Back at his tribal home; much emphasis had been placed on tracking techniques for predator and prey; these skills
can be transposed to track humans; some call it the art of
Pursuing.
Five years ago at the age of eighteen Manny had returned to his home in Manchester and had immediately joined the Army.
“Sir; I picked up some tracks numbering three one set has
a very distinctive cut across the sole, I’ve checked the
footwear on the dead and there is no match.”
Max looked up, “where did they go Manny?”
They took a track through the hotel grounds to the beach
on the south east side, it looks like they had a boat sir.”
GAIL interrupted Max’s thoughts on the Comms, Eagle three over.”
Max replied, “go ahead GAIL.”
“I have been examining the hotels phone records system Max, they had a call about the time Roy arrived, and its origin is from mainland India it lasted forty seconds.”
“Any idea of the content and exact origin of the call GAIL?”
“Sorry but unable to retrieve any data on the calls content Max; however the call was made from New Delhi,
to be precise the presidential building.”
Roy had been listening in on his own Comm’s, “Bloody hell they were tipped off that we were coming!”
Max nodded in agreement, GAIL; I want you to track down the exact phone that call came from and get me a list of everyone in that building for that time, it cannot have been many for that time of the morning,”
“Will do Max, and Max I’m sorry for your loss.”
Max was momentarily taken aback at GAIL’s comment, he had
momentarily forgotten about Ruth’s demise, “Thank you
GAIL.”
Max paused for a moment; “GAIL; Vince has always sang your praises and I really need your help now, what are the chances of you being able to track down Ajaz Ahmed?”
GAIL’s reply came back instantly, “you’re in luck Max, Vince has just upgraded my software with a stealth cloaking system, I am now totally invisible to any system I access, as you are already aware I can tap into and access any computer system in the world; FBI, CIA, Israeli, French and many more intelligence networks without them knowing. Also all the CCTV systems at all the worlds’ major airports and shipping ports and other transportation areas, together with access to British immigration and passport services. I can now access every satellite in orbit, every telephone exchange, military communications and cellular network systems. So to answer your question Max; I will find him for you, once I have locked onto him he will have nowhere to hide.”
“Thank you GAIL, you mentioned cellular network systems what are these?”
“You will probably know them as analogue mobile phones Max.”
“Again thank you GAIL.”
‘ICIS’ Saltbox Hill Biggin Hill Kent
Lat = 51 degrees, 19.7 minutes North
Long = 0 degrees, 1.2 minutes East
Thursday 22nd December 1988.
Eighteen O-five hours GMT
Strayker had arrived at ICIS as the assault was taking place on Baros Island and had been listening in to the Comm’s chatter.
He had just been listening into Max’s exchange with GAIL as it ended he spoke over the Comm.’s, “Eagle two to three over.”
Max replied immediately “go ahead sir.”
“Max a unit of armed Maldivian police should be with you within the hour, hand the hostages over to them and pack up, bring the team’s home.”
“Yes sir.”
“And Max; Ruth will be missed by us all and she will be avenged.”
“Ajaz Ahmed is a dead man walking sir,” replied Max.
With that Max closed the Comm.’s unit down.
Verdugo Hacienda
Bucaramanga Colombia
Lat = 7 degrees, 8.3 minutes North
Long = 73 degrees, 6.1 minutes West
Friday 23rd December 1988
Zero six twenty-seven hour’s local time
Sam Winnett had finally succumbed to sleep in the early hours of the morning and was now being abruptly woken, having had a cold bucket of water thrown over him.
The same two men whom had escorted him to his cell were now cuffing his hands behind him and dragging him down the corridor, where he was tied to a chair that had been bolted to the ground.
The only other item in the room was an old bath unit filled to the brim with water, the two men left him; he had no doubt about what he would be experiencing.
In the main building Ramón was having breakfast with Toledo Verdugo when Professor Hooke was escorted in.
Ramón spoke, “I trust your room was to your liking?”
“Yes it was,” replied the Professor.
Ramón gestured to the table, “Have a seat and some breakfast Professor.”
Professor Hooke sat down as a waiter approached and he
ordered some tea, the breakfast table had cheeses, corn
bread and a selection of cold meats.
The waiter returned with his tea on a tray with milk and sugar and placed down by him.
Ramón looked over at the Professor, “Professor if you wish there is available fried eggs.”
Professor Hooke looked up at the waiter, “two fried eggs please.”
The waiter nodded and disappeared through a nearby door.
The Professor looked at his surroundings, taking in the grandeur of the room he also momentarily looked at the third person at the end of the table that had not spoken, but the Professor could see this man was obviously the main man and owner of this estate.
To his left there was a large bookcase with many books on the shelves, he stood up taking his tea with him and walked over to the bookcase.
