by Serena James
The plane turned onto the runway and immediately started racing along its length without pause before taking off at a steep angle. It was a sunny evening so they were spared the bumpy turbulence of passing through any clouds. Rebecca wiped her eyes feeling anger take hold of her. She wanted to talk to Michael. Force him to confess, find out why he’d done it. Why would he betray her? She felt sick waiting for the plane to climb and level off so she could get out of her seat. Her hands covered the ends of the arms of the seat and gripped them tightly.
An announcement put paid to her confrontation with her brother. The captain wanted everyone to stay in their seats with their seatbelts fastened until they cleared North Bundhara and were safely into Thai airspace. That would be at least an hour. They had to travel the long way round because of the invasion.
Rebecca understood the pilot’s concern but she knew they would be safe. No one was going to shoot the plane down. She was needed alive. Someone wanted her other kidney. On that score she was placated but her anger began to burn. She wanted, no needed to talk to her brother. She gave an impatient sigh and smoothed her hands back and forth along the white leather arms of the chair.
Dominic leaned over to her. He spoke with controlled impatience that equalled her own feelings, “I understand you want to talk to him but you are going to have to rein in your frustration. Believe me I know how you feel.” He seemed to be studying her closely. He softened his voice, “How did you know he was involved? I only know part of this story, how about you fill me in now? Hey, stop looking at him, don’t let him wind you up.”
She felt Dominic’s fingers on the side of her face, gently turning her head away from Michael. He smiled at her and stroked his thumb across the base of her cheek. She felt her anger soften a little with his touch. “I hear you have your memory back. Why don’t you prove it to me. Tell me who I am and what you know about me. Then I want you to tell me what the hell happened to you out there so I know exactly whose butt to kick.” She couldn’t help but give him the beginnings of a smile.
She said, “Your name is Dominic Andrew Kane. You turned forty on the 6th January. You were born in North London unexpectedly at your parents’ home in 1969. When you were ten, your parents moved out to Hertfordshire. Your father was sick of working in the city. He wanted to start his own business. I forget what in?”
“Property Development. Not bad. Go on.”
“Anyway he was very successful at it. You went to the local private school Emsley Harleton in Berkhamsted. Then you went to Durham University and did a degree in engineering. Your father died before you finished university. You joined the Royal Marines at twenty-two and fast tracked your way through it. You didn’t get on with your stepfather and probably still don’t. You didn’t like the way he has controlled your mother, her inheritance and your sister – or the way he encouraged your mother to put your sister in hospital. You were horrified at the place they had put her in and you took over your sister’s care...” She lowered her voice to a whisper, “How am I doing?”
She watched him smile, “Brilliant.” He looked relieved, happy for a moment. She couldn’t help but reach out and touch his face. He was safe. All of those days, weeks, spent worrying that Connor was going to kill him with or without Somwan’s consent had terrified her. Connor had taunted her, used it to make her capitulate to his every whim. But preserving Dominic’s life at the discomfort of her own had been more than worth it.
She smoothed her palm over his exaggerated stubble. It looked good on him. She quite liked him a little rough around the edges. It reminded her of the way he’d looked after a long mission in Afghanistan. He closed his eyes and leaned into her touch. She whispered to him, “I missed you.”
He slowly opened his eyes. He looked surprised and asked, “Are you still angry with me?”
She went to remove her hand but he caught it and kissed the middle of her palm. He trapped it there between his fingers and studied it, clearly waiting for her response. She guessed it was a way of avoiding her eyes. He was obviously afraid of her answer.
“I was for a very long time. I was ill and it was a fight to keep going especially when I knew AHG were trying to get rid of me. Nobody would give me work when I left. I blamed you for that. Then Michael made me go and see someone to talk it all out, a counsellor. She told me that my illness had actually stemmed from the murder of my parents.”
“Yes, Anna Harker told me what happened.”
“What happened to me with you in Afghanistan brought it to the front of my mind and it all came to a head.”
She lightened the heavy tone in her voice, disturbed by its weight. He was looking at her gravely. His eyes were full of pained guilt. He looked tired with it, as though he had been carrying it around with him for a long time. “She... indicated, shall we say... that you had acted in my best interests and possibly saved me from a full breakdown. Although she agreed with me that you shouldn’t have gone behind my back and could have done it a better way.”
He sighed. “I didn’t know what to do. I was desperate. I was worried for you. I did what I thought was right and I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again.”
She bent her head avoiding the direct way he looked at her. “I know you wouldn’t.” He stroked the back of her hand. There was a pause.
His voice bore a hint of reserve when he spoke again, “So where does that leave us?” He was still stroking her hand. She couldn’t meet his eyes but his other hand reached up and caught her chin, gently making her turn to him.
She said, “I thought you realised how I felt back in the hospital.”
He whispered, “I just want to hear you say it?”
“Say what? That you’re forgiven? Yes Dominic, you were forgiven quite a while ago.”
“Why didn’t you come and tell me?”
