Murray McDonald - Assassin

“Nah, too risky, when I give you the call, just dump her overboard.”

“Ok, seems a waste though. She’s going to grow into a real beauty,” replied Jones.

“C’est la vie. I’ll call you as soon as I know. We may have to prove she’s alive in the meantime. So keep your phone on,” said Beaumont before hanging up.

Lela had heard to the whole exchange. To anybody watching her, she looked asleep. However, she was fully alert and had merely slowed down her breathing and heart rate and relaxed her muscles. She had complete control of her body, having been trained from birth in understanding how her body worked and how to control every muscle and nerve.

It had been less than an hour since Tom had been informed of Lela’s kidnap when his phone rang.

“Hello?” he answered.

“Tom Kennedy?” a digitised voice asked him.

“Yes, what do you want?” responded Tom.

“I want you to reconsider our original offer for Alba.”

“What? You’ve kidnapped my sister to force me to sell you Alba?”

How could they think they would get away with it? The minute he sold them Alba, he would know who they were, it just didn’t make sense.

“But if I sell you Alba, I’ll know who you are. You’ll have to kill us,” said Tom answering his own question before the digital voice could.

“Don’t worry, nobody will ever know who owns it,” came the reply.

Tom was not going to do anything foolish. He had to play it cool and cleverly. Thanks to Papa, his sister’s life depended on it.

“I’m sorry but I don’t understand. You’re going to buy the world’s largest company and remain anonymous?” asked Tom mystified.

“Yes. That, however, is not your concern. You should be more concerned about your sister and the ten men currently holding her,” said the digitised voice. Papa, listening in on the call, was relieved to hear that there were only ten men.

“How do I know she won’t be harmed? I won’t sell you Alba until I see her back safely,” Tom said firmly.

“I’m sorry but that is non-negotiable. You’ll only see her again AFTER you’ve sold Alba. I’ll call you back in two hours.” The digitised voice hung up.

Beaumont looked down at the phone with satisfaction. He had almost certainly secured the purchase of Alba International. He was tempted to call The Chairman to let him know but thought he should wait until it was a done deal.

Lela listened as the men chatted to each other. There were too many accents to pin them down to one country. She was trying desperately to take in as much information as she could while the men were relaxed.

“What are we doing after here?” asked one of the men.

“Probably going to Operation David, but I don’t know. Depending on how quickly this is over, we might make Operation Sandy first,” replied the man who was obviously the leader.

“What about her?” asked the man. Lela could feel the man motioning towards her.

“As soon as we get the OK,” the leader responded. Again, Lela sensed another movement but this time it was a horizontal motion, she assumed across the man’s neck.

“Fair enough. Any news yet on that useless twat Perez?” the man asked.

“Nope nothing. Last I heard he was sitting on the side of Machu Picchu with a clear shot of the boy. The next thing I hear is that the boy is back and we’ve never heard a peep from Perez. He’s just disappeared,” replied the leader.

“Maybe the boy saw him and paid him off. Jesus he’s got more money than the rest of the world put together, no?”

“Impossible. Perez was a klick away, in full camouflage, with a sniper rifle.”

The significance of the conversation hit Lela hard. They had tried to kill Tom. Before she could think about it any more, the leader’s phone rang. Oh God, thought Lela, knowing the call could be the signal to kill her.

“Hello?” answered the leader.

Lela listened carefully.

“Yes, OK.”

Nothing more was said. Lela had no option but to move.

Tom looked at his watch. It was almost time. The clock had dragged for two hours. They had moved back to Tom’s room. Papa, Kano and Kisho were wearing his carpet thin from pacing up and down. At exactly two hours to the second, Tom’s phone rang.

“Hello?” he answered, putting the phone on loudspeaker.

“Mr Kennedy, do you have an answer for me?” asked the digitised voice.

“I want to speak to Lela. Unless I know she’s OK, I’m not selling,” said Tom adamantly.

“Hmmm, I don’t think you’re in any position to make demands young man, the question remains do you have an answer?”

“Not unless I speak to Lela,” insisted Tom.

“This isn’t a game. Are you going to sell Alba in return for your sister’s life? It’s a yes or no answer, what’s it going to be?” The digitised voice echoed around the room as the question hung in the air. Tom couldn’t answer. He had to know whether Lela was OK. He had to use Alba to save her. If he sold Alba before he got her back, she’d be as good as dead. However, somebody beat him to it and answered for him.

“NO!!! The Answer is NO!!!”

“Who’s listening to our call?” asked the digitised voice in a panic.

“Lela Kennedy!” she replied coldly.

Tom could not believe that she was standing next to him. He was speechless and Papa was in tears as were Kisho and Kano, the relief was overwhelming.

“But it can’t be, my men captured you, this is a trick!”

“Not it’s not. Now, is there anything else I can help you with before I get back to torturing your men?” asked Lela. The phone went dead.

Two seconds later, a mobile phone rang.

“Hello?” answered Lela.

“Fu,” was all that could be heard before the phone went dead.

Lela threw the phone to Tom.

“You may want Daniel or Zach to check this phone out. I took it off the leader guy.”

Jones was slowly coming round and began to remember what had happened, surely it was a dream. He tried to move his hands but couldn’t. It wasn’t a dream. He remembered getting the call to warn him it would be a least another two hours before the decision and he had wandered out on to the deck.

No sooner had he stepped outside, when he heard a noise in the cabin and had gone back in to see the girl fighting four of his men. He had never seen anything like it. She was tiny but had already incapacitated two men and he saw her almost decapitate another with a kick as ferocious as he had ever seen. She hadn’t even completed her follow-through kick before throwing a punch into the fourth man’s chin which had lifted him clean off the floor and into the cabin wall.

Jones was paralysed, not by fear but by awe. The rest of his team, on hearing the commotion, ran into the cabin. They looked at the chaos and looked for who had caused it, the only person in the room was the young girl. Jones remembered the sweet smile she threw his men, as if completely innocent.

The fifth man moved towards her, reaching his arm out to take hold of her. She let him grab her, and moved so quickly Jones didn’t even see what she did but he heard the arm break and saw the blood spray from the man’s nose before he dropped to the floor. The other men hadn’t even had time to react before another two were knocked unconscious, one receiving a high-kick, the other a bone crunching punch to the nose. Both dropped to the floor to join their unconscious colleagues.

The final two saw Jones standing by the cabin door. They looked at him and he gave them a nod, go for it. They moved together both throwing vicious punches but Jones could see that Lela was playing with them. She moved faster than he thought possible. She avoided the first man’s punch and delivered a tremendously powerful kick to the other man’s abdomen while reverting to the first with a perfect uppercut and laying him flat. Jones couldn’t help applaud her. Nine of his men lay immobile on the cabin floor and she hadn’t even broken sweat nor had they come close to touching her. He asked how she’d learnt to do what she did but she was very tight lipped about how it. When he drew his knife, she warned him that knives made her angry. If he put the knife away, she would be gentle with him. He didn’t, the last thing he remembered was laughing at her and then pain, then nothing until then.