in London?’
‘Please step this way, Captain.’ the young man said and walked into one of the meeting rooms to the side of the ops room. There was a rectangular table with eight chairs around it. Jugs of water and glasses were placed in the centre.
‘What is it?’
‘Captain Gibbs, I am Major Duncan, the officer on duty today. There is no easy way to break this to you, but the Deputy Minister’s plane is currently missing,’ he said.
‘What do you mean, missing?’
‘We have been in contact with GGC air traffic control in London and here in Paris, and based on the flight log and radio communication, contact was lost with her plane somewhere over the English Channel. We’re scanning all frequencies and will keep trying to find them. You might not be aware of this but the radar stations aren’t all operational, so it has been a difficult task.’
‘You don’t have a bloody clue where they are?’
‘We’re looking, Captain, but I must be honest here and say that based on the amount of time that has elapsed since the last broadcast, we fear the worst.’
Gibbs clenched his fist in anger and wanted to smash the man’s face in. He suddenly felt nauseous with his head felt like it was swimming. A wave of cold swept through him, and he ran over to the small wastepaper bin. His stomach clenched and heaved as he tried to throw up, but only bile dripped out of his mouth as his knees buckled and he fell to the floor.
He dry-heaved a few more times and then slowly struggled to his feet, wiping his mouth on his sleeve.
‘It’s possible they could have put down in a field somewhere,’ Gibbs said.
‘Of course, Captain.’
‘Major, let me know the minute you hear anything. I will help lead a search team.’
‘I’ll let you know, Captain.’
Gibbs walked out of the ops room and out into the sunlight, feeling lightheaded. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion.
‘Boss, you okay there? You look like shit,’ Shredder said.
‘The plane is gone…Gone,’ Gibbs mumbled and tried to explain to Shredder, but the words weren’t there.
‘I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye to her. She wasn’t supposed to.’ His voice trailed off as he stood staring at a fire extinguisher near the door.
Shredder took his arm and walked Gibbs over to some chairs in the old terminal and then whistled to Killey.
‘Stay here with t
he boss. Keep him talking. Something has freaked the shit out of him, and I need to get answers from the ops room.
• • •
The three men sat quietly at the table in the base canteen near a window that overlooked the long runway. No one spoke because the news of the past few hours was still too raw.
They heard someone clear his voice nearby and looked up to see Major Duncan standing near them. ‘Captain Gibbs, I have heard back from the GGC ops room in London, and I have bad news. One of their radar stations on the coast confirmed that the signal was lost over the channel. They are searching for the plane now but don’t have the resources to continue searching much past tomorrow. I am so sorry.’
‘Fuck that, mate. That’s not good enough,’ Gibbs shouted at the startled major. ‘They wanted her back in London, so they had better fucking keep looking for her.’
‘I understand your grief, but please try to remain calm Captain,’ Major Duncan said. ‘We hope that the search will locate the plane.’
‘You’d better hope that you find her,’ Gibbs said.
‘Thank you for the update, Major,’ Killey said, taking Gibbs by the arm and walking him out of the terminal. ‘Boss, let’s take a walk.’
‘We have to go and look for her, Killey,’ Gibbs said, taking in a long deep breath. ‘I cannot lose her like I did Sharon.’
‘I know, boss, but let’s do this right,’ Killey said as they walked over to Hanger Eleven that served as the quartermaster’s store.
Turning to Killey, Gibbs said. ‘Thanks for getting me outta there, mate.’
‘My job is to keep you out of trouble. What should we do now?’
‘I need you to cover for me, okay? The less you know, the less trouble you can get into,’ Gibbs replied.
He turned and walked in through the double doors and into a small reception area with a large pine-wood counter at the end. He walked up and thumped the small bell on it.
Okay, okay, I am coming,’ Bill Macleod shouted and appeared through a door to the right of the counter. ‘Hey, Gibbs. What can I do for you?’
‘Hello, Bill, I need a vehicle to take me to Calais to help search for the Deputy Minister’s missing plane.’
‘Gibbs, I’d love to help, mate, God knows I owe you my life, but I cannot give you a vehicle and fuel in these times. Everything is tightly controlled, and I’d be thrown in the brig,’ Macleod said.
‘Come on, Mac, it’s for a day or two, to go out and look for my girl. No one would notice.’
‘I would notice, Captain,’ a voice came from the main door, and when Gibbs turned, he saw the tall figure of the colonel approaching.
‘Colonel. Please!’
‘Sorry, Captain. I realise you feel the need to do something yourself, but I am the only one who can sign out vehicles from this base, and we just cannot spare any right now. I will personally contact the GGC in London and try and get them to extend the search on their side. They have better resources on their side,’ the colonel said.
Gibbs stared at him. ‘Thanks for the update, Colonel,’ Gibbs said and walked out of the warehouse.
As he stepped outside the warehouse, a deliveryman arrived at the main terminal in an old converted van. Without hesitating, Gibbs walked up to the van and as the man got out, grabbed him and threw him on the ground. The man tried to stop him, but Gibbs had already jumped in and was pulling away. Gibbs glanced down at the petrol tank. It was just below full.
Slamming his foot on the accelerator, the van sped down the main road away from the airport buildings.
The guards at the main gate suddenly came to life as he raced towards them, and Gibbs waited for them to raise their weapons towards the van. None of them did. They just ran to the side of the road and quickly opened the gate. One of the guards threw something, which looked like a spiky cable, across the road.
‘Fuck!’ he screamed.
