Project Reaper
Page 3
This incident had resulted in a news blackout; however, Ruth decided to investigate this apparently new-armed military unit. Subsequently she had followed Strayker to Saltbox Hill near Biggin Hill, the secret location for ICIS Intelligence Collating Information
Services.
She had been tranquilized from a rifle shot; when she had awoken she found herself in a cell.
Ruth had been offered a deal to quit her current position and join the OSC as their press envoy a deal that she had accepted.
Her thoughts were interrupted by Max, “a penny for your thoughts?”
She looked over at Max, “sorry darling I was just reminiscing our first encounter.”
“A lot of water has passed under the bridge in the short time since then,” replied Max.
A waiter approached, “are you ready to order sir?”
After the meal they returned to their villa.
As the door closes, Max turns Ruth quickly around and embraces her, their lips touch, slow long and probing kisses, Max guides her to the bed and they both move onto it still embraced.
Their mouths part, Max looks into her beautiful eyes and spoke, “Strayker reminded me that you are government property and to look after you, I told him you would be in good hands.”
Ruth let out a laugh, “Max Storm; I am going to hold you to your promise,” she reached for his T-shirt and pulled it over his head and quickly yanked his shorts off.
Max looked up at her, “steady on girl; don’t forget I am
Government property too.”
Ruth straddled him and began kissing his mouth, trailing the kisses down to his ears, neck and chest.
Max could feel his erection pressing against Ruth’ body. Ruth moved down to his manhood and she guided his erect penis into her mouth.
Their lovemaking was prolonged and satisfying.
Heathrow Airport
London
Lat = 51 degrees, 28.3 minutes North
Long = 0 degrees, 27.1 minutes West
Wednesday 21st December 1988
Seventeen hundred hours GMT
Professor Hooke was waiting in line to acquire his ticket for the eighteen hundred hours flight to New York’s JFK airport; he looked at his watch, three-ten pm.
As always, the airport was extremely busy, but today it was bursting at the seams with people making their Christmas holiday flights.
For the past five days he had been held captive at an unknown location, he had been treated well by his captors, this morning he had been given very specific instructions, from which he had identified as the leader of the kidnappers.
The man whom identified himself as Ramón was obviously South American, Ramón had instructed him to accompany him to Heathrow airport and collect pre-booked tickets in his name for the eighteen hundred hours flight to New York’s JFK airport, Professor Hooke had been sternly advised to follow Ramón’s instructions if he wanted to see his family alive again.
His thoughts were broken when the ticket clerk called
Him to the desk along with Ramón giving him a gentle nudge.
“Passport please sir,” Professor Hooke handed his passport over; the ticket clerk checked it against her itinerary, that showed the ticket had been pre-booked.
“Have you any luggage sir?”
“No; my luggage went with my family last week,” he replied.
“Smoking or non-smoking?”
“Non-smoking.”
“Would you prefer a window seat sir?”
“That will do nicely,” replied Professor Hooke.
The ticket clerk printed of the boarding pass and handed it to the Professor along with his passport, “have a pleasant flight sir.”
The Professor turned away.
Ramón walked over to him, “their Professor that was nice and easy, co-operate and your family will remain safe.”
Ramón and the professor walked over to a man seated nearby, who bore a similar appearance to the professor, “now give this man your boarding tickets.”
“But; how will I board the plane?”
“We have a different flight to catch professor.”
Professor Hooke handed the boarding tickets over to
the stranger, “now follow me; our plane is taking of in
Twenty-minutes.”
In the same queue was Major General Strayker, he too was flying to New York’s JFK airport on the eighteen hundred hours flight however; he did not make the checking in desk.
A government official had approached him and he was now on his way back to OSC in Whitehall place.
Ramón led Professor Hooke to a private charter flight,
as soon as he boarded the Learjet 31, it began taxing to one of the runways.
The pilot approached runway twenty-seven Lima and lined the aircraft up for take-off.
“Tower to Learjet Charlie Papa 89 Hotel; you are cleared for take-off.”
The pilot replied in accented South American English, “copy that tower; commencing take off.”
The twin powerplant Garrett TFE731-2 turbofan engines powered the plane down runway twenty-seven Lima into the westerly skies, climbing at five thousand four hundred and eighty feet per minute.
Charlie Papa 89 Hotel achieved a thirty thousand feet
Altitude in ten minutes, next stop Baltimore airport USA.
Heathrow Airport
London
Lat = 51 degrees, 28.3 minutes North
Long = 0 degrees, 27.1 minutes West
Wednesday 21st December 1988
Pan AM flight 107A to
John F Kennedy International airport USA
Lat = 40 degrees, 38.7 minutes North
Long = 73 degrees, 47.0 minutes West
Seventeen forty five hours GMT
The man whom had received Professor Hooke’s boarding tickets was named Jerry Millbrook; he was a drug addict and had been paid five hundred pounds to impersonate the Professor, Ramón had known him from the streets of London for the past six months.
