“Welcome,” he announced through the tannoy system. “I hope you’ve all had a good first week,” he shouted enthusiastically.
From the response around him, Tom realised that it wasn’t just his class who had found it hard going as Mr Sakamoto’s question was met with a chorus of moans and groans.
“Well, we never said it would be easy,” he responded to his lacklustre audience. “So that’s why when we came to the sports’ curriculum, we thought we might spice things up a little.”
The groaning died as everybody became intrigued by the reference to spicing things up.
“As you’ll see, you are all sitting in separate sections, A thru J. You are sitting in the section that corresponds to your class that is 3C and 7C and all years class C’s are in section C. These are your teams.” Mr Sakamoto stopped talking as the students all confirmed what he had just said.
“It’s a competitive world out there and to succeed you need to be competitive and that is exactly what we are going to be Sports at The Academy is going to be a competition. Everything you do will gain points for your team. At the end of the year, one team will emerge the winner and one the loser. It is up to you to do all you can to make sure your team does as well as it can. I’m sure no one here wants to finish tenth or do they?” he shouted.
“NO!” the stadium lifted as the students got into the spirit of the event.
“Excellent! Your Class Principals will select a captain for each class and explain how the events will work. Good luck and let the games begin!”
A huge cheer echoed around the stadium before manic conversations erupted as the impact of the sports competition sank in.
“OK, OK, quiet down everybody,” shouted Miss Sullivan over the noise around the stadium. She then explained, along with the other the class principals, how it would work. A captain would be selected for the class and would represent 1H at the Team H Captains’ Committee. Each week would see a different sport. One hour’s practice would precede selection for the competition against classes in their year. On that day, Judo was the Year 1 sport. The following week would be a yacht race and the week after, tennis. Everybody in the class must take part, the practice allowing the captain to select their strongest contenders and use them strategically to maximise their points.
After she had finished explaining, she asked for volunteers for team captain. Tom and Tristan’s hands both shot up along with Chen. Nobody else had even had a chance to think before the three hands had gone up. With no other takers, it seemed a popularity vote would decide the winner.
“Hmm, we have a slight problem I’m afraid,” said Miss Sullivan awkwardly. Everybody turned to look at her.
“The captains’ meetings are to be held on Sundays at noon. They won’t last long but I believe from a note I received yesterday evening, two of our candidates will be unavailable to attend.”
Tom and Tristan’s hands fell, they knew straight away that Ms Anderson had not selected Sunday lunch by coincidence. Bitch!
“OK, so we still have Chen, to make it fair, does anyone else want to do it…” she paused to allow other hands to go up, nobody’s did, it wouldn’t have seemed right after not putting their hands up at first.
“OK, well Chen it is then. Congratulations Chen.”
A small round of applause welcomed Chen as the 1H captain.
“Our first competition is Judo. We have a one hour training session before the competition begins. Anyone have any experience?” asked Miss Sullivan hopefully, it seemed she was as keen as anybody to do well.
A few hands went up. Tom raising his proudly, following his experience with the Ned. Chen raised his, as did Mingmei, Mia and Dev. Lela however did not. Tom nudged her.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“I’m not going to parade myself in front of the school, what are you doing?”
“You showed me a few moves and look what I did!” he said proudly.”
“Oh for God’s sake Tom, you were just lucky! Put your hand down and don’t be silly, Chen, Mingmei and Mia are all black belts, I’m not sure about Dev.”
At the mention of black belts, Tom’s hand slunk back down for the second time in five minutes.
They made their way across to the Dojo area to start training for the competition. An hour later, Chen had an excellent idea of his squad’s capabilities although despite Lela’s average performance, he knew she was his secret weapon. He just had to find out how to get her to fight properly, like she had with Yuri and his gang.
At 11.15 a.m., the competitions began. The first years in their judo contest while the other years tackled other sports.
Chen, Mingmei, Dev and Mia were superb and Chen had played an excellent strategic game, using his weaker team mates very well and had taken class 1H to the final, having beaten a number of other classes. Each student had to take part in at least one bout and as they moved into their final three bouts against class 1C, the other finalists, Chen was left with Tom and Lela who had still had not had a fight. The other team had already played each of their team at least once and could use anybody.
“Can you please let me fight,” whispered Lela to Chen, exasperated at not having been used. She wanted her one bout out of the way. “I’m not going to fight properly, so you can forget it I don’t care if we win or lose, I’m not a sideshow,“ she added.
“Look, you can go last. I’ll put Tom in now, then me. All we need is one win and we’ve done it. You might not even need to fight,” he replied.
He entered the sheet detailing the running order. They would not know who they faced until the bout commenced.
Tom was first and stepped forward, Lela wishing she had spent more time training him. He was up against Yuan, an ugly brute who was uncharacteristically large for his age both in height and weight. He was well trained and despite his size was surprisingly agile. He also had a tendency to use just a little more force than necessary. Lela quickly gave Tom instructions.
“Take a dive,” she said.
“What?” he stammered. “That’s your advice? That’s the best you can do to gee me up?”
