Murray McDonald - Assassin

As Beaumont rescued the Russian President from the floor, a tentative President and boss of General Powers took the phone, his hand visibly shaking. The torrent from the General was even worse than expected and he thanked God that the man was 9,000 miles away.

The General pulled the phone away from his ear and screamed for his aide. They had all left General Powers to it, their eardrums could not take the abuse.

“Yes General,” said the aide on entering the room.

“Get me a scramjet, I want to get back to Washington yesterday.”

“Yes Sir.”

The General ended the call to the president informing him he would be back in 2 hours and would be straight over to see him.

Back in Washington, a very worried and very angry President replaced the receiver and turned to Beaumont.

“What the hell have you done Beaumont?! The man was merely a liability, now he’s a full blown enemy. He’ll never forgive me for this, he hates Walker. The fact that I chose him as his replacement has really pissed him off. What the hell happened? How the hell could you get it so wrong? Why didn’t you know Powers wasn’t on the plane? Wasn’t even in Durban?! What an almighty mess! How can you be so stupid?”

Beaumont stood speechless. This was not good. His mind was working through the permutations. This really, really was not good. General Powers was a very powerful man and very astute. The President was right, Powers had been a liability but now he was dangerous. He would be watching their every move. If only they hadn’t announced Walker. That was their biggest mistake from which it would be difficult to recover and it was all his fault. He, Beaumont, had pushed hard for it.

The emergency red phone buzzed on the President’s desk. He grabbed it, what next? The digitised voice of The Chairman of the Committee was instantly recognisable. He wasn’t taking this call on his own and put the phone on speaker.

“Beaumont’s here as well,” said the President. The Chairman did not mince his words and expressed his astonishment at their incompetence. He was also extremely concerned at the cavalier change in the timetable and how dare this be done without his knowledge. Both knew by the end of the call that they could not afford to make another mistake no matter how minor. Not because they sensed it but because The Chairman spelled out exactly what would happen to them if they did.

The scramjet arrived at the island thirty minutes later. It had been stationed at Diego Garcia airbase, a secluded airbase located in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Although the airbase was well-known, it was almost 1000 miles from nearest landfall and only accessible by military transport.

The scramjet landed and departed almost immediately. It would deliver General Powers to Washington, 9,000 miles away, in just over an hour. The scramjet could fly at speeds approaching MACH 10, over 7,000 miles per hour.

Donald explained the situation to Saki on his return to the cell. The Chief of Police had given up trying to elicit his confession after only half an hour. It was clear that Donald was not going to change his mind but it seemed as though the Chief of Police didn’t seem to care, almost as though he were just going through the motions.

It was not until later that they had the chance to update Rachel when they were let out into the prison courtyard, giving them the chance to talk. Despite the prison yard being full of other prisoners, the Kennedys were given an extra wide berth. They heard, however, that the former boss of the prisoners was fighting for his life in the prison hospital. It had not taken long for the prisoners to even up old scores. The boss now shared the ward with his henchmen and none would see the light of day for a number of weeks.

Rachel did not take the news well. The thought of spending the rest of her life in that hell hole was terrifying. Donald explained that the evidence was all stacked against him but that there was nothing on Saki and Rachel.

“So why the hell are we here? And anyway, is your spending the rest of your life in here without me, supposed to comfort me?” she retorted, fighting back the tears.

“No, but…” Donald gave up, there was no point trying to comfort Rachel at this stage, he stood more chance of upsetting her than reassuring her.

The tearful silence was interrupted by shouts and screams from across the courtyard. The noise grew louder as the source of the noise grew closer. A team of guards, heavily armed and dressed in full riot gear were making their way towards them. As they approached Donald, Saki and Rachel, they stopped. Saki stepped in front of Donald and Rachel and readied himself for another battle. He didn’t like guns but knew when they were needed and how to use them. He spotted the one he wanted, a well kept Heckler amp; Koch MP5K. It was by far the best weapon for his purposes, namely to take out the 20 guards as quickly as possible. He was already calculating the order in which to dispatch them once he had disarmed the owner of the gun he wanted.

“Come with us,” demanded the guard who was about to be disarmed. That was why he had the best weapon thought Saki, he was the senior guard.

“Where?” asked Saki, preparing to move dependent upon the answer.

“The British Ambassador has arrived and wishes to see you,” replied the senior guard. Saki turned to Donald who simply replied, “about bloody time, let’s go,” and led the way.

They were shown to a significantly more attractive room than the one Donald had found himself in earlier. Even tea and biscuits were laid out. A man was standing talking to the British Ambassador whom Donald assumed was the Prison Governor.

“Good evening,” said the Ambassador, rising from his seat and greeting them warmly.

“Good evening Mr Ambassador,” they all replied.

The Governor introduced himself to the three of them and told them to let him know if there was anything he could do for them. He said he was at their service but Donald had a funny feeling that they would not be seeing him again in a hurry, noting that he seemed to share the same tailor as the Chief of Police.

Rachel, however, smiled for the first time since their arrest, excited at the prospect of the UK government flexing its muscle to get them out.

“Sorry, I’ve not been here sooner but getting from Yaounde in Cameroon where I’m based on a Sunday is not an easy thing.”

“No need to apologise, we’re just very pleased to see you,” replied Donald. “When can you get us out?” He decided that he was as well cut to the chase. He could see that Rachel had decided that the Ambassador’s arrival was their ticket out. If it wasn’t, he wanted her to know then rather than build up her hopes.

“I’m afraid not, the evidence is significant and it seems that further improprieties are being suggested.”

The blood drained from Donald’s face.

“What does ‘suggestion of further improprieties’ mean?” asked Donald carefully.

“Hmm, I’m uncomfortable discussing it third hand. It is at the moment only rumoured.”

“Bugger uncomfortable and rumour, you’re the only person we can talk to,” insisted Donald.

“Well it appears that papers exist which would suggest, only speculation I hasten to add, that Alba International has gained significantly from the recent assassinations.”

“What?” Donald was not a stupid man, he knew exactly what was coming next and began to feel feint.

“Yes,” the Ambassador could see that he did not need to spell it out and added, “I believe the Global media chain will break the story tomorrow. An undercover reporter has papers and evidence which implicate you as the mastermind in the assassinations.”