Kidnap (The Billionaire Series) (17 page)

Lela crashed through the door.

“Put them down now!!!” she screamed.

“OK,” said Yuri. “Guys, you heard her, put them down.”

All seven laughed as they dunked Chen and Tom into the toilet
bowls.

“Boys, I’m afraid your cavalry failed to rescue you,” said Yuri
laughing at Lela.

“You’re making a big mistake,” said Tom spluttering.

“Get her out of here,” said Yuri to two thugs, nodding towards
Lela.

Lela was enraged. She had not retaliated earlier as she believed
retaliation would have risked injury to her friends. However, the situation was
different now. Firstly, Tom and Chen were being physically abused. Secondly, by
doing nothing, they would not stop. Thirdly and most importantly, they had
messed with Tom. Nobody messed with Tom.

One thug went to open the door and a second went toward Lela.
Neither knew what hit them as they suddenly collapsed in a heap at the door.
Yuri, however, had seen everything. Lela had high kicked the two thugs, lifting
them both two feet off the floor, propelling them across the bathroom and into
the door where they fell and remained motionless.

Yuri stepped back. The four thugs dropped Tom and Chen and rushed
towards Lela. Again, Yuri saw everything. In a confusion of punches, the thugs
fell to the floor, one by one, not having thrown any punches themselves. Lela
had been so
quick,
it had been like watching his
friends being hit by bullets fired from a machine gun.
 

Only he remained standing. Tom and Chen were pulling themselves
together in their cubicles. Yuri did not know what to do.

Lela knew she had hurt the thugs but not permanently. She hadn’t
broken any bones but had shattered their pride. She had certainly broken Yuri’s
pride even though she had not laid a finger on him. He made his move and, as
expected, it was for the door and not for Lela. He was a coward. Lela turned
and noticed that somebody had opened the door slightly and had been watching
the action. The obscured face moved away the moment it was spotted and the door
shut tight again. Lela moved towards a now apologetic and trembling Yuri who
was trying to push his way past his injured friends to get out.
 

Tom had jumped up to help Lela but by the time he was able to
assist, only Yuri remained standing. Tom could sense the fear in him. They had
all just witnessed six guys, twice the size of Lela, being beaten senseless in
less than ten seconds. This was not a common occurrence. Tom looked round at
Chen who was sitting wide eyed next to his toilet bowl. They both looked over
at Yuri as he tried to make a break for the door. Lela moved almost before
Yuri, her first contact with him spun him round, the second sent him head first
into the third toilet bowl, unfortunately for him un-flushed. Lela followed him
into the cubicle, bent down next to a very wet and smelly Yuri and whispered in
his ear. They couldn’t hear what she said nor see what she did but they heard
him scream and watched as he dropped to the floor and cowered away.

“Chen and Tom, are you OK?” asked Lela as she left the cubicle to
wash her hands.

“Fine thanks,” they both said.

“A bit wet but we’re better off than they are,” said Chen.

“Come on, I don’t want to be caught in the boys’ toilets,” joked
Lela.

As she walked past Yuri, she said “Remember, 6.00 p.m. or I’ll
come looking.”

“What was that about?” asked Tom.

“You’ll see,” was all Lela would say.

As they walked back to the table, Tom and Lela asked Chen to play
down what had
happened
as Lela was shy about her
talents.

“Oh my God, what happened?”
Mingmei
jumped up as they approached, Mia following just behind.

“We just had a bit of a run-in with Yuri and his gang.”

“Are you OK? What happened?” asked Ahmad, feeling guilty at
having left Chen.

“We’re fine, not so sure about them
though…,”
said Chen catching himself just in time.

“Oh, some other guys came in and sorted them out,” interrupted
Lela.

“That’s it. We’re definitely reporting them now,” said
Mingmei
.

“NO, it’s fine. They learnt their lesson. They won’t be annoying
us anymore.” Tom was very firm and
Mingmei
backed
off.

Chapter
29

The rest of the afternoon passed without incident. The eight new
friends used the electric carts to explore the rest of the complex and the
island itself. Every turn revealed something new, an Olympic sized swimming
pool with retractable roof, football, rugby and American football pitches and
of course, an eighteen hole golf course which provided the carts.

One thing that did surprise them was the army base. Not the fact
that it was there but the sheer scale of it. There were barracks at the centre
of the
compound which
housed some 200 troops, there
was the fuselage of an airliner, an office block and what looked like a small
street with shops and houses. At the opposite end of the compound, stood a few
small hangars surrounded by attack and transport helicopters. Tom explained to
everybody the type and performance of each one of
them
.
Nobody had asked for this information but they all listened patiently.
The compound was surrounded by a high wire fence and the sea
.
A small marina was lined with a number of secure boatsheds and what looked like
a comprehensive selection of high performance boats.

As they looked on, bangs and flashes could be heard from the
street in the compound. Six soldiers appeared a few seconds later, dressed
entirely in black and screaming “CLEAR!!!” This really was a fully operational
anti-terrorist camp.
 

It was 5.55 p.m. when they made their way back to their block.
Lela turned to Oleg and asked him whether he had received any telephone calls.

“No,” said Oleg, “but I don’t have my mobile on me. Why?”

“Oh, no reason, just wondered,” said Lela mysteriously.

It was not until Oleg was back in his room and noticed his phone
on the bedside table that he thought back to Lela’s strange question. He walked
across and picked up the phone. He had two missed calls and one message. He
dialled the voicemail number and after hearing the message, he dropped the
phone and screamed.

Tom was the first of the group through the door to find Oleg
sitting in a daze on his bed.

“Oleg, are you OK?”

“Perfect,” came a subdued response.

“What’s
happened,
is everything OK?”

“They couldn’t be better.”

