The Fine Line of Revenge (11 page)

In the cells below, Jack knew that there would be no escape.  There was a small window at the top of the walls that let in the light, almost definitely at ground level. Jack thought to himself.  The party were still handcuffed and becoming restless.  Not much had been said since the capture until now.

‘What will they do with Anjo?’ Paulo asked, hoping for a straight answer.  But unfortunately, no one had one.  Jack took a look around hopeful of a possible escape.  There was nothing but the solid door that they came in and old stonewalls, each thick and immovable. The window, too high to reach and nothing to stand on, except an old rusty bucket in one corner.

‘Say hello to your last resting place,’ Jack said. ‘We might as well make ourselves more comfortable because I doubt their coming back.’ Jack sat on the floor and rolled onto his back, sliding his feet between his cuffed arms.  He then removed a small pin that had been concealed in the sole of his boot.  He placed the pin in the opening of the cuffs.  This separated the teeth on the strap from the lock.  Jack them proceeded to undo all of the other cuffs.

‘Thank you, Jack,’ Paulo said, and rushed into the corner to make use of the old bucket.

CHAPTER 10

T
he RIBs, with Alex’s team, had now reached the cove.  The boat slowly made its way up to the rocks and stopped next to the boats that Jack and his party had come in on.  ‘We’ll be in contact,’ Alex said, as all men off-loaded their equipment and strapped it securely to themselves.  The launch slowly made its exit, as the men headed quickly and quietly into the jungle.  The group spread out, keeping one eye on their buddy.  It wasn’t long before their equipment picked up a heat source coming towards them.  Alex raised his left arm, stopping the unit.  They crouched low, poised in silence, imperceptible to the oncoming figure as it came into view.  Before Fernando could blink he had been administered a sedative into his neck and was rendered immobile within seconds.  He was helped to the ground and propped against a Pacara ear pod tree.  The team continued into the jungle and towards the fort.

After having her cuffs removed, Anjo was brought a sandwich and some fruit.  She turned away in disgust from the offering, although her empty stomach disagreed with her decision.  Sperafico had left the room, leaving her with two guards by the door.  She glanced at the door and the guards, the smaller of the two, smiling back at her.  Anjo had to get out of there, but there was no other exit apart from a large window.  She thought.   Anjo raised herself from the soft couch and stretched her arms above her head and bent down to touch her toes.  The guards watched in delight, which was her primary intention.  She walked around the sofa towards the bookcase, flicking through the books, looking for some kind of lever.  The smaller guard smiled at her again, his thin brown moustache straightening.  The other guard slapped his arm.

‘Concentrate on your job,’ he ordered.  ‘You won’t find what you’re looking for. Far as I know there isn’t one,’ he told Anjo, with a smile.

‘Great, an intelligent henchman,’ she whispered, quietly to herself.

Below in the cells it had begun to look like a rehearsal session for the circus.  With Paulo on the bottom, his cousin Jago on his shoulders, Jack had climbed up them both, barefooted, and was peering out of the window.  It looked out onto the courtyard at ground level.  Jack could see numerous men wandering around and Grimlock’s car.  The window itself was old and had no way of opening. The frame was built into the wall and with a little patience and precision there was hope that it could be removed.  Jack climbed down the human ladder and reached inside his boot.  He pulled back the inner sole and produced a small knife.

‘Are we ready?’ Jack asked. The men prepared themselves and Jack, once again, climbed up to the small window, and began scraping away at the stonework.

Alex and his team had rapidly reached the proximity of Sperafico’s fort.  They were all accounted for. Crouching down, each took a sip from their water canisters.  Two men moved a little closer taking out their Rangefinders, positioning themselves in order to see into the compound.  Their Rangefinders had built in cameras able to take stills or two minutes of footage.  The trees made it difficult to obtain a perfect view, but a small amount of data was recorded, the two men then made their way back to the rest of the unit.  Alex sat and watched the playback on Dylan’s hand console.  The walls of the fort were damaged in places and wire fences had been put up.  Dylan recognised one of the men instantly.

‘It’s Sam Maddox.  He’s a nasty piece of work. Used to be secret service in Washington, until they sacked him for a string of unanswered killings. He’s been rogue for about five years, hiring himself out to the highest bidder.  If he’s there, there is bound to be superlative security, motion sensors and sound detection. I’ll do a sweep of the area to see if I can pin point them.’  Dylan turned off the footage and scrolled down the menu, his fingers tapping the screen numerous times.  He waited a few seconds.  Alex was impatient and asked for the verdict.