At the last possible minute, Gibbs yanked the steering wheel to the left, and the van swerved, missing the metal-spiked stinger strips that spanned the tarred road. The guards jumped out of the way as the van’s front tyre hit a ditch next to the road and swerved the other way before rolling over. It flipped onto its roof, and then back onto its wheels and came to a halt in the ditch with the sound of crunching metal, as the axles snapped.
Gibbs opened his eyes, blood streaming from a cut on his head. ‘Christina,’ he whispered before passing out.
• • •
The thumping inside his head became worse as he tried to clear his vision. Memories of Christina came flooding back, and he quickly sat up. He raised his hand to his head and felt that bandages had been wrapped around it. Looking downwards, he could see he was on a wooden bunk, lying along a grey concrete wall. He swung his legs down and winced at the stiffness in his body from the accident and the electric charge he had received. Grey steel bars were in front of him, where a wall should have been. He was in a prison cell again.
Gibbs walked over to the bars and gripped them in his hands. ‘Hello!’ he shouted
A man in a GGC uniform came down the passage after a few minutes. ‘Is everything alright, Captain?’
‘Where the hell am I?’ he asked. ‘Is there any news about the plane?’
‘You are in the airbase brig, Captain, under the Colonel’s orders. I don’t know anything about a plane.’
‘Well, go and bloody fetch him so I can speak to him.’
The guard turned and said. ‘He told me to tell you to wait until tomorrow morning.’
Gibbs grabbed the bars and shook them with all his might, hurling insults at the disappearing man’s back.
• • •
‘Captain Gibbs, wake up.’
Gibbs stirred as the strong smell of aftershave filled his nostrils. Standing outside the small cell was a sad looking Lord Butler and the guard from the previous evening. Lord Butler was impeccably dressed, as always, in a dark grey suit with waistcoat, red tie and red pocket handkerchief.
‘Captain Gibbs,’ Lord Butler asked. ‘How are you?’
‘How the hell do you think I am? Is there any news about Christina?’
‘Corporal, would you excuse Captain Gibbs and me?’ he asked the guard, who nodded and headed down the passage.
‘No news about our girl I’m afraid, Captain. There was a short broadcast from the pilot of the plane, stating that were experiencing turbulence-like issues. That was the last broadcast.’
‘Well, what the fuck is the GGC going to do about it? She could be lying somewhere injured and dying,’ Gibbs snapped.
‘We could only spare two days of aircraft fuel for search and rescue, Captain. I wish we could do more for her.’
‘Well, clearly it’s not enough. You obviously just don’t care, Butler,’ Gibbs said, turning away and kicking the water jug and metal cup across the cell.
Lord Butler’s complexion darkened, his voice rising. ‘I loved Christina like the daughter I never had, so don’t you dare try and suggest otherwise. I loved her a long time before you came into her life, Gibbs. I will do everything I can to find her, but she wouldn’t want us to waste valuable fuel on a prolonged search.’
Gibbs turned back to face him.
‘I know this is a terrible time for you,’ Lord Butler continued. ‘But, I have been sent to make sure that you cooperate and complete your mission to Poland.’
‘You are bloody joking, right. When I get out of here, I’m going to look for my girlfriend,’ Gibbs said.
‘Everything that can be done to find Christina will be done, Captain Gibbs. I will see to that personally. In the meantime, the Council has instructed me to tell you that if you don’t go to Poland, your uncle and aunt from Edinburgh will be arrested and hauled to prison to serve time on your behalf. They have said that Markus will be sent to effect the arrest,’ Lord Butler said.
‘You bastards! You mean to tell me, that they are still alive? I thought that they’d died,’ Gibbs said.
‘Markus tracked them down before you wer
e released from the prison ship,’ Lord Butler said.
‘And the true treacherous motives of the GGC and Phoenix Council are revealed. They’ll do whatever they please, to get what they want,’ Gibbs said. ‘You did tell me that you are the Phoenix Council, so can do anything you like.
Lord Butler’s eyes narrowed. ‘It’s not like that, Captain.’
‘Did Christina know? She said that she had no idea what happened to them.’
Lord Butler looked down at his hands. ‘No, Gibbs,’ Lord Butler said. ‘That information was kept from her.’
Gibbs sighed and closed his eyes. The image of her beautiful, smiling face fresh in his memory. Why didn’t he tell her how he felt?
‘Look, Captain, you have to be smart here. Do your job and finish the Poland mission. The Phoenix Council will look very favourably upon you, and I’ll suggest that they expunge you and your men’s criminal records and consider your debt to society paid,’ Lord Butler said.
‘Do you think I’d trust your word or any other of the idiots in the Council for that matter?’ Gibbs said. ‘You already know that I believe one of you people set my men and me up for those murder charges.’
Lord Butler eyes narrowed, and he shook his head. ‘What would Christina say if she was here? I bet she would tell you to finish the mission. The truth is that if she is alive and well, she will be found. If she died in the crash, there is nothing more you can do, and as tough as it may seem, you have to move on and look after your future.’
Gibbs looked at the man standing on the other side of the bars. It seemed a big roll of the dice for a Grand Founder to make the trip to convince him in person. They needed him more than he needed them.
‘Fine, Lord Butler. If this mission is so important to you, I will complete it, but know this. I am doing it for Christina, and when it is done, I will be coming for the man who set me up.’
Chapter 41
Charles de Gaulle airport, Paris, France - 2028
Gibbs led his men out onto the open tarmac to the silver DC-3 Dakota. The old Royal Air Force insignia fading on the fuselage and tail hinted at many years of service. Two crewmen had just finished filling up the tanks under heavy armed guard as they transferred the precious fuel from the fuel tankers to the plane.
The Journey of Kyle Gibbs Box Set Page 47