'ASSASSIN 4 - FIRST SON' (Assassin Series)

by Bryan Murray

  Having driven through the outskirts of the City of L’Aquila on their way out to the ski resort, they realized that they were about ninety miles away from where the guard had told them the boys were being held.

  Jake also realized that he needed to report back to the President to bring him and the Vice-President up to speed on the current situation, having decided that if he and his colleagues were going to make a move to rescue the boys, it would have to be under the cover of darkness, since the City Center would be busy during the day. With more snow forecast when Sarah checked the weather, hopefully, that would help to shroud the rescue attempt later that night.

  They decided to stay in the cabin and keep a low profile until later and Sarah had managed to stop the bleeding and changed the dressing on Steve’s wound once more. They found some food in the cabin and they also found the remains of a couple of bottles of wine left behind by the kidnappers. Since when did Muslims drink wine? Sarah mused.

  CHAPTER 16

  In the early hours of the morning of what was now Day Four, Maria was already in the White House and taking the early morning briefing in view of the fact that the President had a heavy cold and he was trying to save his energy by staying in bed and not infecting those around him.

  She felt very comfortable handling the daily problems and advising what should be done and in recent weeks the President had relied heavily on her judgement in handling the many daily problems that came across their respective desks.

  When Jake called, Maria immediately took the call in the privacy of her office where the conversation would not be overheard.

  “Good morning, Mr. Harrigan.” she answered when Jake came on the line.

  “Good morning, Madame Vice-President,” he replied. “Is the President with you?”

  “I’m afraid he’s got a touch of the flu and I’m holding the fort as we speak, but I will brief him on this conversation. So, tell me, what is happening?”

  Jake chose his words carefully. “Well, ma’am, the good news is that the boys are still alive, we’ve actually seen them.”

  Maria put her hand to her chest in relief. “Thank God! What happened?”

  “We tracked them to a cabin where the terrorists were holding them, but they managed to get away with their superior firepower and Steve Caplan was wounded.”

  “Oh, my God! Is he all right?” Maria asked.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Jake replied. “And the boys were unhurt in the incident.”

  Maria was still very anxious. “So, what will you do now, Mr. Harrigan?”

  “Well, we shot two guards in the fire fight that we assumed were dead and so did the Arabs when they left them behind, but fortunately for us, one was still alive and after a little persuasion he told us where the boys had been taken.

  Maria was a little more enthused. “That’s wonderful!”

  Jake was impressed with the Vice-President’s grasp of the situation. She then gave Jake some additional information. “Oh, by the way, we’ve had another e-mail from Al-Qaeda, Mr. Harrigan.”

  Jake was surprised. “What did it say, ma’am?”

  “They said that time was running out and that there had been no conclusive indications that we were planning to move al-Midari back from Cuba to US soil.”

  “What did you tell them, ma’am?” Jake asked.

  “The President told them we were still working on the paperwork.”

  “And did they buy it?”

  “It appeared so, at least for the time being. But I’m worried, this is Day Four and we still don’t have the boys back.”

  Jake tried to comfort her. “Well, it’s snowing at the moment and they are about ninety miles away in another city closer to Rome, so we’re hoping to hit them by surprise later tonight when the city is quieter.”

  Maria was looking more hopeful by the second. “That’s promising news, Mr. Harrigan, I’ll let the President know immediately. Please keep us posted. We await your news with great interest. Goodbye.”

  “Ma’am.” Jake put the phone down and looked across at Sarah and Steve who had been listening to his end of the conversation. He gave them a quick update. “That was the VP, the President has the flu and they are all holding their breath until our next call. Al-Qaeda have also been on, getting a bit antsy that their leader is still in custody”

  Sarah sighed. “Doesn’t surprise me!”

  * * *

  Don Lorenzo was working in his office at the villa early that evening when he received a call from Genaro. He brought him up to speed on what had happened at the cabin. Strangely, Lorenzo was not too upset.

  “Are the boys still safe?” he asked.

  “Yes, Padron,” Genaro replied. “I also lost two of my best men, Bruno and Vittorio!” he added.

  Lorenzo was most sympathetic. “I am sorry to hear that, Genaro. I will make arrangements to take care of their families. Where are the bodies?”

  “They are still at the cabin where we left the attackers behind after shooting out their tires before heading to the safe house in L’Aquila where we are now.”

  Lorenzo was thinking quickly. “I will send in a team to get them and kill the intruders if they are still there.” he could sense that Genaro was still concerned when he asked the Godfather. “What do we do now, Don Lorenzo?”

  “Stay under cover in L’Aquila, Genaro until the Americans confirm that they are ready to transfer the terrorist leader out of Cuba. We know they have already taken him out of the Detention Camp. Is that clear?”

  “Yes, sir,” Genaro replied. “I will keep in touch.”

  “Excellent, call me later tonight to confirm that everything is still under control.”

