Flight Path: A Wright & Tran Novel (30 page)

Monday 30
th
November.

The rest o
f
the weekend had been spent rotating shifts in and out of the two hides. The off-shift team changed back into normal holiday attire on their way to the hotel, showered, ate, slept and then rotated back out, once more changing from holiday-makers to covert observers in the back of the Toyotas.

During their time in the rear hide, they’d seen Jacob do a lot of swimming in the pool, saw the huge man called Tommo occasionally stand at the side of the pool and watched three guys, who they presumed were the security Jacob had told Kara about, reclining on the loungers near the pool. The front hide saw no one come or go apart from two older Balinese women who seemed to do all the cooking and cleaning. The team designated them as Nigella and Delia.

On the Saturday night, Jacob and Tommo had eaten dinner together from 20:00 to 21:00. The lights of the lounge were bright enough, and not interrupted by curtains, giving a clear view of the scene. The same ritual played out on Sunday.

Kara had met Noel Stewart on the ravine road on Sunday afternoon and taken delivery of three kilos of cocaine. It had been divided, carefully, back at the hotel, into four large, treble wrapped freezer bags, secured with heavy duty tape. Now, on Monday night, those bags resided within a single backpack that lay between Dan and Eugene in the rear hide.

Kara was stepping out of her hotel shower when her phone rang. She quickly wrapped herself in a towel and hurried into the bedroom, grabbing the phone up from the side table.

“Yep?”

“Kara you need to get over here. I think we’ve got something happening,” Dan said, his voice soft and unhurried.

“Go ahead.”

“Jacob and Tommo had their meal as usual but instead of getting up from the table like Saturday and Sunday, they’ve stayed sitting. Now Toby’s just called in that a car’s arrived on the driveway. Two men, white, middle-aged getting out and going up, wait.”

Kara could hear Eugene whispering to his brother, “Okay Kara, these two have joined Tommo and Jacob in the lounge room. Tommo made a big fuss of them. Handshakes all round. I think this is the get together happening, wait.”

This time Kara heard nothing while she waited.

“That was Toby again, we have another car turning up. Another white male. Nigella and Delia have already left so this isn’t a late night supper with friends.”

“No worries, we’ll be there in twenty. Call Chaz in from the ravine road car and send him to join Toby at the front. The rest of us will come and join you.”

She hung up and speed dialled Tien. “How long before you’re good to move?”

“Five minutes?”

“Great, ring Sammi and let her know we’re moving now. We’ll meet in the lobby and go as soon as we’re all there. I’ll ring Dinger.” She hung up.

Six and a half minutes later the four of them climbed into the black Toyota.

ɸ

Kara crawled into the small hide next to Dan, while Tien, Sammi and Dinger crouched just behind, in the cover of the trees.

“What’s happening?”

Dan passed her a set of binoculars and whispered, “We’ve had another guest turn up. You might want to take a look.”

In the large lounge room Tommo’s great bulk sat at the head of the dining room table, his back to Kara. To his left three men sat drinking beers. All were white, all were in their forties or fifties. Two of them were dark haired, one grey. To Tommo’s right was Jacob. He also had a beer. Next to him was the last man present. Kara moved the binoculars a fraction and stared into the face of Derek Swift.

“Oh you son of a bitch!” She said.

“Yeah, thought you’d like to see it before I called you on the radio. We all set?”

“Hope so. We’ll just watch and wait, get the lay of what’s occurring and look to make a mov-”

She was cut off by the radio earpiece making a small ‘Tic’. Chaz’s voice came through to them all.

“We have a small panel van coming up the driveway. Two male occupants in the front. Look like they’re Balinese.”

No one spoke, waiting patiently for Chaz to continue when he had more to report. The Cicadas played a constant theme in the background, before even they were drowned out by a long, low roll of thunder that lasted for a good fifteen seconds. Kara gazed up but the sky was cloudless. The full moon bright and unimpaired.

“Kara, we have a problem,” Chaz said. At the same time they all heard Toby, alongside Chaz, say “No fucking way.”

