Chapter 76
With just under an hour’s flight and fuel to go, Tom’s phone rang. It was Daniel reporting that the group at The Academy had pulled an all-nighter and had some updates. It had proved quite a successful session.
“It looks like you’re right on the G20 countries. With only a couple of exceptions, those who have been assassinated have been replaced by a relatively unknown contender. And, of all the G20 countries, only the UK, France, Germany, China, Saudi Arabia, the US, Australia and the Commissioner of the EU have not been replaced due to assassination in the last year. It was so bloody obvious, we didn’t see it.”
“Which ones have the most prominent new candidates waiting in the wings?”
“All of them bar the US. It’s different there, because there’s a Vice President already in place to immediately replace the President. Tom, looking at the positioning, it’s all going to happen very soon.”
“OK. we know the timetable for the UK and Australia, what about the others?”
“We haven’t got them yet, it appears that even being the grand-daughter of the Chinese ruler doesn’t have access to his diary. As for Sofie, her mum isn’t in the office until Monday and she left her diary there. She can’t remember but thinks she might be going to America this week.”
“You’re joking!” said Tom.
“’Fraid not, it’s for real, she’s Dutch and a European MP, what can I say!” Daniel shrugged his shoulders, it mystified him also.
“Track down any students related to any of the other leaders. We need to find out what the hell operation David is and quick.”
“OK. But two more things. We tracked down the number on that business card and are sifting through the phone calls made. There are a few to the law firm which made the offer to buy Alba, they’ve obviously been involved for some time. I’ve managed to call in a few favours, I have an operation to raid their offices tonight. I’ll let you know what we find.”
“Excellent and the other thing?” asked Tom.
“That thing you gave me. My guys almost missed it, it was so obvious, it reads ‘ We’ll be back’. ” Tom almost dropped the phone as he heard the words, it couldn’t be, it wasn’t possible.
The tower at Grantley Adams International Airport interrupted his chain of thought as he began entering the final approach. He looked at his fuel, it was going to be very close, he knew he should have flown a little slower. He could not believe it when they gave him the longest approach run, landing in an easterly direction. He would have to swing out and come back on himself before landing.
“This is going to be very close,” whispered Kisho. Warning bells had started to ring ten minutes earlier. The intermittent beeping had now become a continuous tone as the plane pleaded to land.
“Just made it,” said Tom as the wheels touched down in Barbados. “Don’t know what the panic was,” he said just before they lost all power.
They tried to use as much of their landing speed as possible to get them to the terminal but they fell just short. All momentum was lost on the taxiway and with no engines, they had the indignity of having to wait for a small truck, more commonly used for pushing large jets, to come and rescue them.
“Hmm, I think next time we’ll have a refuelling stop,” suggested Tom as they sat stranded, it had been just a little too close for comfort.
Once they reached the terminal, it took them 5 minutes to clear customs. It was 2.00 a.m. local time and the airport was deserted.
“What now?” asked Lela, looking for a taxi or anything which would get them to a bed.
Tom smiled as he watched the stretch limo approach.
“Tacky but perfect. People, your chariot awaits,” announced Tom to the group showing them to the limo.
“Where are we going?” asked Tristan.
“Zach, I thought I told you to explain things to him,” said Tom, his eyes twinkling mischievously.
“He did, I understand perfectly what’s happening.” Tristan did not find it funny.
“Well you know where we’re going then,” replied Tom.
“You can’t have, they are no rooms available, they’re fully booked,” said Zach.
“Not a room per se, the villa at Sandy Lane, 7,500 sq ft of unadulterated luxury.”
“How did you manage that?” asked Lela.
“Money, we need to be where the action is so I just offered more and more until they couldn’t refuse. They had to kick out some rock star, I think, to get us in.”
Thirty minutes later, they checked into their luxury villa.
Chapter 77
The Chairman checked his bedside clock. It was 3.00 a.m., who the hell was ringing him at that time? He answered and waited to hear who it was. If it were that idiot Beaumont, he would just hang up.
“Sir, it’s Williams. We have a problem, well actually we have two problems.”
“Go ahead,” said The Chairman who had been very impressed with Williams since his promotion.
“The first is a problem with the General Powers mission. It appears that our men got in, put three bullets in him but that he pulled a gun from under his pillow and shot our men dead.”
“Is he still alive?”
“Yes, he’s in hospital and unconscious but stable and will make it.”
“Jesus, he really is a tough old bastard. Sleeps with a gun under his pillow, probably had his boots on as well!” joked The Chairman. “That’s not too disastrous, he’s out of the way for a few days, we’ll deal with him after David, at least he won’t be around to interfere with that.”
“True, he’ll be in hospital for at least a couple of weeks. The next problem is confusing me somewhat.”
“What is it? Just spit it out,” said The Chairman.
“One of my guys just radioed me to tell me that Tom Kennedy and entourage just checked into the hotel.”
“The Sandy Lane?” The Chairman sat bolt upright in his bed.
“Yes.”
