Assassin (The Billionaire Series) (14 page)

The scramjet landed and departed almost immediately. It would
deliver General Powers to Washington, 9,000 miles away, in just over an hour.
The scramjet could fly at speeds approaching MACH 10, over 7,000 miles per
hour.

Chapter 31

Donald explained the situation to Saki on his return to the
cell. The Chief of Police had given up trying to elicit his confession after
only half an hour. It was clear that Donald was not going to change his mind
but it seemed as though the Chief of Police didn’t seem to care, almost as
though he were just going through the motions.

It was not until later that they had the chance to update
Rachel when they were let out into the prison courtyard, giving them the chance
to talk. Despite the prison yard being full of other prisoners, the Kennedys
were given an extra wide berth. They heard, however, that the former boss of
the prisoners was fighting for his life in the prison hospital. It had not
taken long for the prisoners to even up old scores. The boss now shared the
ward with his henchmen and none would see the light of day for a number of
weeks.

Rachel did not take the news well. The thought of spending the
rest of her life in that hell hole was terrifying. Donald explained that the
evidence was all stacked against him but that there was nothing on Saki and
Rachel.

“So why the hell are we here? And anyway, is your spending the
rest of
your
life in here without me, supposed to comfort me?” she retorted, fighting back
the tears.

“No, but…” Donald gave up, there was no point trying to comfort
Rachel at this stage, he stood more chance of upsetting her than reassuring
her.

The tearful silence was interrupted by shouts and screams from
across the courtyard. The noise grew louder as the source of the noise grew
closer. A team of guards, heavily armed and dressed in full riot gear were
making their way towards them. As they approached Donald, Saki and Rachel, they
stopped. Saki stepped in front of Donald and Rachel and readied himself for
another battle. He didn’t like guns but knew when they were needed and how to
use them. He spotted the one he wanted, a well kept Heckler & Koch MP5K. It
was by far the best weapon for his purposes, namely to take out the 20 guards
as quickly as possible. He was already calculating the order in which to
 
dispatch them once he had disarmed the
owner
 
of the gun he wanted.

“Come with us,” demanded the guard who was about to be
disarmed. That was why he had the best weapon thought Saki, he was the senior
guard.

“Where?” asked Saki, preparing to move dependent upon the
answer.

“The British Ambassador has arrived and wishes to see you,”
replied the senior guard. Saki turned to Donald who simply replied, “about
bloody time, let’s go,” and led the way.

They were shown to a significantly more attractive room than
the one Donald had found himself in earlier. Even tea and biscuits were laid
out. A man was standing talking to the British Ambassador whom Donald assumed
was the Prison Governor.

“Good evening,” said the Ambassador, rising from his seat and
greeting them warmly.

“Good evening Mr Ambassador,” they all replied.

The Governor introduced himself to the three of them and told
them to let him know if there was anything he could do for them. He said he was
at their service but Donald had a funny feeling that they would not be seeing
him again in a hurry, noting that he seemed to share the same tailor as the
Chief of Police.

Rachel, however, smiled for the first time since their arrest,
excited at the prospect of the UK government flexing its muscle to get them
out.

“Sorry, I’ve not been here sooner but getting from Yaoundé in
Cameroon where I’m based on a Sunday is not an easy thing.”

“No need to apologise, we’re just very pleased to see you,”
replied Donald. “When can you get us out?” He decided that he was as well cut to
the chase. He could see that Rachel had decided that the Ambassador’s arrival
was their ticket out. If it wasn’t, he wanted her to know then rather than
build up her hopes.

“I’m afraid not, the evidence is significant and it seems that
further improprieties are being suggested.”

The blood drained from Donald’s face.

“What does ‘suggestion of further improprieties’ mean?” asked
Donald carefully.

“Hmm, I’m uncomfortable discussing it third hand. It is at the
moment only rumoured.”

“Bugger uncomfortable and rumour, you’re the only person we
can talk to,” insisted Donald.

“Well it appears that papers exist which would suggest, only
speculation I hasten to add, that Alba International has gained significantly
from the recent assassinations.”

“What?” Donald was not a stupid man, he knew exactly what was
coming next and began to feel feint.

“Yes,” the Ambassador could see that he did not need to spell
it out and added, “I believe the Global media chain will break the story
tomorrow. An undercover reporter has papers and evidence which implicate you as
the mastermind in the assassinations.”

The words hung in the air, nobody spoke. Donald had gone from
the number one businessman in the world to the world’s most wanted murderer in
less than 24 hours.

Chapter 32

It had been a long afternoon. Mr Sakamoto had tried all his
contacts but to no avail. Tom had also tried a few of his contacts, being the
son of the world’s most powerful businessman resulted in an interesting network
of friends. His father often joked that Tom and Lela’s contact lists put his
one to shame. But nothing, the news was bad from everyone.

Mr Sakamoto had eventually given way to the small crowd of
friends who had gathered outside Lela’s room and who had refused to leave. They
were good friends and were not going to leave Tom and Lela in their hour of
need.

Zach went straight to see Tom and Lela when he returned from
dropping his father off. He wasted no time updating them and the small crowd on
what had happened to his father, paying particular attention to the
conversation between his father and the US President.

Tom realised, listening to Zach, that things could have been
much worse. Zach’s father could easily have been killed that day.

The more he thought about things, the more he realised there
was more he could do. There was lots more he could do. He was Tom Kennedy and
he would find the truth. He looked around for Tristan, where was he? He turned
to Lela, she was still very upset. Tom walked over and whispered to her.

“Lela, we’re going to sort this out. We’re not doing our
parents any favours being like this. We need to do everything we can to help
them, OK?”

