“OK,” replied Lela. “You’re very cold.”
Tom looked at Lela as he got up and walked around his room.
“Still very cold,” said Lela.
He walked into the hallway.
“Warmer,” she said.
He continued down the hallway, past the elevator door and towards the games room. Nobody followed.
“Getting colder,” called out Donald from Tom’s doorway.
Tom walked back to the elevator door.
“Warmer,” said Lela.
Tom pressed the call button and the elevator doors opened. He stepped in and was quickly joined by the others. His finger hovered over the First Floor button.
“Cold,” said Lela.
He moved his finger down to the Ground Floor button.
“Slightly warmer,” said Lela.
His finger moved to the Basement button.
“Very warm,” said Lela smiling.
He pressed the button and the doors soon opened onto the vast basement complex beneath the Kennedy Estate. The estate itself covered over 20 square miles of Scottish countryside on the banks of Loch Lomond and was a mere twenty minutes by helicopter from Glasgow, the Global HQ of Alba International, his father’s company
Donald had purchased the estate on his return from honeymoon fourteen years earlier. The events leading to Tylanni’s death had unleashed a fanatical obsession about security which, over the years, had only increased as his family and wealth had grown.
The corridor they stepped into was almost identical to the one they had left behind, richly decorated and carpeted. The only difference was the lack of natural light, unsurprising at fifty feet below ground level.
Tom, still in his pyjamas, looked at his father for more clues. There were miles of tunnels which linked all the buildings on the estate as well as numerous garages, housing his father’s collection of cars. They had also installed a number of emergency bunkers and a fifty seat state-of-the art cinema. His father just smiled back. He wasn’t going to give anything away.
More in frustration than in the belief that anything would happen, Tom hit button ‘1’ again. A noise to his right alerted him to something moving. As he turned towards the noise, a panel opened in the wall, revealing a dark space. Tom felt around the edges for some kind of light switch but there was nothing.
“Try the second button?” suggested Lela excitedly.
He moved into the centre of the opening and pressed the second button. The dark hole exploded into light as giant lamps lit the void. In the centre of a large hangar stood a white structure with four hydraulic legs, a staircase and a walkway.
Tom was speechless. He just stared open mouthed at the brilliant white structure.
“Well, what do you think?” asked Donald as he watched Tom’s face.
Tom couldn’t stop staring at the structure.
“It’s un — believa — ble…I mean WOW! Unbelievable!! A simulator!!! You got me a simulator!!! I can’t believe it!!!”
Tom loved flying and everything to do with it. He didn’t need to be told anything about the structure in front of him, he knew everything about it. He was staring at a CAE simulator for the new Airbus A380, the largest commercial jet ever built. AlbAir, his father’s airline had just completed a deal for thirty A380s and Alba International had purchased one for Donald which Tom had already christened ‘Alba One’.
“Go on then, get flying!” said Donald pointing Tom in the direction of the staircase.
Tom didn’t need to be asked twice.
“Come on Lela, come with me!” he shouted as he sprinted up the stairs. As she followed apprehensively, Tom was already bursting into the cockpit where he found the final part of his birthday present. The Captain’s seat was occupied. The test pilot from the A380’s inaugural test flight was waiting to give him his first lesson. Captain Jacques Rosay would be spending the next few weeks teaching Tom everything he knew.
Chapter 10
Conor Murphy surveyed the plans and scratched his head. He just couldn’t see how they would do it. He had accepted what he had thought was a simple job. $1 million to snatch a couple of kids. The client didn’t care what happened to them, he just wanted them out of the way on the 12 ^ th August. What he did to them after that, was up to him. Ransom them and give them back, ransom them and kill them, whatever Conor wanted was fine, as long as, on the 11 ^ th August they were in Conor’s custody. He couldn’t believe it. Somebody was bankrolling him to kidnap the children of the third richest man in the world and he could keep whatever ransom payment he could get.
Conor checked his watch. He had less than 36 hours to go. Two weeks earlier, he thought he’d have plenty of time. However, he had since seen the security system which protected the Kennedy Estate. It was unbelievable. They had every conceivable device and many he was not aware even existed. Donald Kennedy was obviously a very paranoid man.
Conor and his eight man crew had committed just about every crime imaginable. They had been the IRA’s top team before the peace agreement. They were extremely violent and highly respected terrorists. But all that had now passed and they were struggling to adapt to peace time. When Conor had called them to gauge their interest in the job, they had jumped at the chance. The prospect of getting rich beyond their wildest dreams certainly didn’t hinder their decision.
The previous two weeks had been spent planning how to snatch the kids and this had not gone well. Their preferred option of sneaking in and stealing the children during the night was quickly ruled out. On seeing the estate for the first time, they knew they had a problem. Eight foot walls were topped with razor wire and sensors were everywhere. The surveillance cameras which covered every inch of wall were not like any they had seen before. They had the usual infrared bulbs either side but a strange spherical device hung underneath. Ryan was their technical whiz and after a few days of searching had finally discovered that this device was a scanner which detected body heat, movement and smell. Ryan had managed to get a copy of the system’s specifications which detailed its capabilities. It was designed to detect any foreign object in the vicinity, scan its body mass and dimensions, including facial structure and body odour. Anything outwith its programmed parameters would trigger an alarm. Ryan explained in plain English that unless their physical details were programmed into the system, they would trip the alarm as the scanners were everywhere. Only wildlife and specific individuals would be accepted into the grounds. The system could even differentiate between the male and female of a species. He also explained that the system had not gone beyond the experimental phase because the project had been scrapped. Conor perked up at the thought of some design fault but was disappointed to learn that the system had only been scrapped because it was not economically viable. It was so perfect, nobody could have afforded it. They realised that ‘sneak and grab’ was definitely not an option.
Another possibility was to ram the front gate and make a run for the house in a fast car, grab the kids by force and escape to a safe house. They had had to watch the gates for two days before being able to confirm the viability of that plan. It was ruled out. The gates revealed two issues. Firstly, there were in fact two sets of gates. A small area behind the main gates revealed another gate which was closed. Any vehicle entering the premises had to wait for the first gate to close before the second gate would open. The second issue was the gates themselves. They were more like vault doors than gates, even a bulldozer would not get through them.
The next option was ruled out even more quickly — the use of a helicopter to infiltrate the grounds. The estate was close to the UK’s nuclear warhead storage facility and was a strictly enforced no-fly-zone. The Kennedys’ helicopters were the only civilian aircraft permitted to fly within the area. Any other aircraft would immediately be challenged and shot down if it did not comply with instructions to leave the area. Following recent terrorist events, the UK had enforced a strict ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ policy when national security was at risk. None of Conor’s team were suicidal.
