Lela looked across to a very lonely Yuri. The rest of his gang were slowly slinking away.
“Well?” said Lela to Yuri. His gang stopped slinking and started running.
“Sorry,” replied Yuri before running away as fast as he could.
Lela and Chen ran around the building and caught up with the rest of their friends just as they were about to leave.
“Well?” asked Tom.
“Wicked!” replied Chen.
“No!” was all Zach could say, observing that neither had broken into a sweat nor had a hair out of place.
Ten minutes later, Zach, Tom and Kisho were airborne and on their way to Durban.
Chapter 25
“Fantastic!” said the President of the USA. He had said little else since Beaumont had entered the office.
“Donald Kennedy, in an African prison, charged with over 2,500 deaths! It just doesn’t get any better!” he said. “You, young man are a star, well done.”
“Thank you Mr President,” replied Beaumont.
He had come into the office expecting peace and quiet. It was usually empty on a Sunday. However, the President had been alerted to his whereabouts and had arrived 20 seconds later, hardly able to hide his glee over the latest news.
“So what next? Trial and execution?” asked the President hopefully.
“No, it’s best you don’t know just now.”
“Fine, just tell me one thing, are you planning a tragic ending?”
“Very. But there is just one thing I wanted to tell you about,” said Beaumont.
Beaumont had had no intention of telling the President but as he was there, he thought he may as well prepare him.
“General Powers has become a liability, he’ll be retiring today.”
The President understood perfectly what he meant by ‘retiring’.
“That’s a big decision to have taken on your own. Do you not perhaps think you should have checked with me?” said the President, furious, his voice was just below a shout.
Beaumont was taken aback. General Powers was on the assassination list and his demise had already been approved.
“I’ve only moved the timescale,” retorted Beaumont.
The back of the President’s hand caught him just below the eye.
“Do not forget who you are dealing with, you insolent little…! I am the President of the United States of America. How dare you talk to me like that and how dare you decide to only move the timescale without checking with me first!”
“But…”
The President hit the other side of Beaumont’s face.
“Don’t interrupt me!!” he screamed, his face red with rage. He paused to regain his composure.
“Let me make something very clear. You work for ME! I know you have your sights on The Chairman but let me give you some very sound advice. He uses people until he doesn’t need them anymore. He’s the most ruthless son of a bitch alive and he doesn’t let anybody get close. Whatever he’s promised you, he’ll retract. Mark my words.”
Beaumont looked at the President but as he spoke, rather than listen to what was being said, he could only think that the President had become a liability himself. However, he knew better than anyone how to play the game so he assumed the most pathetic and pitiful demeanour and apologised unreservedly to the President for his impertinence.
“Now tell me why you think General Powers has to go and if I agree with you, I’ll sanction your actions.”
The President began to calm down. He was increasingly concerned about how arrogant Beaumont had become and was glad to have taken him down a peg or two.
Beaumont gave his explanation and received the President’s approval, not that he really needed it, thought Beaumont. If he had needed to go over the President’s head to The Chairman, he would have. As the President left, Beaumont touched the area under his eye. He had never been hit before. The man would pay for that and pay dearly. Not long now, thought Beaumont, not long now.
Chapter 26
Zach’s father was delighted when Zach called to tell him that he was on his way to pick him up. He was less delighted to hear that Tom was piloting the plane. Tom, he had argued, was only fourteen, had the world gone mad? His son was too young to drive a car but his friend of the same age could pick him up in a jet? What next?!
Just as they were due to leave, Zach phoned his father again to tell him that the arrangements had changed slightly. Durban International Airport was too busy to land at, so they were going to land at a small private airfield next to the beach in Durban. Zach had reassuringly added that although Tom thought the runway might be just a bit tight, it should be OK. With trepidation, General Powers, his aide and his secretary jumped in a taxi and headed off to the small airfield.
As they arrived, General Powers looked worried. The runway was short, very short. His aide was an Air Force general.
“What do you think?” General Powers asked him.
“Short,” was the blunt response as he looked down the runway.
“What type of jet are they in?” he asked.
“No idea, hold on,” said General Powers as he dialled the number Zach had given him.
“Hi Dad,” answered Zach, “we’ll be there in 5 minutes,” he added quickly.
“Zach what type of plane are you in?”
“A Gulfstream G…5…5…0,” he replied receiving hand signals from Tom.
“Hold on,” said General Powers turning to his aide, “it’s a Gulfstream G550?”
“Tell them to turn around, there’s no way we can take off from here,” he shouted.
“Zach?… Zach?…Zach? Are you there?” the phone had gone dead.
