As their plane taxied to a stop, he and his men discussed what needed to be done. One man changed into maintenance overalls as they refined their plan. To cover their tracks properly, they needed at least an hour with the plane to ensure that the ‘accident’ looked like an accident. With the US air crew all over it, they had no choice but to delay the take off long enough for the crew to take a break and leave the airfield.
They disembarked and as his ‘maintenance man’ went to arrange a lengthy delay, Jones made a call.
“That was quick,” answered Beaumont.
“It’s not done yet, there appears to have been a change of plan. The plane was being readied for take off as we landed.”
“But he’s not due to leave for hours yet,” said Beaumont looking at his laptop. He pulled up General Powers’ itinerary and noted that no changes had been made. He was still scheduled to leave at 3.00 p.m. South African time, over 9 hours later.
“Are you sure?” he asked
“Definitely. That plane was going to leave within the next hour. He must have finished early.”
“Maybe,” but Beaumont didn’t like it, the whereabouts of General Powers was a national security issue. Any change to his itinerary should be communicated to the White House.
General Powers had just got into his car for the short trip to the airport when his aide tapped him on the shoulder.
“General Powers, your pilot has just called. There’s a problem with the aircraft, I’m sorry Sir.”
“No! Please, not today! I’m going to see my son,” he replied.
“I know Sir but it’s not good, he says it’s going to be quite a few hours.”
“He’s positive?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Any other way we can get to the island?” he asked hopefully.
“I looked into it Sir but we have no other aircraft nearby, certainly not close enough to be cost effective.”
His aide felt awkward about subtly reminding him that the trip to see his son was not within his government duty and therefore not strictly allowed. It was only through the loyalty and respect that his flight crew and staff had for him that the ‘slight’ detour on the way home was at all feasible
“OK, pass me the phone and I’ll call Zach.”
Jones’ maintenance man slipped under the aircraft unnoticed and was able to cause enough damage to the undercarriage to ensure a specialist would be required to fix it. He then got up, walked nonchalantly past the plane and as he did so, he stopped and stared at the wheels. Before long, two members of the USAF crew came to see what he was looking at. They spotted the tell tale oil drops leaking from the undercarriage.
A closer inspection resulted in the plane being rolled back into the hangar where work to repair the burst hydraulic system would begin. One of the technicians swore blind that he had checked it thoroughly and that it had been fine. A simple ‘does it look fine to you now?’ response silenced him. The hydraulic specialist confirmed that it would be a five hour job. The USAF pilot stood his crew down and they all went to get some rest, it was going to be a very long day.
Jones and his men, dressed as maintenance staff, joined the hydraulic specialist and got to work.
Chapter 23
Donald had not slept all night, he could not believe what had happened.
On arrival at the Guinean airport, they were met by over 100 heavily armed troops. He, Rachel and Saki were arrested and taken into custody. They were each listed as a Director of Alba International and, as such, were charged with the corporate manslaughter of over 2,500 Guineans. Donald had protested that Rachel and Saki’s directorships were nominal and non-executive but his protests were ignored and they were taken to the only high security prison in Guinea. The prison housed some of the hardest and toughest criminals in Africa.
Donald had to restrain Saki who wanted to react to one of the guards who had pushed Rachel much harder than was necessary. They were surrounded by guards with guns, even Saki could not get them out of this one.
They were taken to a special unit within the prison. Donald and Saki were put in one cell while Rachel was in the cell next to them on her own.
Just before they had landed, Donald had managed to phone his lawyer who wasted no time in making calls to clear up the enormous misunderstanding. However, in less than ten minutes, he discovered that his efforts were futile. He got the same response from everywhere. A dossier had been delivered, within the hour, to each of the major heads of state, detailing the evidence which implicated Alba International and Donald Kennedy in the atrocities committed against the Guinean people. The Guineans had declared their intention to use all means necessary to bring the fugitive to justice.
The lawyer had called Donald back and broken the news, explaining that a copy of the dossier was being sent to him from the UK Prime Minister and as soon as he had it, he would call him back. Donald knew it would be too late. They landed five minutes later and were arrested five minutes after that.