“I don’t want to see you get hurt, just take the dive. Chen can win the next match, don’t try to be a hero, Yuan plays dirty,” she pleaded.
Tom walked towards the mat looking back towards her as if she were nuts. He took the stance and began to circle his opponent. He didn’t stand a chance, Yuan moved and flipped him up and over, laying Tom out on his back. Rather than simply pin his shoulders down, he reacted to his team mates’ cheers and body-slammed Tom with all his weight, completely and totally unnecessarily. A gasp of air blasted out of Tom’s mouth as he was winded by Yuan’s bulk. Lela immediately jumped out of her seat but Mia had anticipated it and grabbed her.
Tom had lain still for a few minutes while he was attended to. He then hobbled back to the team in agony. Lela was incensed and had to be restrained by both Mingmei and Mia. Chen was up next and was met by 1C’s best fighter and current Junior Judo Champion of Japan. It was a tough and close match with neither of them able to get the winning move, it was a tie. Chen looked to Lela as he came back to the team.
“It’s down to you Lela,” he said.
“I warned you all along Chen, you realise you’ve cost us the win. I will not fight in front of an audience.”
Lela walked towards the mat to a huge cheer from 1H, although most wondered why the hell Chen had left the smallest girl in the class to fight the last bout. Class 1C began to laugh at who was stepping up for 1H, they knew who she was up against. Chen was gutted, he was sure he would have got her on side but she was serious. She was going to throw her fight and she was right, it was his fault. Lela had warned him from the start.
However Chen began to smile as a huge cheer erupted from class 1C. Yuan had just stepped forward, the 1C captain had decided to use Yuan twice in the last three bouts which he was perfectly entitled to do, having used everyone at least once already.
The giant Yuan towered over Lela.
&nbs
p; “I’ll try not to hurt you too badly as you’re a girl,” he said to her as they waited to start..
“I won’t, seeing as you’re an ugly git and deserve whatever you get,” she replied angrily. Yuan had committed the cardinal sin, he had hurt her brother.
The bell sounded to announce the start. Yuan lunged, Lela dropped and as she seemed to fall, she caught Yuan perfectly and transported his energy over her dropping shoulder and threw him like a rag doll across the mat and into class 1C. The bell sounded again even though it hadn’t quite stopped ringing from the start of the bout. Class 1H had won. However, the hall was silent as a stunned audience were still trying to understand what had just happened.
Tom and the rest of class 1H began cheering, and, although still confused, so did the other classes, except for 1C.
Chapter 35
Sunday lunch was everything Tom and Tristan thought it would be, only much worse. Ms Anderson had planned a French style Sunday ‘dejeuner’ a full eight courses, over five hours. They had both gone into the lunch with a game plan, to fully apologise and throw themselves on her mercy, thinking they might manage to wangle their way out of the lunch. It failed miserably, she thanked them for the gesture and then sat them down to 5 hours of hell. However that was nothing compared to what she had planned for the following week, a full 12 courses.
The rest of the week improved slightly as the tiredness began to lift and the students settled into their new regime. By Thursday, they almost began to admit that they were beginning to enjoy themselves. The upcoming yacht race was the event of the week. Miss Sullivan was a keen sailor and had been running training sessions each evening to get her crew into shape. Each of the yachts was over 90 feet in length and, as usual, every member of the class would be involved in the race. The race course was around a circuit of buoys which circled the island. If any boat failed to circumnavigate each of the buoys, they would be disqualified.
The black figure stole across the school grounds, avoiding the camera sweeps by timing each move to perfection. Within ten minutes, the black figure was busy at work on the yacht. There were only a few modifications required before the big race on Saturday. After thirty minutes, everything was done. Saturday was going to be a very profitable day. It was time to leave.
“Hey, what are you doing?” came a shout from behind.
“Wait a minute, I recognise you! We played bowls last week, why are you dressed like that?” asked the girl as she came closer. But she came too close and a swift movement to the back of her neck had her unconscious.
Reaper’s phone rang.
“Hello?” he answered
“We have a problem, I’ve been spotted and recognised,” said Ling.
“Damn,” replied Reaper, that was not good. “Where are you?”
“I’m hiding on a boat, the girl is unconscious but I’ve not left any marks. Should I kill her and dump her?”
Reaper thought for a second.
“No, too risky. We can’t afford to have jumpy parents. I’ll call you back.”
Reaper made a quick call and then phoned Ling straight back.
“OK, here’s what you need to do.”
He explained the plan. Ling smiled, it was brilliant.
Friday morning started like any other morning but it did not take long to change. Madeleine had not stopped crying during their Maths lesson and no matter how much the girls tried to console her, she just got worse. It got so bad that she was eventually allowed to leave the lesson, her constant drawing in of large breaths to commence her next bawling was driving the teacher insane.
It was not until their break that they heard from Madeleine what had happened. She was waiting for them in their usual spot, next to the beach,
The girls all rushed over to her when they saw her sitting there and immediately began to console her again. The boys were less consoling, they just wanted to know what the hell was wrong.
“Madeleine, what’s wrong? What’s happened?” asked Chen putting his arm around her.
