Scion (21 page)

“I know who your father was also,” offered Walker.

“Who?” asked Scott eagerly.

Walker felt the cold steel press against the back of his head, just before he felt nothing.

The man with the silenced pistol replaced the receiver and calmly left the way he had come in, through the ladies’ toilets. He closed the window quietly behind him and was miles away before the body of William Walker III was discovered. His faceless head causing more than a few beers to be expelled violently by the unsuspecting football supporters.

***

Scott stood in the manager’s office holding the dead phone. He had heard the spit of the pistol and the subsequent wet splat and realised that another lead to his father was gone. Whatever was going on had nothing to do with Scott’s work and everything to do with his past. A past that he had no knowledge of, nor links to.  

“So what are we going to do?” asked
Kelly breaking the silence.

“We’re going to
start taking control,” replied Scott firmly. Without asking the manager, he placed a call. He needed to get hold of a few things.

Chapter 33

Kelly
had protested from the moment Scott had told her she was leaving. She had to stay. If, as he believed, there were two Rosies, she should be there. After all, Rosie had spoken to her. She also was not entirely convinced of Scott’s conclusion that the strange message telling her that Rosie was still on the way meant there were two Rosies. She wanted to wait around until four to find out. Scott, however, was having none of it. Enough innocent people had died. Kelly was leaving on the 3.45 p.m. flight as originally planned. His previous friendly and affable persona had been replaced by a serious don’t mess with me approach.

Scott
waited until Kelly’s flight’s door had shut and pulled away from the gate before quickly making his way to the VIP area of the airport. The only flight due to land at 4.00 p.m. was a small private jet, origin unknown.

***

Ten hours and two inflight fuellings later, the specially converted Cessna Citation X touched down at Kota Kinabalu. Following instructions from the control tower, it moved towards the VIP area and was instructed to wait for immigration officials who would clear them for entry as soon as possible, obviating the need to enter the terminal.

Within seconds of coming to a stop and powering down their engines
, a small white minibus approached the jet, stopping near the steps that were in the process of being lowered. Two customs officials dressed immaculately in pristine white uniforms exited the van and boarded the plane.

***

Ashley watched as the two young men approached the aircraft. They looked almost identical in their white uniforms. In fact, Ashley realised they were identical. Completely identical. How sweet she thought, twins taking the same job and working together. The sight of them put a smile on her face for the first time in hours. The journey had been tortuous. None of the men had spoken, no food or drink had been offered. All had sat in almost complete silence. Ashley had tried to make conversation to try and work out who they were but it seemed none wanted to give anything away as her attempts were met by simple grunts or shakes of the head.

The two young
officials boarded and Ashley was surprised at how thoroughly their eyes scanned the plane, darting from one occupant to the next with remarkable speed. Ashley was in no doubt that these guys were extremely capable immigration officials and only wished the same vigilance were practised in American ports of entry.

“Four male passengers, one female and two aircrew
?” checked the first immigration officer with the captain. His English was perfect, another surprise for Ashley.

“Yes, that’s correct,
” replied the captain taking a form from one of the officials.

“Passports?”

As she heard the request for passports, Ashley saw her chance. She also noticed the other immigration official seemed to be taking a great interest in her, his eyes constantly swinging back to her. She was used to being looked at, it was something she had grown used to. But for some reason she did not get the feeling he wanted her in that way.

“Ahem, I’ve got a problem
.”

All eyes spun towards As
hley as she spoke. The spitter looked at her as if he’d quite happily slit her throat if she didn’t stop talking.

“I’ve not got my passport,” she continued.

“I think I’ve got it here,” said spitter as he looked at a pile of papers in front of him.

As he did so, the man sitting next to Ashley placed his arm behind her and gr
abbed her shoulder and, out of sight of the officials, began to squeeze tightly. The message was clear, shut up or else.

The immigration officer immediately noticed the look of pain on the young woman and made an instant decision
.

“I’m afraid you’ll have to come with me
Madam,” he instructed.

“She’s not going anywhere,” instructed
the spitter menacingly, pulling a gun from under his paperwork and aiming it at the twins.

His men instantly followed and before the two offic
ials could move, they were staring down the barrels of four guns.

The twins
, much to Ashley’s surprise, seemed unfazed by what had happened and was stunned to hear the first’s reaction.

“Well
, I’m sorry gentlemen but I’m going to have to refuse your entry on this occasion,” he said before turning towards the door.

The distraction was all his twin required
. Four spits emitted from the pistol that had appeared in his hand as his brother turned away. Each spit from the silenced FN 5.7 resulted in a red mist from each of the four men’s heads. The speed with which it had happened was beyond comprehension as was the accuracy of the four shots. All having hit perfectly between the men’s eyes. Ashley had seen some impressive shooting in her time but that was in a different league.

The captain had thrown his arms in the
air, the second he realised what was happening and just in time to stop a bullet being fired into his skull.

“Rosie?” asked the first twin,
who had somehow fired the fourth shot straight through her captor’s eyebrow from his hip. Unbelievable.

“
Umm…yes,” replied Ashley not thinking it was the time to enter into name semantics.

“Would you like to come with us, please
. Scott is waiting for you.”

