Murray McDonald - Assassin

“No, you were right, phoning them in the middle of the night to tell them we were being forced to land by two fighter jets whose country believes we killed 2,500 people was probably not the right option. If I had strongly disagreed, I would have phoned Lela anyway,” replied Saki.

Before Donald could say anymore, they heard the scrape of a key being inserted into the lock of their door. The heavy steel door swung open and a huge prison guard in an ill-fitting uniform, bordering on rags, grinned wildly at them. He was a very different breed from the professional soldiers who had arrested them the previous evening.

“Exercise time,” he boomed.

“We’re fine thanks, we’ll just stay here if you don’t mind,” said Saki.

Two other guards stepped forward, slapping truncheons into their open palms, itching for an excuse to use them.

“It’s not optional, move!” shouted the huge guard.

As they stepped out of their cell, they were met by Rachel who was accompanied by their huge guard’s uglier and even smellier brother. They were escorted down a number of staircases and shown through a gate which slammed shut behind them. They stood alone in a large and empty courtyard. The guards locked the gate and disappeared. The prison was filthy and ill-maintained. Its walls were crumbling and the courtyard’s grass was overgrown. Pipes were burst and spewed brown liquid into one corner of the courtyard, the pungent smell suggesting the liquid was an out-pipe, not an in-pipe.

Rachel hugged Donald. “What’s going to happen now?” she asked.

“I don’t know. I think they’re just trying to scare us.”

“Well it’s working,” she replied.

“They haven’t even started yet,” said Saki pointing to a large set of gates.

“Look, the rest of the prisoners are coming our way.”

The gates opened and the courtyard filled with prisoners in seconds. The stench of sweat and human filth made them choke as it contaminated every cubic inch of air. The noise too was intense as the buzz in the courtyard focussed on the new prisoners. In particular, the very attractive white woman. It had been a very long time since these men had seen a woman.

Saki stepped in front of Donald and Rachel and was doing his best to shield them from what must have been 200 prisoners. They stayed in the corner of the courtyard nearest the gate, in the vain hope that the error would soon come to light and the gate would open to release them. However, the gate remained firmly shut and no guards were visible anywhere, even the watchtowers were empty.

Saki watched as the prisoners began to form a semi-circle around them. They advanced until the first line of prisoners was about ten metres away and parted to reveal a nucleus of prisoners who were protecting a relatively well dressed prisoner who was obviously the boss.

“Good morning,” he said.

“Good morning,” replied Saki.

“I see we have a woman in our prison, a gift from God himself perhaps.”

“She most certainly is but not for any of you.”

Saki could see where this was going and he didn’t like the odds. If only he had a weapon, he would stand a better chance. As he spoke, he scanned the crowd and spotted exactly what he needed, one of the boss’s men had a baton, perfect.

“I think that’s for me to decide, you’re in my place now,” said the man gesturing to the courtyard.

Saki calculated his options. Offense would take them by surprise and give him more of an edge.

“Did nobody tell you, you just got demoted?” asked a very serious Saki. His eyes burned into the prisoner’s eyes and Saki could sense fear. This prisoner was not used to being challenged.

Saki moved and covered the distance between himself and the boss before his goons could protect him. He landed his foot squarely on his stomach, not to injure him but to gain momentum as he spun off the boss’s stomach and laid out five of his henchmen with one flying kick. He landed on one foot and, as he landed, threw the other one into another henchman with such a force that he was sent flying into the crowd and took another eight prisoners down with him. The henchman who had the baton was tumbling towards the floor as was his baton which Saki caught in one hand whilst dispatching the rest of the henchmen with two flicks of the wrist.

Saki stopped moving and remained poised ready to strike again. He had stopped before the last of the henchmen had hit the ground such was his speed.

When the boss prisoner looked up from his kick to the stomach, he thought he was seeing things. His men lay all around him. Those who could were groaning and those who couldn’t were seriously concussed.

Saki had been merciless. Each of his strikes had been calculated to inflict a great deal of damage. None of the boss’ henchmen would be fit for anything other than hospital for the following few weeks. All had received fractures to their limbs, jaws or skulls. The only thing which could protect Donald and Rachel was a show of overwhelming force and Saki had delivered.

The remaining prisoners soon dispersed. They were all violent men but none had ever witnessed such a display of speed and power. The small oriental man was not to be messed with. The boss offered his apologies and slunk into the background. Without his henchmen, he was as good as dead, a lot of prisoners had scores to settle with him.

“Very impressive,” said Donald.

“Thank you, Saki,” whispered Rachel who was still shaking.

Tom did not sleep well, the news story the previous night had him very worried. He gave up trying to sleep as the clock hit 7.00 a.m.. He got up and heard Lela moving around next door. She was practising her martial arts, as she did every single day. He didn’t how she could be bothered. By the time he was showered and dressed, she had stopped moving around. As he had not eaten the previous day, he wanted to go for breakfast and knocked on Lela’s door to see if she would join him.

“I’m just in the shower, who is it?” she shouted.

“It’s me, Tom, do you want to go for breakfast?”

“Yeah, just give me two minutes,” she replied.

Exactly two minutes later, she appeared at the door dressed and ready.

“That was quick.”

“Well, I don’t hang around, like some,” she teased.

As they made their way downstairs, a forlorn looking Zach was coming up the stairs.

“Hey Zach, you coming for breakfast?” asked Tom.

“S’pose so,” was the half hearted response, his feet dragging his body almost to a stop with each step.

“What’s wrong Zach, you were so happy last night?” asked Lela. Tom hadn’t even noticed Zach was upset, which was typical when he was hungry, nothing else mattered.

“My dad just called, there’s a fault on his plane and it’s going to take hours to fix. By the time he gets here, he’d have to go back, so he’s not coming.”

“Why doesn’t he just get another plane?” asked Tom.

“There aren’t any he can use, he’s stuck there.”

“Where’s there?”

“Durban.”

Tom pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialled a number.

“Hi… it’s me…are you up? Excellent…can you meet us at the hangar…we’re going to Durban.” Said Tom putting his mobile back in his pocket.

“You’re joking right?” said Zach.

“Not at all, I was wondering what we were going to do today, a trip to Durban sounds like the perfect solution, we’ll be there in…” Tom pulled a small palm pc from its belt holder and punched in the details, “…about 90 minutes. Let’s go, Kisho will meet us at the plane.” He put away the palm pc with its GeoviewX X software which could calculate the distance and flight time between any two points in the world. Tom loved it.