Kidnap (The Billionaire Series) (33 page)

Commanders were praised for their outstanding rescue operation.
Reporters relayed scenes of parents and children being reunited after their truly
horrendous ordeal at the hands of terrorists. When reporters asked the
Commanders whether there were any terrorist casualties or whether any soldiers
had been injured during the operation, the question was evaded. The only
response given was that all children were accounted for and other than the five
casualties on the first day, all seemed to be unharmed.

Commanders scratched their heads, contacted their bosses and
angrily accused them of having undermined them by pulling a stunt behind their
backs. They each got the same response from an angry boss who thought they had
acted without authority. It wasn’t long before they realised that nobody knew
who had carried out the rescue
nor
who had organised
it.

Chapter
65

Tom had tweaked the Estate’s security system so that the fifteen
islanders, Lela and he would not show up on the screen. He achieved this by
telling the system not to allow any further blips. There were currently
forty four
blips and the system was now restricted to that
number.

At exactly 3.20 a.m., ten minutes before the lights went out at
the schools, they entered the Estate. Tom and Lela hung back as Kano and
Kisho
led the attack. The first
row of
guards were
disposed of quickly and without noise. They continued
towards the house at some speed. They had to be there by the time the lights
went out at the schools as that would be the distraction needed to enter the
house and dispose of the guards who were directly threatening their parents.

Saki was awake. He had struggled to sleep in the knowledge that,
despite not knowing where Lela was, he would have to do something that day by
noon. He looked at the security screen. He knew he was good but
forty one
heavily armed men was a big number, even for him.
It was then that he noticed something odd. He quickly moved to Donald and
Rachel’s room, knocking on the door before entering.

“Donald, are you awake?”

“Of course.”

“Are you watching the TV?”

“Yes, I can’t stop thinking about those poor children.”

“Not that one, the
security screen
.”

“No, why?”

“Watch it and tell me if you notice anything strange,” asked
Saki.

Donald watched for a minute before it dawned on him.

“Tom and Lela?”

“Must be, wait here. Put a chair against your door when I leave.”

“You must be joking, I’m coming with you.”

“No Donald. This is what I do. You take care of
Rachel,
I take care of both of you. Now put a chair against
the door when I leave.”

Saki left Donald in no doubt as to who was boss, for then anyway.
Donald did as he was told.

***

Just when Reaper had ordered Leo to kill Tom’s mother, Leo had
noticed the same thing.

“We have a problem,” he said slowly.

“What now? Do I have to go there and kill her myself,” answered
Reaper, eyes transfixed on the TV.

“I think we’ve got company. We have the right number of blips but
some of them have stopped moving.”

Reaper spun round and watched as eight blips which had been
moving, stopped and remained motionless. Of the
thirty seven
guards on duty, twenty five were stationary.

“But the system would tell us!” He spun around to his communications
man. “What the hell is going on?”

It took him only fifteen seconds to find the anomaly and to
reverse it. Seventeen new blips appeared on the screen. The nearest was over
200 metres away.

“Kill them all,” ordered Reaper.

***

Saki made his way to the end of the corridor. Two guards were
positioned at the top of the stairs. Saki made his way towards them yawning and
claiming he needed a drink. As he drew along side them with his arms
outstretched in a yawning motion, he lashed out and struck them both
simultaneously and with such force that neither would be conscious for at least
eight hours. He then made his way down the staircase and noticed the security
screen with new blips. They knew!

***

“We’ve miscalculated” Tom said. “It has taken too long to get to
the house, the lights have already gone off, they’ll know something’s up.”

It was then that they heard the chilling sound of gunfire. Lela
immediately sprinted towards the house. A guard tried to stop her but without
breaking her stride, she knocked him out.

***

Saki walked into the living room as Leo rushed towards him with
two guards by his side. Saki smiled, he was going to enjoy this. This was the
guy who had slapped Rachel. Saki disarmed Leo with a sweep of his foot and as
the foot continued in its arc, he knocked one of the
guards
unconscious. The other received a pummelling of punches to the stomach before
Saki turned around to face Leo. Leo had positioned himself. He was a black belt
in Karate and knew a thing or two about martial arts. Saki was merciless. With
his first move, he broke Leo’s kneecap. With his second, he snapped his
forearm. His third meant that Leo would never use his right arm again, the one
which had slapped Rachel. Leo had not had time to throw a single punch.

***

Reaper had heard the screams of agony from the lounge and grabbed
his gun. He burst into the room as Saki delivered his fourth and final knockout
blow to Leo. Reaper aimed and fired, he didn’t care if he hit Leo,
he
wanted Saki dead.
 

***

Saki, on seeing a gun aimed at him, moved instantly. As Reaper
pulled the trigger, Saki dived towards him, landed underneath him and disarmed
him before the second bullet had a chance to leave the barrel.

Reaper was stunned. His target had vanished and as he had tried
to locate him, his gun had been forced from his hands and had flown across the
room, out of reach. He had instinctively watched the gun fall before trying to
understand what had just happened. As he looked up, a very angry looking Saki
stood before him.

Saki paused and then spoke.

“Just tell me one thing. Have you ever been to Sabah?”

“Yes,” replied a defiant Reaper who was still stunned by what had
just happened.

“You and I need to have a little talk,” said Saki coldly.

Reaper was unperturbed. He was a skilled hand-to-hand fighter,
having trained with some of the best in the world. Over the years, he had
mastered many martial arts and Saki was much smaller than him. He positioned
himself in front of Saki.
 