‘Well, what have we got?’

‘I can fix the motion detectors, but the sound detectors are beyond this equipment.’  Alex was silent for a moment, a noticeable bounce in his squatting position. It was clear that what ever Jack may have had planned for Sperafico, he wouldn’t have got very far.

‘Find us the best route. We have to get in somehow.’

‘I know that our friend is in there, but I think you need to remain focused.’ Dylan whispered. Alex turned to Dylan, a glint of openness in his eyes, nodding in agreement.  A few minutes later he came back with a look on his face that told Alex he hadn’t found an answer.

‘There are sensors everywhere, the only suggestion I can make is to set them off purposely and bide our time.  Alarm systems sometimes have problems with false positive activation, if we set them off enough they will assume there is a fault.  We’ll have to keep watch and hopefully catch the moment when they stop investigating the alarm.’  It was a plan and the only one they had.  The men gathered and Alex explained what they had to do.  Camouflaged against the jungle, the alarms were triggered.

Sam Maddox was alerted by the triggered alarm from a pager on his belt.  He made his way into the control room to find out what section had initiated the warning.  The security cameras swung round displaying a wide angled view of the area.  But there was nothing there.

‘What system has been triggered?’ Maddox asked, staring at the screen closely, as he controlled the full scan of the camera’s range.

‘The sound detection sir, but no motion has been detected,’ the technician answered.  Maddox went into the courtyard and once again interrupted two men smoking.  From the small window Jack could see Maddox issuing orders to the two men who promptly left the compound and ran off into the surrounding jungle.  Jack continued to scrape away at the window surround, stopping every time a guard past.  A few minutes later, Jack watched as the men returned. It was only seconds later, that he saw Maddox check the pager on his belt for the second time. The two men again entered the jungle.  Jack climbed back down the human ladder to give himself, and the two men, a rest.

‘There’s something upsetting their security system,’ Jack began.

‘Either that or it’s on the fritz.  One thing is for sure though, we would have never got near the place without being detected.  This could be a good opportunity, if I keep at it we may be out at night fall.’ His face was confident and the others felt the hope of escape.

Alex and Blue Company remained silent and composed, entwined with the jungle’s foliage.  On three different occasions, two men were seen investigating the noise disturbance and on the fourth no one came.  The team took that moment and triggered the alarm once more; again no one was to be seen.  Dylan had managed to find a path, avoiding the cameras as best as they could.  He disabled the motion detectors and they made their way closer to the fort.  Carefully and quietly they positioned themselves just outside the walls.

‘Ok, send in the GEKO.’ Alex ordered.  Dylan opened up his backpack and took out a small plastic box.  He opened it and removed a small, metal robot about seven centimetres long and resembling a small lizard.  GEKO stood for Geomatic Electronic Knowledge Operative. It had the most up to date on-board cameras, all with heat detection and night sight abilities, digital microphone and the unique ability to climb up almost any surface.  Dylan activated the GEKO, controlling it with his handset.  It scurried off towards the wire fencing, manoeuvred through and into the compound.  With the cameras, Dylan was able to see in all directions, moving forward only when the coast was clear.  They triggered the sound alarm again.  The GEKO scuttled across the courtyard and up a wall on to a small flat roof.  From that position, it was able to look out at the surrounding area, identifying guard positions and the exterior layout.  One of the cameras picked up on an open doorway. It rapidly moved towards it and disappeared inside.  The cameras reverted to night vision, as it approached a dark staircase.  Dylan manoeuvred it to the wall where it took hold and descended downwards into the dark.  At the base of the stairs Dylan could see four large doors down a long corridor.  He switched to thermal imaging. Behind the last door, the camera identified a large heat source.  He had found them. Dylan signalled to Alex and the team, giving them the route to take.  They crouched in position.  The wire fence was cut and a small section silently removed.

Anjo was sitting on the sofa, staring into space.  She turned towards the door as Sperafico entered. He signalled to the two guards to leave.  Anjo turned her head away from the tyrant as he closed the door, turning the large iron key in its lock, ensuring their privacy.  He made his way round the back of the sofa, behind Anjo, who continued to turn her head away from a man she greatly despised.

