This was the most crucial stage. If successful, the propulsion system would continue ever upwards and burn away in the earth’s outer atmosphere. In the meantime, the warhead would power downwards, picking up more and more speed. During its downward journey, the outer core of the missile would also burn off leaving only the new and undetectable core of the warhead to complete its deadly mission.
After the missile had left its launcher, it soon disappeared from view. Smith and his men continued to stare up at the sky. Although they couldn’t see it, the missile bent and split as intended and the warhead began its downward course towards its unsuspecting victims. Smith continued to stare at the sky watching for any sign of the returning warhead. One thing they had not been able to do was stop the glow of the warhead on its way back down. Smith supposed that was why it was still experimental, refinements were still in development. After a minute or so, a shout came from his left.
“There it is! Look towards the coast at 11 o’clock.”
Smith turned his gaze and there it was. It looked like a shooting star, except that instead of streaking across the sky horizontally, it was streaking downwards. Smith followed the glow as it fell towards earth and saw it turn into a bright flash as the missile impacted its target at over Mach 5. Although over a hundred miles away, the ground shook as the explosion ripped through the ground.
“Direct hit Sir! Perfect!” shouted one of his men.
“Excellent,” said Smith picking up his mobile and pushing the anonymous dial button. Two seconds later and 6,000 miles away a voice answered.
“Yes?”
“It’s done, perfect hit,” said Smith
“Excellent, well done,” replied a very happy Beaumont.
Chapter 12
Tom and Lela were still discussing the missing Tylanni when Kano came rushing through from the cockpit.
“Where were your parents heading to?” he asked panicking.
“Why, what’s wrong?” asked Tom.
“Just tell me where they were going!” shouted Kano.
“Gabon, they’re going to Gabon. Why?” asked Tom who felt instantly sick.
“Oh, thank God for that,” said Kano.
“Why, what’s happened?” asked Tom, still concerned about Kano’s panic.
“It’s just that we were listening to a news station and they reported a huge explosion in West Africa but it wasn’t Gabon. We just put two and two together and got about 45, sorry Tom.”
Tom’s concern did not wane.
“Where exactly in West Africa?” he asked.
“Some place called Equatorial Guinea,” he replied.
“Oh, my God!!”
“What’s wrong?” asked Lela as she watched the colour drain from Tom’s face.
“Gabon is next to Equatorial Guinea. It could be Alba One, the timing’s right, they’re due to land in about ten minutes which would put them over Equatorial Guinea for the last 15 minutes.”
Tom stood up and made his way to the cockpit. Kisho had heard what Tom had said and was frantically radioing for confirmation of what the explosion was caused by.
“This is Tom One. Can you please confirm source of explosion in Equatorial Guinea. Was it a plane crash, repeat, was it a plane crash?”
No response came. Kisho tried again and again. Finally the radio came to life.
“Sorry Tom One, nobody knows. Reason for explosion so far unknown.” The radio died again.
Tom grabbed his mobile and dialled his father’s number. It went straight to voicemail.
He tried again but it went straight to voicemail again.
He put the phone down and turned to Lela who shook her head as if to say it couldn’t be happening.
Tom’s phone rang. Without thinking, he answered.
“Hello?” and a huge smile appeared on his face. “Dad! You’re OK! Thank God! We were so worried. Hang on, I’ll put you on speaker.”
“Of course I’m OK, I was trying to call you but you kept going to voicemail,” said Donald.
“I was trying to call you, we just heard about the explosion.”
“I know, I know, I was calling to tell you all about it. I was looking out of the window and saw what looked like a shooting star but it fell straight into the ground and the whole thing just blew up.”
They were all so relieved they couldn’t say anything so they just listened to Donald telling them about the explosion and what he thought may have been a meteor. He then made his apologies for having to go as they were on their final approach and the captain was asking him to get off the phone.
Chapter 13
Beaumont relaxed in his office, the first stage of the African operation had been a success. In fact, a greater success than they had expected. CNN were covering the story, along with every other world news agency. Beaumont could not believe his luck. The missile had caused far more damage than anticipated, over 2,000 people were presumed dead. He was delighted. Human life meant nothing to him.
The missile had targeted a remote mining town near the coast of Equatorial Guinea. Timing was of the essence as the only moment the missile could make a direct entry into the mine shaft was when the miners finished their shift at 18.45. At that time, the mine’s elevator was lifted out of the shaft and manoeuvred to the side to allow the miners to disembark. On target and on time, the missile plunged down the shaft and exploded, igniting a heavily laden explosives room. The kinetic energy and force of the missile increased the explosive potential of the mining explosives by 10 fold. The explosion ripped through the mine network uncovering numerous weak points and resulting in a massive implosion which had the effect of swallowing the surrounding town in one huge catastrophe. It was not anticipated that any survivors would be found. Certainly the bemused miners who had witnessed the strange meteor hurtling past them and then down the shaft would never be found alive.
The file on Beaumont’s desk would commence the next stage of the operation, namely, the Misinformation Stage. He put on his latex gloves before handling the file as it was likely that the information contained within it would be handed over to the authorities at some stage. The material inside was even more explosive than the missile. He extracted the documents and placed them in an envelope. The envelope would be sent out that night to the head office of an international media organisation.
He closed the envelope and stopped himself from licking it closed, avoiding a schoolboy error and instead dabbed it with a damp sponge to seal it. He smiled as he placed the envelope in his briefcase, he would drop it in a postbox on his way home. Mr Donald Kennedy was not going to know what hit him.
Chapter 14
Tom One touched down on the school’s runway just after midnight local time and the four transferred to a waiting golf cart, the only method of transport on the school’s island.
The cart dropped Tom and Lela off at their accommodation block before continuing on to the Special Forces base where Kano and Kisho had been given accommodation.
The Special Forces base was located at one end of the island and housed over 200 Special Forces soldiers
