problems meaning they would not arrive until after the students had left. Initially the operators of the local services had protested but were soon pacified by an offer of reimbursement which equated to a month’s worth of revenue.
With guards surrounding the ruins and all visitors being searched thoroughly, the students were let loose on the site. Their only warning was not to fall off the mountain, it was 8,000 feet to sea level.
The sniper watched as the first chopper landed and the soldiers thoroughly checked the site. They were very good he thought, nothing was missed. Just a shame they didn’t think to check just a kilometre away, on the side of the mountain where he was crouching but even if they had, his camouflage blended perfectly with his surroundings. Beside him lay a Walther WA2000 sniper rifle, one of only a few ever made. The cost of producing its level of accuracy was commercially unviable.
He remained motionless as the other helicopters landed and dropped off their passengers. With his target’s face burnt into his memory, he used his binoculars and soon spotted the young man. Unfortunately, he was standing right next to the girl who was to remain unharmed at all cost. The power of his rifle, even from that distance, was such that he could not risk a shot while she remained so close.
Tom and Lela wandered around the ruins accompanied by their very excited history teacher. They were given a ten-minute crash course on the history and the remarkable construction techniques used all those centuries ago.
They then joined the rest of their class for a walkthrough of the whole site. Surprisingly, they were all enthralled by the tour and remained a close-knit group as they listened intently to their tour guide.
The tour ended just as lunch was served and the group made its way to the lavish tables laid out in the sacred plaza.
After lunch, the group were told they had thirty minutes of free time to wander as they pleased.
The sniper was now beginning to worry that what had seemed an easy assignment was turning into a race against time. His target had never left the girl’s side and he was still waiting for a clear shot. As the lunch ended, he finally had his opportunity, his target broke off with a number of other boys, well away from the girl.
He picked up his rifle and assumed his crouched sniping position. He nestled the butt of the gun against his shoulder and rested his chin on the stock of the gun. He placed his eye to the high powered scope. The view in front of him changed and the small dots which had represented children exploded into full size images.
Tom, Zach, Thabo and Tristan finally had a chance to chat alone. It had required Lela to lead the girls off to show them ‘something’ she had noticed in the Temple of the Sun, while the boys went to the Ceremonial Rock, one of the highest points of the city.
“I’ve managed to speak to a couple of my guys and the search is on,” said Zach as they reached the rock and were out of other students’ earshot.
“Excellent,” replied Tom but noting the look on Tristan’s face, he realised that they hadn’t told him yet.
“Sorry Tristan. It seems that my dad’s plane was forced to land by two mysterious Mig 29s. The Guineans don’t have any fighters, never mind Mig 29s, according to our resident African expert, Thabo.”
“We trace the Migs, we find who’s behind this?” asked Tristan quickly.
“Yep, or at least that’s what we think,” said Tom.
“Exactly and we can search through old satellite imagery, historical radar tracks and track these birds back to their origin. This is what we needed, something hard to trace. Trust me, my guys can find any plane that exists,” said Zach.
Tom spun round, something had just hit him.
He couldn’t have asked for a clearer shot, his target stood out in the open and had a three thousand feet drop behind him. If he hit him just right, he would fall into the valley below and by the time they realised he had been shot, the sniper would be miles away. He zoomed in on the target, the crosshairs centring on the boy’s chest, with over 1000m to cover, he didn’t want to risk a head shot. He only had one shot, two would alert the soldiers to his position. He wanted to get out of there alive.
He lined up the shot, took account of the wind and the height the bullet would need to hit the target. He removed the safety device and prepared to fire. His trigger finger was wrapped around the trigger guard. He lifted his finger and placed it on the trigger. He slowly and steadily began to squeeze.
“But what if they don’t exist anymore?” asked Tom, now facing the guys.
“What do you mean, your dad saw them didn’t he?” asked Zach.
“Yes but what if these guys trashed them, knowing they may be a link.”
“That’s probably $60 million worth of plane, that would be nuts,” said Zach.
“With these guys, I’m not so sure. It’s something to consider,” said Tom.
He couldn’t understand it, his finger moved but there was no noise, no recoil. He realised his eyes were closed. He opened them, his view had changed, he was on the ground and could only see the bushes around him. He saw movement, the bush next to him was moving. He tried to move but nothing happened he couldn’t feel a thing. What had happened? He felt nothing, could hear nothing, could only see. The bush began to move away. Then he noticed that the bush had boots, boots he recognised, where had he seen them? Then he remembered the day before, there had been a man next to him, with those boots on. But how could he be a bush? That bush had been there all day, it couldn’t be. He was a professional. Nobody could have done that.
Why could he not feel anything? He looked down and the full force of what had happened hit him. He could only move his eyeballs and just managed to see his back. It wasn’t possible, he’d never seen his back from that angle before. The sniper died five seconds later in the full knowledge that the man in the bush had broken his neck as he had tried to pull the trigger. His head had been twisted so hard it was now facing the wrong way. His mind, living off its remaining oxygen, had allowed him to see the bush and die knowing he had failed.
The bush crawled away, it now knew who the target had been.
Part Five
Chapter 65
Beaumont was very worried, the next Committee meeting was in less than two hours and The Chairman was not happy with him. The failure to purchase Alba International was a blow. The price would never be lower than it was then, nor the opportunity greater. The failure to kill Tom Kennedy had been disastrous; it was five days later and they still did not know what had happened. Their man had simply disappeared. Jones just couldn’t explained, he had used one of his best snipers, a man who didn’t make mistakes.
That, however, didn’t help Beaumont. The Chairman’s confidence in him was dwindling. Too many things had gone wrong in the previous few weeks. The Chairman did not expect things to go wrong and he had insisted on taking control of the upcoming weekend’s operation. He was also going to give the update that evening, which was another slap in the face and message to Beaumont. The President was, it appeared, loving his assistant’s lack of favour and had more than once uttered the ‘I told you so’ line.
Despite enjoying Beaumont’s downturn, the President had taken some pity on him and had allowed him the use of a helicopter to get home quickly for the meeting. Beaumont had arrived just in time and as he logged on, the light on top of their units changed to yellow, he was the last to join. The meeting would start in two minutes.
“Good evening gentlemen,” said The Chairman, two minutes later.
“Good evening,” responded the silhouettes around the screen.
“Today, we’re on the brink of achieving our goal. In less than 5 days, we’ll control the world’s twenty largest countries and with that, we will effectively control the world.”