“Too late,” said the aide, pointing to the runway. The executive jet was touching down right at the start of the runway and used all but 200 feet of the runway before it stopped and began to taxi towards them. Two minutes later, a very excited Zach jumped out and ran to hug his father.
“Dad it’s soooo cool!” he said looking at the jet.
Tom joined them shortly afterwards.
“Hi General Powers,” said Tom, shaking his hand.
“Hi Tom. Listen, I really appreciate what you’re doing but my Air Force colleague tells me that you may have made an error landing here. The runway’s a bit short for take off.”
“For normal G550’s I’d agree,” he replied politely. “But this one has been modified.”
As Tom went on to explain the technicality of the modification, the aide listened with interest. He, like Tom, knew everything about planes and he soon realised that Tom knew exactly what he was doing, even down to limiting the number of passengers on board. He had only allowed Zach to accompany them on the outward journey and had quizzed Zach on the number, size and build of the passengers they were due to pick up. He had known that Durban may be too busy and that the alternative would require him to travel light.
“Sir, this young man certainly knows his stuff. I’m happy to fly with him anywhere,” said the aide.
“Tom, that’s praise indeed,” said the General.
Two minutes later, they sped down the taxiway and turned as fast as the plane would allow onto the runway before Tom pushed the engines to full power. The modification, he explained to the laymen on board, was a 16,000 lb/ft engine rather than the normal 15,000 lb/ft engine. The extra thrust would accelerate the plane to take-off speed before they reached the end of the runway. The performance figures required a runway of 6,000 ft and they had just done it in less than 3,000 ft.
Chapter 27
Donald was marched out of his cell and made to sit in what he would have described as a classic interrogation room. Three blank walls, one mirrored wall, a steel-framed Formica table and 3 chairs, two on one side and one on the other. He had been sitting there for over an hour. These guys had obviously watched all the detective movies, although they had forgotten to take his watch. They were supposed to take his watch to disorientate him. They really were amateurs.
The
door opened and a very well dressed man entered, wearing a Saville row suit, Italian shoes and a solid gold Swiss watch. Being a cop obviously paid very well in Guinea.
The man placed a document in front of Donald.
“What’s this?” asked Donald.
“This, Mr Kennedy, is the evidence we have against you.”
Donald immediately began to leaf through the so called evidence. There were over 50 pages of it but he only needed to read the first three to see that he was in very big trouble. Whoever wanted to destroy him had done an incredibly good job.
The first page detailed Alba International’s purchase of a very troubled explosives manufacturer in a former Soviet bloc country. Donald had procured the company 6 months earlier. It had been one of the largest land mine manufacturers in the world. Of course, the real reason for the purchase was overlooked. Donald had procured the company with the intention of saving lives. The factory had manufactured more land-mines than any other in the world. The moment Alba had bought the company, land-mine production stopped. The factory was refurbished and production changed to the manufacture of commercial demolition explosives. There were some specialist military products but these were only for NATO countries. Workers were given new contracts and their working environment changed from one of the most dangerous factories in Europe to one of the safest. Donald was very proud of what he had achieved. But that was all glossed over in the file in front of him.
The file stated that Alba had purchased one of the world’s worst explosives manufacturers and did business with anybody willing to pay cash. Explosives were sold to tyrannical dictators in contravention of UN embargoes. Staff were regularly killed or maimed in the unsafe factory. And worst of all, the factory had produced millions of the 110 million land mines that were currently believed to be sitting in wait. The file also produced a long list of atrocities directly linked to the factory. In reality, all these had ended before Alba had purchased the company but that too was ignored.
The second page was a copy of an email from Donald. He remembered the email and the conversation he had had about it. But again, the context was completely misleading. When Alba purchased the factory, it had a huge store of demolition and military explosives in various states of stability. In fact, it was a massive ticking time bomb. A meeting had been called to discuss what should be done with it. Donald remembered it because at the time, he couldn’t believe it was even being discussed. He had immediately sent an email to all involved: “ there is to be no delay, the explosives are to be got rid of, dumped, sent to the moon, I don’t care. Just get rid of them. Every day they are in the warehouse, they endanger the whole factory.”
All staff who had received the e-mail knew exactly what he meant. The unsafe explosives were to be taken out to sea and dumped or detonated in a controlled and safe environment, whichever was the safest. He read the email again and could almost predict what would come next.
Page three realised his prediction — a sales receipt for a huge quantity of dynamite for a rock bottom price. The invoice detailed that this was a once and only offer and required the immediate shipment of the entire stock. The invoice was addressed to a mining company in Equatorial Guinea, now defunct. It no longer existed because it was buried, along with the nearby village and its inhabitants.
