Murray McDonald - Assassin

Just as they were passing, Kisho stood up. All fifteen soldiers saw him and instantly levelled their weapons ready to fire.

“Not by strength, by guile,” whispered Kisho. Kano understanding what he was doing, stood up also.

“Who the hell are you mate?” asked one of the soldiers.

“On your side I think. We’re here to get Donald Kennedy out. You?” replied Kisho.

“I can’t say,” replied the soldier smiling, “what unit?” he asked.

“Penarajans,” responded Kisho, knowing these were some of the only men in the British forces who would know what he meant.

“Phew! Thank God you recognised us, or we’d all be dead. We’re the SBS mate. Good to have you onboard,” replied the soldier who was the leader of the team. “How many of you are there?”

“Eight,” replied Kisho.

“Jesus, I’ve never seen more than two of you guys in battle at once and that was a sight to be seen, eight of you guys must be like a bloody tornados hit.”

That was praise indeed. The SBS, the Special Boat Service, was the lesser known of the UK Special Forces and some believed the best. You could only gain entry after three years’ service in the Royal Marines which in itself had a 30 week recruitment procedure seen as the toughest in the world. After volunteering for the SBS, the volunteer would have to pass the SAS selection and it didn’t stop there. They could then choose to join the SAS or continue on to the SBS additional selection procedure. Failure rate was in the 90 % region, leaving only the toughest soldiers to join the small, secretive and extremely capable unit.

“We spotted some soldiers on the way in but there was a young girl with them, so it couldn’t be you guys. Have you seen them?”

“That was us, you spotted our cousin, Lela,” said Kano.

The looks said it all. What the hell were they doing bringing a girl along?

“Trust me,” he said. “She could kick each and every one of your arses, and ours and I don’t mean separately, I mean at once.”

Kisho could see their incredulous looks.

“He’s not kidding, she’s unbelievable, I’ve never seen anything like it.”

The SBS soldiers who had experience of the Penarajans looked at them in awe. The others continued to look at them as though they were mad.

“Kano, Kisho, what’s happening where are you?” called Papa over the radio.

Kisho called back. “We have some help, there’s a squad of SBS soldiers down here.”

“What the hell do they want?”

The SBS soldier overheard him.

“Tell him we come courtesy of the UK Prime Minister, he wants Mr Kennedy released sooner than the Guineans are willing.”

Kisho began to answer. “I heard him,” interrupted Papa. “Are they any good?”

The SBS squad heard the question and waited for Kisho to answer, this should be interesting they thought. How did the Penarajans rate them?

“Very,” replied Kisho knowing Papa’s next question would be easier to answer.

“Ratio?” Papa asked. This was code for their rating of the unit in respect to Penarajans, one Penarajan equalled how many of the other. More simply, it meant how many of them would it take to beat an average Penarajan.

“Four,” replied Kisho. Bloody hell thought Papa as he was given the lowest ratio he had ever been given. It was normally around ten for an average Penarajan. Of course, none of the Penarajans who had travelled to Equatorial Guinea were in the average category. They were way above average with a couple of exceptionals. Lela didn’t figure in the ratings, she had gone off the chart the previous year and was, well, just Lela.

Suddenly, the rest of the islanders, including Lela, appeared next to them. A couple of the SBS soldiers jumped as the islanders just seemed to materialise from thin air. They all took a crafty glance at Lela, trying to imagine how she could possibly kick their arses.

Papa quickly took control and scoped out the current situation. The SBS were shocked to hear the number and quality of soldiers protecting the prison. They had anticipated a very simple break-in and a fairly easy extraction. Papa then laid out his proposed plan. The SBS looked it over and soon agreed that it was very cleverly conceived. They called into London to get the OK as they were deviating substantially from their original plan.

The riot had started. The noise of shouting and screaming was building up as the prisoners rampaged through their cell blocks. A guard ran down the Kennedys’ corridor and began to unlock the cells. He wasn’t even trying to hide what he was doing. The four prisoners next to Donald and Saki’s cell wasted no time and pulled their cell door open. Saki stood ready. He was delighted they had come to them first. His biggest worry had been Rachel in the next cell. If their door had remained locked and hers open, they would have been in big trouble.

The four men filled the cell. If there were any doubts as to their intentions, they soon vanished as they each pulled out a long combat knife. The first man made a move, pushing Saki out of his way to get to Donald. Saki looked as though he wasn’t reacting but out of sight of the man’s colleagues, he threw a short but huge punch to the centre of the man’s chest causing his heart to just stop. The man’s body fell to the floor, dead before making contact with the concrete. Not seeing what had happened, the other three just looked on in bewilderment as their colleague slumped to the floor. Saki gave them a fraction of a second to regret their inaction before inflicting fatal wounds on them. One from a severed spinal cord and two from severe head traumas. Saki had high kicked the second man in at the base of the skull before smashing the other twos’ heads together as he spun back to the ground.

Donald had to be guided out of the room by Saki as he stood gawping at Saki’s aftermath. As they made their way into Rachel’s cell, gunshots started to ring.

“We’ve got the OK,” announced the SBS leader.

“Excellent, let’s go,” said Papa.

Lela radioed Tom and Daniel to let them know that Britain had sent over the SBS to rescue Donald and that they were now working together.

Good old Roger, thought Tom hearing the news. Despite the assassination story, the British Prime Minister had sent in troops to rescue his father. He couldn’t help think that the Guineans must have really annoyed him or did the UK have the same listening system as the Mossad? He thought how ironic it would be if they all had it and all thought they were the only ones who could hear everything. Tom could see by the look on Daniel’s face that he was thinking the same thing.

“Good luck and be safe,” he radioed back to Lela.

Lela didn’t respond, she was in the process of receiving her instructions. The islanders would sneak through the perimeter, enter the prison and secure the Kennedys. Meanwhile, the SBS would create mayhem on the outside and take out the guards at the gate and the perimeter, allowing the islanders to emerge with the Kennedys and get them out to the airport.

Shouting could be heard from the prison and it was obvious that things were becoming restless. Papa was very keen to get moving but at the same time, wanted to make sure that the SBS knew where they would be. He didn’t want to plan this operation perfectly and end up getting shot by friendly fire. It didn’t take long for everybody to know exactly what they were doing. The islanders and SBS split up, the islanders disappearing into the night on their way to the prison and the SBS to take up offensive positions against the perimeter guard.

It was not an easy route into the prison. Despite the islanders’ ability to disappear into the night, the highly trained perimeter guards had sensed their presence but could not see them. Fortunately, the islanders made it to the prison wall undetected and huddled in position. Two prison guards protected the small side gate which allowed the islanders easiest access. There were two watchtowers which also protected that portion of the wall but it was clearly not manned by normal prison guards. Their sniper rifles were easily worth $30,000 and were certainly not standard issue. Papa signalled to the SBS that they had a problem. A second later, two almost inaudible “puts” were the only indication that the watchtower guards were no longer an issue, having been dispatched by SBS snipers.