Assassin (The Billionaire Series) (7 page)

Chapter 12

Tom and Lela were still discussing the missing Tylanni when
Kano came rushing through from the cockpit.

“Where were your parents heading to?” he asked panicking.

“Why, what’s wrong?” asked Tom.

“Just tell me where they were going!” shouted Kano.

“Gabon, they’re going to Gabon. Why?” asked Tom who felt
instantly sick.

“Oh, thank God for that,” said Kano.

“Why, what’s happened?” asked Tom, still concerned about
Kano’s panic.

“It’s just that we were listening to a news station and they
reported a huge explosion in West Africa but it wasn’t Gabon. We just put two
and two together and got about 45, sorry Tom.”

Tom’s concern did not wane.

“Where exactly in West Africa?” he asked.

“Some place called Equatorial Guinea,” he replied.

“Oh, my God!!”

“What’s wrong?” asked Lela as she watched the colour drain
from Tom’s face.

“Gabon is next to Equatorial Guinea. It could be Alba One, the
timing’s right, they’re due to land in about ten minutes which would put them
over Equatorial Guinea for the last 15 minutes.”

Tom stood up and made his way to the cockpit. Kisho had heard
what Tom had said and was frantically radioing for confirmation of what the
explosion was caused by.

“This is Tom One. Can you please confirm source of explosion
in Equatorial Guinea. Was it a plane crash, repeat, was it a plane crash?”

No response came. Kisho tried again and again. Finally the
radio came to life.

“Sorry Tom One, nobody knows. Reason for explosion so far
unknown.” The radio died again.

Tom grabbed his mobile and dialled his father’s number. It
went straight to voicemail.

He tried again but it went straight to voicemail again.

He put the phone down and turned to Lela who shook her head as
if to say it couldn’t be happening.

Tom’s phone rang. Without thinking, he answered.

“Hello?” and a huge smile appeared on his face. “Dad! You’re
OK! Thank God! We were so worried. Hang on,
 
I’ll put you on speaker.”

“Of course I’m OK, I was trying to call you but you kept going
to voicemail,” said Donald.

“I was trying to call you, we just heard about the explosion.”

“I know, I know, I was calling to tell you all about it. I was
looking out of the window and saw what looked like a shooting star but it fell
straight into the ground and the whole thing just blew up.”

They were all so relieved they couldn’t say anything so they
just listened to Donald telling them about the explosion and what he thought
may have been a meteor. He then made his apologies for having to go as they
were on their final approach and the captain was asking him to get off the
phone.

Chapter 13

Beaumont relaxed in his office, the first stage of the African
operation had been a success. In fact, a greater success than they had
expected. CNN were covering the story, along with every other world news
agency. Beaumont could not believe his luck. The missile had caused far more
damage than anticipated, over 2,000 people were presumed dead. He was
delighted. Human life meant nothing to him.

The missile had targeted a remote mining town near the coast
of Equatorial Guinea. Timing was of the essence as the only moment the missile
could make a direct entry into the mine shaft was when the miners finished
their shift at 18.45. At that time, the mine’s elevator was lifted out of the
shaft and manoeuvred to the side to allow the miners to disembark. On target
and on time, the missile plunged down the shaft and exploded, igniting a
heavily laden explosives room. The kinetic energy and force of the missile
increased the explosive potential of the mining explosives by 10 fold. The
explosion ripped through the mine network uncovering numerous weak points and
resulting in a massive implosion which had the effect of swallowing the
surrounding town in one huge catastrophe. It was not anticipated that any
survivors would be found. Certainly the bemused miners who had witnessed the
strange meteor hurtling past them and then down the shaft would never be found alive.

***

The file on Beaumont’s desk would commence the next stage of
the operation, namely, the Misinformation Stage. He put on his latex gloves
before handling the file as it was likely that the information contained within
it would be handed over to the authorities at some stage. The material inside
was even more explosive than the missile. He extracted the documents and placed
them in an envelope. The envelope would be sent out that night to the head
office of an international media organisation.

He closed the envelope and stopped himself from licking it
closed, avoiding a schoolboy error and instead dabbed it with a damp sponge to
seal it. He smiled as he placed the envelope in his briefcase, he would drop it
in a postbox on his way home. Mr Donald Kennedy was not going to know what hit
him.

Chapter 14

Tom One touched down on the school’s runway just after
midnight local time and the four transferred to a waiting golf cart, the only
method of transport on the school’s island.

The cart dropped Tom and Lela off at their accommodation block
before continuing on to the Special Forces base where Kano and Kisho had been
given accommodation.

The Special Forces base was located at one end of the island
and housed over 200 Special Forces soldiers from around the world. The location
of the base was a well-kept secret and served as an excellent training ground
for those specialist soldiers. They also offered unique and overwhelming
protection to the island’s main inhabitants, the children of the world’s elite.

The base however was not the only protection afforded to the
students. The island also stood within the shadow of a fully operational NATO base
which lay a mere 75 miles away and housed the Air Force, the Navy and the
Marines. There was no doubt that The Academy was in the most highly protected
area in the world.

The Academy in itself was spectacular, no expense had been
spared creating the world’s most elite school. The grounds were perfectly
manicured, the beaches were spectacular, white sand lapped by the crystal clear
waters of the Indian Ocean. The facilities were second to none, Olympic sized
pools, golf course, tennis courts, sports stadiums and a Marina stocked with
every conceivable type of boat.

 
The classrooms
were full of the latest technology. Desks were replaced by notepads which
recognised students by their fingerprints and allowed them to log on with one
touch. Their virtual desktop opened up a fully computerised curriculum and
coursework. The Academy was the first truly paperless environment.

