Murray McDonald - Assassin

The call Tom received before the funeral had been a crushing blow, the Prime Minister would not be attending. His diary would not permit, he had tried but he just couldn’t make it. With that rejection, a flood of rejections followed and before long, the funeral party dwindled to Tom, Lela, Tom’s grandparents, Papa and the islanders and a few key staff from Alba.

Alba was also suffering badly. A worldwide backlash against the ‘assassin’s company’ resulted in a major slump in business. Speculation in the press suggested that the only option was to break up the company and sell it off before the loss of millions of jobs.

Tom and Lela had spent the previous two weeks on the Kennedy estate. The tragic news had been broken to them as they landed at The Academy, on their return from rescuing their parents. They did not even get off the plane. They refuelled and went straight home. Papa and the islanders whose jet was waiting for them at the school, stayed with them and had been with them ever since. Tom’s grandparents joined them at the estate and they all virtually disappeared from life outside. Tom and Lela were inconsolable.

The press had camped at the gates and every time any of them strolled too close to the walls, the Rottweillers went mad. On many occasions, Tom considered opening the gates and letting the dogs loose on them. Lela had stopped him twice just as he was about to push the button.

Tom looked around again at the mourners. There really weren’t many people at all. Some Alba executives were there but Tom thought they just wanted to talk to him, he had been avoiding them, ignoring their calls. His father’s personal assistant was there. She still refused to believe the nonsense about Donald and was devastated. George, Alba’s doorman from Head Office, was also there. He had been with the company for over 26 years, since the day it started. Donald had often said that George was the only real gentleman in the company and often recounted the story of when he was sixteen and had pulled up to the front door of the building in a limousine. He was there to announce that he was the anonymous owner of Alba. George had opened the car door and treated Donald like any other gentleman. Nobody else did that day, everybody else had treated Donald like some stupid kid having a laugh.

As the ceremony was about to start, a commotion was heard at the back of the church. People were being pushed and shoved forward. This was all they needed, thought Tom, the press fighting over photographs of empty caskets, their parents’ bodies were at the bottom of the Indian Ocean.

“Get out of my way and get that bloody thing out of my face!” barked a man in broken English. Mr Sakamoto did not like the press and fought past the crowd of photographers. Tom and Lela turned around to see him followed by twenty or so of their school-friends including Tristan, Zach, Daniel, Chen, Mingmei and Mia. They took their seats behind Tom and Lela, all mouthing their apologies for being late. After just a brief glimpse they noticed how pale and thin they both looked.

The Academy students were not the only surprise guests at the funeral. Just after the first commotion, photographers scrambled to take advantage of the best photo opportunity of the day. General Powers, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the USA strode in, accompanied by the Vice President of the USA.

Beaumont had managed to find a channel showing live pictures of the Kennedys’ funeral, beamed from the UK. He watched as the broadcasters discussed and commented on one of the world’s most notorious assassins. Oh how the mighty have fallen, he thought. Three weeks earlier, not a bad word could be said against Mr Donald Kennedy. He was the media’s darling, the perfect employer, the man with the Midas touch.

He was just about to switch the TV off as a group of kids barged into the church, closely followed by General Powers and the Vice President. What the hell did they think they were doing?

He immediately went to see the President to ask whether he was aware that the Vice President and Chief of the Military were about to cause the nation huge embarrassment. Attending the funeral of a mass murderer was simply not acceptable and a note to this effect had been sent out from the President himself. In addition, any other government attending would, by default, insult the US government. The UK Prime Minister, in particular, had reacted very badly to the US’ position and less than subtle message to the world. Donald had been a good friend and the allegations against him were preposterous. However, he had no choice but to bow to the pressure. Poor diplomatic relations with the US could result in a trade war and a loss of many British jobs. So for political reasons only, the funeral would be avoided.

Beaumont was very pleased with the international reaction as it further suggested that the evidence against Donald Kennedy was true, another nail in his coffin.

Attendance by the Vice President, however, was going to humiliate the President and the US.

After the funeral, the mourners returned to the Kennedy Estate. Tom and Lela pulled themselves together. They had friends who had travelled six thousand miles to be with them so they had to be strong.

“Tom, Lela, I just wanted to say I’m so sorry for your loss. The Vice President had to dash off to a meeting but asked me to offer you his sincere condolences,” said General Powers.

“Thank you Sir and please thank the Vice President, his attendance was most unexpected,” answered Tom for both of them, Lela was still very emotional.

“Son, one other thing. I knew your father very well and this assassin stuff is just complete bullshit. If you need anything and I mean anything, you give me a call,” said the General handing Tom his card with every conceivable number he could be contacted on. “ I mean it son, anything. ” Tom noticed how much he emphasised the word ‘anything’ and took the card.

“Thanks again Sir, I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Good, you do that. I’m sorry but I also have to leave. I’ll quickly say goodbye to Zach and be on my way.”

Tom and Lela spent the next hour chatting to their friends and discovering that their lateness was due to the arrival of the Vice President at the airport. The plane from The Academy had been instructed to wait until the Vice President had landed and disembarked before they could land.

The executives from Alba continued to hover. Tom had avoided them all afternoon and to be fair to them, they had given him some space. However, they clearly needed to speak to him and Jonathan, the Head of Legal, eventually approached him. Tom was not looking forward to the conversation, he had read the reports in the papers, Alba was not doing well.

“Hi, Tom, I’m so sorry about everything that’s happened. Is there is anything I can help you with?”

“No, thank you. And I’m sorry that I haven’t called you back…”

“Don’t even think about. You’ve got more to worry about than speaking to us.”

“How are things, I’ve seen the headlines, is it really bad?”

“It’s fine, don’t worry. The guys will keep things ticking over until you know what you want to do,” said Jonathan.

“Thanks but Alan has been calling and leaving messages about having to decide what I want to do quickly because offers are being made which may not last?”

“He’s what?!” exclaimed Jonathan, genuinely shocked. He knew that Alan was a nightmare but this was just too much.

“It’s OK,” said Tom. “I think perhaps it’s time that I should start getting more involved anyway. I can’t let my dad’s baby just fall apart, he wouldn’t want that,” said Tom, realising that he had to accept the situation and that it was time to move on.