***

Lela rushed through the front door of the house. Two guards in
the entrance hallway raised their
guns,
they had both
heard the commotion from the lounge and the subsequent gunfire but had been
ordered to remain on station. When they realised it was a young girl, they made
their biggest mistake and lowered their weapons. Lela walked over and beat the
two men unconscious before they had a chance to raise a finger or pull a
trigger.

***

Reaper made the first move against the diminutive Saki. He threw
a straight punch at Saki’s head. He had knocked many men unconscious with the
same move. It was unstoppable and on this occasion its speed and power was a
sure fire hit.

Saki had moved before Reaper’s brain had sent the signals to his
fist. Saki had already planned his counter-strike. As the fist started its
journey, Saki stepped aside and threw a punch both faster and significantly
more powerful towards the fist.

Reaper could not believe it. Nobody could move as fast as this
guy. Reaper then discovered that nobody could hit as hard as Saki either. His
counter-strike struck the back of Reaper’s clenched fist and shattered every
bone in his hand. The pain was excruciating. Reaper screamed in pain for the
first time in his life.

Saki stepped back in front of Reaper and goaded him by remaining
dead pan
. Saki wanted to know the identity of the mastermind
behind Reaper. He knew that the thug in front of him was incapable of putting
such a plan together.

Reaper was
enraged,
the pain in his hand
was intense. He spun around and delivered a high kick powerful enough to take
Saki’s head off.

Saki smiled to
himself
as he watched
Reaper subtly position his next move. It really was a man-versus-boy scenario.
As Reaper spun round, Saki took Reaper’s standing leg away from under him with
such a force that Reaper was propelled three feet in the air before landing and
breaking his coccyx. It had been no fluke. Saki had calculated exactly how
Reaper would land and again Reaper screamed
,
such was
the intensity of the pain. Reaper would not sit comfortably for some time, if
ever again.

Reaper looked at the little man in utter disbelief and then
struggled to his feet, the pain from his lower back and shattered hand were
excruciating. So he used his good hand to pull out a knife from inside his boot
and faced Saki again.

Saki watched as Reaper struggled to his feet, pulling his knife
and facing up to him again. Enough was enough. It was time for the man to talk.
Saki, with invisibly fast action, took the knife out of Reaper’s hand and began
the questioning.

***

As she made her way through the house, the screams Lela heard
made her shiver. They were coming from the lounge and she made her way there.
As she approached, a guard had his back to her and she realised he was taking
aim at somebody in the lounge from where the screams were coming. Without a
second’s thought, she jumped on the guard and disabled him and the
weapon which she discovered
was pointing at her father.

***

Reaper had had more pain inflicted on him in the preceding two
minutes than most hardened fighters would have in a lifetime. Saki had been
merciless in his quest to find out who had killed his beloved
Tylanni
. Lela walked into the room and put her hand on her
father’s shoulder. He spun around and the hatred in his eyes vanished as he
hugged his daughter.

Reaper,
relieved that the punishment had
stopped, summoned all his strength, picked his knife up from the floor and
inched it towards Saki who was now completely consumed by his daughter. He
swung his hand back and smiled as the knife took flight towards Saki’s back,
directly towards his heart. It was his last smile. Lela caught the knife just
as it was about to pierce her father’s skin and returned it down the same
trajectory, killing Reaper instantly. She had not even broken her father’s
embrace.

***

Kano and
Kisho
rushed into the room
just after Lela and watched as she dealt with the three guards and then dealt
with Reaper. Both looked at each other, realising that they were now the third
and fourth best islanders and that Saki’s number one slot looked very shaky.

***

Tom rushed in just behind Kano and
Kisho
.
Saki saw him and after checking the security system to ensure there were no
further guards, pointed upstairs. Tom ran upstairs and pounded on his parents’
bedroom door, shouting, “Mum! Dad! It’s me!” His mother and father pushed the
chair out of the way and flung the door open and hugged their son. Saki and
Lela joined them a minute later and the whole family was back together safe and
sound.

Chapter
66

As Tom hugged his parents in Glasgow, ten Royal Marine choppers
landed at The Academy. They had been stationed as the defensive force for the
Naval base to the
north west
. Their commander had
received a call at 6.00 a.m. (3.00 a.m. Glasgow time) from Tristan, the UK
Prime Minister’s son, who had insisted that they make haste to the school. He
informed them that terrorists were ensconced in the Special Forces base and
were holding the Headmaster captive. Tristan had also requested that no
communication be made outwith the base and had made the Commander promise that
he would pretend to order a routine mission. Recognising Tristan’s voice, the
Commander acceded to his requests and carried out the operation, believing it
wasn’t bad training if nothing else. On arrival at the base, the Commander
found exactly what he’d been told. His men arrested Reaper’s men and
unfortunately, during an exchange of fire, two hostages,
Weadle
and one of the terrorists were killed. The Commander’s men swore blind that
they had not killed the Deputy Headmaster. It had been one of the terrorists
who had shot him, whom they unfortunately had had to shoot as he refused to
give himself up.

***

As Mr Sakamoto, Ms Anderson and Mia were being freed from their
captors, the final Citation X landed on a small island in the middle of the
Indian Ocean. Within ten minutes, the two islanders on board had achieved their
objective. They rescued the real Chen from his captors. Within thirty minutes,
they were making their way to Hong Kong to reunite him with his father. Chen’s
father had been blissfully unaware of his predicament. Chen had been forced
over the previous two weeks to contact his father and pretend he was at school
and that everything was fine, all part of the plan to keep Ling’s cover.

***