Toledo Verdugo and Ramón watched him.
The Professor’s gaze was quickly drawn to a very old leather bound book, it was on its own in what appeared to be a sealed glass case, and he tilted his head to read the inscription on the spine, Leonardo da Vinci, Codex Leicester.
He turned and directed his dialogue to the man at the end of the table, “is this the original?”
Toledo Verdugo picked up a napkin and wiped his mouth
stood up and walked over to the Professor, “I see you have found the prize of my collection Professor and to answer your question yes; He extended his right hand, “my name is Toledo Verdugo.”
Professor Hooke did not shake Verdugo’s and but said, “I heard it had been bought a couple of years ago by an anonymous person for 27.8 million US dollars,” replied the Professor.
“Are you familiar with its contents Professor?”
“The Codex provides a rare insight into the inquiring
mind of Da Vinci with exceptional illustrations a mixture of Leonardo’s observations and theories on astronomy; the properties of water, rocks, and fossils; air, and celestial light.”
“You are well read Professor, maybe if you co-operate with me I will let you examine it.”
The Professor had momentarily been excited over the book; however, Toledo Verdugo’s last statement brought him back to reality and his predicament.
Professor Hooke looked directly into Toledo Verdugo’s eyes and said, “and; what is it exactly you want from me?”
“Come sit down professor, your eggs have arrived; we can talk while you eat.”
Professor Hooke returned to his table picked up a napkin and tucked it into his collar; he was extremely
hungry and set about devouring the eggs along with
some corn Bread.
Verdugo sat and waited a few minutes whilst the Professor consumed his meal before he spoke.
“Professor I know about your Project Reaper.”
The Professor momentarily stopped eating and looked up at Verdugo; he made no reply.
“Your silence Professor, confirms that my sources are correct in what I have been told.”
The Professor replied, “what if your sources are wrong?”
Verdugo smiled at him, “Good try professor!”
“I know that you received the news of Professor Thompson’s death and you were on your way to visit his family when we abducted you.”
“So it was you that killed him?”
“The intention was not to kill him; you can blame his bodyguards for that.”
“No matter what you say you were responsible for his death.”
“Professor I could banter with you all day long, however I have a business empire and your Project Reaper has serious repercussions to it.”
“Okay; so what do you want from me?”
“Firstly Professor have no doubts that your family will be killed if you do not cooperate fully with me, do I
make myself quite clear?”
“Your man over there has already made that quite clear,” the Professor, pointed to Ramón.
“Good; firstly answer these two questions, “the research work and all materials are they located only at your research centre in Hertfordshire?”
“That is correct,” replied the Professor.
“Have you developed any cure to combat your virus?”
“Not as yet, that would be the next stage of the process.”
“Thank you Professor; let’s say for arguments sake you were given a deadline for a cure, what time frame would you require?”
“Conceivably anything from a few weeks to several months; creating a virus is often the simple part of the process however creating the antiviral agent is often the biggest hurdle we have to overcome.”
“Thank you Professor finish your breakfast; you may freely walk about my home and its grounds accompanied by one of the guards, I will speak with you again.”
“May I enquire to how long I will be detained by you?”
“You can; however at this moment I cannot commit to any time frame, good day Professor.”
With that, Toledo Verdugo and Ramón left the room.
For the last thirty-minutes, Sam Winnett had been
subject to numerous near drowning experiences.
His first assumption about the presence of the water-filled bath had been accurate.
The first head immersion had seemed to last for an eternity, he was close to his limit when he was yanked out of the water, which meant around ninety seconds.
After several more immersions, his ability to recover was beginning to weaken.
The last one Sam held his breath for as long as he could, finally he just started gulping water, it was the same gasp you make when you come up from out of the water into the air however, he had not surfaced.
Sam felt the water going down into his lungs. It did not hurt but it stung the nose a little, he began to jerk his head from side to side with more earnest as if he was trying to get away.
His captors dragged his head out of the water and one of them gave Sam several slaps on the back, causing him to cough up the water he had swallowed, it felt very weird as it came up but that was when the pain hit.
Sam’s face went bright red, his eyes were teary, and his chest began to sting and burn bad.
After a few minutes they dragged Sam back to his cell released the handcuffs and closed the door.
The real funny thing about it all, if there was a funny
side, was they never asked him a single bloody question.
London 10 Downing Street
Lat = 51 degrees, 30.2 minutes North
Long = 0 degrees, 7.7 minutes West
Friday 23rd December 1988
Zero nine forty five hrs. GMT.
Seated in the main conference room were the members of Everest, Jonathan Troy head of MI5, Pierce Evans head of MI6, Sir Richard Evans head of the British army, Admiral Sir Robert Fox head of the Royal Navy and Sir Toby Percival Head of the Royal Air force.
