Assassin (The Billionaire Series) (11 page)

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 classic 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.

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.