‘I am sorry for the delay, business never sleeps,’ Sperafico said, continuing his saunter around the sofa.  Anjo continued her silence and flouting conduct.  She knew Sperafico’s intensions.  He stood for a very brief moment before speaking again. ‘I could kill you here and now, but I would like to give you the choice to live.’  Anjo rose quickly from the sofa, gained some distance between them, turning, her face red with rage.

‘You’ll have to kill me before I let you touch me with your filthy hands.’  Sperafico laughed out loud.

‘I thought you might say something like that, but this is going to happen, whether you like it or not’.  He advanced towards her, a look of the devil in his eye and empowerment in his hands.  Anjo picked up a small glass figurine and hurled it at Sperafico.  He confidently dodged the hit, tipping his head slightly to the left.  It smashed into the solid, stone wall behind.  Anjo grabbed another piece of ammunition, this time a square, lead paperweight.  She threw it.  Sperafico laughed once more as the lead weight flew meters from his head.  Just as he was about to speak, wanting to mock her for her useless effort, the paperweight smashed through the window.

The sound of the breaking glass alerted the team.  They watched as a group of armed men gathered around the shard fragments.  This was it, as good a chance as any.  Armed with a new, lightweight, 6.8mm round producing assault rifle, Alex gave the order to shoot at will.  Blue company swiftly entered the courtyard and fanned out.  They opened fire.  The rifle’s suppressors coughing, as each of their targets were forced to the ground with accuracy.  One man let off a spray of bullets as he was sent stumbling backwards. On the sound of the firing, Sperafico grabbed Anjo and unlocked the door to the study.  In the control room, Sam Maddox had seen Blue Company enter the compound.  He had grabbed his two-way radio and issued a warning to all personnel.  Maddox met Sperafico as he exited his study.

‘Why is there gunfire?’ he asked, clamping his right hand securely above Anjo’s left elbow.

‘Special Forces have entered the grounds, I suggest you make your way to safety,’ Maddox advised, as he rammed a full cartridge into his M16. ‘And take her as a hostage. They won’t shoot if she’s next to you.’  Through their earpieces, Alex’s voice could be heard dividing his team into three.  He positioned two men at the entrance to the fort, ordered to secure any one who tried to leave.  The second team would find the hostages, release them and give them safe passage out of the fort.  The rest would locate Grimlock.  Alex headed the team in search of Jack and the other hostages.  It didn’t take long to find Grimlock.  He was hanging from the noose, his lifeless body swinging in the cooling coastal breeze.  The unit spaced themselves out, using the trees as cover. Three men appeared on the rooftop of the fort.  They fired their automatic weapons to the ground below.  One of the unit was shot in the leg. His buddy grabbed him and pulled him behind a large tree. Sperafico’s men continuously fired.  It rained bullets centimetres from the feet of the men.  They were trapped. Together the team emerged swiftly from the safety of the trees and fired rapidly at the rooftop.  Their aim was precise as one of the men toppled off frontward, slamming head first into the ground below.  The other two retreated away from the edge. The wounded leg was inspected and although there was a lot of blood it was only a flesh wound and it was rapidly dressed.  One of them quickly took a photo of Grimlock’s corpse and left him there, the others keeping watch. They proceeded around to the back of the fort.  There were only a handful of men left in the compound, including Sam Maddox and Sperafico; the fortunate initial attack had taken care of most of them.

Sperafico had taken no chances in exiting by the front gate and had taken Anjo at gunpoint back into his study.  He pulled down a large red book.  The bookcase slid to the right revealing a set of stairs.

‘I knew it!’ Anjo exclaimed.

‘Shut up,’ Sperafico said angrily, pulling out his mobile phone from his left trouser pocket, switching on the torch application.  At the bottom of the staircase was a dark corridor.  At the other end, a large wooden door with four large, black hinges.  Sperafico turned the large handle, his other hand burying the barrel of his Glock 27 into the base of Anjo’s spine.  They both entered the room.  The door was kicked shut, the slam echoing in the darkness.  The room was small and empty, apart from a small wooden table in the corner that Sperafico illuminated with his torchlight.  Sperafico dug the gun further into Anjo’s spine, pushing her towards the table.