The Journey of Kyle Gibbs Box Set
Page 53
‘No problem,’ he said and adjusted his clothing. ‘Please let me drive, Vargen, a person of your stature should not be driving a truck. Or let’s at least get one of your men to drive.’
‘It’s quite okay, René. It’s a welcome distraction.’
Christina changed down a couple of gears, the truck to shuddering before she wrenched the steering wheel and turned right, off the main road and onto a smaller leafy lane. They sped down the lane between two bright yellow rapeseed fields before crossing a stone bridge that spanned a swollen river. The road took them straight into quiet city roads past shops and houses that had sandbags stacked up to the first floor. The briny smell of salty mud drifted through the trucks air vents. They were entering into another Floodzone.
‘I didn’t realise that Bruges got flooded as well,’ René said as they crossed a small street intersection.
‘Yes, it’s also built on an old floodplain, so the initial surge caught many people unawares,’ Christina said.
‘How do we get to this Southampton place?’
‘From the Bruges airport which is now under military control by the GGC. We’ll be catching a flight out of here.’
• • •
The sun disappeared as the golden glow slowly faded into night. The group crept on their hands and knees up an embankment to the tattered airport perimeter fence. They crouched down in the long wet grass just beyond the fence line, as two GGC guards walked past. Running in a low crouch, Gabrjel ran up the slope and slipped through a hole in the fence. He crept behind the two men who were speaking Flemish and laughing loudly at a joke.
His boot scuffed on the gravel path they were walking on, and the two men spun around. Before they could raise their rifles, two light thuds were heard, as Gabrjel’s silenced Sig pistol recoiled, sending both men to the ground clutching their chests. He walked up and fired twice more. All ten of them slipped through the hole and onto the base.
On the concrete apron, in front of the two old aircraft hangers stood a white plane. The pilot was busying himself around the engines and fuselage of the Rockwell Commander, doing his pre-flight checks. Christina directed the men to spread out around the plane. The pilot turned, noticing the approaching men, and his face changed from bewilderment to fear as they surrounded him.
Christina walked up to the pilot, her hand on the holstered Glock on her hip. ‘Hello, Captain. You have two choices here, fly me to Southampton or die here in Belgium.’
‘How many of you are there?’
‘Ten of us and not much luggage.’
The pilot nodded and stood aside.
• • •
‘Gentlemen, calm down, please,’ Lady Rosemary Winterton shouted. ‘Shouting at once, like chattering monkeys, will do us no good.’
The loud din in the Phoenix Chamber slowly subsided, and she waited for total silence from the ministers, before continuing. She looked up, and down the long table at the other Grand Founders, all of whom were in attendance.
‘Welcome to this emergency Phoenix Council meeting. The first point of discussion is the rapid and continued rise of the resistance. Jürgen Kohler has repeatedly stated that he is convinced Captain Gibbs is indeed our man, Vargen. Personally, I disagree, and before we all start arguing, I’d like to offer the following irrefutable rebuttal. We heard rumours of Vargen’s activities long before Captain Gibbs was released from prison. He had no contact with the outside world, and so we should take him out of the picture.’
‘Fair enough, but at the very least he must have had contact with Vargen, so has an idea of the identity of the man,’ Jürgen Kohler said.
‘Possibly, Jürgen, although that’s still only an assumption,’ Lord Butler said.
‘Regardless of that, the uprisings are continuing. Look how easily they defeated the Phoenix Guard unit in Poland,’ Grand Founder Watanabe said.
‘We have six Guard units, and a thousand armed men camped in Richmond Park. Every possible troop carrying DC3s and DC4s has been recalled back to London and waiting for instructions,’ Andrei Kirilenko said. ‘Personally, I think we should launch an attack on one or two of the cities now, while Vargen is focussed on guarding the professor. In addition to that, shouldn’t we be concerned that there have been no uprisings from the UK warlords?’
‘Let sleeping dogs lie, Andrei. What’s been bothering me more is that there is clearly an informant within the GGC. We’ve had quite a few leaks that have given Vargen the edge over us, and on many occasions,’ Lady Winterton said.
