Kidnap (The Billionaire Series) (29 page)

“Yes, I understand,” said Tom, enjoying the call. He had clearly
rattled the man.

***

“Pieter!” shouted Reaper.

“Yes.”

“Where are you?”

“Just landed.”

“Well take off again. You need to get to Johannesburg
International and quick,” commanded Reaper.

“That’s not going to be easy. It’s huge and very busy,” protested
Pieter.

“Just get there and get them.” He hung up.

***

Kisho
steered the helicopter towards
the most remote part of the airport. They could not afford to cause a fuss and
from what Tom had said, the man was sounding desperate. They knew they were
going to be met, they just didn’t know by whom or by what.

“What’s that?” asked Lela pointing to the edge of the radar
screen.

“Another helicopter. Why?” asked
Kisho
.

“Because I’ve noticed it a few times,” she said.

“Recently?”

“Yes and a while back.”

The helicopter was fitted with a similar video system to that
found in combat aircraft.
Kisho
zoomed in on the dot
in the horizon.

“We’ve been followed. That’s the other chopper from the base. So
whoever they are, they’ve got
back-up
behind us. There
were forty soldiers on that base and we took out ten. There could be anything
up to thirty soldiers on that chopper.”

 
“What do you think
Kano?” asked
Kisho
.

“No problem, we know they mean us harm and it’s an easy shot.”

“Yeah, for you,” said
Kisho
laughing.

“What are you talking about?” Tom asked.

“Kano here is going to shoot the birdy.”

“What?”

“Kano is going to shoot the chopper down.”

“Won’t that cause a massive scene at the airport?”

“If we shot them down at the airport maybe, but Kano will shoot
them down over a mile away.”

“But the explosion?”

“No. He won’t blow them
up,
he’ll shoot
them down literally. They’ll drop where they were and simply crash land. We’ve
done it before, don’t worry.”

They landed the chopper and took their positions. Kano would deal
with the chopper while Lela and
Kisho
dealt with
whatever came their way. He would join them as soon as he could. They were
fairly certain that no weapons would be used as this was a major international
airport and weapons would alert the authorities.

Tom made a call to finalise arrangements on the ground.

Chapter
55

It was a very difficult shot. There were probably only two people
in the world
who
could make it and Kano was one of
them. He rested the AS50 Accuracy International Magnum Variant sniper rifle on
his shoulder and looked down the barrel. It had been modified for extra
distance and with the chopper being airborne, that distance extended even
further. He took aim and after a few seconds, he took the shot. The huge
.338-calibre bullet ripped through the air and destroyed the rotor mechanism as
planned. The helicopter shuddered, lost all forward momentum and began dropping
to the ground. The rotors went into emergency mode and as the chopper dropped,
they spun faster and faster to minimise the impact. The chopper
crash landed
in the centre of a deserted park. Nobody was
going anywhere. Although nobody had died, everybody had sustained at least one
broken limb.

Pieter’s chopper landed just as Tom and Lela touched down.
Kisho
had planned his landing perfectly to block any other
landings in their immediate vicinity. Pieter was forced to land a few hundred
meters away with a number of buildings between him and his targets.
 

As Kano dealt with the chopper, Tom, Lela and
Kisho
waited for Reaper’s men. They had made their way into a terminal building to
ensure that whoever was coming for them, would have to be unarmed as metal
detectors and sniffer dogs were everywhere. Tom had been informed by one of his
contacts that the baggage area was under repair and was a perfect rendezvous
point. Tom, Lela and
Kisho
had been the first to
arrive. They were completely alone. Tom’s phone rang.

“Where are you?” said Reaper.

“I’m in the baggage terminal under repair, standing at Conveyer
3.”

“OK, my men will be there in two minutes. Are you alone?”

“No.”

“Who is with you?”

“Lela.”

“Stop being smart,” said Reaper. The call ended.

Tom looked across at
Kisho
who was
hiding in the conveyor hole.

“Two minutes,” he said.

Kisho
put his thumb up in
acknowledgment.

“Frightened?” Tom asked Lela.

“Yes, you?”

“Wetting myself. Where are they?”

On receiving the go-ahead from Reaper, Pieter left two men to
watch the chopper and took eight men into the terminal.
He
was not happy
,
they had no weapons
. Before that
day, he would have thought it was overkill but not now.

Pieter and his men spotted Tom and Lela standing by the conveyor,
they were both small. What the hell was the problem? Nobody else seemed to be
around. Where were the five soldiers who’d been with them? He had least
expected them to put up a fight.

As they approached the conveyor belt, they heard a door slam
behind them. They looked around and saw six brutish looking thugs, wielding
baseball bats. Five of Pieter’s men broke off to deal with them. It was no
contest,
his guys were easily the best.

Pieter and his remaining men turned back towards Tom and Lela who
were now less than five metres away but found themselves looking at
Kisho
as well.
Kisho
stepped out
in front of Lela and Tom and walked towards Pieter and the three men.
 

“Pathetic,” said Pieter. “You’ve got six thugs and him to deal
with us. Surely, you could have done better than that,” he said.

“And me,” said Lela stepping forward.

“Don’t, please, you’re killing me,” said Pieter laughing in
Lela’s face.

Lela stepped forward and hit him harder than he had ever been hit
before. She had focussed all her energy and rage into her right
fist which
hit him just below the ribcage. He slumped in a
heap, the smile vanishing from his face.
Kisho
watched his little cousin with
pride,
she was
definitely Saki’s daughter. He had only ever seen one person hit someone harder
and that had been Saki. But Lela was half his weight and size.
 