“Who’s in the entourage?”
“His sister, a couple of other boys and some sort of Asian looking guys,” replied Williams.
The Chairman took one second to make his decision.
“Go!! Now!! Hit the Prime Ministers, the Kennedys and their entourage right now! Hit them with everything you’ve got. You hear me?? Kill them all and quick,” he demanded before hanging up.
The Chairman then hit a speed dial button. The phone answered. He didn’t wait for a hello before screaming down the phone.
“BEAUMONT START TALKING AND DON’T GIVE ME ANY BULLSHIT!!! I AM SO NOT IN THE MOOD. WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED!!!!”
Chapter 78
Williams sat with three of his lieutenants. The operation had just changed dramatically. The initial operation was to have involved an attack on a convoy due to take the UK and Australian Prime Ministers to a cricket match the following day in Bridgetown. They now had to assault the hotel which meant penetrating two suites, each containing a PM and the villa containing Tom and his entourage.
Three target zones, three teams of ten, five snipers and five men waiting as back-up should they be needed. They would hit the three locations simultaneously and with overwhelming force. In order to make the most of the darkness, the teams had to rush, sunrise was a 5.51 a.m. Williams wanted to go in at 4.45 a.m. and be gone long before the first rays of sunlight.
Williams organised his men brilliantly and with ten minutes to spare, everybody was on station and ready to go. He checked in with his lieutenants and got their good-to-go responses.
A few seconds later, he gave the signal to the snipers. Four guards at the entrance to the hotel dropped before his eyes, each killed instantly with head shots. As the bodies slumped to the floor, the three teams were up and running.
A man, dressed in black, watched from the bushes as the three teams had formed up. Three targets he thought. He had to hand it to them, they were very good. They had reacted quickly to the surprise guests and altered their plans accordingly. He had been as surpr
ised as they had when the limo turned up and disgorged its passengers. How did they know where to come? But he didn’t have much time, there were too many, he needed help and fast.
Chapter 79
The Chairman listened to Beaumont whine on pitifully for ten minutes. He was bored.
“Stop,” he commanded. “Enough, so what you’re saying is that Jones had her but that she somehow she got away and he’s dead?”
“Yes.”
“OK. I didn’t like the sneaky little turd but he was a damn good soldier. Just what the hell are we up against?”
Beaumont could see a chink of hope, he may not be dead just yet.
“I’m trying to work that out. They had her on a boat in the middle of the ocean. Ten men and her.”
“You’re sure?”
“Definitely. But one thing sticks in my mind. There’s a note in the file, written by that Reaper guy, the guy the President used last year. He made reference to some fancy martial art the girl and her father practised. He seemed quite impressed by it,” said Beaumont.
“Come on, that girl is fifteen and small for her age. What, she attacked ten grown men?” He pondered the possibility and it seemed extremely unlikely, if not impossible.
“I can’t explain it, nothing else makes sense. Their boat had every conceivable detector, no person or boat could have got within half a mile of them without them knowing. If Jones had been attacked he would have told me.”
The Chairman hung up on Beaumont. He had begun to remember the story from the year before about the hostage situation at schools around the world and the unexplained release of the students. The rumours afterwards were that ninja type men had freed the students with amazing displays of martial arts.
He tried to call Williams. His phone was off. They must be launching the attack. He was too late. Perhaps he was just being silly. They were Beaumont’s scare stories. But what if they weren’t? Williams and his men would be slaughtered.
Chapter 80
The villa was lovely with the main feature being the living area which opened onto a spectacular Roman-style pool. Nobody, however, took any notice of the surroundings. Tom had put the news on the moment they entered the house and all sat either glued to the screen or comforting Zach. The news of his father’s shooting was the major news story on every channel. The story suggested he had disturbed burglars and although wounded, had managed to kill both intruders.
Zach contacted his mother immediately. She had been desperately trying to get hold of him and seemed more concerned about his whereabouts than his father’s condition. He finally discovered that his father was in a drug induced coma to speed healing, some new thing they were trying. None of the injuries were bad and he’d be fine in a couple of weeks.
“Burglars my ass. I ask you, who burgles a house with two Military Police cars sitting outside it?” asked Zach rhetorically as another news reporter proposed the scenario.
“Thank God you warned him he might be a target. It was lucky he had his gun to hand.”
“Yes I warned him but the gun is always there, he even sleeps with his slippers on. He’s always telling me you can never be too prepared. My mum moved into the spare room, she’s been petrified for years that he’ll blow her head off in his sleep.”
“So what did he do about being a target?” asked Tom.
“Nothing, he just said whoever tries to kill him had better have a big set of balls and a damn good aim. They’d only get one chance.”
“Seems he was right,” replied Tristan as he watched the body bags of the ‘burglars’ being removed from Zach’s house.
“He’ll have to be careful now though, I don’t think they’ll…” Lela stopped mid sentence, the colour draining from her face. Her mouth making as if to scream but nothing came out. Everyone was so busy trying to see if she was OK, that they failed to notice what was frightening the life out of her.
