Assassin (The Billionaire Series) (25 page)

“Excellent,” replied Lela, although privately disappointed.
She wanted revenge. Her anger about the Kennedys’ deaths needed venting and
Yuri and his gang would have be perfect fodder.

“Yes but two hours later, they were reinstated. It appears
that Mr Sakamoto was told to either take them back or leave. Mr Sakamoto
decided he had no option, he didn’t want to leave.” Tom and Lela both knew Mr
Sakamoto would never leave, not now while he could help them.

“Where are Chen and Oleg now?”

“In Oleg’s room. They’re quite badly bruised and didn’t want
to upset you.”

“Rubbish,” replied Tom. “Lets go.”

The group moved to Oleg’s room. Oleg and Chen were delighted
to see them. However, Lela took one look at their bruised and swollen faces and
left. Tom tried to stop her but saw the look on her face and stepped back. He
almost considered warning Yuri, almost.

Chapter 62

Tom looked at his watch, it was 5.45 p.m.. Lela had been gone
for over two hours. He couldn’t wait any longer. He made his excuses, left
Oleg’s room, went back to his room and picked up what he needed for the
meeting. He double-checked to see if Lela was in her room. She wasn’t so he
left a note reminding her where the meeting was and to make her way across to
the conference centre as soon as possible.

“Hi guys,” said Tom as he entered the room. Zach and Tristan
were already there waiting for him.

“Hi,” they replied. “Did you find Lela?” asked Tristan.

“No and it’s been more than two hours now,” replied Tom. He
was now very worried, Lela was very angry. He could only imagine what she might
do to Yuri.

Daniel and Sofie arrived, quickly followed by Jin, Thabo and
Elena. Everybody was there except Lela. With two minutes to go before 6.00
p.m., Tom dialled in Rolf and his smiley face appeared on the large screen.
They were ready. Just as Tom was about to call the meeting to order, the door
opened and Lela strode in.

“Sorry I’m late, I got a little caught up in what I was
doing,” she said smiling.

Tom just looked at her and feared the worst, Lela was very
cheery, totally different from when she had left Oleg’s room. She took a seat
next to Tom and sat ready for the meeting to start. Tom was paralysed with
curiosity. He had to know she had done. He leaned over and whispered in her
ear.

“What did you do to Yuri?”

“Jesus Tom, what do you think I did to him. He’s just a bully.
Will you calm down!” Lela was taken aback at Tom’s reaction and quite hurt by
it.

Tom realised his imagination had run wild. Lela was a highly
trained and extremely disciplined individual. She was trained in an ancient art
which forbade gratuitous violence. Only violence necessary for protection or
self defence was allowed. Even then, the violence should be at a level
necessary to eliminate danger, no more. Their skill was such that the islanders
didn’t make errors or mistakes. If defensive moves were sufficient, no
offensive moves would be made. If offensive moves were necessary, the strikes
would be calculated to minimise the damage inflicted. Any injury would be precise,
intentional and perfectly executed. If an islander decided that the middle bone
of someone’s little finger needed to be broken to stop a situation, then that
is exactly what would happen.

“Sorry, you’re right,” apologised Tom.

“No problem. Look, I’ll fill you in later. This is much more
important than Yuri,” said Lela gesturing towards the group of people around
them.

Tom took his big sister’s advice and turned to the group. He
got up and started pacing. He could think more clearly when he paced, a trait
inherited from his father.

“Guys, three weeks ago we met and discussed the fact that
there may be a group or an individual responsible for the assassinations around
the world. Since then, the story of my father being the mastermind behind the
assassinations has broken and evidence has come to light, almost daily, to
support that theory. Even I have doubted my father’s innocence over the last
two weeks. What I need to know before we start is how many of you believe that
my father was
capable
of the acts he stands accused of, not whether the evidence proves it.”

Tristan responded first.