They were therefore still in the dark about the evidence which implicated them and Alba in an explosion in the middle of nowhere in a tiny town which until 48 hours earlier, they had never heard of.
“We should have phoned the kids,” said Saki annoyed at himself.
Donald snapped out of his daze.
“I know, they’re going to find out from the media. It’s my fault, I didn’t think for a second they would lock us up.”
“No, you were right, phoning them in the middle of the night to tell them we were being forced to land by two fighter jets whose country believes we killed 2,500 people was probably not the right option. If I had strongly disagreed, I would have phoned Lela anyway,” replied Saki.
Before Donald could say anymore, they heard the scrape of a key being inserted into the lock of their door. The heavy steel door swung open and a huge prison guard in an ill-fitting uniform, bordering on rags, grinned wildly at them. He was a very different breed from the professional soldiers who had arrested them the previous evening.
“Exercise time,” he boomed.
“We’re fine thanks, we’ll just stay here if you don’t mind,” said Saki.
Two other guards stepped forward, slapping truncheons into their open palms, itching for an excuse to use them.
“It’s not optional, move!” shouted the huge guard.
As they stepped out of their cell, they were met by Rachel who was accompanied by their huge guard’s uglier and even smellier brother. They were escorted down a number of staircases and shown through a gate which slammed shut behind them. They stood alone in a large and empty courtyard. The guards locked the gate and disappeared. The prison was filthy and ill-maintained. Its walls were crumbling and the courtyard’s grass was overgrown. Pipes were burst and spewed brown liquid into one corner of the courtyard, the pungent smell suggesting the liquid was an out-pipe, not an in-pipe.
Rachel hugged Donald. “What’s going to happen now?” she asked.
“I don’t know. I think they’re just trying to scare us.”
“Well it’s working,” she replied.
“They haven’t even started yet,” said Saki pointing to a large set of gates.
“Look, the rest of the prisoners are coming our way.”
The gates opened and the courtyard filled with prisoners in seconds. The stench of sweat and human filth made them choke as it contaminated every cubic inch of air. The noise too was intense as the buzz in the courtyard focussed on the new prisoners. In particular, the very attractive white woman. It had been a very long time since these men had seen a woman.
Saki stepped in front of Donald and Rachel and was doing his best to shield them from what must have been 200 prisoners. They stayed in the corner of the courtyard nearest the gate, in the vain hope that the error would soon come to light and the gate would open to release them. However, the gate remained firmly shut and no guards were visible anywhere, even the watchtowers were empty.
Saki watched as the prisoners began to form
a semi-circle around them. They advanced until the first line of prisoners was about ten metres away and parted to reveal a nucleus of prisoners who were protecting a relatively well dressed prisoner who was obviously the boss.
“Good morning,” he said.
“Good morning,” replied Saki.
“I see we have a woman in our prison, a gift from God himself perhaps.”
“She most certainly is but not for any of you.”
Saki could see where this was going and he didn’t like the odds. If only he had a weapon, he would stand a better chance. As he spoke, he scanned the crowd and spotted exactly what he needed, one of the boss’s men had a baton, perfect.
“I think that’s for me to decide, you’re in my place now,” said the man gesturing to the courtyard.
Saki calculated his options. Offense would take them by surprise and give him more of an edge.
“Did nobody tell you, you just got demoted?” asked a very serious Saki. His eyes burned into the prisoner’s eyes and Saki could sense fear. This prisoner was not used to being challenged.
Saki moved and covered the distance between himself and the boss before his goons could protect him. He landed his foot squarely on his stomach, not to injure him but to gain momentum as he spun off the boss’s stomach and laid out five of his henchmen with one flying kick. He landed on one foot and, as he landed, threw the other one into another henchman with such a force that he was sent flying into the crowd and took another eight prisoners down with him. The henchman who had the baton was tumbling towards the floor as was his baton which Saki caught in one hand whilst dispatching the rest of the henchmen with two flicks of the wrist.
Saki stopped moving and remained poised ready to strike again. He had stopped before the last of the henchmen had hit the ground such was his speed.
