Kidnap (The Billionaire Series) (24 page)

Reaper could not believe how well the operation was progressing.
Everything so far had followed the exact plan, without deviation.

“Team Syria here. We have a problem. One of our targets is down
and it appears out. The other target is OK and secured.”

***

Rachel and Saki watched on in terror as events unfolded. They
could not believe what was happening but the TV cameras showed everything. Dead
soldiers surrounded the buildings and it appeared a number of students had been
killed.

Rachel tried Tom’s mobile, it rang and rang but no answer.

Saki was trying Lela’s. It rang and rang but no answer.

Chapter
42

“Mum, what is it? I’m in class,” said Tom.

“Are you OK?”

“Of course I am.”

Lela was having a similar conversation with Saki.

“Mum, the nearest school being hijacked is over 5,000 miles away,
of course we’re fine.”

“What’s happening at the school?”

“Mr Sakamoto has just come on to tell us all what’s happened and
that we shouldn’t be concerned. We’re in the safest place in the world although
it sounds like the
special forces
on the island may
have to go and help out. He said that four schools have been taken and over
200 armed
terrorists are holding hostage a total of around
four thousand students. So it’s likely that the skills on this base will be
needed.”

“Yes, sounds like it. But you and Lela are OK?”

“Yes Mum, I’ll call you later and let you know what’s happening.”
Tom ended the call.

***

Reaper watched the TV feeds. Paris, London, Washington and Moscow
were in chaos. Their most illustrious schools, housing their most illustrious
students were under his control. Everything had worked exactly as planned. The
extremists had been enticed with money and specific targets. In London, Paris,
Moscow and Washington the terrorists had sought sons and daughters of their
arch enemies
. The plan had worked well, perhaps a little too
well as one of the terrorists had shot the son of a prominent British MP on
sight.

Reaper did not care about any of the specific targets. All the
schools were taken and across the world, the headlines read that four thousand
children were in mortal danger. The fact that only top schools were involved
was not an accident. The schools had been selected long before the targets. In
fact, most of what the terrorists had been told about their targets had been
untrue.

All of Reaper’s Team Leaders were now on
their
own
. Communications were cut as soon as the first objectives were
achieved. Reaper could not afford for any link to be made back to him. His
lieutenants knew their orders. They were to control and maintain their
positions for the following
forty eight
hours. By that
time, Reaper’s second objective would have been achieved and the Lieutenants
would be free to leave the terrorists to their own devices.

***

“What’s happening now?” Lela asked Tom who was still looking out
of the window.

“It looks like the soldiers are moving out. They’re all running
towards the helicopters and leaving,” he responded.

“What, all of them?”

“I don’t know, but a good portion of them.”

***

The twins were still suffering from their bug although the
effects were beginning to wear off. However, it had been sufficiently severe to
stop them from being shipped out with the rest of the
team
which
had been sent to Paris to help the C.O.S. (
Commandement
des
Opérations
Spéciales
),
the French special forces. With reports of over fifty terrorists at each
location and around four thousand students in danger, teams were being sent to
all locations. Four teams were sent to Paris. Four teams were sent to assist
the Russian
Spetnatz
, four teams were sent to help
the British SAS and four teams went to assist the American FBI’s HRT (Hostage
Rescue Team).
 

In total, 160 men were shipped off the island, leaving forty men
to guard the base. Thirty of them had only stayed behind because of their gastric
bug. The doctor had tracked down the source of the bug to a specific batch of
canteens which
contained contaminated water. He had cleared
the rest of the camp for active
duty
as only those who
had drunk the water would be affected.
 

The twins had now been out of contact with their targets for over
twenty four
hours. They agreed that one of them should
go back on station to resume surveillance. They could not afford any further
delay
as it was imperative that their reports be filed as
soon as possible.

***

Reaper realised, to his horror, that he had miscalculated one
part of his plan. The water-borne
bug which had been given to
his operatives
had resulted in an information black-out from the Special
Forces’ base at The Academy for eighteen hours. He had underestimated how
debilitating the virus would be. The information began to flow again and
Reaper’s second objective was achieved significantly earlier than he had
expected. The Special Forces base was down to 20% of its manpower and Reaper
controlled almost 75% of those. And of course, updates continued to come in
from Ling.
 

The outcry around the world was unprecedented. The shocking
scenes of dead children at two of the locations, including the death of a
prominent MP’s son in London, had stunned the world. The TV stations were
broadcasting developments from each location, around the clock. All other
television programmes were cancelled. People could think of nothing else as
they watched, helpless, the unfolding scenes of children being held by heavily
armed gunmen. These gunmen had already killed and were clearly capable of
killing again. They had neither identified themselves nor their cause. Reaper
had decided that for the first
forty eight
hours, no
contact would be made with the authorities. That would keep them guessing and
increase their anxiety. The tactic had obviously worked as the specialist
multi-national teams were already moving into action.

Chapter
43

Tom woke up the next morning to his television screen still
showing scenes of the four schools. It appeared that nothing had happened
overnight and no more was known about the terrorists. It all seemed rather odd
to Tom. Why take all those hostages and then not communicate with anybody nor
make any demands? Speculation was rife, with numerous terrorist organisations
being blamed and different theories emerging.
 

Hundreds of students at The Academy were affected, directly and
indirectly, with friends or family caught up in the crisis. The Headmaster
announced that classes would be suspended until the following Monday. This
would be reviewed as events unfolded but in the meantime, it was important that
all students support each other and help those in distress.
 

