“You’re nasty,” said Tom to Lela.
“He deserved it, the big bully,” replied Lela although she did feel a little guilty. Her behaviour was no better than Yuri’s really. However, the rest of the students didn’t feel that way and gave her a round of applause.
“How did you do that?” asked Tom, who was always fascinated to know more about Lela’s special skills.
“It’s quite simple actually, if you hit the lower back in just the right place, it relaxes the bladder and whoosh,” she replied nonchalantly. She underplayed her scientific knowledge of the body, even the best trained doctors could not have done what she did. The only other people who could do these ‘simple things’ were the islanders.
“I was surprised you were so public back there, you don’t normally let people see your moves,” said Tom as he realised the implications of what had just happened.
“What are you talking about? I just bumped into him. That’s all anybody would have seen,” replied a smug Lela.
“Hmmm, anyway, come on, we need to speak to Oleg. He never mentioned anything about Yuri coming back,” said Tom, leading the way back to their block.
It took them two minutes of hard knocking to wake up Oleg despite the complaints from his neighbours.
The door opened and a very drowsy Oleg stood in front of them.
“What’s wrong?” he asked rubbing his eyes and yawning.
“We want to know what the hell Yuri is doing back here?” responded Tom.
Oleg woke up immediately and looked behind them. “Where?” he said panicking.
“Well, that clears up that point,” said Tom to Lela. “He obviously doesn’t know, that’s why he didn’t tell us.”
Oleg became very agitated at the mention of his step-brother’s name. Lela took him over to the bed and sat him down.
“He’s here, back at The Academy?” he asked, incredulous.
“’Fraid so,” replied Tom. “But there’s no need to worry, Lela’s already declared war on him and his gang, so we’ve got that out of the way nice and early.”
Oleg looked at Lela as if she were crazy.
“You’ve what?”
“He’s just being over dramatic, don’t worry about it,” comforted Lela.
Tom proceeded to describe every gory detail of what had occurred in the restaurant.
A smile crept across Oleg’s face.
“Really?” he asked.
Lela nodded while Tom pulled out his mobile phone and showed Oleg the pictures he had taken of Yuri’s most embarrassing moment.
“Let me call my dad and see if he knows why he’s here,” said Oleg picking up his phone.
Tom and Lela listened as Oleg talked to his dad, waiting for him to finish and translate. The call ended and Oleg filled them in.
“It appears that after my dad threw Yuri’s mother out of the house, she became friendly with a fairly low level Minister in my country’s government. Unfortunately, it’s the same one who very surprisingly and recently became the new Russian President. They were married during the summer. It appears Yuri has a very powerful new step-father. My father is calling Mr Sakamoto now, he’ll call me back soon.”
All three sat in silence as they waited for the call from Oleg’s father. They all privately hoped that some clerical mistake had been made. Yuri had been expelled under a different name, perhaps the school had failed to make the connection. The phone rang and despite the language barrier, Lela and Tom knew it was not good news. Oleg ended the call and translated.
“It’s no mistake, they know exactly who he is. The pressure placed on Mr Sakamoto to accept him back was overwhelming. In fact, he offered to resign over it and they would have accepted it. He only stayed because he had a duty to the rest of the students. He told my dad that things are very strange just now with all the assassinations and God knows who would have replaced him. The new Chairman of School Governors is apparently very friendly with a lot of the new leaders. My dad thinks he was insinuating something but he doesn’t know what.”
“So we’re stuck with Yuri?” asked Tom.
“It seems so and he could well be untouchable.”
“It was so good of you to go out of your way to say hi to Yuri today,” said Tom sarcastically to Lela.
Lela smiled back weakly. She was going to have to be careful. She could handle Yuri and his gang but her friends couldn’t.
Chapter 19
It had been a hectic and depressing day. Donald had spent the day visiting villages and aid centres with Rachel and Saki. Child mortality was high and education pretty non-existent. Donald, a well grounded man, was deeply humbled and thanked God for what they had. He was moved by the degree of poverty and suffering he had seen and promised Rachel to do all in his power to help.
“Donald, this is nothing. This is as good as it gets. These people receive funding.”
“What? These people don’t need help?” he asked, bewildered.
“Yes but they’re way down on the list. What you’re going to see this week will make this look like a first world country.”
Donald was speechless. From what he had already seen, he did not know whether he was up to seeing anything worse. In the meantime, they made their way back to the capital, Libreville.
The evening was to be spent as guests of the Gabonese President and no doubt a number of high powered local businessmen keen to meet him. He would have more than happily headed straight back to Alba One and gone home. Instead, they got in to the army car sent by the Gabonese President and began their short journey to the palace.
As they neared the extravagant presidential residence, Donald noticed satellite dishes and bright lights which signified the media were in attendance. He began to think something was amiss as they drew closer, he expected perhaps two or three of the local media to attend but not the world’s press. Media trucks from every major news broadcaster were lined up outside the gates to the palace.
