Kidnap (The Billionaire Series) (9 page)

The seven red dots worked their way along the wall toward the
main driveway. Saki smiled, boy, were this mob in for the shock of their lives.

The main gate buzzer began to sound. Saki lifted the
handset,
he didn’t want anybody to overhear the
conversation.

“Saki, are you OK? What’s happening?” asked a flustered SPU
officer.

“We’re fine, don’t worry!”

“False alarm?” he asked, relieved.

“No, we’ve got seven intruders making their way towards the
house.”

“Jesus, let us in!” he shouted.

“Absolutely not, it’s too dangerous,” he replied

“That’s why we’re here, let us in!” he demanded again.

“It’s too dangerous for you, not us,” replied Saki and hung up.

He watched the seven red blips reach the driveway and begin to
accelerate. As expected, the blips suddenly stopped moving.

***

“Jesus Christ!” screamed
Conor
as the road suddenly became a sea of spikes, bursting every one of the fourteen
tyres.

The seven men managed to get to the side of the road unscathed
but they now had over 3 miles to cover to get to the house on foot.
He looked back to the main gate
,
it
remained firmly shut
. Why would they not let the security team in? He
was beginning to wish he had listened to Sinead. Had the ramps been available,
he would have turned around but they weren’t and the walls were
unclimable
, caked in anti climb paint and topped with razor
wire. They had no option but to move into the
woods which
skirted the driveway and set off at a jog. They were extremely fit, heavily
armed and well covered by the trees, things could be worse.

However, things got worse very quickly. The lights died, as did
the sirens and an eerie dark silence fell upon
Conor
and his men. They must know where we are, why else would they turn the lights
off?
Conor
was now very worried.

***

 
Donald joined Saki in
the kitchen.

“Well?”

“Seven, just inside the main gate and they just lost their
transport,” said Saki pointing at the screen. They could see, from the video
feed, seven men working their way through the wooded area. Tom joined them. He
knew it wasn’t a false alarm, his father’s face had told him all he needed to
know. He watched the video screen.

“Are we in danger?” asked Donald.

“Not unless they’re hiding a nuke in
their
pockets, not a chance. Even if they did, we could just head down to the bunker.
Donald, trust me, this house is impregnable,” assured Saki for what felt like
the millionth time.

Saki picked up a portable screen and pulled on a black sweater.

“Where the hell are you going?” asked Donald.

“I’m going to get rid of some rubbish,” he replied. He hit two
buttons and the screen jumped from daylight view to a red glow as the system
detected the change in light. The sirens in the grounds also ceased, although
with the shutters down the noise in the house had been significantly reduced.

“What did you do that for?” asked Donald confused.

“Makes it a bit more interesting,” he said, grabbing the intercom
headset and, ensuring there were no blips near the house, he activated the
release for the back door. The shutter raised and allowed Saki to leave,
shutting immediately behind him.

Donald and Tom were left looking at each other, neither knowing
what to say, they turned their attention to the screen and watched as Saki’s
green dot zipped across the screen.

***

The SPU officers were beside themselves, their role was to
protect the Prime Minister’s son but they couldn’t get in to protect him. Seven
intruders were making their way towards the Estate and they were utterly
impotent.

The officer in charge phoned the Special Branch Commander and
told him what was happening.

“What do you mean, he won’t let you in?” he screamed.

“What the hell!” exclaimed the SPU
officer.

“What, what’s happened?” the Special Branch man shouted.

“Can’t you hear? The sirens just stopped and now the lights have
gone out,” replied the bewildered SPU officer.

“They must have cut the power. Scale the wall if you have to!
Just get in there!!” he commanded.

“We’ve tried that, it’s impossible, wait a minute, I hear
something…” the security man paused as he listened.

Suddenly three Lynx helicopters swooped over the tree line behind
him and flew over his head, two men stood poised on each of the helicopters
skids. As he saw the helicopters enter the Estate, each of the twelve men
dropped ropes and began to rappel down even before they had stopped moving.

***

“Saki, come in Saki,” said the voice into Saki’s
head set
.

Saki pressed the communicate button.

“Saki here, who’s this?”

“Captain Harris, what’s the situation?”

Saki knew Captain Harris very well. They had run a number of
exercises together. The Kennedy Estate was less than ten miles from Her
Majesty’s Naval Base Clyde at
Faslane
, home to the
UK’s nuclear arsenal. The facility was under the protection of the Fleet
Protection Group Royal Marines, an elite Royal Marine Commando unit, home to
some of the toughest and most highly trained soldiers in the world. Donald had
been approached by the Commander of the unit when he had purchased the Estate
fourteen years earlier. The derelict estate had been an excellent training
ground which
his men had used unofficially and he had asked
if there were any possibility for some of the old buildings to be retained.
Donald never missed an opportunity. On hearing that he and his family were
within 10 miles of this elite group, he bent over backwards for them. He partitioned
off 3 square miles of his Estate, including some of its prime shoreline,
arranged for the removal and rebuilding of the derelict buildings exactly as
they were on this area and handed it over for the Commando’s to use as and when
they wished. He threw in a luxury
club room
for good
measure. The Commandos and their Commander could not believe his generosity and
in return, said that whatever they could do for them, they would. He had
invited the Commander to dinner one evening soon after the Estate was completed
and showed him the security system. The man was
amazed,
he had commented that perhaps they should store their nukes in Donald’s
basement, where they would probably be safer. Both had laughed but both knew he
was right, they would be. Donald had then subtly mentioned what a fantastic
training exercise it would be if the Commandos responded to the Estate’s alarms
should they go off at any point. The Commander took the hint and within 24
hours, had obtained the clearance, everybody agreeing it was a great idea.

