***
7000 miles away, Erika’s plane was touching down, the Prime Minister of Sweden’s daughter was arriving home in disgrace. Her parents were so angry that they had not even travelled to the airport to pick her up, opting instead to send their driver.
Leo followed closely behind as the young girl made her way through the airport, his jammer causing havoc to every mobile phone within a 200 yard radius.
Erika had been trying desperately to call Madeleine since she landed but couldn’t get a signal to dial her. She’d call her from the car.
***
Pieter could see the outline of the yacht as it appeared through the greyness. His ten men began to prepare, cocking their weapons but keeping them out of sight. They were only interested in the two kids, even Ling was expendable.
***
Leo called Reaper.
“She’s about to get into the car, what do you want me to do?”
Reaper paused. He hadn’t heard how the mission had gone yet. If it failed, he couldn’t risk the girl talking, even leaving a voicemail would be a disaster.
“Kill her.”
***
“What the hell is that?” screamed Zach looking out across the water.
“Tristan hard to Port!!” screamed Lela.
***
Pieter heard the scream and looked at his men, no weapons were evident and the yacht was still over 50 yards away.
***
Leo dialled a number and the explosive he had smuggled into the girl’s handbag as she had waited for her luggage exploded. The car she was in was ripped to shreds as the extremely powerful C4 explosive killed not only the girl but her driver and a number of innocent passers-by. He was already out of the airport before it was closed down.
***
“Jesus Christ, it’s going to hit us!!” screamed Chen.
The water began to bubble in reaction to some kind of underwater explosion. Then came a huge torpedo like mass bursting through the surface, coming directly towards them.
***
“Get the weapons over the side!” commanded Pieter as the submarine surfaced in front of his eyes. Any closer and his boat would have been sunk.
His men quickly changed persona and became the fishermen their disguises alluded to. A distant rumble announced the arrival of even more firepower, a special Ops motor boat thundered into view at over 50 knots, Pieter flinching as it headed straight for his boat and stopped at a skid by his side. Ten heavily armed soldiers jumped onto their boat and holding his men at gunpoint searched his vessel. Even though the all clear was given, the officer on board did not order their release.
Just when Pieter thought he had seen it all, two Apache attack choppers appeared. They had obviously been checking the surrounding ocean.
***
The Captain of the USS Texas, the US navy’s newest Attack Sub took control. He boarded the yacht and discovered that it appeared the children had simply sailed the wrong way. However, Ahmad protested indignantly that they were definitely sailing the correct way, the Captain checked their compass, it was working fine, east was in the opposite direction. While everybody had been watching the Submarine surface, Ling had removed the small magnet she had placed on the compass the night before.
“Where’s Tom Kennedy?” asked the Captain.
A hand was raised from the body slumped over the railing. Tom was still being sick.
“Why?” asked Lela. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, I just wanted to say well done. It was him who told us you guys were in trouble. He called us on his satellite phone and we latched on to his signal. If it wasn’t for him, you guys would have been in Africa before you knew it. You were going completely the wrong way.”
Ahmad began to protest again but the Captain just pointed to the compass and shut him up.
After twenty minutes, the captain gave the all clear to release the fishing trawler, concluding it had all been an innocent error by inexperienced sailors and that the fishermen had nothing to do with it. Miss Sullivan was checked by the doctor and flown back to the school’s hospital while class 1H jumped on the Mark V Special Ops boat and were transported back to the school in less than thirty minutes, much to Tom’s relief.
***
The twins were surprised to see their targets back. They had seen the commotion and had wondered what had happened, it was only by chance that they had wondered down to the marina and seen the Special Ops boat pull into the Marina and drop them off. They were not supposed to be back on duty until that afternoon. With the targets back, duty recommenced earlier than expected.
***
Pieter called Reaper the second he was clear of the area. Reaper listened carefully before placing the call to the client.
“What is it?” asked the client.
“It’s back to the original plan, we failed.”
“I know,” replied the client angrily before hanging up, no goodbyes, no pleasantries.
Part Four
Chapter 37
Only twelve hours to the ‘Go’ command. All the camps had been disbanded, leaving no trace of their existence. Over the previous week, Reaper’s operatives had moved into place. It had been a logistical nightmare. Reaper could not believe the number of warnings which flashed up on some of the terrorists’ passports. Over 60% of his operatives would have been arrested at customs had they used their own names so they were provided with fake passports. Commissioning some 130 forgeries had been no small task. Routes to their final destination were carefully planned to ensure that no patterns emerged which may alert the CIA, the FBI, MI6, MI5, Mossad, Interpol or any other counter terrorist or intelligence network. With only one day to go, everything was going exactly to plan.
