Assassin (The Billionaire Series) (17 page)

“Break us in gently with the bad news,” he said.

“The story about the assassinations and your dad will break
tomorrow morning, it’s everywhere,” replied Tristan as gently as he could.

“If that’s the bad news, I don’t think we want the awful
news,” said Lela already tearful.

Daniel turned to Tristan and nodded, that was Tristan’s signal
to leave the room. Tom and Lela watched as he left and closed the door quietly
behind him, the tension was unbearable.
 

“It’s about your parents,” started Daniel. A gasp of “Oh God”
escaped from Lela. Tom sat up straight. Daniel stopped himself and thought it
best to explain from the start. He started again.

“We have a system that nobody knows we have, it allows us to
listen to things that nobody knows we can hear. In short, we deny it exists and
will continue to deny it. In fact, that was why Tristan left, you are the only
people outside a very few in the Mossad who know we have this technology.
Tristan knows that I have things to tell you that no-one else can hear. After our
first meeting, I had asked for your father’s name to be included as a trigger
on the watch list. I just got a call to say they got a hit. A conversation was
picked up between two highly secure phones. Unfortunately, one was
significantly more secure than the other. However, it appears that somebody is
planning to kill your father in the prison.”

“When?” Tom managed to push the question out as his whole body
quaked. Somebody
was
behind this, it
was
all a set up.

“From the conversation, before tomorrow night and it may be
more than your father. The conversation was only picked up when they mentioned
your father and they only heard one side, the other line was too secure to get.
All they got was…Donald Kennedy is one of the dead… scrambled….Does it matter…scrambled…OK
by tomorrow night they’ll all be history.” Daniel had recited the message
verbatim, nothing had been written down.

Tom and Lela looked at each other, neither knowing what to
say. They sat staring at each other, motionless and speechless as the news sank
in. After a few minutes, Daniel broke the silence.

 
“I’m so sorry to
be the one to give you this news,” said Daniel but neither seemed to be
listening. “Unfortunately, we can never discuss this again and you can’t tell
anyone what I’ve just told you. The person who input your father’s name would
be in a lot of trouble for doing what he’s done. Also, we can’t ever let anyone
know about our listening system.”

Tom was about to agree but stopped himself. He suddenly
realised the significance of what Daniel had just told them.

“But it proves they’re innocent! And that somebody else is
involved!” he protested.

“I know. But nobody can know this, not from this information.
You’ll have to do this another way. No evidence exists anyway, nothing is
written down.”

Daniel was right.

“Do we know who they were?” asked Tom realising he hadn’t
mentioned names.

“No. The voice which could be heard was digitised and
untraceable. The only thing we do know is that the communication system is very
advanced and only available to a small number of NATO countries.”

“So we can narrow it down?” asked Tom hopefully.

“Perhaps, I have some guys working on it but if any units have
been stolen or gone missing, it could be anybody.”

“Try Rolf. If it’s made it onto the black market, he’ll know
about it,” suggested Tom.

“Good idea, I’ll give him a call. What about your parents?
What will you do?” asked Daniel.

“Go and get them of course,” replied Lela matter of factly.
“I’ll be back in five minutes. Tom, get ready. I’ll call Kano and Kisho.” She
walked off to her room.

Both Tom and Daniel were still looking at the door as she
disappeared.

“She’s not joking is she?” asked Daniel.

“She doesn’t joke. I better get ready. It seems I’m going to
Equatorial Guinea in five minutes.”

“Can I come?” asked Daniel.

“What?”

“Can I come? It’s only because of me that you know to go and
surely the more people on your side the better.” He was almost pleading.

Tom thought for a moment. What the hell, if he wanted to come
who was he to stop him? “OK, but be back here in five minutes.”

Five minutes later, everyone was back in Tom’s room. Lela had
been dubious about Daniel’s involvement and told Tom that he couldn’t come
until he had reappeared completely dressed in black, including balaclava and a
belt around his waist which contained various implements and weapons.

“Good god Daniel, what are you doing with all that?” asked
Tom.

“Standard issue my friend. Covert mission equipment,” replied
Daniel proudly.

“Do you know how to use it all?” asked Lela.

“Doh, of course. This isn’t a fancy dress outfit you know,”
replied an offended Daniel.

“Ok. He can come,” said Lela to Tom, surprising Daniel who
hadn’t realised he might not have been. He now knew who wore the trousers in
the Kennedy household.

“I just need to do one more thing before we go,” said Tom.

“What now?” asked Lela desperate to leave.

Tom looked at her and said, “you know very well what we need
to do before we go.” She nodded. They had discussed the possibility earlier.
Tom picked up the receiver and called Jonathan, he had become their link into
the Alba empire.

“Hi Tom, how’s things?”

“Not good. I’ve just heard that the story will break
tomorrow.”

“Oh no! What do you want to do?”

“I want to do what we discussed. Break the story now.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.” Tom put the phone down.

Within the next ten minutes, the full might of the Alba empire
would break the story that evidence linked its owner to the recent
assassinations.

Chapter 39

Beaumont was standing next to the podium where the White House
Press Secretary was taking his morning briefing. As expected, there were a lot
of questions regarding the shocking events over the weekend and the arrest of
Donald Kennedy. What was the US Government doing to help him, etc. etc.
Beaumont was bored. When he had booked himself into the briefing on Friday, he
had expected an entirely different scenario. ‘Donald Kennedy, an assassin?’
‘Surely not?’ blah blah blah.

He now wanted to get out of the press briefing but after
making such a fuss to be there, he thought he had better stay, particularly as
he wanted to be there when it broke the following morning.