When he had received word from Toledo Verdugo; who had explained what he wanted; he put in place the plans to kidnap the professor. Toledo Verdugo’s plan was simple, grab the professor hold him for a few days and then take him to Heathrow airport, have him book onto his flight and then switch the boarding tickets to Jerry Millbrook.
Jerry boarded flight 107A at seventeen forty-five hours, from terminal three, he found his window seat thirty-one A on the port side of the plane.
Flight 107A was a Boeing 747 100 named Clipper Midnight Sun. There were two hundred and forty-one passengers on board with a crew of sixteen.
At exactly eighteen hundred hours Pan Am flight 107A was
on hold at the eastern end of runway twenty-seven Romeo.
Captain Robert (Bob) Jensen accompanied by first officer Barry (Baz) Henderson and flight engineer Bill (Taffy) Jones were in the flight deck awaiting permission from the tower to take off.
“Tower to Pan Am 107A you are clear for departure on runway twenty-seven Romeo.”
Captain Bob Jensen replied, “Thank you Tower; Pan Am 107A departing, out.”
The 747-100 thundered down the runway, as it took off the plane flew northwest out of Heathrow, once clear of Heathrow the crew steered due north towards Scotland.
At eighteen thirty-one hours, the plane reached its cruising altitude of thirty-one thousand feet.
Captain Jensen throttled the engines back to cruising power.
Five minutes later the Scottish area control centre picked up PA-107A at Prestwick.
Air traffic controller Bruce Keegan spoke to PA-107A,
“Scottish area traffic control to PA-107A; I have you
On our radar over.”
<
br /> Captain Bob Jensen replied, “good evening Scottish;
Clipper one zero seven, we are level at three one zero.” The first officer Henderson spoke, “Clipper 107 requesting oceanic clearance.”
Keegan gave them their heading of three one six degrees magnetic but received no reply.
At that moment, the Midnight Sun’s squawk flickered off.
Keegan tried to make contact with Captain Jensen, with no response.
Where there should have been one radar return on Keegan’s screen, there were now four.
Airspace
Eight miles southeast of Strathaven, Scotland
Lat = 55 degrees, 43.7 minutes North
Long = 3 degrees, 57.5 minutes West
Wednesday 21st December 1988
Eighteen thirty-seven hours GMT
The explosion punched a twenty-two inch wide hole on the Left side of the fuselage. It immediately knocked out the power plunging the passenger cabin into darkness
The disintegration of the aircraft was rapid.
The explosion occurred in the aircraft hold; the large difference between aircraft cabin pressure and the outside air pressure increased the effect.
Shock waves from the blast ricocheted back from the fuselage skin in the direction of the bomb; meeting pulses still coming from the initial explosion.
The explosive detonation within the fuselage, in a reasonably close proximity to the skin; produced a high intensive shockwave, that propagated outwards from the centre of the detonation.
On reaching the inner surface of the fuselage skin, the energy was partly absorbed but the rest of this energy continued shattering, deforming the skin and stringer materials in its path, much of the remaining energy was transmitted, as a shock wave, through the skin and out into the atmosphere.
However, a significant amount of the energy returned as a reflective shockwave that travelled back along the fuselage interior where it collided with the initial shock wave creating what is known as a Mach stem shock. This spread higher pressures and velocities than the initial explosion, in the region of twenty-five percent faster velocities and doubling the power of the initial explosion.
These Mach stem waves pulsing through the ductwork bounced off overhead luggage racks and other hard surfaces, jolting the passengers.
A section of the 747’s roof several feet above the point of detonation peeled away. The nerve centre of a 747, from which all the navigation and communication systems are controlled, is below the cockpit, separated from the forward cargo hold by a bulkhead wall.
The force of the explosion broke through this wall and shook the flight-control cables, causing the front section of the fuselage to begin to roll, pitch, and yaw.
The shock waves of the explosion rebounded from one side of the aircraft to the other, running down the length of the fuselage through the air-conditioning ducts and splitting the fuselage open. This in turn snapped the
reinforcing belt that secured the front section to the
row of windows on the left side and it began to break away. At this point the complete front section of the aircraft, containing the flight deck with crew and the first class section, broke away altogether, flying upwards and to the right striking the No.3 Pratt and Whitney engine as it snapped off.
With the disruption of the steering cables, the aircraft went into a steep dive. As the fuselage disintegrated, the cabin depressurised to a quarter of ground-level pressure, leaving the passengers fighting for breath.
As the cockpit broke off, the fuselage was now an open cylinder. Tornado-force winds tore up the aisles slamming into the chests of the passengers making it even more difficult to breathe and stripping the clothes off them.
Some were thrown to the rear. Other people and objects
that were not fixed down were blown out of the aircraft into the night at temperatures of minus fifty-one degrees Fahrenheit.