For entertainment, the students could choose between cinemas,
ten pin bowling, ice skating or playing about in a recording studio, amongst
many other activities. Everything had been thought of and if it hadn’t, it was
added. Following feedback from the previous year, a new skate park had been
added, modelled on the famous Marseille skate park.

The quality of accommodation and food was such that many
students whose parents were amongst the richest in the world, actually
complained that it was all much better than at home.

When it came to protecting Tom and Lela, following the events
of the previous year, Mr Sakamoto had offered to shuffle students around to
enable Kisho and Kano to live in the same block as Tom and Lela. However,
everyone had agreed that this would alienate them from the other students and
in any event, new procedures were in place to prevent an impostor from assuming
another student’s identity and infiltrating the premises. On arrival, students’
identities were checked using DNA samples from their parents. Initially, this
led to some embarrassing discoveries about the parentage of a number of
students when the mothers’ DNA matched but the fathers’ didn’t. In one
instance, the mother’s DNA and father’s DNA matched but unfortunately it was
not the right father, it was another student’s father. Mr Sakamoto had spent a
sleepless night before calling a Special Governors’ Meeting, special in that
only governors with no children at the school were invited. The special session
had lasted most of the day before reaching the decision that it was not up to
the school to destroy families. A very relieved Mr Sakamoto went back to work, the
DNA tests were immediately changed and only a maternal match would be required.
The offending results were destroyed and forgotten forever.

Tom and Lela entered their empty block. As in the previous
year, they were the first to arrive. Tom wasted no time. On entering his room,
he switched on the TV to catch up on developments in Equatorial Guinea. He
managed to navigate through the TV menu, it was new and like most of the
gadgets in his room appeared to have been upgraded. The Play Station and the
XBOX had definitely been upgraded, even though the ones they had had the
previous year were not in the shops yet. He looked forward to having a go on
them later. He finally found CNN.
  

“They think up to 2,500 people may have died,” he shouted
through to Lela’s room, next door to his. Lela joined him a minute later
dressed in her pyjamas and jumped on the end of his bed.

“It’s dreadful. And to think your dad watched it happen. Have
they identified what it was? Was it really a meteor?”

“They haven’t mentioned what it was. But there were definitely
some dodgy explosives involved but they won’t know until they sift through the
debris. I’ll give my dad a call and see if he knows any more.”

As Tom made the call, Lela continued to watch the TV. An
explosives forensics team from the UK were due to arrive and would be joined
shortly afterwards by specialists from the ATF, the Alcohol Tobacco and
Firearms agency from the US. Both teams were recognised as the best in the
world and had been requested by the Guinean President to find the reason behind
the most tragic disaster to have befallen his country. Both the UK and the US
had responded promptly and had their teams in the air within the hour.

“What did he say?” asked Lela as Tom hung up the phone.

“He tried to call the Guineans to tell them about the meteor
but can’t get through. He’s going to phone CNN Africa instead. He reckons they
should be able to pass on the information.”

“I can’t believe a meteor could do so much damage,” said Lela.

“I know, it’s unbelievable.”

“I’m sorry Tom, I can’t watch anymore, it’s too upsetting. I’m
going to bed, goodnight, see you tomorrow,” she said as she disappeared to her
room.

“Goodnight,” replied Tom as his door swung closed.

Chapter 15

Beaumont watched the scenes unfold on his giant plasma screen.
CNN were reporting a 100% fatality rate. His best estimations had predicted a
40% fatality rate, nobody had predicted that the whole town would just cease to
exist, killing everybody.

He had cracked open a bottle of champagne and was in the
process of toasting himself when the phone rang.

“Hello?” he answered.

“We may have a problem,” said Smith.

“What, we hit the target and everybody’s dead, what’s the
problem?”

“There’s a witness,” replied Smith coldly.

“A What??!!” choked Beaumont. “What do you mean there’s a
witness?”

“Exactly what I just said. Somebody saw the explosion,”
replied Smith, tension building in his voice.

“Jesus man, I’m sure thousands of people saw the explosion, it
was huge,” said Beaumont beginning to relax and thinking this guy would have to
go, what a panic merchant.

“No, they witnessed the missile flying down the shaft, only
they thought it was a meteor or something,” explained Smith.

“Impossible! It’s a stealth missile, you can’t see it,”
replied Beaumont.

“If you had read the specs properly, you would have noticed
that the reason the weapon is still experimental is that they solved every
problem except for the glow of the missile on its way back to earth.”

“Damn, I missed that bit.” Beaumont thought for a second.
“Who’s the witness? Some goat farmer or something?” He began to see a way to
cover their tracks.

“I don’t know, I just heard it third-hand but they say they
couldn’t have hoped for a better source. It’s going to break soon, they’re
finalising the editing on the piece.”

“Oh God,” said Beaumont as he paused for thought. There was
only one thing he could do. “I’ll call you back.”

He hung up on Smith and hit Speed Dial Button 1. The phone
dialled the anonymous number and it began to ring.

“Hello, what’s wrong?” answered The Chairman.

“We may have a problem you should be aware of,” replied
Beaumont.

“What is it?”

“Our Africa operation has begun and has exceeded our
expectations. However, it appears we may need to kill a story. Do you have
contacts at CNN?”

The laughter at the end of the phone told Beaumont all he
needed to know, it had been a silly question, The Chairman had contacts
everywhere.

“What do you need quashed?”

“CNN Africa have a witness and are about to run the story.”

“OK, give me a minute.”

Beaumont waited as The Chairman made his call. After two
minutes, he came back to the phone.

“Done, dead and buried. But I can tell you it’s going to cost
me. They had one of their biggest stories of the year. It would have wiped the
floor with other press agencies.”