He began to think about any loose ends they may have missed
but there was nothing. Smith’s team would start the riot in the prison and then
assist the guards in stopping it. Of course, only after the Kennedys were
pumped full of bullets. He had placed Jones and his team as back up. If
anything did go wrong, they would be standing by to take care of things. In
fact, every eventuality was covered.

Beaumont was suddenly aware that the briefing had stopped, not
because it had finished but because the room had filled with the sound of
ringing phones. Everyone had their phones on silent, but emergency numbers for
reporters overrode this feature. What was happening, thought Beaumont. He
looked across at the press secretary who looked as lost as he was.

“Mr Press Secretary?” one of the reporters had finished his
call. “Does the Whitehouse wish to comment on the story currently being run by
Global Media?”

“If you’d like to tell me what the story is, I’ll be happy to
comment.”

“Are you saying therefore that the Whitehouse does not wish to
comment or won’t comment on the story?”

Beaumont had a feeling of dread. This had all the signs of
another disaster about to happen.

“John, will you stop being obtuse and tell me the damn story
you’re referring to?” said the Press Secretary to a reporter he had known for
years.

“You really don’t know? Global who are owned by Alba
International have just broken the story that Donald Kennedy, their owner and
CEO, is the number one suspect in the recent spate of assassinations.”

“They’ve what?” blurted Beaumont a little too loudly and found
himself under the media spotlight. He quickly stepped back and left the room,
leaving the press secretary to deal with it. He needed to see the report. Why
would they buy a channel to kill a story and then break it first? He burst into
his room and selected the Global channel. He immediately went to their
interactive area and selected the ‘Top Story’ banner. The story played from the
beginning and Beaumont had to congratulate whoever had pulled this one off.
They had given the details but in such a way to leave just enough doubt, their
use of words was very clever. They had run the story to take the sting out of
the tail and every other broadcaster and newspaper was now playing catch up.
Global would lead the story from now on. They had been first to break it and
people would now look to them as the definitive source. Very clever indeed.

“What do you think?” asked the President as he entered
Beaumont’s office, pointing to the TV.

“Very smart, they’ve planted just enough doubt for the
short-term but when the press start to dig, he’s had it.”

“I know, great move. How quickly can we leak the evidence
we’ve got?”

“Not too quickly. If it all rushes out, we expose ourselves.
It has to be slow and as though it’s only just being uncovered. That’ll
probably buy a couple of days of doubt. But it’s irrelevant anyway,” replied
Beaumont.

“True,” pondered the President. “In less then 24 hours, it
won’t be an issue.”

Chapter 40

“So let me get this right. We’re going to land the plane at an
airport 3,000 miles from here, make our way secretly to a prison we don’t know
the exact location of, break in avoiding heavily armed guards, find your
parents whose location in the prison is unknown, break them out avoiding
heavily armed guards, find our way back to the airport and leave,” said Kano to
Lela and Daniel who were in the back of the plane.

“That about sums it up,” replied Lela.

Kano shook his head. This was going to be impossible he
thought. Daniel, in turn, realised that he hadn’t really thought through what
they were about to do before deciding to join them and now wished he hadn’t.

Tom joined them from the flight deck.

“We just need to make a quick stop on the way, shouldn’t take
long and we don’t even need to get off.”

“Fuel stop?” asked Daniel.

“Something like that,” he said disappearing back into the
cockpit.

“What does he mean something like that?” asked Daniel.

“I’m sure it’s just that, don’t worry. Come and help me find
the location of the prison before we lose the signal,” said Lela who was
searching the internet to find the prison. However, coverage over Africa was
still patchy and there was a good chance they would lose the signal at any
moment.

“So what is the plan?” Kisho asked Tom as they flew towards
their first destination, Owando - an airstrip in Congo.

“I reckon I’ve got the flight and ground transport covered.
You guys just need to sort out the getting in and out part.”

“You do realise this is not going to be easy,” replied Kisho.

“Of course I realise but we have to try.”

“I know, I know.”

Three hours later, they were making their approach to Owando
airfield. Flaming torches guided them in towards the darkened runway. Owando
airport was closed, it only operated in the daylight hours. Tom could see a
huddle of people awaiting their landing. Kisho also spotted an Alba
International logo on a Citation X jet sitting on a taxi way. He looked across
at Tom.

“What have you been up to?” he asked with a smile.

“Nothing much,” answered Tom craftily.

The landing was a little bumpier than normal. It always helped
when you could see where you were going. It really was pitch black, the flaming
torches offering nothing more than a rough guide to the runway’s edges. They
taxied to a stop and were immediately met by a fuel tanker which began the
process of refuelling the plane. Tom opened the door.

“Best everybody wait on board, I have some business to deal
with and they’re not expecting anyone but me.”

“That’s the funniest thing you’ve said all day,” replied Kano.
“You have two options, one you don’t go or two you go with one of us.”

Tom looked at Kano, he wasn’t kidding, this wasn’t up for
debate.

“OK , I’ll take Lela,” he said. “She certainly won’t upset the
locals.”

Kano looked at Kisho who, having spotted the Alba jet, was
fairly confident he knew what Tom was up to. Kisho shrugged a ‘fine with him’.
Lela could probably kick both he and Kano’s arses anyway. Kano nodded that this
was acceptable.

Tom entered the combination for the war chest as he called it.
The chest contained several hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash. It was
common practice for private jets to carry a stash of cash as not all airport
refuellers accepted credit cards and pilots never knew where they may be forced
to land. However, it was uncommon to carry the amount held on Tom One but
Donald had insisted they should have enough to buy themselves out of just about
any hole they may fall in. He withdrew $150,000 before locking the safe and
leaving with Lela.

A large well dressed man met him, counted the cash and nodded
to his colleagues. They went straight to work and the plane shuddered under
their efforts. Thirty minutes later, the men were finished and the plane was
ready to go.