“Explain,” Kara said.

Chaz sounded rattled, “Confirmed, two Balinese men, but they’ve just opened the rear door of the van and made six kids step out. They’re all little girls Kara. Not one of them more than ten, can’t be. They’re tiny. They’re taking them inside. Kara, we can’t ha-”

“Quiet Chaz,” she said, slewing the binoculars over to look at the entrance to the lounge. Sure enough six little girls were being shepherded into the room. Tommo was getting up from the table. He pointed and gesticulated to the futons and the Balinese men made the girls sit down. Then the big man waved Jacob and the rest of his guests forward. They all rose and stood in a line. Kara saw Jacob take a single pace backwards. Tommo, still animated and with a broad grin, moved over and pulled Jacob forward to stand in front of the rest. Kara could see him waving his hand at the girls and turning back to Jacob.

“Oh my fucking God,” Kara said as the truth of what she was looking at hit home. “They’re making him pick which girl he wants. This is how they prove he’s one of them.”

She watched Jacob take a pace forward, then slowly turn round to face the other men.

The time for whispering was over. Dan and Eugene who lay beside her and were seeing what she was seeing were already moving by the time she yelled, “Plan’s changed. We need to get in there right now. Storm the fucking place, GO, GO, GO.”

As she rose to her feet, Jacob’s fist connected solidly with the face of Derek Swift. The lounge room erupted.

ɸ

Being only ten metres from it, Chaz and Toby hit the front door of the villa ahead of everyone else. It hadn’t been locked since the children had been taken inside and was still ajar. Toby slammed it back with his shoulder and sent it rocketing into the cream coloured wall. Chaz bypassed him and, bathed in the golden lights of the hallway, saw one of Tommo’s security men, the bald one with the prison tattoos, only five paces ahead of him.

The man turned quickly, shouted something Chaz didn’t catch and began to raise his hands. Chaz’s speed closed the distance in a second. He hit him with straight fingers to the throat, crushing the man’s windpipe and causing the tattooed arms to flail and claw, leaving the body undefended. Chaz kicked him in the groin, physically lifting him off the ground with the force. As the man began to collapse, Chaz spun to the right, grabbed, twisted and thrust the man’s head down towards the knee he was ramming up to meet it. Somewhere in the back of his mind, honed and trained by decades of practise, Chaz knew he had never delivered three strikes with more fury. He also knew it was a corpse he was letting go of.

He gained the open entrance to the lounge and saw three little girls cowering and screaming on one of the futons. Another hid behind it, a fifth was standing frozen in the corner. The unconscious body of Derek Swift lay to the side. Tommo was standing halfway between the dining table and Jacob, who was on the ground, curled as tightly as possible, hands protecting his head, with a frenzy of kicks being aimed at him by the other three men.

Chaz was wearing a pair of high-leg combat boots, the soles of which squeaked against the marble floor. He planted his right food hard, used the forward momentum of his onrushing frame and spun just past one hundred and eighty degrees. The squeal of the rubber on the marble was the only warning the nearest man to him had, before Chaz’s left heel impacted into his right eye socket.

The man cannoned backwards, knocked two of the dining chairs aside, fell and bounced his shoulder off the table. That caused his body to pivot and he face-planted into the white Italian marble. It discoloured with a vibrant splash of red.

The other two men who had been kicking Jacob stopped.

Jacob, realising help was on hand, rolled towards the futons and regained his feet. His head was a mass of pain with the blow that Tommo, of all people, had landed on him. It was true. Big Tommo must have been fast in his day. Jacob saw Toby coming through the entrance to the lounge, then saw him turn and go back out. He looked to Chaz and what he saw made him take half a step backwards. Chaz’s pupils were fully dilated, his face was serene, not twisted or angry looking, yet in his expression, there was a menace that was unquantifiable. Jacob saw in his periphery the two Balinese men, who to this point had not moved, begin to run. He saw one of the men who had been kicking him, run. He saw the last, the grey-haired guy, start to back away, but Chaz was almost on him. Jacob moved to shield the little girls from what was about to happen, but the action of him turning towards them broke their spell. They shrieked even more. Then ran.

