Assassin (The Billionaire Series) (27 page)

He lined up the shot, took account of the wind and the height
the bullet would need to hit the target. He removed the safety device and
prepared to fire. His trigger finger was wrapped around the trigger guard. He
lifted his finger and placed it on the trigger. He slowly and steadily began to
squeeze.

***

“But what if they don’t exist anymore?” asked Tom, now facing
the guys.

“What do you mean, your dad saw them didn’t he?” asked Zach.

“Yes but what if these guys trashed them, knowing they may be
a link.”

“That’s probably $60 million worth of plane, that would be
nuts,” said Zach.

“With these guys, I’m not so sure. It’s something to
consider,” said Tom.

***

He couldn’t understand it, his finger moved but there was no
noise, no recoil. He realised his eyes were closed. He opened them, his view
had changed, he was on the ground and could only see the bushes around him. He
saw movement, the bush next to him was moving. He tried to move but nothing
happened he couldn’t feel a thing. What had happened? He felt nothing, could
hear nothing, could only see. The bush began to move away. Then he noticed that
the bush had boots, boots he recognised, where had he seen them? Then he remembered
the day before, there had been a man next to him, with those boots on. But how
could he be a bush? That bush had been there all day, it couldn’t be. He was a
professional. Nobody could have done that.

Why could he not feel anything? He looked down and the full
force of what had happened hit him. He could only move his eyeballs and just
managed to see his back. It wasn’t possible, he’d never seen his back from that
angle before. The sniper died five seconds later in the full knowledge that the
man in the bush had broken his neck as he had tried to pull the trigger. His
head had been twisted so hard it was now facing the wrong way. His mind, living
off its remaining oxygen, had allowed him to see the bush and die knowing he
had failed.
 

The bush crawled away, it now knew who the target had been.

Part Five

Chapter 65

Beaumont was very worried, the next Committee meeting was in
less than two hours and The Chairman was not happy with him. The failure to
purchase Alba International was a blow. The price would never be lower than it
was then, nor the opportunity greater. The failure to kill Tom Kennedy had been
disastrous; it was five days later and they still did not know what had
happened. Their man had simply disappeared. Jones just couldn’t explained, he
had used one of his best snipers, a man who didn’t make mistakes.

That, however, didn’t help Beaumont. The Chairman’s confidence
in him was dwindling. Too many things had gone wrong in the previous few weeks.
The Chairman did not expect things to go wrong and he had insisted on taking
control of the upcoming weekend’s operation. He was also going to give the
update that evening, which was another slap in the face and message to
Beaumont. The President was, it appeared, loving his assistant’s lack of favour
and had more than once uttered the ‘I told you so’ line.

Despite enjoying Beaumont’s downturn, the President had taken
some pity on him and had allowed him the use of a helicopter to get home
quickly for the meeting. Beaumont had arrived just in time and as he logged on,
the light on top of their units changed to yellow, he was the last to join. The
meeting would start in two minutes.

“Good evening gentlemen,” said The Chairman, two minutes
later.

“Good evening,” responded the silhouettes around the screen.

“Today, we’re on the brink of achieving our goal. In less than
5 days, we’ll control the world’s twenty largest countries and with that, we
will effectively control the world.”

A round of applause interrupted The Chairman but Beaumont only
managed to join in half-heartedly.

“We have two operations left to complete. The first within the
next 48 hours and the last, 3 days later.”

“Mr Chairman, are we not worried that the first operation will
interfere with the second one? That is, our illustrious world leaders will
scuttle underground again?” asked one of the silhouettes.

“Yes we’ve considered that point and feel the second operation
will not be put at risk by the first. In fact, it may help to ensure that
everybody attends the venue for the second meeting. I believe a number of
gentlemen here will also be in attendance. It should be a fun day,” replied The
Chairman triumphantly.

Beaumont could not help but think that The Chairman was
speaking as though he would be there himself. How could he be? But then again,
how would Beaumont know? He had absolutely no idea who he was. The next
question hit Beaumont hard, especially as he recognised the President’s voice,
despite the digitisation.

“I’m surprised we’ve not purchased Alba, it would seem a shame
to have lain the blame at its owner’s door and not taken advantage of the
company’s all time low value. I would imagine the value will go through the
roof when our next operation reveals Kennedy’s innocence.”

“Yes, we’ve tried but it appears that the young Mr Kennedy
does not wish to sell,” replied The Chairman angrily.

Beaumont shifted nervously in his seat, he knew very well that
the President would only have asked if instructed to.

“Is that correct Number Four? Have we still failed in our bid
to secure Alba?”

The Committee did not discuss failures, it was an unwritten
rule. The Chairman was humiliating Member Number Four for all to see.

“I’m afraid so,” answered Beaumont. “It appears that we have
missed the opportunity to secure the company at a significant discount.”

“Perhaps another effort before the next operation commences?
Afterall, we have forty eight hours before the world finds out that Donald
Kennedy was an innocent man. An increased offer perhaps? Or one a fourteen year
old with a
vulnerable
sister
can’t refuse?” suggested another member.

“Excellent idea,” replied The Chairman. “I’ll leave that in
your capable hands. Now, the next item on the agenda is…”

Beaumont couldn’t believe what a stitch up he had just
received. He obviously had forty eight hours to prove himself and devise a new
operation, in the middle of the ocean, on a heavily fortified island, thousands
of miles away.

When would they learn not to underestimate him? He had not
recalled his resources, his men were still in place and had everything they
needed to get to the girl. It was too late to kill the boy. By the end of the
weekend, Donald Kennedy would be an innocent man. All he had to do was capture
the girl and use the sale of Alba as the ransom.

