Bodyguard: Ambush (Book 3) (4 page)

Minister Rawasa sucked at his lower lip as
he studied the map. ‘Well … let’s just say it’s not
impossible.’

‘Then we must tread very carefully.
Minister Feruzi, close off the national park and order the rangers to begin a
sector-by-sector search. I want confirmation that the diamond field is real before we
start raising hopes and making plans. Tell the rangers they’re looking for
poachers but to report anything else unusual. The last thing we need is a false diamond
rush.’

‘Should I delay the French
ambassador’s visit?’ asked Minister Feruzi.

President Bagaza repeatedly clicked the top
of his ballpoint pen out of habit, considering the proposal for a moment. ‘No. Not
after the millions France has invested in the conservation programme. If we don’t
show them progress, they’ll cut off all our international aid. And we can’t
afford to lose such funding.’ He gave everyone at the table a meaningful look.
‘In the meantime, this news isn’t to go any further than this room.
Understood?’

His ministers nodded obediently. But
President Bagaza knew it was a futile request. He trusted no one on his Cabinet to keep
a secret. And if his government ministers had heard about the diamonds, then he was in
no doubt that other more dangerous individuals would know too. Diamonds lured corrupt
men like wasps to a jam jar.

‘ATTACK FRONT!’ shouted Jody as a
car sped out of a side street and screeched to a halt in the middle of the road.

Connor slammed on the brakes. Jody braced
herself in the passenger seat, while Charley and Marc were flung forward, only saved by
their seat belts in the back. Crunching gears, Connor battled to find reverse.
He’d been driving only three weeks and the pressure of an attack was seriously
testing his new skills.

‘
Come on
,’ he muttered
in frustration, rattling the gear stick furiously. Finally he managed to engage reverse,
looked over his shoulder and accelerated away hard. The engine whined in protest as the
rev counter maxed out.

Gripping the steering wheel tightly, Connor
fought to maintain a straight line and keep on the road. Driving at speed in reverse was
judged extremely dangerous – one tiny misjudgement and he could send the car into a
fatal spinout.

By now their attackers had jumped from their
vehicle and begun firing at them. Connor’s car was going flat out,
but reverse gear wasn’t anywhere near fast enough to
escape an ambush. To do so, he had to change direction. Adrenalin pumping, he took his
foot off the accelerator, wrenched the steering wheel hard to the right and applied the
handbrake, all at the same time. His car went into a tyre-screeching 180-degree pivot
and came to a tight stop. Releasing the handbrake, he floored the accelerator pedal and
they shot off again, speeding away from the kill zone.

Behind him, Connor heard Marc whistle in
relief and Charley whisper, ‘That’s one hell of a roller-coaster
ride!’

‘Well done, Connor. Aside from the
poor gear change, that was a textbook J-turn,’ Jody commended, ticking off another
box on her clipboard.

Connor eased off the accelerator, pleased to
have passed the first stage. As he continued down the road, he routinely checked his
rear-view mirror in case the ambushers decided to pursue them. After three weeks of
intensive lessons, he and the rest of Alpha team had completed their basic driving test
and were on to advanced evasive driving skills. They’d been taught how to execute
a bootlegger’s turn, drive safely at high speed, control a skid, push an
immobilized vehicle out of the kill zone, and even force another car off the road in a
pursuit. Now it was time to put their newly acquired skills to the test.

Jody had explained that car travel was
inherently dangerous. Compared to the security in place at a VIP’s home or a
school, a vehicle was a mobile target. At these times, the Principal was at their most
vulnerable to attack or kidnap attempts. This was why each member of Alpha team
had to be able to drive with confidence and
at high speeds. One never knew when they might have to take charge of a vehicle in an
emergency.

‘Watch out!’ cried Marc, just as
Connor turned a corner.

Up ahead two cars were parked nose-to-nose
across the street. There wasn’t enough distance to execute a handbrake turn. So,
this time, Connor didn’t stop. He drove straight at the roadblock. He knew his aim
would be critical. It had to be the front wheels of the blockading cars, otherwise it
would be impossible to ram them out of the way. The cars’ front-wheel arches were
solid and would give him the resistance he needed, as well as the angle of force to
pivot the vehicles aside.

When he was twenty metres away Connor
purposefully slowed down, dropped into first gear, then accelerated hard. He had to hit
the roadblock at just the right speed. Too slow and he’d get stuck. Too fast and
he’d damage his own car.

‘Brace yourselves!’ he
warned.

There was a gut-wrenching crunch as they
struck the blockade. The impact was jarring, but not devastating enough to disable his
own vehicle. In preparation for the training exercise, the car’s airbags had been
disarmed so the collision didn’t trigger their inflation and cut the engine.

As he pushed on through the blockade, Connor
heard another horrible
scrunching
sound and went to brake.

‘Don’t stop,’ urged
Charley.

Connor kept his foot firmly on the
accelerator, but the
scraping between the cars
was like fingernails being clawed down a chalkboard. Then, with a final
screech
, they were beyond the roadblock.

Charley looked back out of the rear
windscreen. ‘Don’t worry, it was just your front bumper,’ she said,
keeping her voice light and breezy.

Grimacing, Connor prayed Jody wouldn’t
penalize him for such an error. He’d been warned about the danger of getting
tangled up with another vehicle. Driving on, he tried to sneak a glance at Jody’s
test sheet just as a masked man leapt into the road. On instinct, Connor braked,
stopping a couple of metres short of hitting him. Unfazed, the attacker raised his gun
and fired. A red paintball exploded on the windshield, directly in line with
Connor’s head.

