Assassin (The Billionaire Series) (23 page)

Lela entered the room just as he started looking for the safe.

“Tom, are you OK?” she asked.

“Yes thanks, you?” said Tom as he pushed back the chair and
began to move under the desk.

“Yes, but I just heard about you breaking the door down,” she
said looking at his handiwork on the doorframe.

“It was locked and I didn’t want to waste time looking for a
key.”

“Ok,” she said slowly not really agreeing with his actions.
“So what are you looking for now?”

“A safe.”

“Do you think your dad kept a safe under his desk?” she asked,
looking at him on his hands and knees.

“No but there’s one in here somewhere.”

“Did your dad not tell you where it was?” she asked.

“No, he never told me he had one,” replied Tom as he struggled
out from under the desk.

“Let me get this right, you’re on your hands and knees looking
for a safe which you have never been told about nor have ever seen. Did you
ever think that maybe there isn’t a safe in here?”

“I heard it.”

“You heard it? What, did it whisper ‘Tom I’m a safe’ to you?”

Tom stopped looking around. He explained to Lela what he had
heard when his father had locked him out and that the noises didn’t make sense
unless there was a safe in the room. They both started looking.

Thirty minutes later, they had searched everywhere, every seam
in the carpet and every inch of the walls. Nothing. They slumped down on the
large couch and thought about where else they could look.

Something caught Lela’s eye. “Tom, did you ever see your dad
actually sit on that thing?”

“Hmm,” mumbled Tom, thinking. “Actually no, he always joined
me on the sofa. Why?”

“Because I sat on it once and you know how he always
 
used to say it was so comfy and nothing
could beat it. Well it’s not, in fact it’s very hard!” Tom had never sat on it
because he was sure he would catch fleas.

“Do you think?” he asked as they both looked at its base.

They found a tiny catch on the seam of the front panel and as
they released it, the whole panel swung back like a door to reveal a small
safe. The only problem now was the code. There was a numerical keypad sat in
the middle of the door with a small digital display above it.

“Damn,” said Lela.

“What’s wrong?” asked Tom.

“The code, how are we going to crack it?”

“I was worried it was going to be a key, this is fine,”
replied Tom. “My dad’s not got a password or a pin number I haven’t cracked.
Trust me, this is good. Finding a key would have been impossible.” As Tom spoke,
he keyed in 4 digits, the safe released its lock and opened.

“Unbelievable!” said Lela, very impressed.

“Not really, my dad is shocking with pin numbers, so he uses
the same one for all his accounts and credit cards and apparently his safe.”

The safe was packed with papers. They pulled them out and
began to go through them. It was going to be a very long night.

Chapter 58

Beaumont had not taken the news well. Every time Tom Kennedy
was involved in anything, bad news seemed to follow. The latest was the Alba
bid, rejected out of hand and the accountant they had planted being
investigated for fraud. The operation to get their hands on Alba had run
smoothly for over seven months and at the last moment, a fourteen year old was
stopping them and potentially exposing one of his men.

On hearing the news, the US President was apoplectic. The
bitter memories of the botched operation the previous year still haunted him.
He could not believe that Tom was interfering with their plans again.

Beaumont called Jones.

“I have a job for you,” he said.

“I know, I’m working on it now.”

“No, another one. It should be easy. One sniper should do it.”

“OK, who’s the target?”

“Tom Kennedy, Donald Kennedy’s son.”

“What about the girl?”

“No, she must stay alive. I repeat, NOT the girl.”

Beaumont could not afford for Lela to be hit. She would soon
be the key to their fortune as she would, he believed, be certain to sell Alba
instantly.

“Location?” asked Jones.

“Their house is out of the question, it’s a fortress. Their
school is just as bad. The only option is their school trip on Monday to Machu
Picchu.”

“When I went to school, we went to the local zoo. Not 7,000
miles away to an ancient Inca village,” huffed Jones.

“Hmm, well, it seems their history teacher thinks it’s important.
Anyway, it gives us the opportunity to get to him.”