“I know exactly what you mean Tom. The evidence is
overwhelming but every time I hear it, I just can’t believe it and at the same
time, no stone has been left unturned. Every doubt that he could be innocent is
soon crushed by a new piece of evidence. But I still can’t believe it.”

“Thanks Tristan, you’re a better man than me. I was at the
point of beginning to believe it.”

Before long, it appeared that they were all of a similar mind,
the evidence was overwhelming but it just didn’t fit, Donald was not capable of
those atrocities.

Tom listened to everybody and was happy that each believed
deep down that there was somebody behind everything, the assassinations, the
framing of his father and ultimately, the death of his family. Had anybody
believed that the evidence was irrefutable, they would have been politely
excluded from the group. It was imperative that the members of the group had an
open mind.

“Ok. Now that we’ve got that out the way, let’s get down to
business.” Tom picked up the box of files next to him and placed them on the
table. The files were the ones from his father’s safe.

“I believe that the information contained in these files will
help to lead us to the people who are behind everything.”

“What’s in them?” asked Daniel.

“The results of my father and Saki’s investigation into what
was going on. They knew something very big was happening and they even knew
that my father was going to be set up. They just couldn’t do anything about it
or prove it,” replied Tom.

“Bloody hell, you should give it to the papers and clear his
name,” suggested Tristan.

“We can’t, it might scare whoever it is into covering their
tracks. The only way we can catch them is if they don’t know we’re coming. Even
then, there’s no real evidence, just my father and Saki’s findings. That’s why
we need to have an open mind. It doesn’t give us the answers but it may tell us
what the questions
 
are,” replied
Tom. He looked again at the group in front of him. There wasn’t a question in
the world that this group couldn’t get an answer to. They just needed to know
what to ask. He began to get excited at the possibility of actually getting to
the bottom of exactly what was going on.

The group spent the next few hours poring over the detail of
the files and learning how Donald and Saki had. over the previous 6 months,
begun to smell a rat. Their investigations had led them around the world as
they had looked into the links between the assassinations and who stood to gain
from them. Links between each assassination were tenuous but they did exist. In
each instance, the successor had been relatively unknown prior to the
assassination. And each successor was exceedingly wealthy in their own right
with extensive business interests. Apart from these, no other links seemed to
exist, or at least no common link was obvious.

Their investigations had also looked into Alan, Alba’s CFO.
Donald had sensed something suspicious about him early on. All other candidates
capable of the role had either not applied or withdrawn their applications
early in the process. Alan’s application had been excellent, his credentials
unmatched, his references incomparable. He was perfect and, with no
competition, was appointed. But Donald soon began to notice that Alan was not
as good as his application suggested. Donald also noticed that Alan took a
great interest in areas of the business which didn’t concern him or he got
involved in levels of detail which were well below his level of seniority.
Donald had asked Saki to look into it and it appeared that that was Saki’s
secret mission over the summer. Saki had looked into Alan’s background and
hunted down the other candidates, whom it appeared, would have been delighted
to join Alba but had been devastated to receive rejection letters. Alba had not
issued any rejection letters. On the contrary, it had received letters of
withdrawal from the candidates.

Donald had a dilemma. Should he sack Alan, thereby tipping off
whoever had planted him, or keep a very close eye on him to see if he led them
anywhere. He had opted for the latter. However it was obviously too late, Alan
had done the damage. Tom and Lela could link most of the evidence fabricated
against Donald to Alan. The sales invoice of explosives to the mine company had
been done by Alan. The expenses signed off by Donald for individuals who had
been near the assassination areas, done by Alan. The list continued. For each
piece of financial evidence which linked Donald to the assassinations, Alan had
had the opportunity and the motive.

One of the last entries in Donald’s notes had been his firm
belief that Jason’s family had been murdered. Everything to do with Alan
pointed to an extensive and complicated operation which required access to the
Finance Department and therefore the removal of Donald’s old CFO. He had
realised that Jason was also meant to have been dead, along with his family,
all treated as expendable pawns. Jason’s subsequent breakdown and resignation
had probably saved his life. His job had become vacant so they didn’t need him
dead anymore.