Chapter 81
“Lela! Lela! Look at me! What’s wrong?”
Tom didn’t know what to do, one minute she was sitting talking, the next she couldn’t speak and was struggling for breath.
Lela tried to speak but the vision through the window had caused her to go into shock. Her mind could not compute what her eyes were seeing. It just didn’t make sense. Why would nobody look round. They were all just staring at her, she had to get them to look round. They must look and explain it to her or tell her she was dreaming. They had to look!
“Lela! You’re really scaring me now! What’s wrong, talk to me please!!” Tom was on the verge of tears, he didn’t know what to do or what was wrong with her.
A tap tap on the window caught most of their attention bar Tom’s who was too worried about Lela.
“Tom! Tom! Please turn around and look at the door to the pool?” said Tristan sounding, as though he were asking Tom to look at a mad axe man.
“What?…” Tom turned round and realised what was wrong. Standing in the full glare of the spotlights and directly in front of Lela was Saki.
“Is it really him?” asked Lela, tears were now streaming down her face. If other people saw him as well, it might be real.
“Yes, it is. It’s Saki,” replied Tom gently, as tears began to roll down his cheeks.
Lela jumped and ran to the door, unlocked it and threw her arms around her father. He hugged her and tears welled in his eyes. Tom joined them and the three hugged. Saki spoke before Tom had a chance to ask.
“Your parents are fine, they’re out there on the Tylanni. Explanations will have to wait, we’ve got visitors coming.”
Papa, who had been in the kitchen and had missed everything, nearly knocked them all flying as he rushed across the room to join in the hug.
“Papa. We have trouble coming.”
Saki disengaged himself from Tom and Lela and began to explain what they needed to do. He quickly organised the islanders and split them into three teams. Within a few minutes, the three groups had disappeared into the night.
Lela, Zach, Tristan and Tom were left with strict instructions to stay upstairs in the master bedroom, under no circumstances were they to leave the room.
Lela punched Tom in the arm.
“Hey! What was that for?” he said rubbing the top of his arm.
“You knew! I saw the look on your face, you weren’t that surprised when you saw him.”
“I didn’t! I just thought it might be possible, remember the text I got from my dad?”
“Yeah, the weird one that made them sound guilty?”
“Yeah and the numbers, well it turns out that the numbers, when you type them out in text, say we’ll be back. Daniel phoned me just before we landed. His guys worked it out, seems it had even their master code cracker beat until one of their kids said try it as a text rather than numbers. That, combined with the please forgive us and the Tylanni being renamed The Beautiful lady, made things come together.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Lela was hurt that he had kept it from her.
“And if I was wrong and got your hopes up?” he responded.
“True…God I can’t believe it! They’re alive!” she shook Tom as she said it. The worry that she was dreaming was slowly disappearing. It was real, they were back.
Chapter 82
The three teams made their way through the grounds towards their targets. Team One towards the UK Prime Minister, Team Two towards the Australian Prime Minister and Team Three to the villa to deal with the kids and their acquaintances. It was slow going. With fifty three heads of government, the teams had a lot of security to avoid or dispose of.
The grounds were vast, over 320 acres. Williams was worried about the time it would take them to find their final positions, three areas offering excellent cover and close enough to their targets. He checked his watch as his three teams radioed in to confirm they had arrived and were in position, it was 4.42 a.m. Perfect, he thought, three minutes early.
Williams sat over a mile away with the back-up team. He was watching everything as
it happened through video feeds from cameras attached to his lieutenants’ helmets. He watched carefully as each lieutenant scanned the scene in front of them for him. Teams One and Two had four and five guards to deal with respectively, Team Three had a clear run to the villa.
“Snipers One and Two come in,” he radioed to the snipers who covered the south end of the Hotel. They would be able to knock out the four guards for Team One.
“Snipers One and Two come in,” he repeated. He looked towards the high ground where they were, it was over half a mile away and dark, he couldn’t see a thing.
“Sniper Three and Four come in,” he said, trying the snipers who covered the North end and would knock out the guards for Team Two. Nothing.
Williams looked again into the distance where they should be. Again, it was dark, there was nothing to see.
“Sniper Five come in.” Sniper Five was covering the villa and would assist Team Three.
“Yes Sir,” said Sniper Five immediately. He was the closest to them, only a couple of hundred yards up a small hill which offered the best view of the villa.
“Have Snipers One to Four reported difficulties with radios?”
“No Sir th…” Williams heard a distinct thud through his headphones as Sniper Five stopped talking and his line went dead.
He checked his video feeds, they were fine.
“Driver! Move us up the road a mile,” shouted Williams, “and make it quick.” Sniper Five had been very close. If he had just been taken out, Williams was not hanging around to find out if he was next.
The small truck bounced down the road and Williams watched the video feeds. He noticed them bouncing also, but realised it wasn’t from the truck moving, it was his lieutenants’ heads moving quickly. What the hell was happening?
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