“Consider it done,” replied Jones.

Chapter 59

It was 5.30 a.m. when Tom and Lela went to bed. The
information they had uncovered produced more questions than answers. However,
one thing was categorically clear, Donald Kennedy was not behind the
assassinations but knew he was going to be framed for them. From what they
could gather, he had been in the process of trying to track down who was
responsible.

With only three hours sleep, Tom and Lela were already up and
ready to go. They had only one goal in mind, to clear Donald Kennedy’s name. A
lot of the information suggested that Alan, the sacked CFO, knew a lot more
than he had let on. Tom had sent a text before they went to bed requesting a
chopper to be there at 9.00 a.m. sharp. At 8.45 a.m., as they were finishing
breakfast, they heard the whump of the blades as the helicopter landed.

Kisho and Kano had made it clear that wherever they went, they
would follow. When they reached the helicopter, Kano had second thoughts.

“What the hell is
that
?”

“That’s my little bird, it’s an MD520 light helicopter,” replied
Tom.

“It’s definitely little, we won’t all fit in it!” said Kano.

“It seats five. Just please get in. I asked for a small one so
that we can land wherever we want. It’s great fun, very agile. I’m sure the
pilot will show you if you want?” offered Tom.

“No thanks, I’ll just sit back here quietly,” replied Kano.

After everybody had strapped in, the little helicopter took
off and hovered just above the ground. The pilot looked at Tom.

“Where to?” he asked.

Tom powered up his new sat nav system and input Alan’s
address. It worked in exactly the same way as a car’s system, except it was in
3D and could direct the pilot accordingly.

“There,” said Tom pointing to the chequered flag pinpointing
Alan’s home.

As they hovered above Alan’s street, they understood why Tom
had not brought the large helicopter. Alan lived in a block of flats
overlooking the River Clyde in the centre of Glasgow. The large chopper would
have had to land over a mile away at the Alba HQ helipad. The small one,
however, took up as much space as an average car. So that’s what they did. They
parked it in the car park in front of Alan’s block of flats, taking up just one
space.

The four passengers jumped out and made their way to the front
door of the building. Tom pressed the buzzer for Alan’s flat. Nobody answered,
he pressed it again. Nothing.

“What shall we do?” asked Lela.

“I don’t know,” replied Tom.

“I do,” said Kano. “If this guy knows something about what
happened, there’s a good chance we’ll find something inside.” He started
pushing other buzzers until somebody eventually let them in.

Kano led the way and after an elevator journey to the top
floor, they stood outside Alan’s door. Kano banged on the door but again, there
was no answer. He banged again. Nothing.

“What was that?” he asked.

“What was what?” asked Lela.

“I can hear somebody saying help me, help me!”

“I can’t,” replied Lela.

“Neither can I,” said Tom.

“What are you talking about Kano? There’s no noise in there,”
said Kisho.

Kano raised his eyes to the ceiling in frustration. He looked
back at them and spoke very slowly.

“I can definitely hear somebody who needs help and can’t get
to the door, I’ll have to break in to help them.”

He looked at them until they began to understand what he was
saying. He then spun around and kicked the door down.

The flat was open-plan with a large panoramic window which
overlooked the river and the city. Two doors led off the living area, Kano
tried one while Kisho tried the other.

“Nothing in here, it’s just a bathroom,” said Kisho.

A few seconds later, Kano reappeared.

“It appears that I may have been right about someone needing
help, although I’d guess we’re a few hours too late.” Pointing to Tom and Lela,
he said, “You two wait here and don’t touch anything.”

Kano took Kisho to the master bedroom suite and through to the
bathroom where Alan lay in the bath, dead.

“I’ll call the police,” said Kisho.

“No, let’s have a quick look around and then we’ll call them,”
suggested Kano. “But I have a funny feeling that we won’t find anything. I’m
fairly certain this guy was murdered and they’ve tried to make it look like a
suicide.”