After Tom finished running through the content of the files,
the group broke the files down and methodically brainstormed each piece of
information and what it could tell them. The information was categorised by
level of importance, high, medium and low. However, they were aware that
something which may seem of low importance could nonetheless hold the vital
link they needed. Therefore, everything had to be worked through, no matter how
irrelevant it seemed.

At 1.00 a.m. with questions flowing onto the whiteboards
around the room, they noticed the time and agreed to reconvene in the morning.
Despite the vast number of questions they had raised, answers were beginning to
emerge.

As they made their way to their rooms, Tom finally had a
chance to speak to Lela.

“Well?”

Lela said nothing. She just placed her hand in her pocket and
pulled something out. She placed in Tom’s hand and smiled.

Tom opened his hand and found a pair of Latex gloves.

“Worked brilliantly, you should have seen him, it was actually
quite pathetic,” said Lela as she watched Tom open his hand.

“What did you do?” asked Tom.

“Exactly what Kano and Kisho said. I caught up with the gang,
pushed a few around, they bolted and left Yuri on his own. I had him backed
into a corner, explained I was very, very upset with him. Told him I had given
up on the softly, softly approach before pulling out the gloves. I took my time
putting them on. He was crying like baby, sobbing, pleading. It was pathetic. I
actually felt so sorry for him, I let him go but the only way he could leave
was through the canteen, blubbering and whimpering in front of everyone. I
warned his gang that if they went anywhere near him again, it’s them I’ll be
looking for. Yuri is officially an outcast. He won’t trouble anyone again.”

“Just because of these?” Tom asked, incredulous.

“Yep, anyway we need to get to bed, we’ve got to be back there
at eight,” said Lela making her way to her room.

The next morning, they picked up exactly where they had left
off and by 4.00 p.m. had finished. The unanswered questions were broken down
into chunks and each person took the chunk most relevant to them. Zach took
anything which could possibly be linked to the military, Tom adding at the last
minute the meteor like object his father had witnessed fly towards the mine
before the explosion. Daniel took anything at all linked to intelligence, Lela
quickly adding the loss of Tylanni. Questions regarding the backgrounds of the
new leaders or old ones went to Jin, Sofie, Elena and Thabo, each taking the
relevant continent. Tristan picked up any commonwealth countries and a number
of other questions linked to the UK. Tom and Lela took the rest of the non
specific and more global questions and would work through them with their
extensive network.

With such a vast volume of information to gather, it was
agreed that the next meeting would be on Friday. Most of them were going on the
daytrip to Machu Picchu which all agreed was unfortunate as they had a lot to
do.

Chapter 63

At the end of The Academy’s first year, the History Department
had submitted a request. They informed the Headmaster, Mr Sakamoto that they
would like to enrich their students’ understanding of history through real life
experience. Mr Sakamoto asked them to drop the sales pitch and cut to the
chase. The history department said that they wanted to visit sites of
historical importance.

However, being located on a secret island in the middle of the
Ocean, The Academy was not best placed to offer school trips. Despite this, Mr
Sakamoto could see the merits of such a programme and agreed to raise it at the
next Governors’ meeting. The Governors agreed in principle but made it clear
that no funds would be made available to fund the excursions. If the parents
could raise the funds, the Governors had no objection to the visits. As term
ended, the students took home a letter requesting funds for the history trips.

By September, the funds had arrived and the first trip was
about to take place, a daytrip to Machu Picchu in Peru. Tom, Lela and their
friends were among the first to experience the history department’s new
initiative.

By the time Tom and Lela had returned from their meeting, had
had their dinner and got changed, it was almost time to leave. They were due to
leave from the airfield at 10.30 p.m. but Tom wanted to get there early to see
their plane arrive.