The Prime minister and Major general Strayker were also present.
The Prime minister spoke, “gentlemen; we have a number of issues to review this morning, firstly the 747 air crash over Scotland, Jonathan please give an update on this?”
Jonathan Troy was 48 years of age had spent all his life in the intelligence community, a short robust figure with light brown thinning hair he had become head of MI5
fifteen months ago, “Ma’am and gentlemen; it has been thirty-eight hours since Clipper 107 crashed with the loss of all on board, I can now report that this was not an accident, the plane was blown up by a device on board.”
He paused for a moment and then continued, “fortunately
the aircraft debris landed in an isolated area so there
were no other causalities, no one at present has claimed responsibility and we are now looking into the fact the plane may have been targeted to eliminate a passenger or passengers. We have been cross checking the passenger list with our database; at the moment, there are several passengers of interest that may have been targeted as
Potential targets,” he looked over at Strayker, “I believe you were due to take that flight Major?”
Strayker nodded.
Jonathan Troy continued, “Well I will have to presume that you may have been the target Major.”
The prime minister spoke, “Thank you Jonathan; over to you Pierce.”
Pierce Evans was aged 55; his career had been mainly army intelligence until he retired 10 years ago, he had made many influential friends and when the position for head of MI6 came up 2 years ago, he was nominated and became the head of the department, Pierce Evans rose from his seat, he was six-foot three inches of medium build with grey short cropped hair, “all of you in the room are fully conversant with Project Reaper, two weeks ago today Professor Peter Thompson was abducted in Bogotá, his
bodyguards located him however in the rescue Thompson was
killed, Project Reaper was headed up by Professor Winston
Hooke whom was on Clipper 107 at the time it was blown
up,” Pierce Evans paused and the room fell silent.
Strayker coughed to break the silence, “it would appear that we may have the link.”
The three head of armed services had not been sitting idly at the meeting; they had all been taking copious notes.
Air chief Marshall Sir Toby Percival spoke, “From the briefing I had about Project Reaper, it was to do with a gene technology to attack the cocaine plant; the fact that Professor Thompson was abducted in Bogotá one of the major drug regions in the world, it would be prudent of us to prioritise our resources here.”
The Prime Minister spoke, “I agree; Pierce has Six any further Intel on Professor Thompson’s abductors?”
“We sent an agent there three days ago, his last report came from the British Embassy in Bogotá he was going to visit the house where Professor Thompson was killed; unfortunately he has failed to check in at the allotted
time and is overdue by seventeen hours, we must presume he has either been captured or killed, we are dispatching another agent whom will be there in twelve hours.”
Strayker spoke, “has Professor Hooke a family?”
Jonathan Troy was quick to reply, “Yes Major; a wife and
two children.”
“How are they taking the news,” replied Strayker.
“Well initially they could not be contacted as they were not at home, they were located in New York awaiting the Professor, the NYPD broke the news to her at their hotel, from the NYPD’s report it appears she took it well, didn’t even break down
, and I suppose it affects people differently.”
The Prime Minister spoke, “well it looks like the only link we have is to Bogotá, Pierce we will expect an update as soon as your agent arrives there.”
“Yes Ma’am,” replied Pierce.
“Has anyone else any thoughts on this matter?”
Strayker’s mind was racing through the facts of the meeting when a prominent thought materialised, “Ma‘am I have a theory that I wish to share.”
“Go ahead Major,” replied the Prime Minister.
“We are all assuming that Professor Hooke was on the Clipper 107 flight.”
Jonathan Troy responded, “he checked in and boarded that is clear from the records Major?”
“Precisely; someone checked in and boarded Clipper 107 but can we be certain it was the Professor?”
Sir Richard Davies the army chief interrupted, “Major I
do not see where this is leading us?”
“Prime Minister, gentlemen let me regale you; Professor
Thompson was original kidnapped why? Because he was close
to Project Reaper, it is apparent from the report that he was being interrogated by his kidnappers prior to his bodyguards intervening,” Strayker paused.
“Let’s presume he talked; however he died and we know one of the kidnappers escaped, let’s suppose the escaped kidnapper reports back to his boss the next logical step would be to go for Professor Hooke.”
Admiral Sir Robert Fox spoke, “Major I can see the logic in what you are saying, but why not just kill both the Professor’s?”
“That was my initial thought Admiral; however that would only be dealing with the men whom created Project Reaper and not the technology behind it, that technology is all stored at their research centre, also it would be a valuable asset for any drug baron to have to use against his competitors.”
The Prime Minister intervened, “Yes Major I see where your thoughts are going, and in the wrong hands the technology would be priceless.”
“Exactly,” replied Strayker. “Project Reaper was being designed as an enforcement weapon to destroy the drug cartel’s opium fields.”
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