“I suppose I was afraid of how you would react. It had been a long time. I had ignored all of your calls, your demands to see me. I’d avoided you. I’d shut you out of my life just as I shut everybody out, even my brother. I didn’t know... Then Connor came along and told me about you and Patricia. I was hurt and angry with myself. I’d let you go.”
He smiled and brushed her lips with his own. “I only went back with Patricia because I suppose I was trying to substitute your loss. She wanted t...o settle down and have children. I just wanted you but I couldn’t have you.” He gave a small laugh. He raised his eyes humorously. “I’m getting older. I’ve been feeling that push to settle for a while now myself. I wanted it to be with you. Patricia found the photograph in my wallet. The one they showed on the television in the hospital, where we were laughing. You looked so beautiful on it. I was happy then.”
“What happened with Patricia?”
“There was no row this time. We used to row every day. She was never happy with me. We were so different as were our interests. She was a wannabe socialite with friends that were so up their own ar... well we didn’t see eye to eye. She’d been attracted to my money and I’d been attracted to her contacts, her artificial beauty and false warm nature. It was a reconciliation made in hell. I suppose going back with Patricia was a way of punishing myself for what I did to you. Maybe she was punishing herself for some reason.”
“She just left?”
“Yes, pretty much. She said it was never going to work. We both knew that but for some reason we were still hanging on to each other out of fear of being alone. She said that I was still in love with you and I needed to go out and get you back. She left and I haven’t seen or heard from her since. But I found out later that she is enjoying herself dating some younger man! That was great for my ego!”
He held her hand and stroked the hair that tumbled from her face. He was so close to her now. She felt the tension in her shoulders relax. It was her turn to search his eyes. He didn’t turn away. He seemed amused.
“I wanted to come and see you, somehow get you to talk to me but Connor told me that he had seen you with another man. He said he’d talked to you and you wer
e in a steady relationship. I didn’t know what to do. I immersed myself in my work and tried to forget you. But that was never going to happen.”
Rebecca looked over at Connor tied up in his seat, tape still over his bruised mouth. He glared back.
She told Dominic, “Connor has a lot to answer for.”
“Yes he does and so do I. If I had just come and talked to you anyway I could have stopped what he was doing to you.”
She shook her head at him.
“You can’t blame yourself. And I am glad you didn’t. He would have killed you.”
“I will always blame myself for what happened to you. You suffered to protect me. When the news of your disappearance was released I got my team together. They were all eager to help, especially Connor. I was going out there to find you. But I was stopped, informed by one of my stepfather’s friends in Whitehall that there was already a team out there looking for you. Some team they were! I was ill waiting for news. I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t eat. One night I got so drunk, I slept on the floor where I passed out all night. At least for a while I got some peace. Every time I did sleep I dreamt about you. My imagination made up all kinds of horrors... It wasn’t wrong was it?”
Rebecca closed her eyes as he shortened the gap between them and rested his head against her forehead.
“When you were found I heard that Anna Harker was looking for security for you. I made sure she chose my company. I even rang my stepfather and asked him to put forward my name as a suggestion. Anna is one of his business acquaintances. And here we are. I am not going to be parted from you even if you beg me for your freedom.”
He brushed her lips again. She whispered. “I don’t want it. I just want you. I love you.”
She felt him smile against her lips. “Good.” He paused and took a breath. “When this is all over, I want you and I to... oh hell.” He rested his head against her forehead once more. He closed his eyes for a second and laughed. His hand swept around to the back of her head and held it steady. He opened his eyes and looked at her.
“Rebecca, I can’t get down on one knee and this is not the way I envisaged it but if I don’t ask you now I’ll go mad. I thought I’d lost you when Connor told me... I’m sorry. Rebecca, please put me out of my misery and marry me?”
She sat up startled and grimaced with the sudden movement. He caught her arms. She said, “What? You’re proposing now? In the middle of all of this chaos?”
He looked embarrassed as everyone turned to him. She was sure she saw a flash of embarrassment cross his face. She lowered her voice quickly and leaned in towards him so no one could hear their conversation.
She teased him. “Are you sure you aren’t just making do?”
He gave her a look of warning. “Rebecca...”
She told him seriously, suddenly deflated from her excitement, “You might not want me when I tell you what happened to me?”
He raised her hands to his mouth and kissed each one of them in turn. He spoke softly, “Nothing is going to ever stop me wanting you.”
“How about this then? Quayle told me my injuries from my torture were extensive. There’s every chance I won’t be able to have children.”
He looked at her sternly. Her heart stopped. He cupped her face in his hands. “Rebecca, I love you. I don’t care what shape or state you come in. I want you. Nothing else matters. If we want children then we will adopt them. Don’t reject me because of that.”
“No, I wouldn’t. I just want you to have a choice and know what you are getting in to.”
He was impatient, “Rebecca, answer me.”
“Yes, yes I will.” It was the first bit of pleasure she’d experienced in a long time. She felt warm inside when he kissed her. He was beaming. He held her hand.
She said, “Did you come half way across the world to ask me?”
“Damn right I did.”
