Murray McDonald - Assassin

The file stated that Alba had purchased one of the world’s worst explosives manufacturers and did business with anybody willing to pay cash. Explosives were sold to tyrannical dictators in contravention of UN embargoes. Staff were regularly killed or maimed in the unsafe factory. And worst of all, the factory had produced millions of the 110 million land mines that were currently believed to be sitting in wait. The file also produced a long list of atrocities directly linked to the factory. In reality, all these had ended before Alba had purchased the company but that too was ignored.

The second page was a copy of an email from Donald. He remembered the email and the conversation he had had about it. But again, the context was completely misleading. When Alba purchased the factory, it had a huge store of demolition and military explosives in various states of stability. In fact, it was a massive ticking time bomb. A meeting had been called to discuss what should be done with it. Donald remembered it because at the time, he couldn’t believe it was even being discussed. He had immediately sent an email to all involved: “ there is to be no delay, the explosives are to be got rid of, dumped, sent to the moon, I don’t care. Just get rid of them. Every day they are in the warehouse, they endanger the whole factory.”

All staff who had received the e-mail knew exactly what he meant. The unsafe explosives were to be taken out to sea and dumped or detonated in a controlled and safe environment, whichever was the safest. He read the email again and could almost predict what would come next.

Page three realised his prediction — a sales receipt for a huge quantity of dynamite for a rock bottom price. The invoice detailed that this was a once and only offer and required the immediate shipment of the entire stock. The invoice was addressed to a mining company in Equatorial Guinea, now defunct. It no longer existed because it was buried, along with the nearby village and its inhabitants.

The rest of the pages detailed the forensic evidence, the dockets detailing the shipment of the explosives and the delivery to the mine. The documents described the storage facility and the inappropriateness of using it to store such a vast quantity of explosives. In addition, the explosives were highly unstable, unfit for sale and should have been disposed of.

Donald felt sick. He couldn’t believe that somebody had been able to make it look as though he were responsible for the explosion and the deaths. Nobody misunderstood him at Alba and he was certain that nobody in Alba would conceive of doing this to him. Nonetheless, the documentation was real, albeit presented completely out of context. But how did they get his e-mail, how? One thing began to niggle at the back of is mind, somebody within Alba was helping whoever it was. He returned to the second page and the copy of his e-mail, it had been sent to Jason his CFO. How could they have got it? Jason wasn’t even at work, he had been on compassionate leave for the previous 7 months as his wife and three children had been killed in a car crash. Jason, unbeknownst to everyone except Donald, had suffered a complete breakdown and was still in hospital.

He began to regain his composure, somebody was playing a very clever game. But who was it? And what did they really want? Donald had a feeling he was going to find out soon.

“Who are you and what do you want?” he asked, he was fed up with the games.

“I am the Chief of Police and I want your confession and apology to our people,” demanded the Chief.

Donald smiled to himself, wondering how much a Chief of Police really earned.

“What are you smiling at Mr Kennedy? I don’t think you are in a position to be happy.” He stood up and placed both hands on the desk and leaned into Donald, trying to intimidate him.

“I was just admiring your clothes, they can’t have been cheap,” replied Donald losing the smile.

The news of the Kennedys’ arrest broke soon after Tom had arrived back with Zach and the General. Tom and Lela had sat in stunned silence as the news channel replayed the story over and over again. No comment was being made by anybody at Alba. It seemed that everybody was staying quiet until they knew exactly what was happening and what the charges were against Donald, Rachel and Saki. Information was sketchy as to where they were being held but guesses ranged from the Presidential Palace to the dilapidated high security prison, both of which were shown in stark comparison to each other.

Tom immediately phoned his father’s Head of Legal, Jonathan. He got through but Jonathan explained that he was being bombarded with calls. He said that he had seen some of the evidence against them but that he really had to go, phones were ringing and he was waiting on calls from the Prime Minister and the President of a number of other countries. He promised to call Tom as soon as he could.

Tom then phoned his grandparents who were as bewildered as Tom and Lela and knew nothing more.

Zach and his father had stayed with them but Tom insisted they go and have some fun, there was nothing they could do. General Powers repeated that if there was anything he could do to help, Tom was just to ask.

As they made their way out of the building, they caught up with the Air Force aide who updated the General.

“General, I just got a call from our pilot. The plane is fixed, they thought we were still there and were waiting for us. I’m sorry but I neglected to tell them that we were flying ahead.”

“No problem, keeps them on their toes! Are they on their way?”

“Yes, they will just have taken off.”

“Dad, I thought you were staying for a while, you’ve only been here an hour,” said Zach despondently.

“Don’t worry, we’re not leaving until tonight, I just prefer to have my guys nearby and on standby.”

“So what shall we do now? Do you want to see the Special Forces Base?” said a more cheerful Zach.

“No let’s leave that ‘til later, I’d love to look around this school of yours. Maybe meet some of your friends. Work can wait for now.”

“It’s done and the plane is getting prepped to leave,” said Jones. “Nobody suspects a thing.

“Good. When will it happen?” asked Beaumont.

“The plane will explode as soon as it hits 12,000 feet.”

“Where are you now?”

“We’re just about to take off. We want to get as far away from here as we can before it happens. We’ll be back in the Congo in about four hours.”

“OK, let me know when you land, I may have another job for you sooner than expected.”

Beaumont hung up. He had already begun the handover procedure for General Powers’ position. The new Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was on standby for his appointment by the President. It normally took some time to appoint a new military boss and questions would be asked. However, Beaumont had already covered this with a statement he had prepared for the President, should any challenge be made.

Tom and Lela spent the afternoon watching the TV and waiting for a phone call which would tell them that their parents’ arrest had been a huge mistake. When the news report was interrupted by more breaking news on the Kennedy case, their spirits lifted. It could only be good news, it couldn’t be any worse. But it was an update on the evidence which had been released to the UK government and totally justified the arrest of its most prominent businessman. The reporter could not give many details, explaining that the TV station had received the information from a ‘reliable’ source inside the government. In other words, a leak.

“This can’t be real, can it Tom?” asked Lela with tears rolling down her cheeks. She had managed to remain fairly calm for the previous few hours but this was too much. Their parents were accused of corporate manslaughter and if convicted, would be sentenced to life imprisonment.