Tom and Lela played host to their neighbours all evening. They eventually said goodnight to the last of their guests at around midnight. It appeared that there were no set rules for bedtime.
“So what do you think?” Tom asked Lela.
“Very, very cool. You?”
“Unbelievably awesome!”
“They’re all so nice, especially Mia. We’ve got so much in common.”
“I know, they’re all great. Chen was nice, really laid back and I can’t believe Tristan and Ahmad are here, that’s just brilliant!”
“Anyway, I’m exhausted, I think we should get to bed. I’ve got a funny feeling that tomorrow is going to be a very busy day,” said Lela, yawning.
Tom took the hint and made his way to his room. Before going to sleep, he decided to read his briefing pack which informed him that lessons would start each morning at 8.00 a.m., Monday to Friday. There would be a mid-morning break at 10.00 a.m. and lunch was between 12.15 p.m. and 1.30 p.m.. The afternoon session would end at 4.30 p.m.. Saturday consisted of a half day sports session which started at 10.00 a.m. and finished at 2.00 p.m.. Sunday was a free day of leisure but Tom had a funny feeling that probably meant homework. The briefing pack went into detail about restaurant times, extra curricular activities and the facilities available. There was also a copy of the ‘School Rules’ which seemed surprisingly brief:
“All students should behave as would be expected of young ladies and gentleman of their standing. Failure to do so at any time will result in instant expulsion.”
Tom couldn’t work out whether this was a good thing or a bad thing. It was surprisingly concise.
The briefing pack also informed him that he didn’t need the vast array of alarm clocks which his mother had packed for him. Tom did not wake easily and no single alarm clock could ever wake him. This had worried his mother and so Tom was equipped with four alarm clocks which, after rigorous testing and experimentation, had proved to be effective. The first alarm was subtle, tugging at his subconscious. The next was slightly louder with a gentle tone to slowly penetrate his consciousness. The next was louder and would persevere to the point of full alertness. The next could wake the dead and terrorised anyone nearby. Tom’s father said that anyone who remembered the war would run to their bomb shelter if they heard “that bloody thing” go off. Tom hated the final alarm, it really was brutal and that was the point. After hearing it twice, his brain forced him to wake-up by the third alarm to avoid the last one going off. His mother had cracked it.
However, after all the experimentation, it would all be redundant. The school operated its own alarm system to ensure the students were woken up at 7.00 a.m. Tom was relieved and didn’t bother setting his complicated series of clocks and went straight to sleep.
***
Ling made contact with Reaper. She had worried that she may find it difficult to maintain the charade of her new role but, to her surprise, she found it very easy. Nobody had suspected a thing. She booted up the small mobile device and sent off her encrypted report. This was going to be the easiest $1 million she had ever made.
***
The twins, on the other hand, were concerned. Although they had spent three weeks preparing the area for surveillance, they had hoped that their targets would not pick one of the seven super secure blocks. Their hopes were shattered and their vantage points severely restricted due to the presence of extra security which was surprisingly covert. The twins stumbled across a number of hidden and occupied security look-outs on their search for vantage points, pleading ignorance as they made their apologies. Whoever was in charge of security was not only affording this area of the school substantially more protection than the rest, but they did not want anybody to know about it.
The twins tapped into the base’s surveillance camera network and were able to call up individual cameras on every square inch of the island. Although these covered their blind-spots, including the back entrance to their targets’ block, this did not quell their concerns. Cameras were all well and good but were no substitute for human eyes. They filed their report, moved into position and began their surveillance of the building.
***
Reaper was ecstatic. His secure mobile mail retrieval system was pinging every few minutes as sit-reps (situation reports) flooded in. The one which excited him most was the note from Ling. She had infiltrated the school beautifully and had spent the evening with the targets. The Ling angle was perfect. Had he thought of it earlier, he could have saved time haggling with greedy soldiers and just used Ling. He then reminded himself, however, that it was always good to have a fall-back plan.
In less than four weeks, the action phase would begin. The feedback from each of the camps was excellent. The terrorists had been provided with photographs of the targets and told various false stories about them to incite their bigoted and fanatical hatred. This tactic had worked predictably well, perhaps too well. Reaper’s Team Leaders informed him that such was the terrorists’ hatred for the children, it was going to take a monumental effort to stop them from shooting the children on sight.
Chapter 28
“Tom!” Lela shouted, banging on his door.
“Tom! Wake up! It’s 10.30!”
“What, what …what is it… what’s going on, 10.30… it can’t be.” Tom stumbled out of bed and opened the door.
Lela laughed.
“You really are useless in the morning!”
“I take it you were joking about it being 10.30, we start school at 8?”
“No, I’m not joking but didn’t you read the briefing paper?”
“Yes I did, cover to cover, before going to sleep, actually.”
“And the welcome note from the Headmaster?”
“No, didn’t bother with that usual guff, you know ‘Hi. I am glad you’re here...hope your flight was OK...look forward to meeting you all soon’ blah, blah, blah.”
“Well, actually, it wasn’t. It said that as students and teachers were still arriving, school wouldn’t start until Tuesday. We’ve got the whole day off to do whatever we want!”
