Murray McDonald - Kidnap

“Not unless they’re hiding a nuke in their pockets, not a chance. Even if they did, we could just head down to the bunker. Donald, trust me, this house is impregnable,” assured Saki for what felt like the millionth time.

Saki picked up a portable screen and pulled on a black sweater.

“Where the hell are you going?” asked Donald.

“I’m going to get rid of some rubbish,” he replied. He hit two buttons and the screen jumped from daylight view to a red glow as the system detected the change in light. The sirens in the grounds also ceased, although with the shutters down the noise in the house had been significantly reduced.

“What did you do that for?” asked Donald confused.

“Makes it a bit more interesting,” he said, grabbing the intercom headset and, ensuring there were no blips near the house, he activated the release for the back door. The shutter raised and allowed Saki to leave, shutting immediately behind him.

Donald and Tom were left looking at each other, neither knowing what to say, they turned their attention to the screen and watched as Saki’s green dot zipped across the screen.

The SPU officers were beside themselves, their role was to protect the Prime Minister’s son but they couldn’t get in to protect him. Seven intruders were making their way towards the Estate and they were utterly impotent.

The officer in charge phoned the Special Branch Commander and told him what was happening.

“What do you mean, he won’t let you in?” he screamed.

“What the hell!” exclaimed the SPU officer.

“What, what’s happened?” the Special Branch man shouted.

“Can’t you hear? The sirens just stopped and now the lights have gone out,” replied the bewildered SPU officer.

“They must have cut the power. Scale the wall if you have to! Just get in there!!” he commanded.

“We’ve tried that, it’s impossible, wait a minute, I hear something…” the security man paused as he listened.

Suddenly three Lynx helicopters swooped over the tree line behind him and flew over his head, two men stood poised on each of the helicopters skids. As he saw the helicopters enter the Estate, each of the twelve men dropped ropes and began to rappel down even before they had stopped moving.

“Saki, come in Saki,” said the voice into Saki’s head set.

Saki pressed the communicate button.

“Saki here, who’s this?”

“Captain Harris, what’s the situation?”

Saki knew Captain Harris very well. They had run a number of exercises together. The Kennedy Estate was less than ten miles from Her Majesty’s Naval Base Clyde at Faslane, home to the UK’s nuclear arsenal. The facility was under the protection of the Fleet Protection Group Royal Marines, an elite Royal Marine Commando unit, home to some of the toughest and most highly trained soldiers in the world. Donald had been approached by the Commander of the unit when he had purchased the Estate fourteen years earlier. The derelict estate had been an excellent training ground which his men had used unofficially and he had asked if there were any possibility for some of the old buildings to be retained. Donald never missed an opportunity. On hearing that he and his family were within 10 miles of this elite group, he bent over backwards for them. He partitioned off 3 square miles of his Estate, including some of its prime shoreline, arranged for the removal and rebuilding of the derelict buildings exactly as they were on this area and handed it over for the Commando’s to use as and when they wished. He threw in a luxury club room for good measure. The Commandos and their Commander could not believe his generosity and in return, said that whatever they could do for them, they would. He had invited the Commander to dinner one evening soon after the Estate was completed and showed him the security system. The man was amazed, he had commented that perhaps they should store their nukes in Donald’s basement, where they would probably be safer. Both had laughed but both knew he was right, they would be. Donald had then subtly mentioned what a fantastic training exercise it would be if the Commandos responded to the Estate’s alarms should they go off at any point. The Commander took the hint and within 24 hours, had obtained the clearance, everybody agreeing it was a great idea.

“Seven intruders, about a half mile from the main gate near the driveway.”

“We’ll be there in two.”

“You may miss the fun, I’ll be there in one,” replied Saki.

Captain Harris screamed to his pilot.

“Can’t this thing go any faster? We’re going to miss the action!!”

They were flying a Lynx helicopter, the fastest production helicopter in the world, but the answer was no, they couldn’t.

“What was that?” asked Kevin. Conor’s crew was now very jumpy.

Conor turned round and could just make out the silhouette of three helicopters and men dangling from them as they cleared the main gates way behind them. The men shot down the ropes as the helicopters slowed, landing without fault at a half run. He could see they all wore night vision goggles and were heavily armed. The helicopters flew just over their heads and Conor recognised the Royal Marine insignia. What he had thought could not get any worse, just had. At least with the police, they could always give up and spend a few years in prison. With the Marines, that was not an option. The hunters had become the hunted.

Conor gave the signal to turn back into the woods, their best chance of avoiding the Marines. However, in less than ten yards, a scream stopped them dead in their tracks. It hadn’t come behind them, where the Marines were, but from their man up front.

Things had just got even worse.

Saki watched as the men took a sharp turn towards him as they tried to avoid the Marines. He silently moved into position and just as the first intruder approached him, he stepped out right in front of him. The intruders were so freaked out by this point that the man nearly had a heart attack and emitted the most terrified blood curdling scream.. Saki punched him once and knocked him unconscious before he died of fright.

Saki looked at the small portable screen as the red dots scattered around him. He put it away, he didn’t need it, this was his ground.

Conor’s blood ran cold as he heard the scream and then the thud of a body slumping to the ground. His men looked to him for leadership, he didn’t have any, he was as scared as they were.

He couldn’t believe it, he had one of the toughest crews the paramilitaries had ever produced and they were a bunch of quivering wrecks. He pulled himself together but he was too late, his men had scarpered in various directions. Only Kevin remained by his side. They looked at each other, what should they do? A series of thuds and slumps made up their minds, they turned round and ran back to the road. At least with the Marines they knew what they were up against.

Saki made light work of the other four intruders, none of them would be giving them any more trouble that night.

Captain Harris and his teams had split into three, one entering the woods where they believed the intruders had entered. The second team would enter further down the driveway and would work back. The third team would watch the road in case they came back out.

It was the team on the road who heard the rustling and saw the two green images emerge from the darkness. Both images were armed and broke through the undergrowth with their weapons raised.

The four man team had no option, they raised their SA-80s and fired as the two intruders emerged from the woods. Both fell to the floor, dead.

Sinead had managed to get back to the camp just as the four shots rang out. She recognised the sound of British rifles. Conor and his men had Russian Kalashnikovs. She jumped into the car, started the engine and called Ryan. She knew there was no way anybody would get out of the Estate. He met her at the airport where they bought tickets for the next plane leaving to anywhere. It was Palma, Mallorca.