“What the hell has happened? First you scream and now you’re like
a zombie who can’t speak.”

Oleg stood up and faced the group.

“I have just picked up the most wonderful message ever. I need to
call my father back. But basically, Yuri has been kicked out of school. He went
to the Headmaster and confessed to being the leader of his gang and that he had
bullied three students including me. The Headmaster expelled him immediately
for having hit me and severely reprimanded the rest of the gang. If they even
so much as swat a fly, they’re out. It appears the school rule is very serious.
My father also apologised for not believing me when I complained about Yuri.
He’s going to have a very frank chat with Yuri and his mum which should prove
very interesting.”

“Unbelievable,” said Chen.

“Yep,” Oleg agreed.

Tom had been watching Lela. At no point had she shown the least
sign of surprise. He caught her eye and
mouthed
“we’ll
talk later.” Lela smiled back and winked.

Oleg called his father back and after a very emotional call for
both of them, he updated the group on the rest of the breaking news.

“It just gets better and better. My father has just had a huge
fight with my
step-mother
or should I say ex
step-mother. It turns out that when my father got tough with her, she confessed
that she had only married him for the money and would take him to the cleaners
in a divorce. He’s got the whole thing on tape which means she’ll more than
likely get nothing.”

Chapter
30

As the group dispersed and the students made their way to their own
rooms, they bumped into a number of other students. The rumours about the
expulsion had quickly done the rounds and a number of outrageous versions of
events made their way through the block. One story involved the ritual
sacrifice of a
student which
had resulted in the
expulsion of twenty students. The group had agreed to meet in the foyer of the
block an hour later. Tom followed Lela to her room, eager to find out what she
had done to Yuri. He would have to wait, pinned to her door was a note “SEE ME IMMEDIATELY,”
signed “The Headmaster.” They looked at each other, panic evident in each
others’
eyes.

“Guys! I’ve got a note telling me to see the Headmaster!” shouted
Chen, running down the corridor towards them. Tom looked at Lela and then
looked at his own door. He had the same note.

The three made their way in silence to the main administration
block. Tom was surprised that Chen had been called in, as he had been nothing
but a victim. Chen looked very worried.

“Chen are you OK?” asked Tom.

“I can’t be expelled, I will be killed.”

“We all will but you’ll be fine. You’ve done nothing wrong, they
attacked you remember,” said Tom trying to allay Chen’s fears.

“You two will be fine,” said Lela dejectedly. She had been the
only one who had struck anybody and resigned
herself
to the fact that she would be heading home sooner than expected.

They entered the block and made their way to the top floor. The
elevator pinged and the door opened onto a large office with double doors at
one end. The three walked into the office and were met by a very stern looking
woman in her fifties. Her name plaque was perfectly placed in the centre of her
desk and read “Ms Anderson.” There was no doubt, judging by the tweed suit, the
efficient glasses and the hairy lip, that she was definitely a ‘Ms’ and had
never been a
Mrs.
Tom looked to see if she had cat, a
long coat, a pointy hat and a broom cupboard in the corner.

“Yes?” she barked.

“We’ve been told to come and see the Headmaster,” said Tom
confidently. He was not going to be intimidated.

“He’s in conference. Take a seat and wait,” she said pointing to
a seating area in the corner. There was no broom cupboard.

The three sat down and Tom whispered to Lela.

“Well at least we know what to get her for Christmas.”

“What?” whispered
Lela.

“A pair of tweezers. Those hairy moles on her face are gross.”

Chen kicked him. The stare from Ms Anderson would stop a bull in
full charge.

“She couldn’t have heard us,” Tom said to Lela.

“Just shut up,” she replied. She wasn’t in the mood for humour. She
was in enough trouble already.

After waiting ten minutes, Ms Anderson got up and opened the
double doors. Two men ran out of the room with their heads down, quickly
followed by a book which flew through the air and would have taken their heads
off had they not ducked in time.
 

“NEXT!” came the roar from the office.

“Tom and Chen, you are to go in first but just give me a minute,”
said Ms Anderson as she went into the office and shut the door behind her.

All three looked at each other. Tom’s confidence had evaporated
but Lela seemed remarkably calm. She had resigned herself to the fact that she
was going home. Chen remained petrified and was trembling. The humiliation to
his family would be everlasting and he could see no way around it. Perhaps he
would beg the Headmaster to have mercy on him.
 

Ms Anderson came out of the office and nodded to Tom and Chen.

They stood up and made their way through the doors into an
enormous office. At the far end of the office, just in front of the window, was
a massive solid oak desk and behind it, the back of a chair. The Headmaster was
facing away from them and was looking out across the grounds.

“Take a seat,” he growled.

There were two chairs in front of the desk and they sat down
gingerly.

Lela, who was waiting outside, was beginning to panic again. She
was certain to be expelled for what she had done but was confident that Tom and
Chen would be fine. However, the Headmaster’s behaviour suggested otherwise.
She couldn’t believe it
,
they had done
nothing wrong
. They were the victims. There was no doubt that she had
used force but it was in self-defence. She was being attacked. She decided
there and then that she was not going to stand by and witness this injustice.
She rose from her seat and strode over to Ms Anderson.

Meanwhile, the Headmaster’s chair slowly began to turn round. Tom
had also begun to think about the injustice of what was about to happen and
started to regain his confidence. This was an outrage and they had committed no
crime. They had,
afterall
, been attacked. And, in
fact, was the school not at fault? It had clearly failed to ensure their safety
and wellbeing. Tom turned to Chen and tried to catch his attention but he just
sat there, frozen with fear.

Lela was getting nowhere with Ms Anderson. She adamantly refused
to let her in with the boys. The Headmaster had instructed that they were to
remain separate and that was exactly what would happen. Lela promptly decided
that she would have to bypass her.