He was strong again and Lela took solace in this. She began to
brighten. Tom realised then that he had to remain strong for both of them. Lela
may have been able to kick anybody’s arse but deep down she was just like most
15 year old girls, emotional and sometimes fragile.

“You’re right,” she said snivelling. “We need to do more, we
need to do a lot more.” Tom hugged her, the strong and resilient Lela was
returning.

Tristan entered the room

“Can I have a word?” he asked.

“Of course,” replied Tom. “What’s up?” he asked, noticing that
something was wrong.

“Not here, let’s go next door to your room,” he said to Tom
and gesturing for Lela to come too.

It took Tristan less than two minutes to update Tom and Lela
on the latest he had heard from his father. It was the same news the Ambassador
had told their parents. Donald was now being linked to the assassinations. Tom
looked across at Lela who was obviously waiting for his reaction to gauge how
she was going to take this. Tom looked back at Tristan.

“When?” he asked forcefully.

“When what?” asked Tristan who had expected them to break
down.

“When are Global Media going to release the story?”

“Tomorrow.”

“That’s it. They’ve gone too far now. Whoever is behind this, has
just stepped over the line.” Tom was seething but his mind was working
overtime.

“Tristan, could you do me favour and round up these people and
have them meet here in 2 hours,” said Tom scribbling down a list of names as
fast as he could.

“If any of them ask why, just say it’s an emergency and
mention my name, they should come, or at least I hope they will. And now if you
don’t mind Trist, I need to make some urgent calls.” Tristan took the hint and
went off to round up the list of students.

“What are you going to do?” asked Lela.

“We are going to start giving these bastards a fight,” replied
Tom forcefully.

“How?”

“By playing them at their own game. I need your permission to
invoke the
 
special condition.”

“Of course, but why?” Lela saw the sparkle in Tom’s eye. He
obviously had a plan.

“You’ll see,” said Tom as he made a call.

“Hi, can I speak to Jonathan please?” asked Tom.

“I’m sorry Tom, he’s busy just now, can he call you back?”
asked Jonathan’s secretary recognising Tom’s voice. Both she and Jonathan had
gone into the office despite it being a Sunday to do whatever they could to
help.

“No, I need to speak to him now, interrupt him, it’s urgent,”
replied Tom abruptly. Lela kicked him for being so rude.

“I’m sorry but it’s really really urgent,” said Tom trying to
justify his rudeness.

“OK, I’ll get him for you now,” she replied impressed at Tom’s
ability to apologise even though he was under a huge amount of pressure.
Jonathan had been barking at her all day and had not apologised once.

Two seconds later, Jonathan was on the phone.

“Hi Tom, how you holding up?”

“Fine thanks, have you heard the latest?” he didn’t have time
for small talk, they had things to do.

“No, what’s happened?”

Tom informed a totally and utterly dumbfounded Head of Legal
about the allegations which were due to be made against his father. Jonathan
could think of nothing to say and remained speechless.

“Jonathan, are you there?” prompted Tom.

“Yes, yes sorry, I just can’t believe anybody could conceive
of this. I mean what utter crap. What can I do?”

“I want to invoke the special conditions laid down by my
father this year.”

Jonathan did not need to look them up as he had drafted them
himself only two months previously. It had been a rather surprising request but
Donald was the boss and what he said went.

“Is Lela with you?”

“Yes, here she is” said Tom handing the phone to Lela.

“Do you agree with this Lela?” asked Jonathan.

“Yes I do,” replied Lela handing the phone back to Tom.

“OK boss, what can I do for you?” said Jonathan to the newest
and youngest CEO in the world.

Part Three

Chapter 33

General Powers wasted no time when he arrived back in
Washington. He headed straight to the Whitehouse to see the President. The
meeting was brief and filled with sincere apologies and explanations. Powers
was not interested in all that guff, he just wanted to see the new statement
which was to be sent to his staff immediately. The President handed him a
draft, he tweaked it and added his own paragraph at the end. He waited for
confirmation that the message had been sent and then left without so much as a
goodbye. He was in no mood to be cordial.

Powers began to calm down as he approached his office. He had
toyed with the idea of going home but wanted to make a few calls first. He had
called his wife from Zach’s school and had been stunned to learn that she
hadn’t even been informed of his demise. Two and a half million soldiers of the
US armed forces had been informed but she hadn’t. The more Powers delved into
‘the incident’, the worse it got. Things were very strange and something was
going on. His thoughts stopped as he opened the outer door to his office. His
secretary’s desk was completely clear, her papers and personal things were
thrown into a box on the floor. The door to his office was closed but somebody
was in there, he could hear them moving around.

He opened the door slowly and quietly and watched as a short,
tubby man was frantically putting things back where they should be from a pile
of boxes in the middle of the floor. Walker had spent most of the morning
moving into General Powers’ office and was still furiously trying to move back
out. Walker had been informed by the President about Powers still being alive
but not about his very quick return. As far as Walker was concerned, Powers was
on a plane crossing the Atlantic.

“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?” shouted Powers in his best
drill instructor’s voice. Walker just about had an involuntary action such was
the surprise and terror of hearing the General’s voice. Powers was a large and
powerful man and was going to use every inch of his presence on the
insignificant weasel. He had gone too far, it was one thing to take his job, he
could be forgiven for that but moving into his office before his body was even
found, especially on a Sunday, was unforgivable. Powers expanded his already
vast chest and moved within a whisker of Walker.

“I’m just putting things back where they were Sir,” replied
Walker, his voice quivering.

“Why would they need to be put back if I never moved them in
the first place. A bit quick off the mark weren’t we Walker?”