Assassin b-2

by Murray Mcdonald

  “Thanks Tristan, you’re a better man than me. I was at the point of beginning to believe it.”

  Before long, it appeared that they were all of a similar mind, the evidence was overwhelming but it just didn’t fit, Donald was not capable of those atrocities.

  Tom listened to everybody and was happy that each believed deep down that there was somebody behind everything, the assassinations, the framing of his father and ultimately, the death of his family. Had anybody believed that the evidence was irrefutable, they would have been politely excluded from the group. It was imperative that the members of the group had an open mind.

  “Ok. Now that we’ve got that out the way, let’s get down to business.” Tom picked up the box of files next to him and placed them on the table. The files were the ones from his father’s safe.

  “I believe that the information contained in these files will help to lead us to the people who are behind everything.”

  “What’s in them?” asked Daniel.

  “The results of my father and Saki’s investigation into what was going on. They knew something very big was happening and they even knew that my father was going to be set up. They just couldn’t do anything about it or prove it,” replied Tom.

  “Bloody hell, you should give it to the papers and clear his name,” suggested Tristan.

  “We can’t, it might scare whoever it is into covering their tracks. The only way we can catch them is if they don’t know we’re coming. Even then, there’s no real evidence, just my father and Saki’s findings. That’s why we need to have an open mind. It doesn’t give us the answers but it may tell us what the questions are,” replied Tom. He looked again at the group in front of him. There wasn’t a question in the world that this group couldn’t get an answer to. They just needed to know what to ask. He began to get excited at the possibility of actually getting to the bottom of exactly what was going on.

  The group spent the next few hours poring over the detail of the files and learning how Donald and Saki had. over the previous 6 months, begun to smell a rat. Their investigations had led them around the world as they had looked into the links between the assassinations and who stood to gain from them. Links between each assassination were tenuous but they did exist. In each instance, the successor had been relatively unknown prior to the assassination. And each successor was exceedingly wealthy in their own right with extensive business interests. Apart from these, no other links seemed to exist, or at least no common link was obvious.

  Their investigations had also looked into Alan, Alba’s CFO. Donald had sensed something suspicious about him early on. All other candidates capable of the role had either not applied or withdrawn their applications early in the process. Alan’s application had been excellent, his credentials unmatched, his references incomparable. He was perfect and, with no competition, was appointed. But Donald soon began to notice that Alan was not as good as his application suggested. Donald also noticed that Alan took a great interest in areas of the business which didn’t concern him or he got involved in levels of detail which were well below his level of seniority. Donald had asked Saki to look into it and it appeared that that was Saki’s secret mission over the summer. Saki had looked into Alan’s background and hunted down the other candidates, whom it appeared, would have been delighted to join Alba but had been devastated to receive rejection letters. Alba had not issued any rejection letters. On the contrary, it had received letters of withdrawal from the candidates.

  Donald had a dilemma. Should he sack Alan, thereby tipping off whoever had planted him, or keep a very close eye on him to see if he led them anywhere. He had opted for the latter. However it was obviously too late, Alan had done the damage. Tom and Lela could link most of the evidence fabricated against Donald to Alan. The sales invoice of explosives to the mine company had been done by Alan. The expenses signed off by Donald for individuals who had been near the assassination areas, done by Alan. The list continued. For each piece of financial evidence which linked Donald to the assassinations, Alan had had the opportunity and the motive.

  One of the last entries in Donald’s notes had been his firm belief that Jason’s family had been murdered. Everything to do with Alan pointed to an extensive and complicated operation which required access to the Finance Department and therefore the removal of Donald’s old CFO. He had realised that Jason was also meant to have been dead, along with his family, all treated as expendable pawns. Jason’s subsequent breakdown and resignation had probably saved his life. His job had become vacant so they didn’t need him dead anymore.

  After Tom finished running through the content of the files, the group broke the files down and methodically brainstormed each piece of information and what it could tell them. The information was categorised by level of importance, high, medium and low. However, they were aware that something which may seem of low importance could nonetheless hold the vital link they needed. Therefore, everything had to be worked through, no matter how irrelevant it seemed.

  At 1.00 a.m. with questions flowing onto the whiteboards around the room, they noticed the time and agreed to reconvene in the morning. Despite the vast number of questions they had raised, answers were beginning to emerge.

  As they made their way to their rooms, Tom finally had a chance to speak to Lela.

  “Well?”

  Lela said nothing. She just placed her hand in her pocket and pulled something out. She placed in Tom’s hand and smiled.

  Tom opened his hand and found a pair of Latex gloves.

  “Worked brilliantly, you should have seen him, it was actually quite pathetic,” said Lela as she watched Tom open his hand.

  “What did you do?” asked Tom.

  “Exactly what Kano and Kisho said. I caught up with the gang, pushed a few around, they bolted and left Yuri on his own. I had him backed into a corner, explained I was very, very upset with him. Told him I had given up on the softly, softly approach before pulling out the gloves. I took my time putting them on. He was crying like baby, sobbing, pleading. It was pathetic. I actually felt so sorry for him, I let him go but the only way he could leave was through the canteen, blubbering and whimpering in front of everyone. I warned his gang that if they went anywhere near him again, it’s them I’ll be looking for. Yuri is officially an outcast. He won’t trouble anyone again.”