  When Lorenzo put the phone down, he sat back reviewing the progress to date of his master plan. The kidnapping had worked with the exception of the extra hostage that he had not planned for and he had tidied up all the loose ends connecting the events to himself. The two girls were dead and fortunately so was the snowplough driver. The Americans had sent in a covert team to try and rescue the boys as he had expected and with the exception of the loss of his two men, he was still in control of the situation and he already had the five million in the bank from Al-Qaeda.

  Shortly afterwards, Lorenzo received a further phone call and the caller was using a voice disguising mechanism on the line, advised him that his men needed to take great care when handling the Americans, adding that their leader was an ex-CIA assassin named Jake Harrigan and that he would not hesitate to kill anybody who got in his way to try and stop him from achieving his objectives.

  Lorenzo thanked the caller before clicking off and placing a call to the Al-Qaeda General to bring him up to speed on how the project was progressing, telling him to keep watching Guantanamo closely to make sure the Americans were definitely planning to move their leader and to let him know as soon as this was apparent.

  The General was clearly upset that nothing had happened yet and he told Lorenzo that the only movement they had detected was the transfer of al-Midari from the detention camp to the naval base. They weren’t sure if he had been put on a plane to the mainland.

  It was then that the General made the position of Al-Qaeda crystal clear to Lorenzo.

  “Remember, Don Lorenzo,” he began. “You have used the name of Al-Qaeda in your threat to the Americans and if for some reason they refuse to release our leader, we acknowledge that your plan was worth investing in and that the money we paid you is non-refundable. This also means that in the event the exchange does not take place, we expect you to execute the boys on video and send the video of the beheading direct to the US President! From that point onwards, we will take over and organize the world publicity and take the credit for our audacious breach of America’s inability to protect their key people!”

  Lorenzo licked his lips thinking fast. “I’m sure that it won’t come to this, General, but you can rest assured we will honor our part of the deal. We must stay closely in touch. Goodbye!”

  He rang off a
nd stared through the window, now wondering if it was all worth it, even if the rest of his plan worked.

  CHAPTER 17

  The Italian City of L’Aquila, the capital city of the Abruzzo Region and the Province of L’Aquila, was once one of the most beautiful cities in Central Italy.

  That is until April 6th 2009, when the medieval-walled city on a hill, in the wide valley of the Aterno River in the Apennine Mountains, suffered a devastating earthquake!

  Over three hundred people were killed, including fifty five students with an additional one thousand more being very seriously injured. Fifteen thousand buildings were very badly damaged and well over sixty thousand people were left homeless.

  The original maze of narrow streets, lined with incredibly beautiful Baroque and Renaissance buildings, were immediately reduced to a pile of rubble with the citizens left reeling in shock.

  As a result of this, it was reported that in a high profile lawsuit, seven key engineers had each been prosecuted for not providing the other citizens with sufficient warning to take evasive action to avoid the pending severity of the quake.

  The downtown area still looked like a disorganized building site where over twenty two thousand of the population were still lacking a proper home and there were still many people located in emergency residential centers.

  On the Corso Vittorio Emanuele, the once picturesque main street of the city, road works and building renovations were still in evidence everywhere.

  As in most communities, when civil law and government are affected, so also does crime begin to flourish and it was amongst this huge Phoenix, struggling to rise from the ashes that the Mafia had flourished.

  Genaro and his men had now settled into the damaged but still usable house on the street behind the ornate San Silvestro Church, a local landmark, but even the church was still shrouded in contractor’s scaffolding since the renovations were still progressing very slowly.

  Genaro was still somewhat confused, not being fully in the loop on the devious plans of Don Lorenzo, but he had been told that timing was critical and with the seven day deadline for the Americans to return the Al-Qaeda leader, it was all going to depend on the final decision of the American President. In the meantime, he was continuing with phase two of the plan as instructed.

  Although Lorenzo had been told that Jake Harrigan was leading the American rescue attempt, he had not told Genaro and the latter was relaxing a lot more peacefully than he would have if he had been given the right intel.

  It was nearing the end of Day Four of the ultimatum to the Americans, but neither Lorenzo nor Genaro had realized that one of their men had talked before he died, giving Jake the location of the house in L’Aquila.

  Consequently Genaro and his men were relaxing, both boys were under guard in the two chilly bedrooms, while their captors were enjoying a glass of wine and a pizza that had been picked up from one of the few pizza restaurants still standing in the ravaged city.

  CHAPTER 18

  In spite of the fast-paced life of running a huge crime cartel, Lorenzo still felt the occasional need for company of the opposite sex, not for any long term romantic relationship point of view, but simply to satisfy his carnal needs from time to time.

  With his wealth and power and the fact that he was still a very handsome man in his early forties, he was able to be very choosy when it came to potential sex partners and it was a definite stimulus to his typical Italian machoism that he was able to pick considerably younger women in the process.

  That evening had been no exception and in that particular instance, his sleeping companion had been both visiting to debrief with him on the events of his master plan so far as well as being there to enjoy an evening of carnal sex with the frustrated Don.

  After a breathtaking session of lovemaking, Lorenzo and his companion were relaxing over a glass of wine on the balcony, looking out at the golden sunset as it was slowly disappearing in a blend of burnt orange and gold.