When the boss prisoner looked up from his kick to the stomach, he thought he was seeing things. His men lay all around him. Those who could were groaning and those who couldn’t were seriously concussed.
Saki had been merciless. Each of his strikes had been calculated to inflict a great deal of damage. None of the boss’ henchmen would be fit for anything other than hospital for the following few weeks. All had received fractures to their limbs, jaws or skulls. The only thing which could protect Donald and Rachel was a show of overwhelming force and Saki had delivered.
The remaining prisoners soon dispersed. They were all violent men but none had ever witnessed such a display of speed and power. The small oriental man was not to be messed with. The boss offered his apologies and slunk into the background. Without his henchmen, he was as good as dead, a lot of prisoners had scores to settle with him.
“Very impressive,” said Donald.
“Thank you, Saki,” whispered Rachel who was still shaking.
Chapter 24
Tom did not sleep well, the news story the previous night had him very worried. He gave up trying to sleep as the clock hit 7.00 a.m.. He got up and heard Lela moving around next door. She was practising her martial arts, as she did every single day. He didn’t how she could be bothered. By the time he was showered and dressed, she had stopped moving around. As he had not eaten the previous day, he wanted to go for breakfast and knocked on Lela’s door to see if she would join him.
“I’m just in the shower, who is it?” she shouted.
“It’s me, Tom, do you want to go for breakfast?”
“Yeah, just give me two minutes,” she replied.
Exactly two minutes later, she appeared at the door dressed and ready.
“That was quick.”
“Well, I don’t hang around, like some,” she teased.
As they made their way downstairs, a forlorn looking Zach was coming up the stairs.
“Hey Zach, you coming for breakfast?” asked Tom.
“S’pose so,” was the half hearted response, his feet dragging his body almost to a stop with each step.
“What’s wrong Zach, you were so happy last night?” asked Lela. Tom hadn’t even noticed Zach was upset, which was typical when he was hungry, nothing else mattered.
“My dad just called, there’s a fault on his plane and it’s going to take hours to fix. By the time he gets here, he’d have to go back, so he’s not coming.”
“Why doesn’t he just get another plane?” asked Tom.
“There aren’t any he can use, he’s stuck there.”
“Where’s there?”
“Durban.”
Tom pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialled a number.
“Hi… it’s me…are you up? Excellent…can you meet us at the hangar…we’re going to Durban.” Said Tom putting his mobile back in his pocket.
“You’re joking right?” said Zach.
“Not at all, I was wondering what we were going to do today, a trip to Durban sounds like the perfect solution, we’ll be there in…” Tom pulled a small palm pc from its belt holder and punched in the details, “…about 90 minutes. Let’s go, Kisho will meet us at the plane.” He put away the palm pc with its GeoviewX X software which could calculate the distance and flight time between any two points in the world. Tom loved it.
Breakfast was forgotten, they had a plane to catch. Zach, with a renewed vigour, led the way back down the stairs, taking two steps at a time. Lela and Tom struggled to keep up, eventually catching up with him in the foyer where he had come to a complete stop.
“What’s wrong?” asked Tom but Zach did not need to answer. In front of their block stood Yuri and his gang. They’re keen, thought Tom, it was only 7.30 a.m.
“Hi guys,” said Tom. “We’d love to stay and chat but I’m afraid we’ve got a plane to catch.”
The cordial approach was worth a try although the look on Yuri’s face suggested not. The humiliation of the previous day had been too much for Yuri. He was not going to be happy with anything less than a fight.
Zach was big for his age and a similar build to his father, tall, broad and very fit. He was an army child and more than capable of looking after himself. He manoeuvred Lela behind him, shielding her from the gang. Zach had not witnessed Lela’s skills first hand and although he had heard rumours about them, he assumed they were greatly exaggerated.
“Come on guys, whatever’s wrong, I’m sure we can just talk about it like adults,” said Zach
As he tried to reason with them, Chen, Ahmad, Oleg and Tristan came bounding down the stairs. Tristan had seen the gang arrive and had tried to warn Tom and Lela. Finding their rooms empty, he had woken up the others.