Pieter’s men were initially stunned at what they had just seen
but quickly regained their composure and made a move on
Kisho
.

Tom watched in awe as
Pieter’s three men were
pummelled by
Kisho
. The first man made the
mistake of taking a swing at
Kisho
. His arm snapped
and his nose exploded as
Kisho
deflected the punch
and drove his own punch home. As the punch landed, his right foot connected
with the second guy’s
chin which
sent him flying
twenty feet across the terminal floor. As the foot finished its work, the third
man received
Kisho’s
second and third punch, one in
the stomach and one on the side of the head. The three men were down and out
before the other five had made contact with the
bat wielding
thugs.

In the meantime, Pieter had attempted to get up. However, a very
hard kick from Lela meant he would not be going anywhere for some time.

Pieter’s five remaining men were caught in no man’s land and did
not know what to do. Their boss had just been taken out by a young girl, which
unnerved them completely. The
guy
who had taken out
three of their colleagues, had done it so quickly that they didn’t know what he
had done. On top of this, they were faced with six very large thugs with
baseball bats. They looked at each other and weighed up the options.
The guy and the girl or the six thugs with bats.
They went
for the thugs.

What the thugs lacked in training and skills, they made up for in
brute strength and many years’ experience. Although they received a few punches
and bloody noses, it did not take long for them to deal with Pieter’s men,
especially when
Kisho
came and dealt with two of
them. He had offered to assist further but the thugs were having fun with the
last three and declined the offer.

When the last man was down, one of the thugs opened the door. A
young boy entered the baggage hall. Tom ran over to greet him.

“Rolf, I can’t thank you enough!”

“No problem! Anytime. My father sends his regards. He would have
been here but it’s a little too public. So what’s going on?”

“I’m sorry, I can’t tell you. Not because I don’t want to but
because it would endanger lives, including yours.”

“I understand. When I received your call, I spoke with my father.
He said that whatever you need, you
can
have.”

“I really appreciate that. What I need is for these guys to be
kept somewhere very secure and very private until I get in touch again. You can
then release them to the authorities.”

“It would be a pleasure. And I’m sure my dad’s men will enjoy
having some playthings to keep them amused.”

“We have one more in the helicopter.”

“Make that three. Kano just called and there were two more in
their helicopter but he has them.”

“OK, good. My father will be eternally grateful for your help, as
am I, Rolf.”

“As I said, my father made it clear that whatever you need, you
will get. He said that he would give up the shirt on his back for your father.”

“Thank you Rolf, you and your father are always too kind.”

“Not at all. Is there anything else we can do?”

“Well actually, there is a helicopter full of soldiers in a park
about one and a half miles from here, most of them will be fairly badly
injured,
you
couldn’t grab them also?”

“Already done. We have them all, you already asked.”

“Of course, I’m sorry. There’s been so much going on. Great,
thank-you.”

“I can’t wait to hear the story. We have to go now as the
officers we bribed will need to come back shortly.”

“Thanks again Rolf, I’ll call you as soon as I can.”

Lela ran over, she had been retrieving Pieter’s phone. She gave
Rolf a huge hug and thanked him profusely.

As Rolf and his men left with their excess baggage,
Kisho
turned to Tom and asked, “Who, exactly, was that?”

“That was Rolf.”

“And who is he?”

“He is the son of the king of the South African underworld,”
replied Tom.

“How do you know him?”

“My father has a lot of interests in South Africa and before they
sorted out their problems, we were having a lot of problems with gangs and
violence. Despite being an underworld boss, Rolf’s father is a very honourable
man. He does not deal in drugs but concentrates on gambling and money
laundering. He says he makes more than enough money on that. It was getting to
the stage that my father was going to have to close down most of his businesses
in South Africa. Rolf’s father heard rumours that my father was going to pull
out and so contacted my father to ask why. My father explained that the
companies’ losses were directly attributable to violence against his staff,
armed robberies and corruption. It got to the stage where he couldn’t sleep at
night for fear that his staff may be injured or even killed. Rolf’s father
explained that the effect of Alba International moving out would be devastating
to the economy and a large number of decent families would suffer. My father
flew down to meet him and they agreed that Rolf’s father would organise
security and secure our businesses if my father made a commitment to keep the
companies in South Africa. They agreed and my father was delighted with the
results. The companies flourished and as a gesture of thanks, my father gave
him a 10% stake in his South African businesses. It’s all done through offshore
businesses but it’s his and it’s legitimate. My father reckons that Rolf’s
father is one of the least corrupt and most honourable men he’s ever met and
they’ve been friends ever since. Bizarre but true.”

Chapter
56

Reaper was feeling very uneasy. It had been over an hour since he
had heard from either Pieter or Tom. For this mission to be successful, he had
to have both Tom and Lela in his possession. Without them, he seriously doubted
whether Donald would do what was required when the time came. With his son and
surrogate daughter in a room with a knife to their throats, he knew that he
would do whatever they asked.

His phone rang. It was not Pieter but Tom.

“Oh my God, it’s a disaster, they’ve all gone,” said Tom almost
crying on the phone.

“What’s happened?” Reaper said.

“The soldiers, they snuck behind us and they had a fight with
your men.”

“What happened, where are my men?”

“I don’t know. There was a huge battle and Lela and I just got
out of there in time. I didn’t know what else to do.”

“OK, where are you now?” Reaper didn’t know what to do. If he
didn’t get the kids, his plan and his life were over.

“We’re in the main terminal. There are lots of people here and
hopefully nobody will find us.”