She glanced back at her brother wanting to tell him the news. Her smile faded quickly as reality bit harshly. She turned back. Michael still had his head in his hands. Her smile faded. She felt Dominic squeeze her hand gently. She looked up. He was serious again.
He told her, “We can talk more later. I think it’s time you told me your story from the top and just where Michael fits in to it.”
She nodded.
Chapter Nineteen
She told Dominic of how Claire Wilby had approached her about the two Bundenese patients who had died and their organs had then gone missing. Rebecca had spoken to the parents and families of the young men who had initially made a complaint. They said that they had been visited by men in white masks. They were very afraid and wouldn’t talk to her. They had dropped the complaint. The men in white masks had threatened to take them from their beds and take organs from their other children just like they did in South Bundhara.
No one at the hospital had been willing to talk or help. Her investigation had grown cold and she had been forced to put it on hold when Anna Harker offered her a job at ATM. Somwan had started to send her e-mails not long after she joined ATM. All of the e-mails promised her information about the story she was following but she had to come to South Bundhara. Rebecca had demanded more details but that had not been forthcoming. The e-mails started to get threatening when she refused and she found herself followed home a couple of times.
Claire then told her about Michael being investigated for fraud. They was also a rumour that he was involved in harvesting a heart from a disabled patient but nothing had been substantiated at this point, although a complaint had been made by the family. Claire wanted her to start looking into the matter again. She loved Michael and thought he was being framed. He wouldn’t tell Rebecca because she’d been ill and he didn’t want her to have any more stress to deal with.
Michael could well have been guilty of the fraud. He’d been gambling again and she’d had to bail him out on more than one occasion. Some of the people he owed money to were nasty characters. One of them had beaten him up once. He’d confided in Rebecca that he was scared and would do anything to pay the man off. They had even threatened to come after her. She had believed her brother capable of taking money but not of killing someone.
She picked up her story again on the quiet and the e-mails from Somwan became more threatening. A man came to visit her. He showed her pictures of Dominic and told her how much he knew of his routine and his sister. If she didn’t do as they asked he would be killed and they would make sure Kate was next to have her organs taken.
She agreed to go and started to make secret preparations for her visit to South Bundhara. She roped Jed in to it and he was only too eager. Then Connor arrived. He was to keep her in line and make sure she did go to South Bundhara, whatever the risk, when Somwan ordered the date and time of their meeting. Connor took advantage of the whole situation. Allbright had approached her in secret. He told her that MI5 knew about her correspondence with Somwan. He wanted her to go ahead with her trip. He had a message for her to carry to Somwan. Rebecca told Allbright about Connor but he offered no help. He coldly told her to put her own comfort aside and do as she was told. He needed her to get a favourable reply from Somwan.
Then Boyle found out something was going on with Michael and told her that he had been suspended. There was going to be an investigation by the hospital and the BMA. This was what he’d told her at the ATM party. He was going to get evidence to prove Michael was guilty and bring her down along with her brother.
She told Dominic about the interview with Doctor Somwan.
* * * * *
Doctor Tasanee Somwan was a surgeon with an impressive work record in the field of cardio thoracic surgery. She had been credited with international respect after developing experimental techniques in open-heart surgery and heart transplantation. But Somwan loved her country more than her work.
She was passionate about the people of South Bundhara, especially the poor. She had always spoken out against the cruel regime of the military government but her activism had seen her a
rrested, tortured and threatened. Now the government army was trying to eliminate her along with the rest of the opposition.
Rebecca tried questioning her about her involvement with the Bundenese Liberation Army. Were they planning any attacks in London or anywhere else in the world. She refused to answer any questions that weren’t to her liking. Despite Rebecca and Jed’s protestations, the interview became a political statement.
“There is something else I must talk of that is more important than my involvement with The Bundenese Liberation Army.” Somwan’s tone had turned grave and almost regal. “There is a new oppression facing our people. One that has spread out into the western world and we must unite our forces to fight it. We must put aside our petty arguments and differences and call a truce. This new enemy we must fight is far worse than any other we have known and is creeping through the back door.”
Rebecca stared at Somwan. She was in her middle to late forties. Small and thin. She had long black curly hair that hung in abundance around her shoulders and to Rebecca seemed over the top in its appearance. She wore a tee shirt and loose trousers with flip-flops and was devoid of any make-up. Rebecca got the impression that she was a no nonsense women who would not have wasted her time with such trivialities. Her tired features appeared lifeless and worn.
Somwan’s hazel eyes were weary but there was a spark of ferocious anger that kept piercing through them. They were the only things about her that seemed alive. Her gaze unnerved Rebecca every time she looked directly at the woman. It gave Somwan an air of ferocity that lent credence to all of the atrocities and bombings she had committed in the name of South Bundhara’s freedom.
Rebecca asked her to continue, nervously noting the boy Niran standing guard in the corner aiming his machine gun in their general direction – an effective deterrent against any interruptions or questioning while Somwan talked. Rebecca decided she would put a voice over on the interview later explaining the threat she and Jed faced – an explanation for the absence of her usual tough questioning.
