Murray McDonald - Kidnap

The bawling started again as Madeleine realised her friend would not be with her any more at school.

“Did she say why she did it?” asked Tom, waiting for a break in the sobs.

“She started to say something about catching somebody sabotaging a boat but the nurse sedated her and explained that they had checked the boat just in case, nobody had touched a thing. They think she must have been hallucinating with the alcohol.”

The group of friends were devastated. However, one broke off to make a phone call. They were not devastated, they were terrified.

Erika felt better by evening and had spent the day protesting her innocence but to no avail. She had been well and truly stitched up. She wasn’t even allowed to call Madeleine before she left to tell her what had really happened. She knew Madeleine would believe her. The first thing she would do when she got home would be to call her.

McDonald, Murray

Kidnap (The Billionaire Series)

It was not the best day for being out in a boat, visibility was poor although the water was fairly calm. Pieter and his crew had been on the water since 5.00 a.m. Their small fishing trawler was perfect cover for the operation. They had spent the week overhauling the engine and were confident that the old pile of junk could manage an amazing 40 knots. If the plan was to work, they would probably need every knot.

Class 1H were top of the Year 1 sports chart and had every intention of growing that lead following the yacht race. However, Team H were sitting third overall. Years 6 and 7 had faired particularly badly the previous week in their swimming and yachting events. If preparation were the key to success, 1H were in with a very good chance. Miss Sullivan had trained them well and had them splicing the main sail and heaving to, like the best of them.

Once on board, the rules of the race were re-iterated for clarity and to avoid silly mistakes. They had to circumnavigate the buoys which circled the island and return to the marina as quickly as possible. It didn’t matter in which direction. The previous week the year 7Hs had lost because they had misjudged the winds and gone anti-clockwise, all the other boats had gone clockwise. However, Miss Sullivan had studied the charts and weather conditions very carefully and suggested they go anti-clockwise again. Chen looked at the rest of the team as the other boats had followed the previous week’s precedent and gone clockwise.

A quick vote was a close call but the decision was made to go anti-clockwise. They turned about and immediately slowed down as the wind died.

“Maybe we should turn back round?” asked Tristan.

“Don’t worry, it all evens out in the end,” replied Lela, who had always loved sailing.

Reaper had received the message from Ling the previous day. By the time the girl landed, it wouldn’t be an issue. The yacht race would be over and the authorities would know something had happened. It wasn’t until later in the day that he realised he was not covering in the event of a failure. He immediately called Leo and sent him on a mission.

Pieter received the text from Ling, a change of plan and new co-ordinates. They opened the throttles on the old boat and immediately felt the speed increase as she reacted to the increased power. They would be in place just in time.

The buoys were a good distance from the island and it wasn’t long before Team 1H lost sight of land, the visibility was very poor.

“Miss Sullivan?” somebody shouted from behind her. She turned round and was hit by the boom as it swung across the boat. The boat began to turn as people rushed to Miss Sullivan’s aid. She was unconscious and would need to go to hospital immediately.

Ahmad was nearest the radio and grabbed it. He hit the mayday button and the radio died. Ling’s short circuiting had worked perfectly. Tristan ran to grab the backup radio but the batteries were dead. A few tried their mobile phones, none worked. Nobody had noticed the boat turning as they tried to make their calls. Ahmad suddenly noticed the tiller was full to the right but had no idea how much they had turned.

“What do we do?” asked Tristan, staring helplessly at the controls.

“Just use the compass, we were sailing west, just head east,” reasoned Lela.

“Good idea,” said Chen. “Ahmad you’re nearest, tell Tristan where to steer and hurry!”

“How’s Miss Sullivan?” asked Tom.

“She seems to be OK just now but we should hurry,” shouted Mingmei.

Pieter received another message from Ling, they were on their way, the compass had been tampered with and they were heading straight towards them. They should be in sight within the hour. Pieter and his crew were watching their co-ordinates very closely. They were sitting uncomfortably close to the exclusion zone for the NATO base.

Tom realised he was being really stupid and disappeared down below. It was not a good move however. After 5 minutes of being below deck, he felt incredibly sea sick. Miss Sullivan had warned them all to keep their eye on the horizon if they felt at all funny. This would let their brains understand why their body was moving and would stop the motion sickness. Tom couldn’t get back up quickly enough and by the time he did, he was green and hung over the side, being sick. He prayed hard for the sickness to go. Lela tried to talk to him but every time he opened his mouth, he threw up. She gave up, it wasn’t a pleasant sight.

7000 miles away, Erika’s plane was touching down, the Prime Minister of Sweden’s daughter was arriving home in disgrace. Her parents were so angry that they had not even travelled to the airport to pick her up, opting instead to send their driver.

Leo followed closely behind as the young girl made her way through the airport, his jammer causing havoc to every mobile phone within a 200 yard radius.

Erika had been trying desperately to call Madeleine since she landed but couldn’t get a signal to dial her. She’d call her from the car.

Pieter could see the outline of the yacht as it appeared through the greyness. His ten men began to prepare, cocking their weapons but keeping them out of sight. They were only interested in the two kids, even Ling was expendable.

Leo called Reaper.

“She’s about to get into the car, what do you want me to do?”

Reaper paused. He hadn’t heard how the mission had gone yet. If it failed, he couldn’t risk the girl talking, even leaving a voicemail would be a disaster.

“Kill her.”

“What the hell is that?” screamed Zach looking out across the water.

“Tristan hard to Port!!” screamed Lela.

Pieter heard the scream and looked at his men, no weapons were evident and the yacht was still over 50 yards away.

Leo dialled a number and the explosive he had smuggled into the girl’s handbag as she had waited for her luggage exploded. The car she was in was ripped to shreds as the extremely powerful C4 explosive killed not only the girl but her driver and a number of innocent passers-by. He was already out of the airport before it was closed down.

“Jesus Christ, it’s going to hit us!!” screamed Chen.

The water began to bubble in reaction to some kind of underwater explosion. Then came a huge torpedo like mass bursting through the surface, coming directly towards them.

“Get the weapons over the side!” commanded Pieter as the submarine surfaced in front of his eyes. Any closer and his boat would have been sunk.

His men quickly changed persona and became the fishermen their disguises alluded to. A distant rumble announced the arrival of even more firepower, a special Ops motor boat thundered into view at over 50 knots, Pieter flinching as it headed straight for his boat and stopped at a skid by his side. Ten heavily armed soldiers jumped onto their boat and holding his men at gunpoint searched his vessel. Even though the all clear was given, the officer on board did not order their release.