  “Just because of these?” Tom asked, incredulous.

  “Yep, anyway we need to get to bed, we’ve got to be back there at eight,” said Lela making her way to her room.

  The next morning, they picked up exactly where they had left off and by 4.00 p.m. had finished. The unanswered questions were broken down into chunks and each person took the chunk most relevant to them. Zach took anything which could possibly be linked to the military, Tom adding at the last minute the meteor like object his father had witnessed fly towards the mine before the explosion. Daniel took anything at all linked to intelligence, Lela quickly adding the loss of Tylanni. Questions regarding the backgrounds of the new leaders or old ones went to Jin, Sofie, Elena and Thabo, each taking the relevant continent. Tristan picked up any commonwealth countries and a number of other questions linked to the UK. Tom and Lela took the rest of the non specific and more global questions and would work through them with their extensive network.

  With such a vast volume of information to gather, it was agreed that the next meeting would be on Friday. Most of them were going on the daytrip to Machu Picchu which all agreed was unfortunate as they had a lot to do.

  Chapter 63

  At the end of The Academy’s first year, the History Department had submitted a request. They informed the Headmaster, Mr Sakamoto that they would like to enrich their students’ understanding of history through real life experience. Mr Sakamoto asked them to drop the sales pitch and cut to the chase. The history department said that they wanted to visit sites of historical importance.

  However, being located on a secret island in the middle of the Ocean, The Academy was not best
placed to offer school trips. Despite this, Mr Sakamoto could see the merits of such a programme and agreed to raise it at the next Governors’ meeting. The Governors agreed in principle but made it clear that no funds would be made available to fund the excursions. If the parents could raise the funds, the Governors had no objection to the visits. As term ended, the students took home a letter requesting funds for the history trips.

  By September, the funds had arrived and the first trip was about to take place, a daytrip to Machu Picchu in Peru. Tom, Lela and their friends were among the first to experience the history department’s new initiative.

  By the time Tom and Lela had returned from their meeting, had had their dinner and got changed, it was almost time to leave. They were due to leave from the airfield at 10.30 p.m. but Tom wanted to get there early to see their plane arrive.

  “Tom it’s only 9.00 p.m., what’s the big rush?” asked Lela who was beginning to get fed up with being harassed.

  “I just don’t want to miss it land,” he replied, glancing at his watch.

  “Oh for God’s sake, just go ahead without me. I’ll come later with Mingmei and Mia,” offered Lela not thinking for a second he would take her up on it.

  “OK, brilliant I’ll see you there!” he replied as he ran out of the door. Lela did not have a chance to respond.

  Tom ran down the stairs and almost knocked Thabo flying as he careered into him.

  “Where the hell are you going?” asked Thabo.

  “To the airfield, I don’t want to be late!” replied Tom.

  “Oh, just give me a second, I’ll grab my bag and come with you,” said Thabo thinking that his watch must be broken.

  One minute later, the small golf cart was being pushed as fast as it would go to get them to the airfield. They drew up next to the small office building, parked the cart and made their way to the runway. It was 9.09 p.m. and completely deserted.

  “Oh God, have we missed it?” asked Thabo.

  Tom checked the runway and the apron, the plane was nowhere to be seen.

  “No, it looks like we made it.”

  “But there’s no one here, no plane. We must have missed it.” Thabo looked around him.

  “But that’s the point,” said Tom looking at Thabo as though he were mad. “If the plane were already here, we would have missed it landing.”

  “Landing! We rushed here to see the bloody plane land!! Are you nuts, I thought my watch was broken. We’ve got nearly two hours ‘til we leave!”

  As they realised the misunderstanding, Thabo calmed down and they chatted happily as they waited for the plane to land. Tom was pleased to have some company. He would have been lonely sitting there in the dark on his own. At 9.30 p.m. the airfield started to come to life as ground crew arrived and office lights were switched on. The plane was close.

  “Tom, I keep meaning to ask and it’s been bugging me for a while, why did your dad land in Equatorial Guinea in the first place?” Thabo asked cautiously, he didn’t want to upset Tom but the question had been praying on his mind. Why would anybody land in a country which was accusing them of 2,500 murders?

  “He was forced to land,” replied Tom.

  “Forced them to land? How?” asked Thabo.

  “Thabo, they were forced to land. What’s the issue? They didn’t want to land there, they just didn’t have any choice.”

  “I understand what ‘forced to land’ means Tom. I just don’t know how a country with nothing more than a couple of small executive jets in its air force, could have forced them to land, that’s all,” said Thabo.

  Tom stopped looking into the sky and spun round to look at Thabo.

  “What do you mean by executive jets, exactly?”

  “Just small Gulfstreams, you know, civilian planes. Not fighters,” he emphasised.

  “But my dad was forced down by two Mig 29s,” replied Tom. “This could be exactly the breakthrough we were looking for. Are you absolutely sure?” he asked.