‘The ops room have confirmed with our man in the Hamburg warlord’s office that Gibbs and the research team have left for Scotland. They cannot be allowed to arrive there. If we do, we will lose track of them for good,’ Jürgen Kohler said.
‘Don’t worry about Captain Gibbs and the research team. Markus is hot on their trail and will catch up with them soon to deal with the situation, one way or the other,’ Lord Butler said.
Grand Founder Watanabe got to his feet. ‘Both Veron Rodriquez and myself would like to have it added to the minutes, that we strongly oppose the strategy of subjugation. We believe that we should negotiate with the dissident warlords. History has taught us that you cannot control the workings of the global civilisation from a single country.’
The council members erupted into loud cheering and shouting as the Grand Founders all got to their feet. Tempers flared as they pointed at one another. The doors of the Phoenix Chamber flew open with a loud bang, and a man in a GGC army uniform marched in making his way over to Andrei Kirilenko.
Kirilenko listened intently before slamming his fist down on the table. The room fell silent as they waited for him to speak. ‘It appears that Professor Friedmann and his team, along with the help of Professor Dresdner, have succeeded in completing their preliminary experiments and have produced stable fusion energy.’
The hush in the chamber was palpable as they all stared, aghast at the Russian. ‘It would appear that the professor did not travel with Gibbs after all and had been in Hamburg all along. Who took the call from this so-called informant, stating that they did travel together? Clearly, this is the person working with Vargen.’
‘I was in the vicinity of the ops room when the call came in and took the message. I gave it to you directly as you may recall. I was not to know that this person was an imposter,’ Lord Butler said, staring at the glaring faces around him.
‘Amateurs,’ screamed Andrei Kirilenko and pulled out his phone.
‘No phone calls in the chamber please, Andrei,’ Lady Winterton said.
The big Russian glared at the chairwoman and continued to dial. The phone rang on the other end, but Markus Schmidt did not pick up.
Chapter 53
The North Sea, west of Germany - 2028
Gibbs and Shredder were standing on a makeshift wooden jetty inside the flooded warehouse, staring through the mould-covered windows.
‘How far behind us was he really?’ Shredder asked.
‘Milena said about half an hour to an hour,’ Gibbs said.
They both looked to the right as a loud thundering noise came into earshot. The large motor boat passed, its big V8 engines thudding loudly across the harbour. They caught a glimpse of three of the men standing on deck, combing the coastline with binoculars. Painted on the bow, was the name Marlin in blue lettering.
‘Right on cue,’ Gibbs said, scanning the boat for Markus who was standing on the foredeck with binoculars, looking towards the flooded cranes and submerged houses which hid Gibbs’s team and the resistance.
‘He must be a little confused,’ Killey said.
Gibbs laughed. ‘Isn’t he always?’
‘I bet he expected to have caught up with us by now,’ Killey said.
Gibbs gave the order to start loading all their equipment onto their yacht, The Gaia. She was a sleek and quick single-hulled vessel that could easily reach twelve knots. If they could get her to that speed and maintain it, they would meet up with the Scottish trawler in four to five hours.
• • •
‘Turn us around and head back to Cuxhaven,’ Markus barked.
He’d gone against his instinct and carried on motoring too far past the harbour. Slapping his hand down on the fibreglass console in front of him, he realised that Gibbs was too crafty to continue along the coast. Sooner or later the Scot would have had to make a break for the open blackness of the North Sea. Scotland was a long way off. ‘Full throttle,’ he shouted.
‘Corporal, go and man the radar, there are a lot of smaller fishing boats around here, look for ones that are heading out to sea. Find them, or I will throw you overboard,’ Markus told the soldier next to him.
Markus lifted his binoculars up again as they reached the harbour and scanned the rows of warehouses and boat small inlets. Most of the buildings were flooded, but the bigger warehouses were still in operation. Men and woman scurried around the properties on higher ground behind the warehouses. His eyes narrowed as he studied a group of five metal-clad warehouses and his spirits lifted. The doors to one of the warehouses were now open. It had not been when they passed.