Chapter 20
The rest of the day had passed uneventfully. Tom, Lela and their friends had kept a relatively low profile. Most of the day was spent showing their friends around Tom One. They had all decided against going to the restaurant for dinner and had instead decided to order in some pizzas. Before they knew what was happening, an impromptu party had broken out and all twenty four students in their block had piled into Lela’s room.
Zach, having been quiet all day, seemed to have perked up.
“Hey Zach, you’re looking a bit happier?” asked Tom trying to find out what had been wrong with him.
“Yeah sorry about earlier. I’ve hardly seen my dad all summer but he just called. His conference finished early and he’s going to pay me a visit tomorrow,” he replied smiling.
“Cool, a visit from the big boss General Powers himself. I’m sure the Special Forces base will be manically preparing for his arrival,” suggested Tom laughing.
“Doubt it, they don’t know he’s coming, nobody does apart from me and you, now.”
“Tom?” interrupted Lela.
“Yeah?” he said turning towards her and, seeing her face, said, “What’s wrong? What’s happened?”
“I think you should come and see the news,” she replied.
Tom walked over to the TV which was now surrounded by his friends who let him through to see the screen. The picture on the screen was a picture of the Presidential Palace in Gabon where his father was due to have dinner. The breaking news banner read: ‘Alba International linked to mine explosion.” The banner then changed to a more damning headline: ‘Kennedy’s false meteor statement was part of elaborate cover-up.’
“What the hell’s going on?” Tom looked at Lela who just shrugged her shoulders, she had no idea. His phone buzzed in his pocket.
“Hello,” he answered.
“Hi, it’s me, are you OK?” asked Saki.
“I’m fine but what about Dad?” he asked. “Can I speak to him?”
“He’ll call you soon. We just heard this nonsense ours
elves, he’s on the phone to his Head of Legal. He asked me to call you to assure you it’s all rubbish.”
“It didn’t cross my mind that it was anything else,” he replied indignantly.
“I know Tom, don’t worry, we’ll get it sorted. Is Lela there? Can I have a quick word?”
“Yes of course,” he said handing the phone to Lela.
As Lela received the same reassurances from Saki, Tom explained to his friends what Saki had said.
“They’ve messed with the wrong people, your dad’s legal guys will have the press on their knees for this,” replied Tristan, the son of the UK Prime Minister and one of Tom’s closest friends.
“But they know that, why would they be so stupid as to go up against my dad?” asked Tom. He could not help think about the strange goings on over the previous few weeks.
“Hey come on, don’t be silly,” Zach slapped him on the back. “If your dad’s lawyers don’t get them, I’ll get my dad to bomb them to hell and back!”
Despite their best efforts, their friends could not lift their spirits and the party ended with everybody leaving before 10.00 p.m..
Tom phoned Kisho and Kano. He had to let them know what was happening.
Saki ended the call with Lela and looked around at Donald who was still on the phone to the lawyers. He could tell by Donald’s body language that the call wasn’t going well. It sounded as though whatever evidence they had against Donald was going to be difficult to refute. As they approached the palace the media circus drew closer and closer, cameramen and reporters vying for the best position.
Donald and Saki had known something was going to happen to them but had not anticipated being framed for mass murder. Saki took another look at the frenzied mass of press ahead of them and realised they could not possibly stay.
“Turn round, take us straight to the airport,” he barked at the soldier driving them.
“Sir I’m afraid I cannot do that, you have an appointment with the President,” he replied.
Saki asked again but the driver was insistent that they could not possibly turn around, he had his orders. Saki pulled the handbrake on and forced the car to a stop.
“What the hell are you doing Saki?” asked Rachel.
“Getting us the hell out of here!” he replied.
The driver did not take kindly to Saki’s interference with his driving and made for his pistol. Saki, having anticipated the soldier’s moves, had already removed the pistol from his belt. As the soldier’s hand fell on his empty holster, he looked up to find a smiling Saki holding his gun.
“Airport please,” asked Saki as if nothing had happened.
“Of course Sir,” replied the soldier.
Their trip to Africa was over.
Chapter 21
Tom was woken up by his phone ringing. Who was calling him at 3 o’clock in the morning?
“Hello?”
“Hi, Tom it’s me,” said Donald.
“Hi Dad, what’s up?” said Tom who was still only half awake.
“It’s just a quick call to let you know we’re heading back to Glasgow. We decided to postpone the rest of the trip with everything else that’s happening. We should be home by lunchtime your time. I’ll talk to you then properly but please don’t worry, everything will be fine, OK?”
“OK, love you Dad.”
“Love you too son, now get back to sleep.”
Alba One thundered down the runway as the Captain was, in his own words, “getting them the hell out of Dodge.” The engines screamed as they lifted the huge plane off the ground and up into the night sky. The captain wasted no time and immediately began to bank the plane round to the right to take them on a northerly course straight home.
