by PETE DAVIES
Greg then waved at Ekam to join his guard at the other table. Ekam didn’t want to leave Jaz unprotected and he already felt a failure that he had left her exposed to danger. He thought they were safe out here and wondered how these two old, yes old people, had got through his security team at the gate house. He had four more men at the security house who he couldn’t call and they were hidden from view by the copse of trees she had insisted on having planted. He sat back and felt the tension rising in his body as he decided what to do next. Would he have to give his life to somehow protect the woman he had loved since he had been a young boy?
“Now I need you to be aware that we haven’t come alone,” said Greg to the bodyguard.
Ekam snapped back into the moment seeing the man was talking to him.
“Please look down at your shirt. I appreciate your shirt is a dark blue, but I think it should hopefully still show up. It’s a laser light attached to a rifle. So you will perhaps understand that we don’t now need to be watching you two. Understood?” said Greg, as he opened his mic as he spoke and Terri turned on her laser light, as she aimed at Ekam’s chest.
Ekam looked down at his shirt and looked up in the direction of the far trees, towards the coast, but could see nothing. Kaur again felt unsettled and now very much unprotected.
“Look, what do you want? You come in here threatening me. I’ve told you already, I had nothing to do with your kidnapping,” said Kaur.
“But you see my dear, you did,” said Anna. “It was your organisation that passed on the details of the scam victims to your boyfriend Sonny and it was his gang who murdered Sheila MacDonald, a very good friend of mine and then assaulted another very good friend of mine and then they kidnapped me. Now your business has already been subject to a number of police raids, but we know that you had a close down plan which worked very well and they weren’t able to obtain any evidence.”
“I have no idea what you are talking about. Scam victims. Murder, kidnapping? I am a business woman and I run a successful call centre operation,” said Kaur.
“The thing is that you do know about this Miss Kaur and that you have made a considerable amount of money from your IT scam from victims from all across the world. Now here’s the deal. We will arrange for everything that could be brought against your company, both in an official and an unofficial capacity to be stopped, if you do something in exchange,” said Anna.
Kaur looked at the woman and the man. Clearly they knew everything, but what was it they wanted? She knew she could get the business back up and running again, but not if she was going to get this continuing interference from the police and whoever these people were.
“Are you wired up or anything?” said Kaur.
“Just a local comms set up, nothing else,” said Greg.
“So what do you want?”
“Two million pounds transferred to an account in London,” said Anna.
Kaur was stunned. She was making a lot of money but that would almost clear her out. She had taken years to build up this business and it was now showing a really good return. She looked at Ekam. Why didn’t he do something? Then she thought, ‘Where is he? Where’s Sonny?’ She’d left him in her bed after they had made love that morning. Just at that moment he walked through the french doors with an AK47 assault rifle.
“Damn it, why can’t you people just leave me alone?” said Sonny Sargsyan standing in a position where he had both Greg and Anna covered by the AK47.
“Oh shit,” said Simon. “Sam, Tommy, if you’ve dealt with that third guard, be aware, we have an unwelcome visitor here, a very unwelcome visitor, Sonny Sargsyan.”
“Bloody hell,” said Sam, “we’re making to the villa.”
THIRTY FIVE
It was a stand-off, but Greg couldn’t tell if Sonny was fired up enough to the point that he would just start shooting.
He tried to gauge the look in his eyes, but saw only grey steely eyes looking back at him. One thing was for sure. Sonny wasn’t frightened of anyone or anything.
“So I finally get to meet you Mrs Anna Martínez,” said Sonny. “Now please tell me why you’ve been getting in my way and tracking me out to here?”
“It’s no pleasure for me to meet you and to burst your bubble, we haven’t come here for you. We’ve come to discuss a business transaction with your girlfriend Miss Kaur. Now did you hear that we have support both down at the front gate, who are currently on their way up to the villa, as well as some long range support?” and she nodded in the direction of the trees.
“Yes, I heard all that and Ekam here has another four men over there, so we could end up in a blood bath couldn’t we?” said Sonny. “Or we could be sensible.”
“If you had been sensible and not murdered Sheila MacDonald I probably wouldn’t be standing here now,” said Anna feeling herself getting rattled.
“No, but I would Sonny,” said Greg. “You see Mrs MacDonald was the wife of a very important client of mine and let me put it this way, whether you come out of this little situation alive or not, your days are numbered as your boss wants rid of you.”
Always confident in everything he did, Sonny couldn’t help but be shaken by what he heard the Englishman say. Then he felt the anger rising inside him, just like it had when that stupid MacDonald woman hadn’t done as she was asked. He’d see about Sergei getting rid of him. He would get rid of Sergei and take over the OCG. He started to raise the barrel of the AK47 and move into a firing position, but suddenly stopped.