Jerry Millbrook was one of these that had been blown out of the cabin at thirty one thousand feet he lost consciousness very quickly; due to the lack of oxygen, his thirty-one thousand feet fall through the night air lasted two minutes.
As he was a thousand feet above the ground, he regained
consciousness as he encountered the oxygen rich
atmosphere.
He looked down, observed the ground rushing up towards him at incredible speed, and became aware of the brutally impending impact, just before the impact he passed out, as his bodies systems could not cope with the visual impending collision.
Jerry Millbrook’s body collided with the ground with a sickening thud.
Within three seconds of the explosion the cockpit, fuselage, and No.3 engine were falling separately. The fuselage continued moving forward and down until it reached nineteen thousand feet, at which point its dive became almost vertical.
As it descended, the fuselage broke into smaller pieces, with the section attached to the wings landing first forty-six and a half seconds after the explosion.
Landing a half-mile west of junction nine of the M74 motorway and three quarters of a mile north of the B7086 Strathaven road, where the two hundred thousand pounds of kerosene contained inside ignited.
The resultant fireball destroyed the land and trees for a quarter of a mile radius and the impact registered a one point six on the Richter scale at the British Geological Survey at nearby Eskdalemuir.
Strayker’s Home Wells road Bromley
Lat = 51 degrees, 24.3 minutes North
Long = 0 degrees, 3.1 minutes East
Wednesday 21st December 1988
Twenty hundred hours GMT
Strayker was in his study, having been recalled from the airport to see the Prime Minister.
Corporal Edward’s his driver had driven him the Downing Street.
James Patterson the home secretary had made the Prime Minister aware of the death of Professor Thompson five days earlier and the potential threat to Project Reaper.
The Prime Minister had personally briefed Strayker that afternoon firstly apologising in dragging him away from his flight.
The Prime Minister also advised him that an MI-6 asset had been despatched earlier that morning to Bogotá to track down the killers.
Strayker had also been briefed on project Reaper and its implications to drugs gangs throughout the world.
His secretary had rebooked him a flight the following day for his trip to New York.
Strayker’s home was a five bedroom, two bathroom period home set in stunning grounds of over one acre with a
swimming pool and tennis court.
He was looking out of the large picture window into his grounds that was illuminated by the garden lights; a red squirrel was gathering nuts from the bird table.
He was partaking in a dram of his favourite thirty-year old Glenfiddich Single malt Scotch, savouring the woody essence, with sweet floral top notes with the final honeyed finish, when his door was knocked and his Butler Bentley stepped in.
“Excuse the interruption sir; there is something on the news you need to see.”
Strayker followed Bentley to the main room where a news flash was being broadcasted on the television.
The broadcaster was muted with backdrop picture of a Boeing 747.
Strayker sat down in his armchair whilst Bentley turned the volume up.
“Reports are coming in of a plane crash in Scotland, as yet we cannot confirm the flight details however; we can confirm the type of aircraft was a Boeing 747, the aircraft came down approximately fifty minutes ago and emergency services are on the scene. It is too early to know the cause, the Boeing 747 was introduced in January 22nd nineteen seventy and to date has had no major design flaws, we can now go over live to the crash scene.”
The picture switched to an aerial view of the
crash site showing images of wide spread wreckage illuminated in the dark by the flames of widespread fires.
The newscaster began a running commentary, “as you can see the wreckage spans a large area at least quarter of a mile in radius, as we approached we could see flames from at least two more sites.”
The camera zoomed in showing fire rescue units spraying foam on the wreckage; from the picture, it was obvious the wreckage was from the mid-section of the plane. The newscaster came back on with the backdrop from the aerial footage, “we are receiving unconfirmed reports that the aircraft that has crashed was Pan Am flight 107 on route from Heathrow to JFK New York.”
Bentley turned to Major general Strayker, “wasn’t that your flight sir.”
Strayker replied, “Yes Bentley, indeed it was.”
“Lucky the Prime Minister called you back sir.”
“Very lucky Bentley, I think I need another whiskey Bentley.”
“Right away sir.”
“Make it a double.”
“A double it is sir.”
Bentley left the room to fetch Strayker his whiskey from the study.
Strayker was stunned by this news, realising he had literally cheated death; Bentley brought him his whiskey which he tossed down in one; the phone rang and Bentley picked it up at the side table.
“Strayker residence,” there was a pause, “yes Ma’am
he is here one moment.”
“Sir the Prime Minister.”
Strayker placed the phone to his head, “yes Ma’am.”
“I presume you have seen the news?”
“Yes Ma’am, Bentley alerted me to it a few minutes ago.”
“Was that your flight you should have been on Major?”
“Yes Ma’am, I think I owe you my life.”
“You know Major; I nearly didn’t call you back, but something inside of me told me otherwise.”
“Sixth sense Ma’am, I’m glad you did.”
“Major; I have received early reports that this was an explosion.”
“Accidental Ma’am?”
“We will not know for at least twenty-four hours; however