‘Take us over to those warehouses,’ he snapped. The Marlin turned towards the shoreline and drifted passed the sunken warehouses when suddenly Markus ordered them to stop. Inside the warehouse, a powerful motorboat was parked.
‘You two!’ Markus snapped. ‘Have a look around the boat and see if it’s empty.’
The men jumped out and climbed on board the launch. After a minute, one of the men climbed out. ‘It’s empty now but was used recently.’
‘They must have changed to another boat. We need to get out of the harbour again,’ Markus said.
‘Corporal, any signs of a small boat heading out to sea?’ he called. The corporal’s negative reply made him even angrier. He knew that he would have to take a gamble.
‘Skipper, steer a course out to sea and then turn towards Scotland. We’ll have to pick them up out there,’ Markus said.
After speeding from the calm harbour, through the big red entrance buoys, they entered the dark North Sea. The boat pilot pushed the throttle right down, and the V8 engines roared as the bow lifted from the choppy water and the boat climbed onto a fast plain. They skipped through the black waters, with the wind pushing them back. Four of the men climbed onto the bow decking to ready themselves for contact.
Thirty minutes later, the man operating the radar shouted. ‘Got them!’ Markus ran downstairs and looked at the small green radar screen in front of him. The blip on the screen looked different to the myriad of other boats. This one had activated its emergency transponder.
‘Direction?’ he asked the corporal.
‘Two hundred and ninety degrees north-west, sir. Moving away from us at speed,’ he said.
‘Skipper, two hundred and ninety degrees full throttle. That better bloody well be them,’ Markus said.
• • •
Gibbs was looking at the maps with Killey, trying to plot where they would meet up with the Scottish trawler when the man had stationed at the radar screen called them over.
‘Sir, I’ve picked up a new blip coming out of Cuxhaven. Seems to be on an intercept heading with us but I cannot tell exactly with this old equipment. It’s approaching quickly and might intercept us in the next hour, sir,’ he said.
‘Okay, thanks,’ Gibbs said and headed up the stairs to the main deck. Killey was already scanning behind them with his binoculars, and after a while, he pointed to a speck on the horizon.
‘It looks like it could be them, boss,’ Killey said to Gibbs, who had a look and nodded his head.
‘It’s unlikely that we’ll be able to outrun her. Let’s get ready to fight her when they reach us,’ Gibbs said and walked along the port decking to sit on a small bench. His SA80 pointing over the side, he took the magazine out and checked the rounds before slamming it back in. On the horizon, the approaching speck of boat got nearer with each nautical mile they covered. The wind had subsided, and the sea swell had dropped significantly.
Once the gap between the boats hit about five hundred metres, the chasing boat broke away from The Gaia, changing the intercept course. Gibbs smiled, he’d expected this from the German. The good strategy would be to circle The Gaia a few times before engaging.
‘Listen up,’ Gibbs shouted. ’He’s going to expect us to wait until he gets closer to fire. Let’s surprise him a little. I want the most precise shooting you’ve ever laid down. When you lock onto a target on that boat, take them out, don’t wait for them to get closer. Fire at will.’
With Markus taking the Marlin out on a large clockwise arc, it was a few minutes before the first shot rang out from the bow of The Gaia. One of Gibbs’s men had taken a shot and dropped his man, who stumbled forward and fell over the railing, into the frothing wake of the boat. The circling boat lurched sharply to the left and took a wider arch around The Gaia, to avoid the sniper rifles.
‘Take her closer,’ Gibbs shouted to the pilot. ‘Keep changing the distance between us. That will keep him guessing.’
For twenty minutes, they inflicted casualties on Markus’s team. Countless puffs of smoke and yellow muzzle fire could be seen from his boat, but they took no casualties. Gibbs saw the big German waving his hands and remonstrating with his men, before disappearing down below. A few seconds later, he reappeared with a longer-barrelled weapon. ‘Markus has a sniper rifle so, keep low and focus on him,’ Gibbs shouted from behind the binoculars.