Donald had spared no expense on any portion of the plane, including the engines, opting for more powerful ones which had been developed for the slightly longer and significantly heavier cargo version of the A380. It meant that Alba One exceeded every specification for a plane of its type. She accelerated faster, could take off and land on a shorter runway and could, most importantly, fly almost as fast as the speed of sound. Jim, the Captain, swore she was faster than a Citation X, currently the record holder for civilian aircraft, but nobody believed him. He would prove it that night. His orders were to get them home as fast as the plane could get them there. He threw the throttles forward and the plane lurched ever higher and faster, thundering through the 3800 miles home. The journey would usually take over seven hours but he planned to do it in six.
Donald, Rachel and Saki released their seat-belts after a fairly terrifying take off. Jim was certainly taking Donald to his word. Donald could have sworn the turn on to the runway was done on half the wheels. The whine from the engines was intense, Donald had never even heard the engines before.
Nobody had said anything since they left Gabon other than what Donald had said to Tom. They were all physically and mentally exhausted.
“Sir, you were right, we just picked them up.”
Smith had received a phone call earlier that evening from Beaumont who suggested they keep a very close eye on the radar that night. He believed the Kennedys may have a sudden change of plan. Smith began to think the guy had a crystal ball as the number corresponding to Alba One’s transponder blinked on his screen.
“They’re really shifting. That guy is not hanging around,” said the radar operator.
Smith picked up the mic and pressed the transmit button.
“Guys, they’ll be over our airspace in 10 minutes. You know what you need to do. Don’t let me down.”
“Yes Sir,” came the response over the radio.
The two Mig-29s turned around and activated their afterburners. They had been circling slowly over the sea to conserve fuel. The fighter jets reacted immediately to the acceleration and pushed through the sound barrier with ease, quickly reaching their maximum speed of just over Mach 2.
They would be in position long before Alba One entered their airspace.
Donald had just got into his bed when the phone buzzed next to him. What now, he thought. It was a seven hour flight home and he was looking forward to sleeping for every last second of it.
“Hello?” he answered.
“Mr Kennedy, sorry to disturb you but I really think you need to come up to the cockpit.” Jim sounded very distressed.
“Is everything OK?” Donald was instantly worried.
Before Jim could answer, loud cracks could be heard outside the plane.
“Jim, what the hell is going on?” demanded Donald.
“Just get up here and quick.” Jim hung up.
Donald dropped the phone and ran to the cockpit.
“Alba One, come in Alba One.” The Mig pilot tried to make contact with Alba One.
Jim could see the pilot, he was flying alongside Alba One. He was ignoring the call. He then noticed another Mig 29 along the other side of Alba One but only for a second. It dropped back, out of sight and then suddenly fired 20 rounds from its 30mm cannon.
Donald rushed into the cockpit. He didn’t need to ask Jim what was wrong. The first thing he noticed was the large fighter sitting alongside as though attached to them on the right. Saki appeared right behind him.
Jim spoke as they entered.
“There are two of them, the one on the left just dropped back and fired some warning shots because I was refusing to respond.”
“What the hell do they want!?” Donald knew this was not good and had expected many things but not this.
“No idea.”
“Alba One, if you fail to respond, the next shots will not miss.”
Donald nodded to Jim to respond.
“This is Alba One, how can we help you?”
“Alba One, you are currently flying over Equatorial Guinea airspace and you have on board a criminal by the name of Donald Kennedy, please follow us to our airfield where you can land.”
“Criminal, Donald Kennedy?” Jim blurted, “I’ve never heard anything so ridiculous, who are
you?”
“We are the Equatorial Guinea Air Force and you Sir are under arrest. We have orders to shoot you down if you attempt to flee our jurisdiction.”
“But we’re over international waters?”
“We can debate that on the ground. You can either come with us the easy way or you’ll come down the hard way.” The tone of the Mig pilot’s voice left no room for doubt, he would shoot them down.
“Saki?” Donald asked.
“Not my area. Jim?” responded Saki.
Jim was a former RAF fighter pilot.
“I don’t think we have any option, they are serious and there’s nothing we can do. Just one round from that cannon would rip through us like a hot knife through butter. Never mind the missiles.”
“OK, start following him, I’ll phone the lawyers,” responded Donald, heading back to the bedroom to break the news to Rachel.
“Where do you want us to go?” responded Jim to the Mig.
“A very good choice Captain, follow my colleague.” The other Mig zipped in front of the A380 and began to steer them on a course which would take them to Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea.
Chapter 22
Jones’ plane touched down and he instantly sensed a problem. Across the runway stood the US Airforce C4 °C jet, a modified Boeing 737–700 jet used by government dignitaries. However, instead of standing on its own, awaiting an afternoon departure, it was surrounded by technicians and crew. It was preparing for a much earlier departure.
He had been instructed that no foul play was to be suspected in the death of General Powers. They could not afford to raise any suspicion. It had to look like an accident and to Jones, there was no easier way to cover an assassination than a plane crash. He had a bag of tricks that would ensure the plane and its passengers would never reach their destination.
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