Chapter 66

It had been a long and tiring week. Although the trip to Machu
Picchu had been amazing, a sixteen thousand mile round trip, in just over
thirty six hours, had taken its toll. They had arrived just after lunch on
Tuesday and went straight to their classes. It was Tom and Lela’s first real
week back and they both found it a struggle. Catching up with what they had
missed as well as keeping up with the new work was not easy.

The Friday evening meeting could not come quickly enough and
it appeared everybody had been busy. In front of them were files upon files of
information received as a result of the group’s questions.

“Well guys it looks like we have our work cut out for us,”
said Tom surveying the mountain of paper in front of him.

“Somewhere in there may be the link that leads us to the bad
guys. Where should we start…Zach?”

“Well I’ve got good news and bad news, first the good news. I
think we’ve tracked down the meteor. It appears there is an experimental
missile which, how can I put this simply, is fired into space and falls to
earth gaining energy as it falls. It hits at such a speed that it magnifies any
explosive potential ten fold and its own materials cease to exist. Sorry that’s
not quite true. Its materials are of a similar composition to paper. Unless you
know exactly what you’re looking for, you’d never know.”

“So who has bought it?” asked Tom.

“Nobody, it’s still experimental. However, the facility which
makes the missiles was broken into about a month ago. It appears that somebody
may have stolen one.”

“But who would know they exist? I mean, it’s not common
knowledge is it?” asked Tom.

“No but the person I spoke to knows about it and now so do all
the people around this table. That’s how easy it is for people to find out. It
could be anybody.”

“So that was the bad news, what’s the good news?” asked Tom
expectantly.

“Sorry that was the good news. The bad news is about the Migs.
Whoever got them to Equatorial Guinea knew what they were doing. They just
suddenly appeared. One day they weren’t there, the next day they were.”

“What does that mean?” asked Tom who was beginning to become
downheartened, the easy links were disappearing fast.

“It means that whoever got them there knew to avoid satellites
and radars,” replied Zach.

“So what about now, where are they?” asked Tom following the
logic that they must have gone back to where they came from.

“You were right. They’re sitting at the bottom of the Ocean,
two new heat sources are showing up on satellite imagery off the Equatorial
Guinea coast. They match those of the Mig 29s. Whoever we’re up against just
trashed $60 million to cover their tracks. $60 million.” Zach emphasised the
number, he needed to let everybody understand what and who they were up
against.

“What about countries missing two Mig 29s?” asked Daniel.

“We’ve looked at that. As far as we can tell, every single Mig
has been accounted for. Although there is the potential that our numbers are
inaccurate and more were produced than we thought.”

“Likelihood?” asked Daniel.

“Very low, in fact bordering on negligible. We watched every
one of those babies roll out of the plants when they were built.”

“OK, so we know there was a missile and we know there were
planes but we have no way of finding either. Both are dead ends?” asked Tom
confirming the bad news.

“I’m afraid so, yes,” responded Zach.

“Let’s not rule them out yet. I have some resources still
looking into both of these,” said Daniel. The Mossad, although one of the
smaller intelligence networks, never failed to punch well above its weight.

“Ok, good. Anything else Zach?” asked Tom, keen to move on.

“I’m afraid not. All the other bits and pieces seem to be dead
ends too,” he said dejectedly.

“Who wants to go next?” Tom asked half heartedly, he really
thought the Migs would have been the link.

The table remained quiet, everybody else had just got the
background info on the victims of the assassinations and their subsequent
successors. On their own, they were as helpful as Zach’s. Everybody’s except
Daniel’s.

“I have a couple of things.” He paused as everybody looked at
him expectantly. “I have information which suggests that the explosions on Alba
One and on Zach’s father’s plane were identical. Both planes, on reaching a
height of 12,000 feet, suddenly plummeted to the ground. Of course we can’t do
checks on Alba One, it’s at the bottom of the Indian Ocean. However, we’ve
managed to check Zach’s father’s plane and it
had
been tampered with.”

“But nobody else has found anything, how can your guys know
this?” asked Zach.

“Let’s just say what happened to those jets is not dissimilar
to a technique we are acquainted with. The damage caused to the part of the
plane in question could be caused during a crash but it’s unlikely. As to
access to the plane, that’s confidential.”

“My dad was a target?” asked Zach stunned.

“It would appear so,” replied Daniel. “It also proves
categorically that your parents were murdered,” he added to Tom and Lela.

“But how do you know where their plane was? I thought nobody
knew, it was not on any radar?” asked Tom.

“Not on any public radar. It appears that Alba One flew low
level across Africa and as it approached the coast, began to climb until just
after the Seychelles where the plane lost control and plummeted into the
ocean.”

Hearing the details of the plane crash again was not easy on
either Tom or Lela. With nothing other than the painstaking review of histories
and backgrounds to look through, it was agreed that they would call it quits
for the night and resume again the following morning. They all developed
fictitious injuries which would prevent them from attending sports and would
give them the whole day off.

As Tom and Lela walked out of the conference room, Daniel was
waiting for them by the door.

“I’m sorry about the crash, I only found out before we came
in. I should have warned you,” said Daniel who realised he could have handled
it more tactfully.

“Not at all, even with warning it would have hit us, don’t
worry,” replied Lela.

“There is something else,” said Daniel. “During the same call,
I got an update on the search for Tylanni.”

Lela’s interest perked up.

“It seems that the boat was spotted entering Port Saïd in
Egypt one evening and was gone the next morning. There has been no further
sighting of her for nearly two weeks.”

“Egypt, what the hell would she be doing in Egypt?”

“She’s not there, that’s the point. However, a new ship has
been sighted, different colours and different name but remarkably similar to
the dimensions of Tylanni.”