Assassin (The Billionaire Series) (12 page)

“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.