Kidnap (The Billionaire Series) (6 page)

“My dad mentioned your conversation earlier and talked about two
secret islands and told us the story about the bankruptcy. I just worked back
from that.”

Both Lela and Donald did not follow his logic and looked at him
blankly and Sam
Mitcham
appeared to be in the same
boat.

“I’m sorry son, can you just explain that again so this old brain
here can understand just how you discovered, in a matter of hours, what we
believe to be one of the best kept secrets.”

“Actually it took him 45 minutes,” blurted Lela. “I timed him,”
she added nervously, realising she was not helping matters.

“What
!?
How in the hell did you do
that?” asked Sam.

“Quite simple really,” began Tom explaining his process. “The
five years gave me a timeline to work with, I deduced it probably took at least
a year for any decision to be made so I reduced that to four years. I then
focussed on
areas which
had marine and air exclusion
zones enforced within that time scale. Only a few areas had both, narrowing my
search down dramatically. I then looked at those areas and found only one with
two uninhabited
islands which
fitted the profile,
secluded and remote. You don’t get much more remote than those two in the
middle of the Mozambique Channel. You can pretty much find anything on the
internet
but you do have to know what you’re looking for.”

“Very impressive Tom and very concerning.” Sam paused as he considered
the implications of Tom’s discovery. Finally he added, “Donald if you don’t
mind, I’ll call you back tomorrow. Do you want to talk to Rachel and Saki in
the meantime?” he asked.

“Will do, speak to you later,” replied Donald.

“OK, cheers,” said Sam as he ended the call.

Donald wasted no time in calling a family conference. Rachel,
Saki and the grandparents joined them in the study.

“Well?” asked Rachel after everyone was settled.

“It sounds amazing,” replied Donald. “Really amazing, he’ll get
back to us as soon as he can…”

Donald was interrupted by the sound of a helicopter coming into
land. Tom and Lela’s friends had arrived.

“I suppose you two should go and greet your friends,” said Donald
to Tom and Lela. “We won’t hear back from Sam until tomorrow, OK?”

“Yep,” they replied as they got up to leave.

“Just one thing, can I at least know where the school is?” asked
Rachel.

Tom and Lela shot a look at each other, before rushing out of the
room as fast as they could. Fortunately, Donald paused before answering,
allowing the door to protect their ears from Rachel’s scream.

“IT’S WHERE
???!!!!
”

Chapter
14

The EH-101 helicopter, another of Tom’s winning
proposals, touched down.
The eight friends who had spent the morning
travelling, in some cases over a thousand miles, rushed out to greet Tom and
Lela. After a very noisy reunion, the group split in two, Tom and his four
friends headed straight to the basement for a bit of flying, while Lela and her
four friends headed across to the Lodge House.

The Kennedy Estate had three houses, the Main House with five
bedrooms, the Lodge House with four and the Guest House with three. The Lodge
House was Saki and Lela’s, a mere 250 yards away from the Main House. The only
difference between it and the Main House was that one bedroom had been replaced
by a small gym for Lela’s training. Other than that, everything else was
identical. During the construction of the two houses, Rachel had ensured that
both Tom and Lela’s rooms were identical (in size, not décor). Although they
would live in separate houses, they were to be raised as brother and sister and
one would never feel more special than the other.

Lela and her friends spent the next few hours listening to music
and catching up on gossip. The boys enjoyed a slightly more adventurous time,
crashing as dramatically as possible in the simulator. They had given up trying
to do the best landing and resorted instead to the best deaths.

“That was definitely better than Tom’s,” said Tristan, the UK
Prime Minister’s son and one of Tom’s best friends, as the A380 somersaulted
end over end on the runway.

“Close call I think,” replied Ahmad, the son of the Saudi
Ambassador to the UK.

“Guys?” Tom turned to Ben and Leo for support but they both sat
on the fence. “OK, you win Trist,” said Tom, anything to keep the peace.

“Cool, who’s next then?” asked Tristan, triumphant in victory.

Tom checked his watch. It was almost 7.00 p.m. they had been down
there for almost three hours.

“God, we’d better hurry up, the movie starts in forty minutes,
let’s go,” urged Tom as he undid his seat-belt.

“But I thought you had a cinema down here?” asked Ben, pointing
to the cinema housed in the vault behind them.

“Yeah but unfortunately my dad organised the movie so unless you
speak German, we need to go to the local cinema complex,” replied Tom. “But it
does have a ten pin bowling alley,” he added.

Tristan groaned.

“What, don’t you like tenpin bowling?” asked Ben.

“No, I love it but not when Lela plays,” replied Tristan.

When they arrived in the lounge, the girls were waiting patiently
for them.

“Dad’s just gone to get the minibus,” said Lela as they entered.
“He won’t be long, in fact, he’s probably already waiting outside.”

“OK, let’s go then, what are we waiting for?” said Tom, as he
ushered them out, discussing tactics with the boys on how they would beat the
girls at bowling.

Chapter
15

Conor’s
phone buzzed.

“Hello,” he answered, hearing a lot of background noise.

“It’s Kevin, we’ve got a problem,” he announced over the noise of
the wind as he rode his motorbike.

“Where are you? You’re supposed to be watching the gate!” he
replied angrily recognising the wind noise.

“I know, I was, but they’ve just gone, a minibus with about ten
kids in it just left the estate,” he replied.

“Damn, are they in it?” He couldn’t believe it, not a soul had
left the estate for two weeks and less than two hours before they were due to
go in,
they
left.

“No idea, the windows are heavily smoked, I can just make out
their shapes.”

“Which way are they heading?” asked
Conor
,
his mind racing with what to do.

“South, we’ll be coming past you guys any minute now. I’m right
behind them.”

Conor
covered the mouthpiece, “Sinead?”
he called.