He felt something on his chest before he actually heard the sound of a rifle firing. It was the last thing he heard, as he was dead before he hit the floor. All hell then broke loose as first of all Terri came up on the comms.
“Not me, repeat, not me. We have another shooter in the arena,” said Terri.
Greg realised where the shooter was. That had been the glint he had seen. He should have noticed that.
“My two o’clock, the shooter is at my two o’clock, so Terri, Simon, they're about a hundred metres or so to your left. Repeat to your left,” said Greg.
Simon started looking across the open space for any evidence in the bushes. But the second shooter was already up on her feet and packing up her gear, before she set off on foot to her Jeep, which was hidden away a half a kilometre to the north.
*****
She was just called the Russian. No one knew her real name, but it was well known within the circles she operated, that she had never failed to fulfil a contract and she wasn’t about to start now. She had seen a man walking about in the main bedroom and although she couldn’t get a clear look at his face, she presumed, by his build and height, that it was Sonny. She had seen Sonny well before Simon or Terri, because she knew he was there and he was the one she was waiting for. She had then seen another man and a woman appear, as they came around from the opposite side of the villa. Both armed with pistols, she assumed this must be the other team Sergei had spoken about. They seemed to be talking with the Kaur woman, so it didn’t look like they had gone there to kill her.
The Russian had followed Sonny to Goa and as authorised by Sergei, she was to terminate Sonny whilst not interfering with anything to do with the Kaur woman, unless necessary. She had been watching the villa all morning, covered by camouflage cloth. She hadn’t seen Simon or Terri and they hadn’t seen her, so good was each other’s cover, but it was her scope that Greg had seen when he came around the corner of the villa.
She had realised that shooting Sonny would cause confusion and give her an added advantage in getting quickly away from the area, leaving the others to deal with the resulting fallout with Kaur’s security team. She was therefore in her car and driving away all within the space of five minutes of taking the shot.
*****
Meanwhile, the other guard, who had been sat at the table, had dived for cover at the sound of the shot and had gone scurrying off towards the security house, whilst Ekam, after seeing Sonny fall to the ground, had then heard his mistress scream. He
got up from the table and ran towards her. Greg thought he was making for the AK47 and brought his Glock up and shot him, catching him in the shoulder and he fell to the floor. Kaur screamed again and seemed unsure as to who to throw her body on, Sonny or Ekam? Greg then scoured the area where he had seen the scope glint.
“Any sign Simon? I saw a glint as I came in, but didn’t twig as I thought it couldn’t be you as I knew where you two were sat up, so I dismissed it,” said Greg.
Simon had made straight to the area Greg had indicated, but a quick search had revealed the shooter was long gone.
“Nothing, repeat nothing here,” said Simon.
By this time Sam and Tommy had come around the corner with guns in hand.
“Two down and one escaped,” said Anna. “Kaur is unhurt.”
They nodded and moved to a position by the villa walls.
“Greg, Mum, get back in here now,” said Sam. “We need to get some cover as we don’t know what firepower the ones in the security house may have.”
“Simon, Terri, we’re moving back into the villa and once we’re ready we will exit through the front door. I know we’ll be blind there, but we’ll be quick. In the meantime tell us what you can see,” said Sam into his mic.
“You have four tangos coming your way Sam,” said Simon.
“Roger that,” said Sam, and motioned to Tommy, who had already seen the four emerging from their cover in the bushes. Judging by the guards they had overcome so far, these didn’t seem to be particularly highly skilled, but they wouldn’t take any chances, as any idiot with a gun can still do a lot of damage.
Anna had heard Sam and calmly walked across to Kaur and despite the difference in ages, she grabbed Kaur and hauled her into the living room whilst Greg checked on Ekam. He was alive.
“You’ll live,” said Greg, as he pulled off Ekam’s t-shirt and held it to his shoulder and told him to press hard on it. He then picked up Kaur’s tablet and followed Anna into the living area inside the villa.
“Hold your hand out Miss Kaur,” said Anna firmly.
“No, why should…?”
She didn’t get any further as Anna whipped her right hand, like a back hand in tennis and caught Kaur on her face with the back of her clenched fist. Kaur went to make a noise. But nothing came out as she fell back onto the couch, blood streaming from her nose.
“Hand,” said Anna again.
Kaur held out her hand and Anna took it and pressed her index finger down on the tablet home button and the screen came to life.
“You won’t get in there,” snarled Kaur.
Anna looked at her and smiled.
“No, you’re right, I won’t, but I know a man who will.”
She called the number that was already on her phone.
“Anna, how nice to hear from you. Are we set?” said Rob.
“Yes Rob, but we’ve got a bit of a problem here, so quick as you can please,” said Anna, just as she heard shots from outside.
She watched the screen as she saw a pop-up appear from Rob.