‘Test over,’ declared Jody.

The gunman walked up to the driver’s
side and tapped on the glass. Connor wound down the window. Bending down, the gunman
removed his mask.

‘Better luck next time,’ said
Bugsy as Jody put a cross through the last box on her clipboard. ‘Consider us even
for kicking me in the jaw!’

With a sinking heart, Connor flicked on the
windscreen wipers and washed off the splodge of dripping paint. Turning the car round,
he headed back to the starting point – the forecourt of the abandoned business park
commandeered for the exercise. He stopped beside Amir, Ling, Jason and Richie, huddled
in a group, all wrapped up in thick puffer jackets against the winter chill.

Stepping out of the
car, Connor noticed Marc clasping his right side as if in pain. ‘Are you all
right?’ he asked.

‘Fine,’ replied Marc, waving him
away. ‘The seat belt must have caught me when you did the emergency stop.
Don’t worry about it.’

‘How did the test go?’ asked
Amir, his breath puffing out in small white clouds in the cold air.

Connor responded with a half-hearted
smile.

‘Not good by the looks of it,’
remarked Richie, examining the crumpled wing. ‘He’s trashed our
car!’

‘Sorry,’ Connor mumbled.
‘I must have got caught up.’

Jody inspected the damage herself.
‘It’s mostly cosmetic. The good thing was you didn’t stop and the car
wasn’t disabled.’ She stood and addressed all of Alpha team. ‘The
number-one rule in an ambush situation is to
always
keep moving
.’ Making another mark on her clipboard, she glanced over at
Connor. ‘Shame you didn’t do that on the final stage of the
exercise.’

‘But I’d have run Bugsy
over,’ protested Connor.

‘It was
only
Bugsy,’
she replied, the corner of her mouth curling up in a wry smile. ‘Seriously, in
such a situation you shouldn’t hesitate to use your vehicle as a weapon to attack
a threat head on.’

‘But you could kill someone!’
said Amir.

‘That’s their decision. If
there’s an armed attacker in front of your car, you either drive into, around or
over that attacker. No hesitation. And, when you drive directly at the enemy, their
self-preservation instincts kick in. This affects their ability to shoot straight, as
well as shifting their focus
from killing you
to not getting hit themselves. Either way, the threat is neutralized or escape
achieved.’

‘So I’ve failed the test
then?’ said Connor, glumly looking at the smear of red paint still visible on the
windscreen.

‘You’re technically dead,’
Jody admitted. Then she gave him an encouraging wink. ‘However, your overall score
was seventy-eight per cent. A solid pass.’

Ling punched Connor on the arm. ‘Slick
driving, hotshot! Almost as good as Mad Max here.’ She nodded at Jason. ‘In
his test, he nearly mowed Bugsy down.’

‘At least I didn’t get
shot,’ stated Jason defensively.

‘But you almost lost control of the
car,’ cautioned Jody. ‘That’s why a vehicle is probably the deadliest
weapon you’ll have at your disposal. And, like any other weapon, if handled
incorrectly you can kill yourself, and your friends, with it. But handled correctly you
can save lives.’

‘Connor, you’re home!’ his
mum called out brightly as he and Charley were dropped off by the taxi. She came down
the path to greet them. But, as she approached the rickety gate of their East London
terraced house, she suddenly lost her footing. Her walking stick went from under her and
she toppled over. Only Connor’s fast reactions saved his mum from a nasty fall. He
leapt forward, catching her in his arms.

‘Whoops,’ said his mum with an
embarrassed glance up at him. ‘Must have slipped on some ice.’

Connor nodded, accepting her excuse without
argument. However, as cold as the winter weather was, he couldn’t see any ice. As
he helped her to stand, he noticed a distinct tremor in his mum’s body. While it
might have been the shock of the fall, he suspected it was another symptom of her
multiple sclerosis. His mum looked more fragile than ever, as if the slightest breeze
might blow her away like a leaf. Her cheeks were more sunken and the constant pain she
suffered seemed to have etched permanent wrinkles at the corners of her eyes. Connor
felt tears
welling up in his own and fought
against them. It was tragically apparent to him that the disease had strengthened its
grip on his mum and was slowly yet surely squeezing the mobility from her frail
body.

But his mum’s smile remained defiant
and her embrace was powerful with love. As he returned her hug, glad for the chance to
blink away his tears, she seemed to take strength from his presence; when he pulled
away, her face had visibly brightened as if a shadow had been lifted.

‘It’s so good to see you,’
she said, kissing his cheek. Then she looked past him to Charley, only a flicker of
surprise passing across her face before she offered a heartfelt greeting. ‘You
must be Charley. Welcome! Sorry about the dramatic reception.’

‘Don’t worry, Mrs Reeves,’
replied Charley, entering the front yard. ‘I’m just pleased to meet you.
Connor’s talked about you a lot.’

‘Really?’ said his mum, taking
her walking stick from her son but declining his offer of support. ‘Well, I hope
it was all good. Now, you both must be tired from your journey. Come in before we all
freeze to death.’

They followed her through the front door,
where Connor noticed a newly installed ramp and a folded-up wheelchair in the hallway.
His mum’s deteriorating condition was worse than he’d feared.

In the living room his gran was waiting by
the fireside. The coals in the grate glowed red, giving off a steady warmth and
flickering light that Connor always associated with being home.