Murray McDonald - Assassin

The words hung in the air, nobody spoke. Donald had gone from the number one businessman in the world to the world’s most wanted murderer in less than 24 hours.

It had been a long afternoon. Mr Sakamoto had tried all his contacts but to no avail. Tom had also tried a few of his contacts, being the son of the world’s most powerful businessman resulted in an interesting network of friends. His father often joked that Tom and Lela’s contact lists put his one to shame. But nothing, the news was bad from everyone.

Mr Sakamoto had eventually given way to the small crowd of friends who had gathered outside Lela’s room and who had refused to leave. They were good friends and were not going to leave Tom and Lela in their hour of need.

Zach went straight to see Tom and Lela when he returned from dropping his father off. He wasted no time updating them and the small crowd on what had happened to his father, paying particular attention to the conversation between his father and the US President.

Tom realised, listening to Zach, that things could have been much worse. Zach’s father could easily have been killed that day.

The more he thought about things, the more he realised there was more he could do. There was lots more he could do. He was Tom Kennedy and he would find the truth. He looked around for Tristan, where was he? He turned to Lela, she was still very upset. Tom walked over and whispered to her.

“Lela, we’re going to sort this out. We’re not doing our parents any favours being like this. We need to do everything we can to help them, OK?”

He was strong again and Lela took solace in this. She began to brighten. Tom realised then that he had to remain strong for both of them. Lela may have been able to kick anybody’s arse but deep down she was just like most 15 year old girls, emotional and sometimes fragile.

“You’re right,” she said snivelling. “We need to do more, we need to do a lot more.” Tom hugged her, the strong and resilient Lela was returning.

Tristan entered the room

“Can I have a word?” he asked.

“Of course,” replied Tom. “What’s up?” he asked, noticing that something was wrong.

“Not here, let’s go next door to your room,” he said to Tom and gesturing for Lela to come too.

It took Tristan less than two minutes to update Tom and Lela on the latest he had heard from his father. It was the same news the Ambassador had told their parents. Donald was now being linked to the assassinations. Tom looked across at Lela who was obviously waiting for his reaction to gauge how she was going to take this. Tom looked back at Tristan.

“When?” he asked forcefully.

“When what?” asked Tristan who had expected them to break down.

“When are Global Media going to release the story?”

“Tomorrow.”

“That’s it. They’ve gone too far now. Whoever is behind this, has just stepped over the line.” Tom was seething but his mind was working overtime.

“Tristan, could you do me favour and round up these people and have them meet here in 2 hours,” said Tom scribbling down a list of names as fast as he could.

“If any of them ask why, just say it’s an emergency and mention my name, they should come, or at least I hope they will. And now if you don’t mind Trist, I need to make some urgent calls.” Tristan took the hint and went off to round up the list of students.

“What are you going to do?” asked Lela.

“We are going to start giving these bastards a fight,” replied Tom forcefully.

“How?”

“By playing them at their own game. I need your permission to invoke the special condition.”

“Of course, but why?” Lela saw the sparkle in Tom’s eye. He obviously had a plan.

“You’ll see,” said Tom as he made a call.

“Hi, can I speak to Jonathan please?” asked Tom.

“I’m sorry Tom, he’s busy just now, can he call you back?” asked Jonathan’s secretary recognising Tom’s voice. Both she and Jonathan had gone into the office despite it being a Sunday to do whatever they could to help.

“No, I need to speak to him now, interrupt him, it’s urgent,” replied Tom abruptly. Lela kicked him for being so rude.

“I’m sorry but it’s really really urgent,” said Tom trying to justify his rudeness.

“OK, I’ll get him for you now,” she replied impressed at Tom’s ability to apologise even though he was under a huge amount of pressure. Jonathan had been barking at her all day and had not apologised once.

Two seconds later, Jonathan was on the phone.

“Hi Tom, how you holding up?”

“Fine thanks, have you heard the latest?” he didn’t have time for small talk, they had things to do.

“No, what’s happened?”

Tom informed a totally and utterly dumbfounded Head of Legal about the allegations which were due to be made against his father. Jonathan could think of nothing to say and remained speechless.

“Jonathan, are you there?” prompted Tom.

“Yes, yes sorry, I just can’t believe anybody could conceive of this. I mean what utter crap. What can I do?”

“I want to invoke the special conditions laid down by my father this year.”

Jonathan did not need to look them up as he had drafted them himself only two months previously. It had been a rather surprising request but Donald was the boss and what he said went.

“Is Lela with you?”

“Yes, here she is” said Tom handing the phone to Lela.

“Do you agree with this Lela?” asked Jonathan.

“Yes I do,” replied Lela handing the phone back to Tom.

“OK boss, what can I do for you?” said Jonathan to the newest and youngest CEO in the world.

General Powers wasted no time when he arrived back in Washington. He headed straight to the Whitehouse to see the President. The meeting was brief and filled with sincere apologies and explanations. Powers was not interested in all that guff, he just wanted to see the new statement which was to be sent to his staff immediately. The President handed him a draft, he tweaked it and added his own paragraph at the end. He waited for confirmation that the message had been sent and then left without so much as a goodbye. He was in no mood to be cordial.

Powers began to calm down as he approached his office. He had toyed with the idea of going home but wanted to make a few calls first. He had called his wife from Zach’s school and had been stunned to learn that she hadn’t even been informed of his demise. Two and a half million soldiers of the US armed forces had been informed but she hadn’t. The more Powers delved into ‘the incident’, the worse it got. Things were very strange and something was going on. His thoughts stopped as he opened the outer door to his office. His secretary’s desk was completely clear, her papers and personal things were thrown into a box on the floor. The door to his office was closed but somebody was in there, he could hear them moving around.

He opened the door slowly and quietly and watched as a short, tubby man was frantically putting things back where they should be from a pile of boxes in the middle of the floor. Walker had spent most of the morning moving into General Powers’ office and was still furiously trying to move back out. Walker had been informed by the President about Powers still being alive but not about his very quick return. As far as Walker was concerned, Powers was on a plane crossing the Atlantic.

“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?” shouted Powers in his best drill instructor’s voice. Walker just about had an involuntary action such was the surprise and terror of hearing the General’s voice. Powers was a large and powerful man and was going to use every inch of his presence on the insignificant weasel. He had gone too far, it was one thing to take his job, he could be forgiven for that but moving into his office before his body was even found, especially on a Sunday, was unforgivable. Powers expanded his already vast chest and moved within a whisker of Walker.