  Gina looked absolutely ravishing in a new, white Dior creation that he had bought for her, just as gorgeous as she had looked on that very night when the boys were abducted back in the ski resort.

  Lorenzo had flown her in for the evening in his private chopper and she would be back at the ski resort by the first thing next morning so that the rest of the ski tour students wouldn’t even realize that she had been gone.

  He lit a cigar and looked across at the attractive woman opposite. “So, tell me what happened both before and after the boys were taken?” he inquired.

  Gina thought for a moment. “The Plan worked beautifully, Don Lorenzo, the two girls did their job of getting the two boys outside and it seemed like the kidnapping went to plan, but I was confused when both of them were taken!”

  Lorenzo nodded. “I know, that Genaro is an idiot, it was only the son of the President that we wanted. Who was the other boy?”

  It was Gina’s lack of knowledge in answering the Don’s question that would cause the Don untold problems over the next few hours.

  “I think he was a roommate of the target from the men’s dorm. They seemed to be good friends. I heard the target call him Andy and I wasn’t sure of his last name.”

  Lorenzo nodded resignedly. “Well, it’s done now and so we will stay with our game plan that now includes two people instead of one.”

  “So, what do you need me to do, Don Lorenzo?” she asked.

  “I need you to return to the other students at the ski resort, act as if nothing had happened, then return with them to the US and the University and continue to keep me informed on what is happening.”

  “Of course,” she replied looking at him sexily. “And for the rest of the evening?” she crossed and uncrossed her legs sexily just as Lorenzo’s phone rang again. He excused himself from Gina and went inside the bedroom to answer the phone. When he went on the line, it was the same disguised voice he had heard earlier.

  “Yes, what is it?” he inquired.

  “Listen carefully, Lorenzo,” the disguised voice began. “I’ve just heard that the President has no intention of releasing al-Midari and you need to make your plans accordingly!”

  Lorenzo was angry. “Damn them!” he fumed as the voice continued. “And you need to keep moving fast!”

  Lorenzo was even madder as he threw his glass of wine against the fireplace, realizing that the fifteen million dollars he was hoping to get from Al-Qaeda would not be forthcoming.

  It was then that the caller delivered the bombshell that left Lorenzo in deep shock, struggling to breathe, sucking in air. “And please take care that the boy with the President’s son does not come to any harm.”

  Lorenzo had more things on his mind than some kid. “Why is that?” he asked.

  “Because he’s your son! I’ll explain later!” the voice answered.

  “My son?” Lorenzo gasped.

  “Yes, so, what do you want to do?”

  Lorenzo was completely blown away, trying desperately to analyse the situation.

  “Stay with the plan and I will try and figure something out!” he struggled to say.

  “Very well.” The line went dead.

  Lorenzo put the phone down like a robot and stood there like a man turned to stone. What on earth was going on he asked himself, a whole kaleidoscope of things flowing through his brain.

  He was interrupted by Gina, standing there in the moonlight. “Are you all right, Don Lorenzo?” she asked quietly.

  He waved her out dismissively. “Please leave me, the guards will make sure you return safely.”

  “But...?” she began.

  “Out, I said!” he screamed and she left quickly before Lorenzo walked back out onto the balcony, putting both hands on the rail and staring vacantly out towards the silver ocean below. His mind was in turmoil. What was the caller talking about? He was the father of a young man he never knew existed until just minutes ago? One who he had kidnapped by mistake and who was now ironically entwined in a plan to kidnap the President’s s
on, and now, even worse, a plan that if it backfired would leave him honor bound to terminate his own flesh and blood alongside the First Son, in a horrendous, grizzly termination, if the demands of the Al-Qaeda General mentioned earlier were to be honored!

  * * *

  In her car as she drove along the Beltway alone, Maria clicked off the untraceable cell phone and removed the voice disguising attachment, her heart racing as it always did after speaking to her beloved Lorenzo.

  Driving along in the light snow, her mind was also racing, wondering how she could possibly resolve the current mixed-up plans of herself and the Don, now that her son, who she worshipped, was inextricably involved in the dangerous power game that was being played.

  CHAPTER 19

  In the cold, inhospitable house in L’Aquila, Genaro received a call from Lorenzo.

  “Yes, Padron?” he answered.

  “There is a change of plans, Genaro, so listen carefully.” Lorenzo instructed.

  “Of course, sir,” Genaro looked a little confused. “What would you like me to do?”

  Lorenzo explained. “The Americans will not be releasing the terrorist leader from Cuba and Al-Qaeda will be insisting that we execute the two boys as we threatened, but we do not want to enrage the Americans so that they start to dig deeper into who really did the kidnapping.”

  “I understand.” Genaro replied.

  “So, we must prepare to leave the house in L’Aquila since I have been advised a top American assassin is heading there as we speak to kill you and your men and rescue the boys!”

  Genaro swallowed nervously. “So, what do you want me to do, Padron?”

  “I want the treatment of the target completed, loose ends terminated and then leave the boys alone in the house where the Americans will find them and you and your men need to disappear from the scene without a trace. Is that very clear?” Lorenzo barked.