The General was stunned. The realisation that his flight crew were all dead hit him hard. The Colonel continued to read the statement he had received from the President.
“In this troubled time, it is imperative, in the interests of national security, that no chink in the US’s armour is shown. I have therefore taken the unprecedented decision to immediately appoint General Powers’ replacement. With immediate effect, Admiral Harold Walker will assume the title of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.”
The Colonel stopped reading. There was more but he knew that the General had heard enough.
“What in the hell is going on??!! Walker…, why would they give that weaselly little turd my job?” The General’s mind was racing. “Give me that phone,” he snapped. He was now shaking with fury.
“Get me the President,” he barked to the Whitehouse receptionist.
“Who may I say is calling,” she responded professionally, ignoring the General’s rudeness.
“Tell him it’s one of his ChairMEN of the Joint Chiefs.”
Missing the relevance of his emphasis, the receptionist put the call through as a call from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.
The President was in the middle of a call from the Russian President and would be another minute. Beaumont had entered the Oval office as the call from the General had come through and decided to take it for the President.
“Hi Harold, how are you settling in? Congratulations on the promotion,” he said cheerfully.
“I’ll HAROLD YOU!! GET THAT IDIOT BOSS OF YOURS ON THE PHONE NOW!!! BEFORE I COME OVER THERE AND RIP YOU A NEW ASSHOLE!!!”
Not many people scared Beaumont but the tones of General Powers’ screaming voice chilled him to the core. His face dropped. The President, seeing the look of dread on Beaumont’s face, distanced the phone from his ear and left the Russian president talking to thin air. Beaumont did the same and the General’s expletives could clearly be heard through the earpiece. The President mouthed “who is it?” Beaumont responded, “Powers.” The President dropped the Russian president on the floor, the full impact of the situation hitting him. He too was scared of General Powers.
As Beaumont rescued the Russian President from the floor, a tentative President and boss of General Powers took the phone, his hand visibly shaking. The torrent from the General was even worse than expected and he thanked God that the man was 9,000 miles away.
The General pulled the phone away from his ear and screamed for his aide. They had all left General Powers to it, their eardrums could not take the abuse.
“Yes General,” said the aide on entering the room.
“Get me a scramjet, I want to get back to Washington yesterday.”
“Yes Sir.”
The General ended the call to the president informing him he would be back in 2 hours and would be straight over to see him.
Back in Washington, a very worried and very angry President replaced the receiver and turned to Beaumont.
“What the hell have you done Beaumont?! The man was merely a liability, now he’s a full blown enemy. He’ll never forgive me for this, he hates Walker. The fact that I chose him as his replacement has really pissed him off. What the hell happened? How the hell could you get it so wrong? Why didn’t you know Powers wasn’t on the plane? Wasn’t even in Durban?! What an almighty mess! How can you be so stupid?”
Beaumont stood speechless. This was not good. His mind was working through the permutations. This really, really was not good. General Powers was a very powerful man and very astute. The President was right, Powers had been a liability but now he was dangerous. He would be watching their every move. If only they hadn’t announced Walker. That was their biggest mistake from which it would be difficult to recover and it was all his fault. He, Beaumont, had pushed hard for it.
The emergency red phone buzzed on the President’s desk. He grabbed it, what next? The digitised voice of The Chairman of the Committee was instantly recognisable. He wasn’t taking this call on his own and put the phone on speaker.
“Beaumont’s here as well,” said the President. The Chairman did not mince his words and expressed his astonishment at their incompetence. He was also extremely concerned at the cavalier change in the timetable and how dare this be done without his knowledge. Both knew by the end of the call that they could not afford to make another mistake no matter how minor. Not because they sensed it but because The Chairman spelled out exactly what would happen to them if they did.
The scramjet arrived at the island thirty minutes later. It had been stationed at Diego Garcia airbase, a secluded airbase located in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Although the airbase was well-known, it was almost 1000 miles from nearest landfall and only accessible by military transport.
The scramjet landed and departed almost immediately. It would deliver General Powers to Washington, 9,000 miles away, in just over an hour. The scramjet could fly at speeds approaching MACH 10, over 7,000 miles per hour.
Chapter 31
Donald explained the situation to Saki on his return to the cell. The Chief of Police had given up trying to elicit his confession after only half an hour. It was clear that Donald was not going to change his mind but it seemed as though the Chief of Police didn’t seem to care, almost as though he were just going through the motions.
It was not until later that they had the chance to update Rachel when they were let out into the prison courtyard, giving them the chance to talk. Despite the prison yard being full of other prisoners, the Kennedys were given an extra wide berth. They heard, however, that the former boss of the prisoners was fighting for his life in the prison hospital. It had not taken long for the prisoners to even up old scores. The boss now shared the ward with his henchmen and none would see the light of day for a number of weeks.
Rachel did not take the news well. The thought of spending the rest of her life in that hell hole was terrifying. Donald explained that the evidence was all stacked against him but that there was nothing on Saki and Rachel.
“So why the hell are we here? And anyway, is your spending the rest of your life in here without me, supposed to comfort me?” she retorted, fighting back the tears.
“No, but…” Donald gave up, there was no point trying to comfort Rachel at this stage, he stood more chance of upsetting her than reassuring her.
The tearful silence was interrupted by shouts and screams from across the courtyard. The noise grew louder as the source of the noise grew closer. A team of guards, heavily armed and dressed in full riot gear were making their way towards them. As they approached Donald, Saki and Rachel, they stopped. Saki stepped in front of Donald and Rachel and readied himself for another battle. He didn’t like guns but knew when they were needed and how to use them. He spotted the one he wanted, a well kept Heckler amp; Koch MP5K. It was by far the best weapon for his purposes, namely to take out the 20 guards as quickly as possible. He was already calculating the order in which to dispatch them once he had disarmed the owner of the gun he wanted.
“Come with us,” demanded the guard who was about to be disarmed. That was why he had the best weapon thought Saki, he was the senior guard.
“Where?” asked Saki, preparing to move dependent upon the answer.
“The British Ambassador has arrived and wishes to see you,” replied the senior guard. Saki turned to Donald who simply replied, “about bloody time, let’s go,” and led the way.
They were shown to a significantly more attractive room than the one Donald had found himself in earlier. Even tea and biscuits were laid out. A man was standing talking to the British Ambassador whom Donald assumed was the Prison Governor.
“Good evening,” said the Ambassador, rising from his seat and greeting them warmly.
“Good evening Mr Ambassador,” they all replied.