“Excellent!! So what are you still doing here and why am I not still sleeping?”
Sleep was sacrosanct to Tom and Lela knew that.
“Simple. A few of the guys are going to explore the island and I thought you’d want to come.”
“Who’s going?”
“Tristan, Ahmad, Mingmei, Mia and Chen.”
“OK, give me ten minutes,” he said as he disappeared into the bathroom and got into the shower.
“Hi guys,” said Tom to the waiting group, five minutes later.
“Right, let’s go, I’m starving,” said Tristan as he led the way to the restaurant, everybody reliving their first night at school. Lela seemed to have made friends very easily with Mingmei, Mia and Chen. Tom presumed that this affinity was connected to their shared oriental blood lines.
Tom was interrupted from his thoughts by Tristan.
“Hey, you should see the babe in the block next to us. She is so fit!”
“Which block?” asked Tom.
“The one to the left as you come out the front of our building.”
“That would be the fifth years’ block, she must be seventeen!” he said raising his eyes, would Tristan never give up?
“So?”
“You are thirteen and your voice hasn’t fully broken,” said Tom scathingly.
“She won’t be interested,” added Ahmad slightly more tactfully.
“How do you know?” asked Tristan indignantly.
“Oh, forget it.”
Tom and Ahmad were exasperated, as usual, with Tristan’s attempts at womanising and illusions of grandeur. They had never seen him with a girl and as far as they could gather, he blushed every time one came close. He would tell them stories of girls he had met in London but failed miserably to prove it.
“We’ll see,” were his final words on the subject.
“Come on guys, hurry up the pace,” said Che
n who had dropped back to wait for the boys.
“Ah, Chen, decided to join the boys then. Girls talking about hair and nails,” said Ahmad jokingly.
“No, actually, they were talking about you,” he replied straight faced.
“What? What were they saying?” Ahmad looked worried.
“Only joking, as if they were talking about you!” teased Chen and everyone laughed.
“What’s so funny?” asked Lela as the boys caught up with them at the entrance to the restaurant.
“Nothing, just boy talk,” said Chen.
“OK. Let’s eat!”
As Lela walked away, Tom turned to Chen.
“How did you get away with that? I would have been grilled for hours as to what exactly boy’s talk meant,” said Tom.
“Natural charm, my friend. Although I have to admit, I’m used to dealing with my older sister.”
“What year is she in?” Tristan asked, instantly interested.
“She’s not here, she’s quite a bit older than me,” answered Chen.
“Well, let’s eat,” said Tristan losing interest as quickly as he had gained it.
The food was excellent, dispelling Tom’s concerns that they had put a show on for Sam Mitcham. They had managed to catch the breakfast menu which was the only self-service meal of the day and there was a choice of every conceivable breakfast from around the world. Despite this, Tom made his first complaint. He spoke to the restaurant manager and pointed out that in Scotland, potato scones were a breakfast staple and were far tastier than the anglicised hash brown. The restaurant manager apologised and asked for the recipe to ensure Tom would not be disappointed again. Tom offered to send an e-mail to his mother and forward the recipe.
As he walked back to his table of friends, they all laughed. He had only been out of his room for thirty minutes and was already making waves.
“Tom, you really are outrageous! As if there wasn’t enough to choose from,” said Lela embarrassed by what he had just done.
“Yes, but everybody else’s national breakfast is here. In fact, I should have made the case for square sausage,” he replied stubbornly.
“You’re unbelievable, trust you to spot the one thing they don’t do,” said Lela.
“Well actually, that’s two things they don’t do but I’ll leave the sausage for another day,” said Tom.
“Well guys, now you know why Tom’s motto is ‘If you don’t ask you don’t get’,” said Lela.
“Not quite, it’s ‘if you ask you get’. It’s not often that you don’t get what you ask for.”
“So what shall we do after breakfast?” asked Ahmad.
“We could take one of the golf carts and do a tour of the grounds?” said Chen.
“Are we allowed to drive them?” asked Mia.
“Yep.”
“Cool,” said Tristan. “Who wants a race?”
“Tristan, they only go at 15mph, we can run faster than that,” replied Chen.
“Sounds great to me,” said Lela.
As they made their way out of the restaurant, they bumped into Oleg who was waiting by the entrance, alone.
“Hi Oleg, we’re going for a tour of the grounds, do you want to come with us?” asked Tom.
“No, it’s OK thanks. I’ve got to wait here for my brother, Yuri, well my step-brother actually.”
“Are you sure? It should be fun.”
“No, I’d better wait. Yuri’s expecting to meet me here.”
“OK, we’ll catch you later then.”
They made their way around the corner to the carts. As they approached, there were only two carts left, it was obviously a popular idea. Oleg suddenly appeared from around the corner. Tom was delighted that he had changed his mind.
“Hi, Oleg, glad you changed your mind,” he shouted.
Before Oleg had a chance to respond, a large forearm pushed him aside.
“Leave those carts, they’re ours,” came a booming voice.
Tom and his friends had just reached the carts and were in the process of getting into them. There were four seats in each and room for only one more person.
“What do you mean, they’re yours,” Tom shouted back. “I don’t think so.”