Two of Gibbs’s men kept firing short bursts at the cabin of the other boat, in the direction of the single shots being fired from Markus. Small spouts of white water flicked up near The Gaia as Markus tried to zone in on the boat pilot.
‘I’ve lost control, boss,’ the corporal piloting the boat shouted. ‘No steering at all.’
‘Go below and see if you can see what the problem is. Drop the sails, people. Straight onto engine power.’ Gibbs shouted and stood up, firing a long sustained burst at the circling boat. Smithy crawled forward to release the mainsail and its lines, and The Gaia lost speed, the sails fluttering and snapping from side to side. She was dead in the water.
The firing continued, and one of Gibbs’s men fell back from the porthole he was firing from, slumping on the floor. Below deck another of his men shouted. ‘Running out of ammo here, boss. We’ll be down to side arms soon.’
‘Me too,’ Gibbs said when his satphone begun ringing. He ducked down and took the call.
‘Captain Gibbs, this is Captain Patterson of The Jess. We have picked up your transponder and are steaming to your location.
‘Great to hear from you. You’d better hurry, mate. We’re under heavy fire, and our steering or rudder has been damaged by sniper fire, so we’re dead in the water. We’re also taking on a little water, although it doesn’t seem too serious.’
‘Hang in there, laddie, we are less than forty minutes away,’ Captain Patterson said.
‘Hurry, Captain. We’re nearly out of ammo,’ Gibbs said, taking out his Sig 226 sidearm. He looked up as Markus barked an order and their boat slowed down too. Soon there was silence on The Gaia as the last round of the ammo was used.
‘Boss, let me throw a few grenades at them,’ Killey said.
Gibbs shook his head. ‘Let them come to us, knives only. We need to stall them for thirty-five minutes. They still think that the professor is with us, or else they would have turned around by now, so that will make them hesitant to take us out.’
Gibbs walked over to the radio man, who was gesticulating widely. Markus’s voice came over the radio. ‘Gibbs, let�
�s put an end to this stupidity, hand over the professor and his team. If you surrender right now, no more lives will be wasted. It is simple, surrender or die.’
Gibbs smiled and picked up the radio. ‘Schmitty, do you remember what happened the last time you threatened us like that? Oh yes, you ran home to Kirilenko with your tail between your legs, you yellow-livered dog. You want the professor, come and get him.’
• • •
Markus threw down the handset and went up on deck. ‘Corporal, full throttle towards their yacht. Ram it into her near the bow. Do you understand? We’ll board the boat once we’ve rammed her.’
‘But, Captain, both boats could sink with the impact,’ he said.
Markus punched the man in the side of the face. He collapsed against the side of the cockpit. Markus dragged him to the floor, stepping over his moaning form.
He stood behind the wheel and jammed the throttle forward. The massive engines roared into life again, and his men staggered backwards as she powered forward. Two of his best and most trusted soldiers crouched on the foredeck as they prepared for the impact of the two boats. As they neared the bow of The Gaia, a roar erupted from Markus as he stood wide-eyed, trying to force the throttle even further.
A massive crunch shattered the silence, sending shards of wooden decking and fibreglass hull all over the deck of The Gaia, which gave way under the weight of the larger Marlin as it rode up the side of the smaller yacht and lifted up into the air. Markus was thrown forward over the small windscreen, landing on his back on the foredeck, the wind knocked out of him. Two of his men yelled as they were thrown over the silver metal railing down onto the deck of The Gaia. Smithy and Killey attacked first as the two stunned men lay on the deck in shock.
Smithy dragged the first man to his feet and heaved him overboard, only to turn and see the second soldier raise his machine gun. He kicked the man in the chest just in time, sending him careering backwards against the other railing. Jumping across to him, he drove his knife into the startled man’s stomach, lifting and pushing him overboard, but not before ripping the machine gun from his flailing hands. He jumped up, grabbed the stranded boat’s railing and swung himself up, slipping his body under the cable railing. Squatting on the raised deck, he shot three enemy soldiers who were preparing to jump down to the yacht beneath them.