“It’s Erika, she’s been expelled,” she managed between sobs.
“She’s what?” exclaimed a chorus of devastated boys, most of their wilder fantasies had included Erika and Madeleine.
“Expelled for being drunk, they found her on one of the boats and had to pump her stomach.” She started bawling again.
“NO!” said the girls.
Pulling herself together, she continued.
“They think she drank a full bottle of Vodka and they found four full ones in her room.”
“Oh my God, have you seen her? Is she OK now?” asked Mia.
“Briefly, a half hour ago. She’s still quite ill, they’re sending her home as soon as she’s well enough.”
The bawling started again as Madeleine realised her friend would not be with her any more at school.
“Did she say why she did it?” asked Tom, waiting for a break in the sobs.
“She started to say something about catching somebody sabotaging a boat but the nurse sedated her and explained that they had checked the boat just in case, nobody had touched a thing. They think she must have been hallucinating with the alcohol.”
The group of friends were devastated. However, one broke off to make a phone call. They were not devastated, they were terrified.
Erika felt better by evening and had spent the day protesting her innocence but to no avail. She had been well and truly stitched up. She wasn’t even allowed to call Madeleine before she left to tell her what had really happened. She knew Madeleine would believe her. The first thing she would do when she got home would be to call her.
McDonald, Murray
Kidnap (The Billionaire Series)
Chapter 36
It was not the best day for being out in a boat, visibility was poor although the water was fairly calm. Pieter and his crew had been on the water since 5.00 a.m. Their small fishing trawler was perfect cover for the operation. They had spent the week overhauling the engine and were confident that the old pile of junk could manage an amazing 40 knots. If the plan was to work, they would probably need every knot.
Class 1H were top of the Year 1 sports chart and had every intention of growing that lead following the yacht race. However, Team H were sitting third overall. Years 6 and 7 had faired particularly badly the previous week in their swimming and yachting events. If preparation were the key to success, 1H were in with a very good chance. Miss Sullivan had trained them well and had them splicing the main sail and heaving to, like the best of them.
Once on board, the rules of the race were re-iterated for clarity and to avoid silly mistakes. They had to circumnavigate the buoys which circled the island and return to the marina as quickly as possible. It didn’t matter in which direction. The previous week the year 7Hs had lost because they had misjudged the winds and gone anti-clockwise, all the other boats had gone clockwise. However, Miss Sullivan had studied the charts and weather conditions very carefully and suggested they go anti-clockwise again. Chen looked at the rest of the team as the other boats had followed the previous week’s precedent and gone clockwise.
A quick vote was a close call but the decision was made to go anti-clockwise. They turned about and immediately slowed down as the wind died.
“Maybe we should turn back round?” asked Tristan.
“Don’t worry, it all evens out in the end,” replied Lela, who had always loved sailing.
Reaper had received the message from Ling the previous day. By the time the girl landed, it wouldn’t be an issue. The yacht race would be over and the authorities would know something had happened. It wasn’t until later in the day that he realised he was not covering in the event of a failure. He immediately called Leo and sent him on a mission.
Pieter received the text from Ling, a change of plan and new co-ordinates. They opened the throttles on the old boat and immediately felt the speed increase as she reacted to the increased power. They would be in place just in time.
The buoys were a good di
stance from the island and it wasn’t long before Team 1H lost sight of land, the visibility was very poor.
“Miss Sullivan?” somebody shouted from behind her. She turned round and was hit by the boom as it swung across the boat. The boat began to turn as people rushed to Miss Sullivan’s aid. She was unconscious and would need to go to hospital immediately.
Ahmad was nearest the radio and grabbed it. He hit the mayday button and the radio died. Ling’s short circuiting had worked perfectly. Tristan ran to grab the backup radio but the batteries were dead. A few tried their mobile phones, none worked. Nobody had noticed the boat turning as they tried to make their calls. Ahmad suddenly noticed the tiller was full to the right but had no idea how much they had turned.
“What do we do?” asked Tristan, staring helplessly at the controls.
“Just use the compass, we were sailing west, just head east,” reasoned Lela.
“Good idea,” said Chen. “Ahmad you’re nearest, tell Tristan where to steer and hurry!”
“How’s Miss Sullivan?” asked Tom.
“She seems to be OK just now but we should hurry,” shouted Mingmei.
Pieter received another message from Ling, they were on their way, the compass had been tampered with and they were heading straight towards them. They should be in sight within the hour. Pieter and his crew were watching their co-ordinates very closely. They were sitting uncomfortably close to the exclusion zone for the NATO base.
Tom realised he was being really stupid and disappeared down below. It was not a good move however. After 5 minutes of being below deck, he felt incredibly sea sick. Miss Sullivan had warned them all to keep their eye on the horizon if they felt at all funny. This would let their brains understand why their body was moving and would stop the motion sickness. Tom couldn’t get back up quickly enough and by the time he did, he was green and hung over the side, being sick. He prayed hard for the sickness to go. Lela tried to talk to him but every time he opened his mouth, he threw up. She gave up, it wasn’t a pleasant sight.
Kidnap b-1 Page 15