Before they knew it, seven large boys surrounded them. Oleg was with them but hanging back, looking frightened and ashamed.
“Yuri, just leave them, they got to the carts first,” said Oleg weakly.
“What did you say?” Yuri hit his younger step-brother across the face with the back of his hand. “Don’t tell me what to do, you little runt. Now you lot, get the hell out of those carts before you get the same treatment.”
Oleg fell to the ground and crawled away from his step-brother. Lela jumped out of her cart and ran to check whether Oleg was alright.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” said Tom, enraged.
“Just get out of the carts so we won’t have to deal with the rest of you in the same way,” said one of the thugs accompanying Yuri. They were much larger than Tom’s group of friends and very intimidating.
Mingmei and Mia jumped out of one of the carts to join Lela, leaving one of the carts empty. Four of the thugs immediately jumped in. Chen, Tristan, Ahmad and Tom remained in the other cart and had no intention of moving.
Yuri and two thugs moved closer, surrounding the four younger students.
“Move! Now!” commanded Yuri.
“No way! This is our cart. We were here first,” said Chen.
“I’m really starting to lose my patience. Get out before you get hurt,” said Yuri.
“Guys, just give them it and let them be all macho and big,” said Lela who wanted the confrontation to end.
“Why should we?” said Tom.
“Come on Tom, Oleg is hurt, just give them the cart and let’s get Oleg checked out.”
“OK, let’s go. Let the animals have it,” said Tom to his friends.
Yuri and the two thugs barged onto the cart, pushing Chen to the ground. Chen jumped up to retaliate but was stopped by Ahmad who put a friendly arm across his body. The thugs laughed at the angry Chen.
“Don’t make me laugh little boy,” Yuri said to Chen as he pushed the accelerator and left the scene with his band of thugs.
As the carts departed, everyone rushed to Oleg’s side.
“Are you OK?”
“I’ve had worse. I’m just so sorry for the behaviour of my step-brother.” Oleg was truly mortified.
“How long has he been your step-brother?” asked Lela.
“Too long. About two years. My dad married Yuri’s mother and he came as a bonus. My father’s completely besotted by his mother and Yuri can do no wrong in her eyes. So, my life has become a nightmare.”
“Does he hit you often?”
“All the time,” said Oleg as he lifted his T-shirt to show his friends a collection of bruises, from dark purple to greenish yellow.
“Who are the thugs?”
“That’s his gang. They used to rule the roost at our old school in Moscow. All their parents are very rich and untouchable. Nobody dares mess with them, even the Headmaster. They could do anything they wanted and nobody could stop them. They even put a boy in hospital they beat him so badly.”
“That behaviour won’t be tolerated here,” said Mia.
“So what should we do?” asked Chen who had calmed down.
“We can speak to the Headmaster,” replied Lela. “He’ll have to act and their parents can’t help them here, whoever they are.”
“You must be joking, absolutely not! Yuri would kill me!”
“But without you explaining what happened, the Headmaster can’t do anything.”
“So be it. I’ve put up with him for two years. As long as I stay out of his way, I’ll be OK. If I go against him, he will kill me. He has promised me that if I ever betray him, it will be the last thing I ever do.”
“What about your father, can’t he help you?”
“I’ve tried but my step-m
other gets involved, twists my dad around, she tells Yuri and I get a beating. Trust me, I can’t win.”
Everybody was lost for words, angry and disgusted at Yuri and his friends and what they had put Oleg through.
“Look,” said Lela. “We need to calm down and think about what is best for everyone involved. Let’s take some time out and consider our options.”
The rest of the morning and early afternoon were spent on the beach. The temperature was perfect, it was spring on the island and to Tom and Lela, it felt like a perfect summer’s day. The beach was very popular and by the time they got there, it was swarming with students, most of whom were well known to Tom and Lela.
“Is there anybody on this beach you don’t know?” Chen asked Tom.
“A few people. I don’t know her, the one Tristan is drooling over,” Said Tom pointing to the girl Tristan could not keep his eyes off. “No seriously, I know about half of them.”
“How come?” enquired Chen.
“Ever since we could walk, my father took Lela and I on business trips to see the world and so we grew up meeting people from governments and businesses from everywhere. To make life easier for him and more amusing for us, he usually arranged for us to meet and play with the children of whoever he was visiting.”
“Wicked! You must have been to lots of cool places.”
“Yeah, I think that by the time we were ten, we’d seen a third of the countries in the world,” replied Tom.
Oleg and Tristan interrupted the conversation as they came running up the beach having just been for a dip in the water.
“So how are you doing Oleg?” Tom asked.
“He’s absolutely fine. Don’t worry, he has the girls circling round making sure he’s OK,” said Tristan.
“You’re just jealous!” shouted Oleg.
“Damn right, I am!” Tristan shouted back. “Perhaps Yuri can whack me later and I can get fussed over like you!”
“I’m sure that can be arranged!” offered Oleg.
“On second thoughts, I’ll give it a miss thanks,” replied Tristan.
“What, don’t you want our nursing skills, aren’t we good enough for you?” teased Lela.
Kidnap (The Billionaire Series) Page 11