Leo remained in Scotland with Reaper while Pieter remained in Mozambique with his ten elite mercenaries. Pieter’s role was to ensure that everything went to plan at the school. Leo and Reaper would take care of business in Scotland with the remaining forty operatives and their elite mercenaries, one of whom was a communications’ specialist.
Reaper had received regular calls from his client over the previous seven days. He knew that the reason behind the operation was a commercial one but he was unsure as to whether the deal directly affected the client. He did not know whether his client was the top man or whether he was the puppet for someone else. Over the last few calls, the client had become increasingly anxious and had let a few things slip. Reaper now knew that he was definitely dealing with the top man and that whoever he was, he was very powerful with an inexhaustible list of contacts. From those clues, Reaper narrowed down his client’s identity to one of three possible individuals. He wasn’t sure which one, but on reviewing the mission plan again and its consequences, two stood out as the most likely contenders but he could not rule out a third.
Reaper’s planning room had now become his communications hub. Satellite links connected him to his four teams of operatives.
Kevin and Erich, the Team Leaders in the Idaho camp, had had an horrendous journey to the school. Despite that, they had moved into position with their terrorists and were ready for the Go command. However, they had lost two operatives on the way, arrested for a racially motivated murder committed the previous year.
Their headsets buzzed into life.
“Reaper here. Team Idaho, what is your position?”
“We are on station and ready to Go,” responded Kevin.
Fadi and Muhammad, from the Syrian camp, had had as similarly tortuous journey with their team but were now in position outside the school, ready to Go.
“Reaper here. Team Syria, what is your position?”
“We are on station and ready to Go,” responded Fadi.
Mark and Leroy, from the Zimbabwe camp, had had the easiest journey. They were excited, fresh and itching to go. The school was directly in front of them.
“Reaper here. Team Zimbabwe, what is your position?”
“We are on station and ready to Go,” responded Leroy.<
br />
Andrej and Marco, from the Colombian camp, had had the worst journey of all the groups. They had managed to lose five of their team as a result of over efficient border guards and immigration officers. Marco had had a close call himself and was only able to continue on his travels by disposing of two police officers. Their decimated team was nonetheless in position and ready to Go.
“Reaper here. Team Colombia, what is your position?”
“We are on station and ready to Go,” replied Marco.
Reaper was ecstatic. In twelve hours, he would issue the Go command and the teams would move.
However, he was concerned about the losses in transit and made a couple of phone calls. These would ensure that the seven men who had been arrested would not discuss the mission with anybody. Within an hour of their arrests, they were all dead, each receiving a bullet through the head. As they were arrested in different countries, it would take months for the intelligence communities to link the murders.
***
The twins were increasingly concerned about their commander’s attitude towards them. He was acting very strangely and had made them both stand guard for twelve hours at the same time. They had protested that they did not like working on the same rota but the commander dismissed their complaint and ordered them to remain on gate duty together. This meant that they could not keep an eye on their targets and could not even file a report to that effect as they could not move from their posts.
It had been a blisteringly hot day and even though the twins were super fit, the heat in their full kit was unbearable, the sweat was pouring off of them. A group of rowdy soldiers walked passed carrying canteens of water. One of the twins shouted out to them.
“Hey guys, give us a canteen, this heat is killing us!”
“Sorry. We can’t. These have to go to Hut 8.”
“Come on, we can’t move from here, just give us one, we’re dying here.”
The soldier looked over to one of his colleagues who shrugged his shoulders and said “OK.”
The canteen was tossed over to the twins and within seconds they drank the lot. They looked at each other in relief but were deeply worried. They were failing in their mission and they did not like failure.
***
It had been a very difficult week at The Academy. Erika’s death had stunned the whole school. It was believed that Erika was killed in an assassination attempt on her father. However, nobody was claiming responsibility for it and the evidence was leading nowhere fast. Erika’s father had immediately resigned as PM following the death of his daughter, the guilt of not meeting her at the airport would haunt him forever. Her best-friend Madeleine had been a complete wreck and was sent home to Sweden, nobody knew when or if she would return.
Even Ms Anderson had shown some compassion allowing Tom and Tristan to stay with their friends on the Sunday rather than join her for lunch. Although she did make it clear, that it was only for one week. They were to be back the following week as normal.
Chapter 38
Rachel was worried. Donald had hardly slept in the last week. The IBC deal was wearing him down.
“Donald enough of that, come to bed, it’s late.”
“I just need to go through this draft and then I’ll come.”
“No Donald, you’re coming right now. There won’t be a deal if you’re dead and at this rate, you’ll be dead within the hour because I’m going to kill you if you don’t come to bed and get some sleep.”
“OK but I need to get up at 4.00 a.m. to read through it.”
“OK, we’ll see.”
Donald undressed and got into bed.