“Anna, please press ACCEPT,” said Rob.
“Done,” said Anna.
Now having remote access to all of Kaur’s master files, Rob then trawled through them and Anna saw the pages on the screen start to move faster and faster. Anna tried to follow what he was doing, but was also keeping an eye on Kaur who was glaring at her, so she couldn’t really keep up with the speed of what Rob was doing.
“How are we doing Anna?” said Greg, “because I think we may need to be moving in the very near future.”
“Rob? How soon?” said Anna.
“Couple of minutes should do it. Bit hairy out there then Anna?” said Rob.
“Just a bit,” she said.
Greg saw an opportunity to slow things down and went and grabbed Ekam and the radio.
“Now look. We’ve got what we came for and the only one who needs to be dead is him out there. Call your dogs off and tell them to back off and your Principal stays safe. Okay?”
Ekam was about to pass the message over the radio when he heard Kaur’s voice.
“Ekam, do something, they’re stealing my money you dumb idiot. How could you let them do this to me?” said Kaur.
He looked crestfallen. He had guarded her all his life and had just taken a bullet in his side as he went to protect her and all she could think about was the money. Ekam looked at Greg who was still offering him the radio.
“Jasvinder,” he said.
She looked at him amazed. He had never called her by her first name. She went to speak, but he put his finger to his mouth.
“Please do not say anything. My job has always been to protect you, rather than your money. I can get you out of this alive if you stop behaving like some spoilt little brat and let me do my job.”
Ekam then took the radio and spoke quickly, passing a message that Greg could just about follow.
“Fall back to the security house and await further instructions. We are safe. Repeat we are safe.”
He then handed the radio back to Greg knowing that he wouldn’t be stupid enough to leave the radio with him as they left the villa.
“Sam, Tommy, go check the front and get both of the SUVs started and backed up to the house,” said Greg.
“Looks like the guards are falling back. You guys all okay down there?” said Simon.
“Yes, yes, leaving in about two,” said Greg.
“Dad, Kaur?” said Terri.
Greg knew what she was asking. Sonny was dead. He was the reason why John had lost Sheila, not Kaur. He looked at Kaur, who seeing his eyes seemed to understand what was happening and she started shaking. He paused for a moment and then shook his head.
“No, repeat No,” said Greg.
“Understood,” said Terri.
Tommy and Sam checked the front and saw it was clear and got the SUVs turned around and ready to go just as they saw Greg and Anna calmly walking out of the front door.
“Said your goodbyes then?” said Sam.
“Yes, she wasn’t very happy, either with us or her bodyguard who seems to have got something off his chest,” said Anna, as she and Greg got into the SUV with Sam.
Tommy accelerated away hard in front of them and turned left at the bottom of the drive and headed off to pick up Terri and Simon, whilst Sam, with Anna and Greg on board, turned right and drove hard back along the main road towards the coast line.
“Good decision back there,” said Anna.
“Yes and I think John MacDonald would agree,” said Greg.
*****
“Is Daniel ready to go as soon as we get back?” said Greg, after Terri had picked up his call.
“Yes, we can head straight to Goa International. Laura is also en-route and she’ll pick up the firearms and get them shipped back to us. We just need to leave the SUVs parked up at the airport. Do you think Kaur will try to get her bodyguard to do anything to try to stop us?”
“I don’t think so. By the look of her as we left, she did actually seem more concerned about him once she saw the extent of his injury. He really needs a hospital, so I’m banking on her concentrating on that. She did mutter something about, ‘This isn’t over,’ but hey, that’s all for another day if she ever chooses to discuss the matter further,” said Greg.
The rest of the journey was uneventful. Tommy caught them up before they reached the airport and they travelled in convoy for the final few kilometres of the journey before parking up outside the VIP terminal, where Terri could see Laura was already waiting.
“Hope we didn’t interrupt your sunbathing?” said Terri.
“Nope, I was just finishing off my book. I’m going back by car as I can’t stomach another go in a helicopter. Hope it all worked out okay for you?” said Laura.
“Like clockwork. Please say thanks again to Martin for us,” said Anna.
“Yes, will do and Mrs Martínez? It’s been a pleasure to meet you in person?” said Laura.
Anna just smiled and then loo
ked at Terri, who was standing there.
“Are you really some sort of celebrity legend in the spy world Anna?”
“It seems I am my dear,” said Anna as she walked off into the terminal smiling.
THIRTY SIX
They separated at the terminal as Tommy and Simon were going back to London via the next BA flight.
As regular air travellers, they had Lounge access and so they were looking forward to a couple of ice cool glasses of beer before getting on the plane. However, they didn’t know until they checked in, but Terri had upgraded them to Business Class and as they boarded, they turned left for their seats and were greeted by the cabin crew team with a glass of champagne.