“Seven intruders, about a half mile from the main gate near the
driveway.”

“We’ll be there in two.”

“You may miss the fun, I’ll be there in one,” replied Saki.

Captain Harris screamed to his pilot.

“Can’t this thing go any faster? We’re going to miss the action!!”

They were flying a Lynx helicopter, the fastest production
helicopter in the world, but the answer was no, they couldn’t.

***

 
“What was that?”
asked Kevin.
Conor’s
crew was now very jumpy.

Conor
turned round and could just make
out the silhouette of three helicopters and men dangling from them as they
cleared the main gates way behind them. The men shot down the ropes as the
helicopters slowed, landing without fault at a half run. He could see they all
wore night vision goggles and were heavily armed. The helicopters flew just
over their heads and
Conor
recognised the Royal
Marine insignia. What he had thought could not get any worse, just had. At
least with the police, they could always give up and spend a few years in
prison. With the Marines, that was not an option. The hunters had become the
hunted.

Conor
gave the signal to turn back into
the woods, their best chance of avoiding the Marines. However, in less than ten
yards, a scream stopped them dead in their tracks. It hadn’t come behind them,
where the Marines were,
but
 
from
their man up front.

Things had just got even worse.

***

Saki watched as the men took a sharp turn towards him as they
tried to avoid the Marines. He silently moved into position and just as the
first intruder approached him, he stepped out right in front of him. The
intruders were so freaked out by this point that the man nearly had a heart
attack and emitted the most terrified blood curdling scream
..
Saki punched him once and knocked him unconscious before he died of fright.

Saki looked at the small portable screen as the red dots
scattered around him. He put it away, he didn’t need it,
this
was his ground.

***

Conor’s
blood ran cold as he heard the
scream and then the thud of a body slumping to the ground. His men looked to
him for leadership, he didn’t have any,
he
was as
scared as they were.

He couldn’t believe it, he had one of the toughest crews the
paramilitaries had ever produced and they were a bunch of quivering wrecks. He
pulled himself together but he was too late, his men had scarpered in various
directions. Only Kevin remained by his side. They looked at each other, what
should they do? A series of thuds and slumps made up their minds, they turned
round and ran back to the road. At least with the Marines they knew what they
were up against.

***

Saki made light work of the other four
intruders,
none of them would be giving them any more trouble that night.

***

 
Captain Harris and
his teams had split into three, one entering the woods where they believed the
intruders had entered. The second team would enter further down the driveway
and would work back. The third team would watch the road in case they came back
out.

It was the team on the road who heard the rustling and saw the
two green images emerge from the darkness. Both images were armed and broke
through the undergrowth with their weapons raised.

The
four man
team had no option, they
raised their SA-80s and fired as the two intruders emerged from the woods. Both
fell to the floor, dead.
  

***

Sinead had managed to get back to the camp just as the four shots
rang out. She recognised the sound of British rifles.
Conor
and his men had Russian Kalashnikovs. She jumped into the car, started the
engine and called Ryan. She knew there was no way anybody would get out of the
Estate. He met her at the airport where they bought tickets for the next plane
leaving to anywhere. It was Palma, Mallorca.

***

Saki keyed in the all clear code and hit the lights. Night became
day again as the shutters and doors across the Estate unlocked. He also opened
the gates and let the apoplectic SPU officers in. They rushed down the road,
avoiding the
motorbikes which
littered the driveway,
now minus its spikes.

Within two minutes, the five unconscious intruders were handcuffed
and awaiting transport to the nearby high security police station where they
would be questioned and charged. The SPU officers had managed to bring one of
the men around and had ascertained that Tristan was definitely not the
target,
it had been both Tom and Lela.

The Marines left twenty minutes later, having received Donald’s
heartfelt gratitude. It was they said, the least they could do.

Not only had Donald provided them with a luxury clubhouse and
training ground, he had also ensured that the Commando unit had wanted for
nothing over the previous fourteen years. He gave them scholarship funds to
ensure their children could go to university and if any Commando died in the
line of duty, their widows would receive a hefty sum from the Alba retirement fund.
Donald had done all of this and this was the first time, in fourteen
years, that
the Alarm had genuinely sounded. All previous
alarms had been false alarms requested by the Commandos for training exercises.

Within two hours, the two dead bodies were removed and the
grounds returned to their normal quiet state. The description of the woman who
had accompanied the kidnap team was circulated to all police stations, airports
and seaports. But Sinead and Ryan were already in the air when Glasgow Airport received
their descriptions. Both had decided they never wanted to hear the name Kennedy
nor see the Estate again.

Chapter
19

The next day was a blur. Tom and Lela’s friends left just after
lunch and Tom spent the afternoon with his flight instructor, Jacques. Lela
spent the afternoon with Saki, catching up on two training sessions and
dissecting her first fight. Rachel and Donald both had work to go to. Rachel
went to the hospital where she still worked as a paediatrician while Donald
went to finalise the bid for IBC. After what had been a very hectic
twenty four
hours, the Kennedy house was in darkness and
silence by 9.00 p.m. They were all sound asleep.

***

“Morning,” said Tom as he joined the rest of the family at
breakfast. He, as usual, was last to arrive.

“So today’s the big day?” asked Tom.