Kidnap (The Billionaire Series) (8 page)

***

Tom, Lela and their friends walked towards the bowling alley, on
the other side of the complex, briefly discussing the movie before returning to
their earlier tactical discussions on how to win the bowling. They were closely
followed by Saki and closely watched by their fifty new guardians.

As they entered the bowling alley, a small group of
Neds
left hurriedly, pointing at Lela and
saying
“that’s her.” Tom and Lela’s friends noticed but Tom
just shrugged his shoulders and said, “Weirdoes, don’t worry about them.”
 

Saki, taking a similar position to earlier, watched as the same
group of
Neds
left and began to make calls just
beside him at the main door. Within five minutes, their number had doubled and
within ten, it had doubled again. Finally, a young man arrived, dressed in his
finest white shell-suit and sporting more gold rings than Saki thought would be
possible on one hand. He swayed into view and took forever to join the rest of
his gang so as to ensure his swagger projected his presence. When he finally
arrived, the others excitedly updated him with varying versions of the
evening’s events. He was obviously their leader.
  

Saki looked around and counted at least twenty plain clothes
officers taking an interest in the growing gang. Saki spotted the officer in
charge and with an almost imperceptible nod suggested he would handle it. The
officer had been made aware of Saki’s status by the Special Branch Commander
and radioed for his men to hold back.

Saki walked across to the group and spoke in a cheery tone.

“Hi guys.”
 

“What the f*** do you want?” the leader snapped, stepping towards
Saki in an attempt to intimidate him.

“I was going to help you but if you don’t want my help, that’s
fine. I’ll just leave you to it.” He moved to walk away.

“Where do you think you’re going, you’ll leave when I say you
can,” announced the leader, raising a few sniggers from his gang.

“Oh I’m sorry,” replied Saki. “Do you want my help
afterall
?”

The leader of the
Neds
raised his eyes
to the heavens, a real showman

. “Jesus old man, tell us exactly how you think you can help us?”
he taunted.

“I thought I would help you by giving you some options.” Saki was
about to be interrupted by one of the
Neds
but the
leader raised his hand, he wanted to hear this. If nothing else, it should make
a good story.

Saki continued.

“Option one, this is the best one and I highly recommend it. You
walk away and everybody’s fine. Option two, you annoy me more than you have
already and I beat on you until the twenty policemen currently surrounding us
rescue you. Or, option three, I cannot iterate enough how much I would
recommend against this one, you try to attack the children I’m looking after
and even the twenty policemen won’t rescue you from that one.”

The Ned leader had been laughing until option two and the mention
of the twenty policemen. Like the rest of his gang, he had instantly looked
around. He couldn’t see any, there were plenty of people milling around but no
coppers that he recognised.

“Old man, the best thing you can do for your kids is
call
an ambulance. Nobody beats up my gang in my town.”

The leader lifted his arm to push past Saki. He had been warned
that option three was not a good option.

Saki had recognised the boy when he had arrived, he and his gang
had been terrorising the neighbourhood for a couple of years, always managing
to evade the police. It was time they were taught a lesson.

Saki didn’t move, the leader pushed with more force and still
Saki would not move. He wasn’t going to assault the Ned in front of twenty
policemen, not until he had
self defence
as his
justification.
  

The Ned lost his temper and threw a punch, quickly followed by a
barrage from his gang. However, Saki had already moved and had delivered his
own barrage of punches. His fists moved so quickly that the
Neds
didn’t stand a chance. One after the other, they fell as Saki waded through
them, leaving the leader to last. The police were still running towards them as
Saki faced the bewildered leader surrounded by his gang writhing and crying
around him.

“Who the f*** are you?” the leader asked, still stunned by what
he had just seen.

“Payback,” he replied before sweeping the Ned’s legs from under
him. The Ned flew up in the air and crashed down onto the concrete landing on
his coccyx, the crunch echoed across the car park. Saki knew exactly what he
was doing, the pain would last for years and at least now the swagger would be
natural.

The police arrived, only 20 seconds after the first punch,
quietly congratulating Saki before carting off the
Neds
whom they arrested for numerous charges, including breach of the peace and
attempted assault. The haul of weapons found on the gang led to a number of
greater charges, including an attempted murder charge against the leader when
his knife was linked to a near fatal stabbing two days earlier.

***

As the commotion was ending outside, the game was heating up
inside. As usual, it was the boys against the girls and the girls were beating
them. On top of Lela’s near perfect strikes, one of her friends had a bizarre
technique which
involved dropping the bowl at her feet and
letting it trickle down the alley before scoring a strike. One occurrence would
have been a fluke but she was consistent, scoring a strike with nearly every
“drop.” Tom threw his second bowl.

“Spare! Yes!”

He had just managed to keep the boys in the game and unable to
watch the next drop strike, he excused himself and headed to the toilets.

As he entered the toilets, he noticed two
Neds
follow quickly behind. They had been playing the arcade machines and had missed
the action outside with Saki.

“He was there,” said the smaller Ned pointing at Tom.

“What do you lot think you’re playing at fighting with our gang?”
asked the taller one.

“What are you talking about? I didn’t touch any of your gang, it
was my sister Lela,” responded Tom. Obviously, the little Ned had not told the
complete truth.

“Yeah, right,” he said not believing him.

“Ask him,” said Tom pointing to the little one.

“What?” the Ned turned to the smaller one who shrugged with a
sheepish grin and then swiftly received a clout across the head from his larger
companion.

“Well, somebody has to pay, so perhaps you’ll control your
girlfriend better next time, ” he said as he lunged towards Tom. Tom instinctively
blocked the attack and, using his aggressor’s energy just as Lela had taught
him, propelled him into the metal urinal creating an almighty bang. The stunned
Ned went limp and slid down into the trough mopping up the latest deposits
along the length of his body. The smaller Ned took off. He’d seen enough fancy
moves to last him a lifetime. The larger Ned lay motionless in the trough.