“Ah, my little brother Oleg, I’ve missed you, you know. I had to go and buy a punch bag but it’s just not the same,” laughed Yuri, ignoring Zach.
“I’m not your brother any more, thank God,” replied Oleg shaking. He had not seen Yuri since the previous year.
“Guys, Chen and I can handle these guys if you want to get going,” whispered Lela to her friends.
“Where are we going?” asked Ahmad.
“What do you mean where are we going, we’re staying right here,” replied Zach adamantly. “We can’t leave Chen and Lela to these guys,” he reasoned
“You’re right. Chen, do you want to come with us?” said Tom.
“No thanks, I think this’ll be more fun but thanks for the offer,” replied Chen who was very excited. Lela had mentioned that they might get some decent practice in soon.
“Are you guys mad? There are 14 of them, 7–1 are not good odds,” said Zach exasperated. He could not understand why his friends were not sharing his concern.
“I know,” replied Tom. “They should have brought a lot more!”
Yuri’s gang consisted of 14 boys, 8 Russian, 3 Japanese, 1 Korean and 2 Indonesian, aged between 16–18. The Russians were all older and larger than their Asian counterparts but the Asian boys stepped forward first, all assuming martial art stances. From these, Lela could identify their specialisms. Two of the Japanese took a Karate stance, while the other assumed an Aikido stance. The Korean took the cl
assic Taekwondo stance while the Indonesians assumed the Kuntao stance, a method Lela was very familiar with. Many islanders near Penaraja practised it.
“Not so smart now, are you?” said Yuri, smiling at Lela.
Lela smiled while Tom grabbed Zach and pulled him back towards the door of their block, leaving Lela and Chen exposed to the gang. Zach protested but Ahmad, Oleg and Tristan helped Tom pull him back into the building.
“Lela, be good,” shouted Tom before the door closed.
“What the hell are we doing? We can’t leave them out there,” said Zach.
“We’re going out the back way to get to the airfield. Zach, they’ll be fine. If you want to worry about anybody worry about Yuri. I think Lela may lose her temper with him. That wouldn’t be good.”
“You guys are insane,” replied Zach.
“The insane ones are those idiots in that gang. They’ve got no idea who they’re messing with. I’ve seen Lela in action. They don’t stand a chance,” said Ahmad.
Zach gave in and followed the guys out of the back door. They climbed into the school’s golf carts, ready to make their way to the airfield.
“It appears your friends don’t think you’re worth helping,” said Yuri, enjoying the moment.
“Maybe they don’t think I need the help,” said Lela evenly, adding “Chen, would you mind if I deal with these guys myself?”
“Not at all, whatever,” he said as he relaxed against the wall of the building.
Yuri’s smile began to falter. He knew Lela was very good, he had witnessed her in action the previous year. However this time, he had six martial arts experts in his gang. All trained from a young age, they had all won prizes in their respective countries and were all older than her. Why was she not phased?
It took him less than ten seconds to find out.
His guys responded to her step forward, moving forward to take her on. The first guy threw a punch which she deflected into a second punch which another guy had thrown at her. The gang were not playing around. The force in each of the punches was so strong that Lela’s deflection resulted in a gut wrenching crunch as an Indonesian fist collided with a Japanese one. When a high kick was launched at her by the Korean, she waited until exactly the right moment before twisting her body and again deflecting the trajectory of the attack. The force of the assault was again massive, resulting in the Korean smashing into the wall of the building and crumpling in a heap to the ground. The next two ran and launched simultaneous assaults. Schoolboy error, thought Lela, as she simply stepped out of the way and allowed the two boys to crash into each other, resulting in a tangled heap of broken bones. The only gang member who had not moved was the Japanese aikido expert. He had watched his less experienced friends go down with little effort from Lela. In fact, she had not thrown a single punch and five of his friends were in agony. He knew that only a true master was capable of what Lela had just done. He walked towards her and bowed deeply, offering his appreciation and recognition. He knew he was no match for her and did the honourable thing. He helped his friends up and they left, leaving Yuri and his gang to her mercy.
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