The rest of the pages detailed the forensic evidence, the dockets detailing the shipment of the explosives and the delivery to the mine. The documents described the storage facility and the inappropriateness of using it to store such a vast quantity of explosives. In addition, the explosives were highly unstable, unfit for sale and should have been disposed of.
Donald felt sick. He couldn’t believe that somebody had been able to make it look as though he were responsible for the explosion and the deaths. Nobody misunderstood him at Alba and he was certain that nobody in Alba would conceive of doing this to him. Nonetheless, the documentation was real, albeit presented completely out of context. But how did they get his e-mail, how? One thing began to niggle at the back of is mind, somebody within Alba was helping whoever it was. He returned to the second page and the copy of his e-mail, it had been sent to Jason his CFO. How could they have got it? Jason wasn’t even at work, he had been on compassionate leave for the previous 7 months as his wife and three children had been killed in a car crash. Jason, unbeknownst to everyone except Donald, had suffered a complete breakdown and was still in hospital.
He began to regain his composure, somebody was playing a very clever game. But who was it? And what did they really want? Donald had a feeling he was going to find out soon.
“Who are you and what do you want?” he asked, he was fed up with the games.
“I am the Chief of Police and I want your confession and apology to our people,” demanded the Chief.
Donald smiled to himself, wondering how much a Chief of Police really earned.
“What are you smiling at Mr Kennedy? I don’t think you are in a position to be happy.” He stood up and placed both hands on the desk and leaned into Donald, trying to intimidate him.
“I was just admiring your clothes, they can’t have been cheap,” replied Donald losing the smile.
Chapter 28
The news of the Kennedys’ arrest broke soon after Tom had arrived back with Zach and the General. Tom and Lela had sat in stunned silence as the news channel replayed the story over and over again. No comment was being made by anybody at Alba. It seemed that everybody was staying quiet until they knew exactly what was happening and what the charges were against Donald, Rachel and Saki. Information was sketchy as to where they were being held but guesses ranged from the Presidential Palace to the dilapidated high security prison, both of which were shown in stark comparison to each other.
Tom immediately phoned his father’s Head of Legal, Jonathan. He got through but Jonathan explained that he was being bombarded with calls. He said that he had seen some of the evidence against them but that he really had to go, phones were ringing and he was waiting on calls from the Prime Minister and the President of a number of other countries. He promised to call Tom as soon as he could.
Tom then phoned his grandparents who were as bewildered as Tom and Lela and knew nothing more.
Zach and his father had stayed with them but Tom insisted they go and have some fun, there was nothing they could do. General Powers repeated that if there was anything he could do to help, Tom was just to ask.
As they made their way out of the building, they caught up with the Air Force aide who updated the General.
“General, I just got a call from our pilot. The plane is fixed, they thought we were still there and were waiting for us. I’m sorry but I neglected to tell them that we were flying ahead.”
“No problem, keeps them on their toes! Are they on their way?”
“Yes, they will just have taken off.”
“Dad, I thought you were staying for a while, you’ve only been here an hour,” said Zach despondently.
“Don’t worry, we’re not leaving until tonight, I just prefer to have my guys nearby and on standby.”
“So what shall we do now? Do you want to see the Special Forces Base?” said a more cheerful Zach.
“No let’s leave that ‘til later, I’d love to look around this school of yours. Maybe meet some of your friends. Work can wait for now.”
“It’s done and the plane is getting prepped to leave,” said Jones. “Nobody suspects a thing.
“Good. When will it happen?” asked Beaumont.
“The plane will explode as soon as it hits 12,000 feet.”
“Where are you now?”
“We’re just about to take off. We want to get as far away from here as we can before it happens. We’ll be back in the Congo in about four hours.”
“OK, let me know when you land, I may have another job for you sooner than expected.”
Beaumont hung up. He had already begun the handover procedure for General Powers’ position. The new Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Sta
ff was on standby for his appointment by the President. It normally took some time to appoint a new military boss and questions would be asked. However, Beaumont had already covered this with a statement he had prepared for the President, should any challenge be made.
Chapter 29
Tom and Lela spent the afternoon watching the TV and waiting for a phone call which would tell them that their parents’ arrest had been a huge mistake. When the news report was interrupted by more breaking news on the Kennedy case, their spirits lifted. It could only be good news, it couldn’t be any worse. But it was an update on the evidence which had been released to the UK government and totally justified the arrest of its most prominent businessman. The reporter could not give many details, explaining that the TV station had received the information from a ‘reliable’ source inside the government. In other words, a leak.
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