“Yeah,” she replied, rushing to his side.

“Take three guys and follow the minibus. If the kids are on it,
take them when you get the chance but don’t do anything until you eyeball them,
OK? I don’t want to jump the minibus, find they’re not on it and then ruin our
chances later.”

Sinead was already running towards the car, grabbing three
crew members
on her way. Within a minute, their tyres
screeched as they sped off, the car hurtling down the small dirt track towards
the main road. Sinead was now on the phone to Kevin, they were only going to be
a minute behind him when they got to the main road.

They quickly caught up with Kevin and stayed a car length behind
him. Kevin was a car behind the minibus. Sinead considered the options, should
they confirm the kids were on board. Ramming the minibus off the road was
definitely not an option. Even from three cars back, she could see that the
minibus was riding very low. After seeing the Estate, she was fairly certain
that the reason the suspension was so low was from the weight of armour plating
and bullet proof glass, exacerbated by the two huge bull bars on the front and
back. A direct hit from an anti tank missile would struggle to move it, let
alone their small car.

They would therefore have no option but to take them when and if
they got off the bus. She also couldn’t help think it was strange that Kevin
had not mentioned any bodyguards. Ten kids with one small Asian guy didn’t make
sense. You don’t spend the money the Kennedys had on security and then walk out
into the open, unprotected. She called Kevin
back,
perhaps he had just not noticed the bodyguards.

Conor
was praying the kids were on the
bus. If they were, it would avoid a raid on the Estate. He had listened to
Sinead’s concerns but he was the only one aware of the timescale and
repercussions if it wasn’t met. As far as the rest of the crew were concerned,
this was
Conor’s
operation
,
he gave the orders
. But
Conor
was
under no illusion, the man who had offered him the job had been very clear that
failure was not an option if
Conor
planned to see
another birthday.

Chapter
16

Saki parked right at the front door of the cinema. Tom, Lela and
their friends jumped out and ran straight in. It was going to be close but they
should just make the start. Tom and Lela were on drinks and sweets duty and
once the all-important seats had been reserved, they rushed back out to the
foyer with a list long enough to feed a small village for a week.
Ahmad, the Saudi Ambassador’s son, offered to help them carry the
food back.
 

“Hey, Raghead!” came a shout from across the foyer.

Ahmad had never quite got used to jeans and T-shirts. He
preferred to stick to the traditional
Thoub
, a white
robe and the
Shumagg
and
Ogal
,
the traditional
head-dress
of the Gulf countries. He
ignored the shout.

“What did he just say?” Tom was furious and hoped to have misheard
the taunt.

“Just ignore them and they’ll go away. Don’t rise to their
ignorant jibes,” said Lela trying to calm him down.

“Hey Raghead, you deaf or stupid?” came another shout.

Again, Ahmad ignored the shout. Tom, however, could not. He
looked over at the group of boys who were laughing in their direction. There
were eight of them, all of a certain type, wearing
track-suits
,
hoodies, trainers, baseball caps, thick gold necklaces and enormous rings. What
they lacked in intelligence and education, they made up for in stupidity and
ignorance. To Tom, they were known as
Neds
which
stood for Non Educated Delinquents. Every country has
them and every country has their own name for them.
They even look genetically similar and perhaps are the
closest thing in existence to the missing link with their
deep
set
eyes and thick foreheads.

Tom recognised a couple of the
Neds
from when he was younger and knew they were a couple of years older than him.
However, he was not going to stand back and let them insult one of his friends.

“What did you say?” he shouted back.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing Tom?” asked Lela.

“We said, ‘Hey Raghead’, you got a problem with that?”

“Damn right I do. Why don’t you come here and say that to my
face?” Tom was now furious and could not contain himself.

“Stop it Tom, they’re idiots. Just ignore them and come on,” said
Lela grabbing Tom’s arm and dragging him towards the kiosk.

The group started walking towards Tom, Lela and Ahmad.

“So what’s your problem then
?,
”
responded the biggest Ned, walking towards him.

“TOM, leave it and let’s go.” Lela was now pushing Tom and Ahmad
out of the way.

“Aw, are the boys frightened and need their little cutie to
protect them,” said the big Ned.

“She’s really cute, wonder what she’s doing with those losers,
huh? Bit young for me but I bet her mum’s really hot!” he said loudly to his
friends causing a roar of laughter.

At the mention of her mother, Lela’s mood changed instantly. Tom
saw the anger well up and the tables turn. He grabbed Lela’s arm and pulled her
towards him.

“Lela you’re right, let’s ignore them,
come
on.”

Lela didn’t move. She stood firm, her petite frame belying her
hidden strength.

“What did you say?” said Lela to the Ned in a
tone
which
chilled Ahmad and Tom.

“Lela, please
!.
Let’s go!” said Tom.

“I said
,
I bet your mum is a real
hottie
. In fact, I’d really like to meet her. Is she coming
to pick you up?”

“Lela, please leave it. They’re idiots, let’s go!”

Lela was not listening to Tom. She was totally focussed on the
Ned who continued to make reference to her mother. She felt Tom’s hand on her
shoulder and brushed it aside. She stepped towards the oncoming group.
 

“What did you just call us?” said a few of the
Neds
looking at Tom.

Tom was beginning to get scared, not of the
Neds
but of Lela. He had never seen her like that before. As she looked at the
Neds
, he could see no expression or emotion in her face.
Her eyes had become very dark but incredibly alert.

“Tom. Ahmad. Stay behind me.”

They both moved behind her. The tone of the instruction was cold
and direct.

The biggest Ned paused to look at the scene in front of him.

“Look at them! They’re pathetic, hiding behind their little
girl-friend
! Come on, they’re not worth the hassle of
getting barred for another month.”