  “Positive,” replied Thabo.

  “Ok, we need to get Zach and Daniel onto this asap. You also need to dig a lot deeper to find out everything we can about the dead Guinean President, he was obviously playing along with these guys, until they screwed him.” Tom was so engrossed in working through the possibilities that Thabo had to tell him the plane was about to touch down.

  Tom turned and watched as the plane landed. Its huge engines announced that it was most definitely the new Boeing 777-200LR, the longest-range commercial aircraft available. Tom watched as the large plane thundered down the runway and came to a stop beside them. The plane was entirely white except for the large UN flag on its tail.

  The plane was not a UN plane but bore its flag, after months of meetings and arguments. It had originally been decided that the new plane, the result of the fundraising letter, would bear The Academy’s flag. It was only when one of the students mentioned that they thought the school was supposed to be secret that the debate had ensued. Eventually, they came to the decision, with the agreement of the Secretary General of the UN, to fly it under their flag.

  The fundraising letter had sparked off a keep-up-with-the Jones’ type of competition amongst the students’ parents who vied to prove they were the most generous. Two or three parents had even offered to purchase a jet outright. They were politely informed that their generosity was much appreciated but that the level of donation had been so high that The Academy was already in the process of sourcing a jet. Naturally, Tom managed to influence the fund raising committee towards the new long range Boeing which was about to complete its trials. With three additional fuel tanks, it could fly almost 11,000 miles non-stop with 300 passengers on board. However, The Academy’s plane would only have 70 seats, thereby increasing its range further still. The school purchased the jet, set up a fund to cover its running costs and returned the balance of donations to the parents. They each received over half of what they had donated along with a note thanking them for their generosity. It was another example of just how extraordinary The Academy really was. A request for a few school trips had resulted in a donation from the parents of around half a billion dollars.

  Tom and Thabo managed to get a sneak preview inside the plane. The captain of the plane was proud to show off his new baby. As ever, no expense had been spared. The inside was luxurious and had three sections. The front had fifty first class seats which could be folded down completely flat. That section, Tom explained to Thabo, was for students and teachers. Only two classes would ever travel at once, any more would be a threat to security. Next came the kitchen and dining area which were very spacious and included an area with large sofas where students could chill out during the flight. A door at the back of that section led to the rear portion of the plane which contained a further twenty seats and a large solid steel door at the end. Before Thabo had a chance to ask what it was for, a team of Special Forces soldiers filed past them, unlocked it and started loading their arsenal of weapons and ammunition.

  “This is where the soldiers sit,” explained Tom.

  “Not taking any chances then, forty kids…twenty soldiers, bloody hell.”

  “Yeah, they like to make sure we’re safe. The plane’s also got a few defensive extras, electronic counter-measures, Chaff to confuse missiles and other bits and pieces which are too classified for us to know about. But, it’s supposedly got a laser which can knock out an incoming missile but who knows, all I really know is that it’s had the full works,” said Tom.

  “Cool,” whistled Thabo, very pleased he had arrived early.

  “Let’s go and find Zach,” suggested Tom. They needed to get out the soldiers’ way and Tom was keen to start tracking down the Migs.

  Zach arrived just before 10.30 p.m. and was very excited by the new lead. He suggested Daniel be brought in. They called him. He was going on a different trip the following week to the Great Wall of China. After they finished giving him the latest information, they boarded the plane and at exactly 11.00 p.m., the ne
w Academy plane lifted off with 40 students, 4 teachers and 20 Special Forces bodyguards for its 8,000 mile journey to Peru.

  8,000 miles away, the sniper was walking through the ruins at Machu Picchu. He was looking for the best spot to undertake his mission and like the man next to him, was taking little interest in the ruins themselves. It didn’t take him long to find the perfect position which looked down across the entire ruins and gave him every opportunity to hit his target.

  He looked again at the itinerary. The helicopters from Cuzco, the main airport, would arrive just after dawn and would leave after lunch, plenty of time.

  McDonald, Murray

  Assassin (The Billionaire Series)

  Chapter 64

  It was a very long flight but that was why they had timed it for an 11.00 p.m. departure. Two hours into the flight, silence descended as the students fell asleep. Ten hours later, they began to stir. With only 2 hours left to go before they landed, they showered and breakfasted. Before they knew it, they were landing at Velazco Astete Airport in Cuzco, Peru. A fleet of helicopters awaited their arrival to ferry them the 65 miles to the ruins.

  Just as dawn broke over the Andes, the helicopters landed at a clearing near Machu Picchu. It was spectacular, the first rays of sun lighting up the ancient city, deserted for over 500 years.

  “Wow!” exclaimed Lela.

  “Unbelievable,” said Tom.

  The class had spent the previous few weeks studying the history of Machu Picchu, its structure, location and the fact that it had been lost for hundreds of years. Unfortunately, Tom and Lela had missed all of it but it did not take any of the magic away from their first sight of the structures. They also received a running commentary from their classmates of what to look out for and before long had caught up through first hand experience with what their classmates had learnt from books.