Tom went next door to speak to Lela. She was glued to her TV
screen.
 

“I can’t believe it, why are they doing this?” she asked.

“Who knows why these idiots do anything,” was all Tom could think
to say.

“Did you see, they named the dead boy in London,” said Lela.

“Yes, I can’t believe it, we met him a couple of years ago…oh God!
He was a good friend of Tristan’s. Do you know how he is?”

“I tried to call but his line was engaged. He must be onto his
parents,” said Lela.

“Let’s go and see him,” said Tom.

They went downstairs and walked along to Tristan’s room. His door
was open and a few other Brits had had the same idea. His room was like a
meeting of the Junior Cabinet. They gave him their sympathies and told him they
were there if he needed to talk. He said he was fine but they could see that he
was really shaken by the tragedy. A number of his close friends were still
being held hostage. He had known them since primary school.

Chen,
Mingmei
, Ahmad, Mia, Oleg and
Zach came up the stairs to catch up with Tom and Lela.
 

“Hey guys, how are you doing?” asked Mia.

“OK, considering,” came a subdued response from Tom.

“What do you think it’s all about?” asked Chen.

“Who knows why these idiots do anything.” Tom had not yet thought
of a better response.

“Unbelievable, especially to hit on kids,” added Chen.

“Do you want to come for a bite to eat?” asked Oleg.

“No thanks, I’m really not hungry,” said Lela.

“No, me neither,” said Tom.

“Well, we’re just going to get a bite, we’ll come back and see
you later,” said Oleg.

“I’ll just wait here,” said Mia.

“Me too,” said Chen.

Tom was beginning to think that Chen had a bit of a crush on Mia.
He loved being around her and seemed to take every opportunity to be near her.
Lela, on the other hand, suspected that Mia had a bit of a thing for Tom, as
she always seemed to want to be around him.

“So what will we do with these two boys, Mia?” asked Lela,
winking at Tom with a wicked grin.

“What do you mean?” said Mia, blushing.

“Oh nothing, come on guys what shall we do?” said Lela.

“I really don’t want to spend the rest of the day watching those
four quarters of the TV screen. They’re just too disturbing,” said Tom changing
the subject.

***

It had been an hour since Ling had received the ‘Ready’ command.
Things were moving more quickly than she had anticipated. The Ready command
signified that at any point during the following twelve hours, she would
receive the Go command
for
 
her
objective to be undertaken
immediately. As a result, she had to be as close to the targets as possible for
the rest of the day.
 

***

Reaper changed into combat dress and was ready to go. The final
pieces of the jigsaw were coming together. Only forty soldiers remained in situ
at the Special Forces base.
Twenty eight
of them were
under his control and ready to move when required. The bug was now well out of
their system and they were once again combat ready. Reaper had issued a
readiness alert to all of them and they too waited for the Go command. Pieter
was in position 6000 miles away with his team and ready to complete his
objective.

Reaper turned to Leo, his other Lieutenant.

“Where is the target?” he asked.

“He’s airborne and due home in twenty minutes.”

“Why so early?”

“It appears the terrorists have everybody freaked. Alarms are
going off constantly in his office and disturbing his work,” said Leo with a
smile.

“That’s terrible, I wonder why that keeps happening,” said Reaper
sarcastically.

“I couldn’t say,” said Leo, tossing the pay-as-you go phone into
the river. He had used it to make hoax bomb threats to Alba International
during the previous two hours, itself an
imprisonable
offence, not that he cared.

“Are you certain he’s going home?” Reaper asked more seriously.

“Definitely. I’ve been listening into his calls all morning. He
asked his secretary to organise the helicopter as he couldn’t concentrate with
all the alarms going off and the constant evacuations.”

“Where are the men?”

“Standing by, ready to go. All they need to do is saddle up and
we’re out of here.”

“Excellent and our
comms
guy?”

“Sitting outside, he comes with us.”

Reaper looked at his watch, it was 9.00 a.m. in Glasgow and noon
at The Academy.

“OK, let’s ruin the Kennedys’ day. We are
GO
!”

***

The twins were both on surveillance duty, observing the targets.
On filing their latest report, they were given new orders. Things were
happening and they should maintain a high state of alert. Surveillance at this
stage was paramount and all other duties were to be ignored, even if it meant
disciplinary sanctions.

Chapter
44

“What was that noise?” asked Tom.

“What noise?” asked
Mia.

“Like a buzzing sound, you know, like a phone on vibrate,”
explained Tom.

“Didn’t hear a thing,” said Chen.

“Nor me,” said
Mingmei
.

Once the others had finished breakfast, they returned feeling
slightly guilty that they had put their stomachs before their friends.

“I’m fed up with this,” announced Mia. “We’ve been watching
nothing happen for hours, let’s go out, no?”

“Good idea,” said Lela.

Everybody agreed and they spent the next thirty minutes debating
what to do. By a majority decision, they decided to go for a run in the golf
carts.
 

Mia, Chen, Tom and Lela were in one cart while Ahmad, Zach,
Mingmei
and Oleg followed behind in another.

 
A new game was
devised after they had become bored of racing each other at the death defying
speed of 15mph. It was a derivation of hide and
seek
where one cart would turn around and face the other way, while the other would
have a two minute head-start. The object of the game was to stay out of sight
for as long as possible. On being spotted, the clock would stop and the other
cart would hide.