Chaz was aware of the man furthest from him bolting for the door. He saw the two Balinese men also run, but mostly he heard the cries of children and watched the last of the men who had been assaulting Jacob, trying to back away towards the large windows. In the ten steps it took to reach him, Chaz played through his options. In the end he kept it simple. He dropped his hands to his sides. The man, who Chaz noticed had a full head of wavy grey hair, came at him with a swinging right. Chaz moved left, parrying the oncoming fist by applying a light touch with his left hand to the back of the man’s right elbow. At the same time he placed his right hand on the inside of the man’s right wrist. With both hands now on opposite sides of the man’s arm, he applied a full force snap and simultaneously dislocated the man’s shoulder while breaking the elbow joint. Maintaining his grip on the arm, Chaz stepped forward and pivoted. The man’s own momentum caused him to turn a full half-somersault, ripping the last of the shoulder joint and surrounding tissue into a useless pulp. He landed on his backside, sitting up and facing away from Chaz who, by a final twist to the wrist, broke it as well. Letting go of the irreparably damaged limb, Chaz smashed his left elbow back into the grey haired man’s face and watched with satisfaction as the unconscious body fell straight back on to the floor. Its short journey ended in a crack of head on marble. Chaz felt his senses relax. He was aware of higher-pitched screaming coming from the kids and looked back to where Jacob was standing. He called on the radio, “Tien, Sammi, Kara, the kids are terrified of any man. You’re going to have to find them and calm them down.”

Kara heard the call in her ear but was trying hard not to get her face smashed in. She and Dan had got to the back door of the villa first, only to find it locked. Eugene arrived at full tilt and the door didn’t so much open as disintegrate. Dan followed his brother up the hallway heading for the lounge. Sounds of a fight were also coming from the first bedroom on the right. She saw Dan begin to enter the bedroom but further ahead the two Balinese men ran out of the lounge and headed for the front door, closely followed by one of Tommo’s guests.

Dan shouted, “Eugene, with me,” and the two O’Neill brothers set off in pursuit.

Kara reached the bedroom door and saw Toby grappling with one of Tommo’s security men. She knew, from Jacob’s notes and observations over the last few days, that there were three of them. She even knew, again from Jacob’s notes, what their names were, but she didn’t know which was which. Other than Mutt. Jacob had described the bald, tattooed Irishman to a tee. Looking up the hallway she could see him lying unconscious on the floor. About to move in and help Toby, she looked again. Mutt’s eyes, open and unseeing stared back at her. She thought, ‘Oh, you met angry Chaz, didn’t you?’ at the same time she heard feet behind her. Expecting to see Tien, Sammi and Dinger she glanced over her shoulder in time to see the third security guy launching himself at her. This one was thin, wiry, about the same height as she was and currently only wearing a pair of shorts, a pair of trainers and a pair of knuckledusters, one on each fist. The first skull crunching punch was already halfway to her. She dropped into a crouch, threw her right hand out for support and as she heard Chaz calling on the radio about the kids, flung her left leg forward. Her boot connected just below the oncoming man’s right knee. The effect wasn’t as she’d hoped. He’d anticipated and pulled his leg back. She knew he’d have a bruise but that wasn’t much compensation. He gave a small hop and transferred his weight onto his right leg. Kara knew he was about to aim a kick at her head while she was still crouching. She waited until he had committed to the action, than she fell flat, rolled three-quarters to her right, under the oncoming foot, and delivered a powerful sidekick into the man’s groin. He collapsed onto his knees in front of her. Pushing backwards she started to stand when Tien, Sammi and Dinger came through the remnants of the rear door. Tien strode down the hallway and as she got to the unsuspecting man, put both her hands on the left side of his head and slammed it, and him, into the wall. He slumped unconscious in front of Kara. Tien walked past. Sammi followed.