“It was great to see the kids tonight. They seem to be loving the school,” said Rachel changing the subject.
“Oh, I forgot to tell you. I spoke to Mr Sakamoto today.”
Rachel sat up.
“What did he say?”
“Nothing much. It was just a quick call. The kids are doing great, they seem to have a great bunch of friends and some really nice classmates.”
“We know that from the kids. How’s he getting on?”
“He’s loving it although he’s been lumbered with an incompetent deputy called Weadle or Beadle or something. Anyway, he’s a right little weasel and has trouble written all over him. So he’s spending a lot of time watching his back.”
“Why the hell doesn’t he just sack him?”
“He’s looked into to it but it’s not that easy. The governors control appointments and they’re unmovable for some reason. I’ll have a word with Sam Mitcham after the IBC deal’s done and see if we can help.”
“When will the deal be finalised?” asked Rachel wishing the deal had never happened.
“Monday at noon. I’ll sign the papers and everything happens there and then. It’s actually quite unique in that the moment I sign, I take full control. Everything is in place. The owners of IBC and some of their senior managers have already checked out or retired. The signing on Monday just makes it legal.”
“But what happens if anything goes wrong between now and then and you don’t sign?”
“That’s not worth considering but even if I get hit by a bus, as unlikely as that is, any of the Alba International Directors can sign on my behalf and the deal will still be legal. What’s this?” asked Donald, pointing to a glass on his bedside table.
“A little treat, a hot toddy to help you sleep,” said Rachel.
“Lovely, thank you,” said Donald as he drank the mixture of honey and malt whisky.
Two minutes later, Donald was sound asleep and the hot toddy, a Rachel speciality, would ensure he slept through the night, especially as Rachel had switched his alarm off.
Chapter 39
“GO, GO, GO!!!” shouted Reaper. The operation began.
“Roger,” responded Kevin first as he relayed the Go message to his team. Team Idaho moved in. Each operative moved exactly as they had been trained over the previous seven weeks. Within two minutes, they had entered the school. Fifty armed men moved from corridor to corridor, rounding up students as they went, hunting for the two faces which had been imprinted on their memories. They experienced little resistance and any hint of it was stamped out brutally.
“Roger,” said Marco as he gave the Go command to his team.
Team Colombia moved in. Again, the operatives moved as one, trained to perfection. They too entered the school within two minutes and rounded up students and teachers alike. All operatives hunting down the two faces emblazoned in their memories.
“Roger,” responded Fadi who screamed the command to his operatives. Team Syria attacked and found the greatest resistance of all the groups. Five were cut down by guards and the group took five minutes to penetrate the school. After another two minutes, they secured the area and began rounding up stray students. Fadi and Muhammad were concerned about the level of violence being used by their operatives against the students and they used all their strength to regain control. They realised that, over the previous seven weeks, they had wound up their group into too much of a frenzy about their targets. They wanted them alive not in bits.
“Roger,” said Leroy, passing on the command. Team Zimbabwe made its way into the school with no resistance whatsoever. Within five minutes, they had complete control and the operatives were slowly but surely mopping up stragglers while hunting for the two faces they had really come for.
“Team Idaho here. Perimeter established and now in control. We’re still finding students but have not found the targets yet,” reported Kevin.
“Team Colombia here. Perimeter established and now in control. Stragglers are still being found but we have not yet located the targets,” reported Marco.
“Team Zimbabwe now in control. Perimeter established. Targets still being sought,” reported Leroy.
“Team Syria, in control and full perimeter established. Targets have been spotted and are being tracked,” reported Fadi.
Chapter 40
“What the hell is going on?
” Tom asked Lela.
“I don’t know but there’s a lot of commotion out there.”
Their classroom overlooked the army base. The Accounts class came to a halt as the activity outside became manic, beyond any normal training activity. Their teacher was not the most dynamic man. Tom was sure that he read spreadsheets like other people read novels. In any event, with open warfare apparently breaking out just beneath his classroom, he had no idea what to do.
As they continued to watch events unfold, helicopters started to arrive. Tom assumed they came from the naval base seventy five miles to the North West. Ten minutes and ten helicopters later, a naval frigate pulled into the bay just outside the barracks. Whatever was happening was serious.
The students had received emergency procedure training on their second day at school. They had been in the middle of a French lesson when two fully armed soldiers rushed into the class and ushered them out of the building and through a network of tunnels under the school. They continued to usher the students through until they emerged at a dock where a flotilla of naval boats was waiting for them and which they promptly boarded. It was only once all the students were on board that the Headmaster announced that they had taken part in an emergency evacuation exercise and that they should congratulate themselves on completing the drill two minutes faster than the time required by the Health and Safety manuals.
Kidnap (The Billionaire Series) Page 16