“Why do you think that?”

“Because the killers forgot to put away his passport and
luggage which are lying at the side of his bed. I doubt he’d pack a bag and get
his passport ready if he was planning to top himself.”

“Five minutes and then we call, OK?” said Kisho.

The two of them had plenty of experience of that kind of work
as they had both served in a very secret and clandestine team within the
British Army. They were as meticulous in their search as they were ensuring
that everything was replaced exactly where it had been.

Meanwhile, Tom and Lela were still standing immobile in the
centre of the room. They had gathered that Alan was dead. Kano and Kisho
eventually came back out.

“Well?” asked Tom desperate to know what was happening.

“Murdered we think but they’ve tried to make it look like
suicide,” replied Kano as he began to search the main living area.

“So he really was in with the bad guys then?”

“Yep and these guys are not playing around,” replied Kisho who
was searching the kitchen.

“Shouldn’t we call the police?” asked Lela, concerned about
the twins rifling through the flat.

“Of course but there’s no harm in having a quick look around
before we do,” said Kano.

“Nothing in here,” said Kisho removing his latex gloves.

“Where did you get those?” asked Lela.

“We thought the Accountant might take some convincing.”

“What were you going to do?” asked Tom not sure if he actually
wanted to know.

“Nothing,” laughed Kano from under the sofa, “but it’s amazing
what goes through somebody’s mind when you have them cornered and you very
slowly put on a pair of latex gloves.”

“Yep. Works every time,” agreed Kisho.

“I’ve got something,” said Kano.

“What?” asked Tom desperately.

“A business card from a recruitment consultant, down the side
of the sofa…” Kano was interrupted by their helicopter appearing at the window
in front of them.

“What’s he doing?” asked Lela.

“He’s signalling for us to go up,” said Tom.

The police sirens explained what was happening. They rushed
out of the flat and tried to find a way onto the roof. Nothing.

“We can’t be caught here,” said Lela. Everybody looked at her,
it was not the time to be stating the obvious. Apart from breaking and
entering, there was a probable murder charge.

“Back into the flat,” said Kisho as they heard the entrance
door being buzzed below them. They rushed through to the bedroom which had
windows at the rear and a small balcony, although more for decoration than
actual use.

Tom phoned the pilot and explained what they needed to do. Ten
seconds later, the small helicopter was hovering next to the railing on the
edge of the balcony. They all managed to climb onto the railing and into the
helicopter. Tom was last to board as he had been on his mobile making a quick
call.

“Impressive,” said Kisho to the pilot.

“Thank you, Sir,” he replied.

“What happened?” Tom asked the pilot.

“Just after you went in, I noticed a car pull away. The driver
looked straight at me while making a call. It just seemed odd, I don’t know
why. So I turned the police scanner on and there it was. Possible murder, this
address. I’m sorry I didn’t call
 
but I just got the hell up to you as quick as poss. I could already hear
the police and we needed to leave from the roof anyway.”

“Thanks, good thinking,” replied Tom.

His father’s pilots were all ex-military, usually from special
forces or special protection. All were fully qualified body guards and knew how
to handle dangerous situations.

“Where to now?” asked the pilot.

“Away from that police chopper I hope,” said Kisho who was
looking behind them.

“Hold on tight,” said the pilot, looking back at the police
chopper. “This may get a little hairy.”

They began to speed up. Tom looked over his shoulder to the
three in the back.

“This isn’t the fastest helicopter,” he explained. “But it’s
one of the smallest and most manoeuvrable. I would hold on very tight if I were
you guys!”

The police chopper sped towards them, it was much larger and
much faster.

The Alba chopper suddenly dropped height and plummeted towards
the road taking a sharp right turn onto Jamaica Street. Tom could read the
street signs at eye level. Cars swerved as the helicopter thundered towards
them just skimming their roofs. The helicopter rose and fell sharply. They all
held their breath as they narrowly missed crashing into the front of a
double-decker bus. The police helicopter was directly above them.