Both had replaced their pistols and one was offering his hand towards her.

“But that was incredible,” she said taking the hand offered to her.

“Bit sloppy actually I’m better with a rifle,
Kirk’s the pistol man,” explained the twin who had taken out three men with perfect head shots before they had even reacted.

Ashley could only shake her head in disbelief as they led her from the plane and down into the waiting minibus. Before she had a chance to ask where they were going, the minibus slowed
down and the man she didn’t think she’d ever meet, jumped in the open side door of the minibus.

Chapter 34

Todd Nielsen stepped
out of his front door as the Lincoln Town Car came to a halt at the bottom of the grand staircase that swept up towards him. He quickly climbed into the back of the car and relaxed as they wound their way down the long gravel driveway. Todd could never stop himself looking back at the sprawling estate, set in the heart of the Bradley Farms district, the address of Washington’s rich and famous. He knew that buying the estate had raised more than a few eyebrows and questions as to how he could afford the $14 million price tag.

Todd Nielsen had not led the privileged life of his neighbours
. In fact, his life had been far from privileged; a childhood in the slums of Detroit, a slut of a mother and drunk of a father. His role models were few and far between. However, all that had changed on his seventeenth birthday. Todd, despite his teachers’ protestations and numerous offers of scholarships, had joined the army. His intellect allowed him to rise through the ranks quickly and before long, a posting to the Pentagon found him working for the Defense Appropriations Committee as an adviser to its members. It was there that Todd had met the man who would transform his life. Dan Baker, the young ultra rich senator from Florida had somehow managed to gain a spot on the most powerful of all appropriations committees, defense. Being of a similar age, the two quickly became friends and Todd Nielsen discovered a new world. The world of the rich. Travel was by private jet, helicopter or limousine. Food at the most exclusive restaurants. Drinks in the most exclusive clubs. Women, the most beautiful and refined who literally threw themselves at the wealth. Todd had found his true calling, money.

Dan
took Todd under his wing and in return for swaying more than a few votes towards Transcon Corporation companies, Todd’s career took off. Promotions came thick and fast, offers from private sector organisations arrived almost daily but behind the scenes, Dan was always directing and two years earlier had secured Todd the ultimate role, the US Secretary of Defense. Transcon in the meantime had become the single largest supplier to the US armed services. Todd didn’t for a minute doubt to whom his ultimate loyalty lay, he just looked forward to the day when that man was in The White House. His dilemma would then be resolved.

  No sooner had they sped through the automatic cast iron gates than his phone had rung. The screen said ‘Private Caller’.

“Hello
?” he answered, checking his watch. It was only 6.45 a.m.

“It’s Ernst
, we have a problem.”

Before saying another word, Todd pressed the button to raise the screen between himself and the driver.

“What now?”

“We’ve lost the target
.”

“What do you mean you’ve lost the target
?” spat out Todd. “I put my ass on the line giving you the information I gave you yesterday, never mind losing a few of my staff.”

“The captain of our plane called
. Two immigration officials boarded and blew our operatives away and then took the girl.”

“Was our target with them
?”

“No, they were
identical twins and he isn’t a twin.”

“What did the captain do?” asked Todd.

“He turned his plane around and got the fuck out of there, dumping the bodies over the sea.”

“Shit, have you spoken to
Dan?”

“No
, I’m hoping you can help us get a lead on them before I call him.”

“You h
ave access to everything I have. Is there nothing from NSA?”

“Nothing. But there is one thing.”

“What?” blurted Todd.

“The trip to meet the Prime Minister
. We went over the tapes, it seems he was meeting someone we know.”

“Who?” interrupted Todd
impatiently.

“George Cunningham, your new counterpart in the UK.”

Todd smiled. “I’ll give him a call, right away!”

Chapter 3
5

As
Scott boarded the minibus, the first thing that struck him was that the woman was like no Rosie he had ever met. She was stunning. His eyes were transfixed on the young woman and for the first time in his life, he was lost for words. The twins, however, had different concerns. They were in the process of speeding away from killing four men on the runway of an international airport, dressed in stolen uniforms and driving a stolen van. Something they felt sure would not be rewarded. .

As they streaked across the concourse
, they could see the real immigration officer on his way to the Citation X. Kirk put his foot down harder on the accelerator. Kyle, his twin brother kept staring back towards the small jet and much to his relief watched the doors being shut and the plane start to move. The immigration officer came to a stop where the plane had sat only seconds earlier. It seemed the pilot was as keen to avoid the issue of the killings as the twins were.

Ashley was still trying to work out what the hell was happening as the minibus came to a
screeching stop next to a helicopter. Without any preamble, Ashley was herded onto the helicopter and within two minutes, the Malaysian Army was short of one Augusta Westland A109 light observation helicopter.

With the twins
taking the controls, Scott and Ashley sat in the back of the helicopter and finally had the chance to talk.

“So who are those guys?” asked Ashley pointing forward.

“Colleagues of mine, Kirk and Kyle,” answered Scott awkwardly. He didn’t really know what to say. She knew who he was, he just didn’t know how to ask.

“My name
’s not really Rosie, you know, it’s Ashley,” blurted out Ashley, feeling the need to dispel the myth that was Rosie.