about the five people Saki had seen earlier at the cinema.
“Who do you think they were after?” asked Donald.
“Tom!” replied Saki.
“Oh god! Are you sure?” asked Donald.
“Not 100 % but the Special Branch commander made it very clear that nobody knew Tristan was coming here today, nobody.”
The Kennedys had always known they were at risk of being kidnapped, it was a persistent threat which accompanied high profile multi-billionaires. However, Donald’s fanatical approach to security had, until then, kept the threat at arm’s length.
“How secure are we in here?” asked Donald.
Before Saki could answer, the Estate’s sirens began to sound.
“We’re about to find out!” he shouted, but Donald couldn’t hear a thing.
Conor had watched as the minibus had arrived back with its escorts. Damn, he thought, eight armed security men, the stakes had just been raised dramatically. However, the eight man team did not enter the estate but stayed outside as the minibus disappeared behind the gates.
He moved back into the woods and updated his crew. Sinead was not happy.
“What the hell do you mean, none of them went in?”
“None of the security men went into the estate. I don’t mean anything, I’m just telling you what happened,” he replied angrily. Her worries were really starting to get under his skin. He turned to the rest of the crew.
“Bugger this, let’s go, we’ll hit them right now!” said Conor.
The longer they waited, the longer he would have to suffer Sinead’s moaning.
Conor checked the seven members of his crew who would be accompanying him into the estate. Only Ryan, the techy, was missing. He was waiting on the other side of the Loch with the getaway cars. The eight moved off, pushing their bikes down the small road, they did not want to alert the security men to their presence before they had to. The ramps had been placed earlier at the side of the wall. Four of the men dumped their bikes and rushed across the road to grab the ramps. They would work on a simple seesaw basis, the longer end of the ramp being placed at the outside of the wall and as the bikes reached the top. The slightly shorter end would be forced over the other side. As the bike made it down the other side and off the ramp, the plank would swing back up and the next bike would follow.
The ramps were just out of sight of the main gates, so it was imperative that their entry was quick to avoid the security men.
As the four ramps touched the wall, the alarms immediately sounded and night became day as the 20 square miles of Estate were instantly bathed in millions of watts of floodlight. The first four bikes zoomed up the ramp, the noise of their engines drowned by the sirens, and as they reached the top of the wall, the ramp pivoted and the bikes rushed down the other side. As planned, the ramp sprung back to its original position and the next four bikes zoomed up. Unfortunately, Sinead didn’t quite hit the ramp properly and fell off the ramp near the top of the wall, her bike falling on top of her on the outside of the wall, leaving her lying in a helpless heap.
Conor looked round and saw she was missing. He assumed she had bottled out and would deal with her later. Nobody backed out of a mission and lived to regret it, it was an unwritten rule which everybody understood. Of course, even if he had wanted to go back for her, he couldn’t. The ramps were all now on the wrong side of the wall. He waited another ten seconds for her before giving up. He waved his men on, the main drive way was 400 yards along the wall, there was just enough room to manoeuvre their bikes between the wall and the trees.
A minute later, they hit the road and opened the throttles fully on their powerful bikes. They would be at the house in less than two minutes.
Sinead managed to get up and realised her bike was useless, its front wheel having buckled when it landed. She had twisted her ankle but managed to hobble away, slinking into the woods on the other side of the road. She just wanted to get as far away as she could, her ear drums were pulsating from the force of the sirens.
Panic had broken out in the Main house when the alarms had started. A few of Tom and Lela’s friends had run to the front door assuming the alarm was a fire alarm. However, before anybody could tell them otherwise, the house entered its lock down phase, exactly 5 seconds after the alarms sounded. Blast shutters descended across every door and window around the estate.
Donald rushed into the lounge and assured everyone that they were completely safe and that there was nothing to worry about. It was probably a false alarm but in any event, they could not be in a safer place. Saki stayed in the kitchen and watched the 3D schematic of the Estate. That was an additional feature of the security camera system. Seven red dots appeared on the schematic, detailing exactly where each of the intruders were. Saki could also see the 12 green dots huddled in the lounge in the next room and his own green dot in the kitchen. The recognition system in the cameras covered every inch of the estate and the system recognised people by their facial characteristics, height and weight. Once allowed into the Estate as a welcomed guest, the technology would automatically allocate a green dot. Unwelcome guests, or people the system did not recognise, would instantly be allocated a red dot and trigger the alarm.
The seven red dots worked their way along the wall toward the main driveway. Saki smiled, boy, were this mob in for the shock of their lives.
The main gate buzzer began to sound. Saki lifted the handset, he didn’t want anybody to overhear the conversation.
“Saki, are you OK? What’s happening?” asked a flustered SPU officer.
“We’re fine, don’t worry!”
“False alarm?” he asked, relieved.
“No, we’ve got seven intruders making their way towards the house.”
“Jesus, let us in!” he shouted.
“Absolutely not, it’s too dangerous,” he replied
“That’s why we’re here, let us in!” he demanded again.
“It’s too dangerous for you, not us,” replied Saki and hung up.
He watched the seven red blips reach the driveway and begin to accelerate. As expected, the blips suddenly stopped moving.
“Jesus Christ!” screamed Conor as the road suddenly became a sea of spikes, bursting every one of the fourteen tyres.
The seven men managed to get to the side of the road unscathed but they now had over 3 miles to cover to get to the house on foot. He looked back to the main gate, it remained firmly shut. Why would they not let the security team in? He was beginning to wish he had listened to Sinead. Had the ramps been available, he would have turned around but they weren’t and the walls were unclimable, caked in anti climb paint and topped with razor wire. They had no option but to move into the woods which skirted the driveway and set off at a jog. They were extremely fit, heavily armed and well covered by the trees, things could be worse.
However, things got worse very quickly. The lights died, as did the sirens and an eerie dark silence fell upon Conor and his men. They must know where we are, why else would they turn the lights off? Conor was now very worried.
Donald joined Saki in the kitchen.
“Well?”
“Seven, just inside the main gate and they just lost their transport,” said Saki pointing at the screen. They could see, from the video feed, seven men working their way through the wooded area. Tom joined them. He knew it wasn’t a false alarm, his father’s face had told him all he needed to know. He watched the video screen.
“Are we in danger?” asked Donald.
“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.