“She’s not my girlfriend. She’s my sister,” said Tom as he
straightened his top and left to join the party in time to be humiliated by the
girls’ bowling victory.

Chapter
18

Saki did not want to alert the children to the thought they may
be in danger and therefore the
eight man
SPU detail
discretely took up position, one car in front and one behind the minibus on the
way back to the Estate. They would spend the night watching the main gates.
Saki assured them that the Estate was perfectly secure and their presence was
unnecessary but they had their orders and had to stay. He promised he would
bring them tea and biscuits every couple of hours.

Donald and Rachel were waiting for them in the lounge when they
arrived. Saki had phoned Donald to tell him what had happened and that
everything was fine. He, of course, had begun to think the worst and wondered
if there was any more he could have done to prevent it. Saki reassured him that
there was nothing to prevent, nothing had happened.

As the group discussed the evening’s events, Saki and Donald
moved to the kitchen. Donald was concerned about the five people Saki had seen
earlier at the cinema.

“Who do you think they were after?” asked Donald.

“Tom!” replied Saki.

“Oh god! Are you sure?” asked Donald.

“Not 100% but the Special Branch commander made it very clear
that nobody knew Tristan was coming here today, nobody.”

The Kennedys had always known they were at risk of being
kidnapped,
it was a persistent threat which accompanied high
profile multi-billionaires. However, Donald’s fanatical approach to security
had, until then, kept the threat at arm’s length.

“How secure are we in here?” asked Donald.

Before Saki could answer, the Estate’s sirens began to sound.

“We’re about to find out!” he shouted, but Donald couldn’t hear a
thing.

***

Conor
had watched as the minibus had
arrived back with its escorts. Damn, he thought, eight armed security
men,
the stakes had just been raised dramatically. However,
the
eight man
team did not enter the estate but stayed
outside as the minibus disappeared behind the gates.

He moved back into the woods and updated his crew. Sinead was not
happy.

“What the hell do you mean, none of them went in?”

“None of the security men went into the estate. I don’t mean
anything, I’m just telling you what happened,” he replied angrily. Her worries
were really starting to get under his skin. He turned to the rest of the crew.

“Bugger this, let’s go, we’ll hit them right now!” said
Conor
.

The longer they waited, the longer he would have to suffer
Sinead’s moaning.

Conor
checked the seven members of his
crew who would be accompanying him into the estate. Only Ryan, the techy, was
missing. He was waiting on the other side of the Loch with the getaway cars.
The eight moved off, pushing their bikes down the small road, they did not want
to alert the security men to their presence before they had to. The ramps had
been placed earlier at the side of the wall. Four of the men dumped their bikes
and rushed across the road to grab the ramps. They would work on a simple
seesaw basis, the longer end of the ramp being placed at the outside of the
wall and as the bikes reached the top. The slightly shorter end would be forced
over the other side. As the bike made it down the other side and off the ramp,
the plank would swing back up and the next bike would follow.

The ramps were just out of sight of the main gates, so it was
imperative that their entry was quick to avoid the security men.

As the four ramps touched the wall, the alarms immediately
sounded and night became day as the 20 square miles of Estate were instantly
bathed in millions of watts of floodlight. The first four bikes zoomed up the
ramp, the noise of their engines drowned by the sirens, and as they reached the
top of the wall, the ramp pivoted and the bikes rushed down the other side. As
planned, the ramp sprung back to its original position and the next four bikes
zoomed up. Unfortunately, Sinead didn’t quite hit the ramp properly and fell
off the ramp near the top of the wall, her bike falling on top of her on the
outside of the wall, leaving her lying in a helpless heap.

Conor
looked round and saw she was
missing. He assumed she had bottled out and would deal with her later. Nobody
backed out of a mission and lived to regret it, it was an unwritten
rule which
everybody understood. Of course, even if he had
wanted to go back for her, he couldn’t. The ramps were all now on the wrong
side of the wall. He waited another ten seconds for her before giving up. He
waved his men on, the main drive way was 400 yards along the wall,
there
was just enough room to manoeuvre their bikes between
the wall and the trees.

A minute later, they hit the road and opened the throttles fully
on their powerful bikes. They would be at the house in less than two minutes.

***

 
Sinead managed to get
up and realised her bike was useless, its front wheel having buckled when it
landed. She had twisted her ankle but managed to hobble away, slinking into the
woods on the other side of the road. She just wanted to get as far away as she
could,
her ear drums were pulsating from the force of the
sirens.

***

Panic had broken out in the Main house when the alarms had
started. A few of Tom and Lela’s friends had run to the front door assuming the
alarm was a fire alarm. However, before anybody could tell them otherwise, the
house entered its lock down phase, exactly 5 seconds after the alarms sounded.
Blast shutters descended across every door and window around the estate.

Donald rushed into the lounge and assured everyone that they were
completely safe and that there was nothing to worry about. It was probably a
false alarm but in any event, they could not be in a safer place. Saki stayed
in the kitchen and watched the 3D schematic of the Estate. That was an
additional feature of the security camera system. Seven red dots appeared on
the schematic, detailing exactly where each of the intruders
were
.
Saki could also see the 12 green dots huddled in the lounge in the next room
and his own green dot in the kitchen. The recognition system in the cameras
covered every inch of the estate and the system recognised people by their
facial characteristics, height and weight. Once allowed into the Estate as a
welcomed guest, the technology would automatically allocate a green dot.
Unwelcome guests, or people the system did not recognise, would instantly be
allocated a red dot and trigger the alarm.