A tap tap on the window caught most of their attention bar Tom’s who was too worried about Lela.
“Tom! Tom! Please turn around and look at the door to the pool?” said Tristan sounding, as though he were asking Tom to look at a mad axe man.
“What?…” Tom turned round and realised what was wrong. Standing in the full glare of the spotlights and directly in front of Lela was Saki.
“Is it really him?” asked Lela, tears were now streaming down her face. If other people saw him as well, it might be real.
“Yes, it is. It’s Saki,” replied Tom gently, as tears began to roll down his cheeks.
Lela jumped and ran to the door, unlocked it and threw her arms around her father. He hugged her and tears welled in his eyes. Tom joined them and the three hugged. Saki spoke before Tom had a chance to ask.
“Your parents are fine, they’re out there on the Tylanni. Explanations will have to wait, we’ve got visitors coming.”
Papa, who had been in the kitchen and had missed everything, nearly knocked them all flying as he rushed across the room to join in the hug.
“Papa. We have trouble coming.”
Saki disengaged himself from Tom and Lela and began to explain what they needed to do. He quickly organised the islanders and split them into three teams. Within a few minutes, the three groups had disappeared into the night.
Lela, Zach, Tristan and Tom were left with strict instructions to stay upstairs in the master bedroom, under no circumstances were they to leave the room.
Lela punched Tom in the arm.
“Hey! What was that for?” he said rubbing the top of his arm.
“You knew! I saw the look on your face, you weren’t that surprised when you saw him.”
“I didn’t! I just thought it might be possible, remember the text I got from my dad?”
“Yeah, the weird one that made them sound guilty?”
“Yeah and the numbers, well it turns out that the numbers, when you type them out in text, say we’ll be back. Daniel phoned me just before we landed. His guys worked it out, seems it had even their master code cracker beat until one of their kids said try it as a text rather than numbers. That, combined with the please forgive us and the Tylanni being renamed The Beautiful lady, made things come together.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Lela was hurt that he had kept it from her.
“And if I was wrong and got your hopes up?” he responded.
“True…God I can’t believe it! They’re alive!” she shook Tom as she said it. The worry that she was dreaming was slowly disappearing. It was real, they were back.
Chapter 82
The three teams made their way through the grounds towards their targets. Team One towards the UK Prime Minister, Team Two towards the Australian Prime Minister and Team Three to the villa to deal with the kids and their acquaintances. It was slow going. With fifty three heads of government, the teams had a lot of security to avoid or dispose of.
The grounds were vast, over 320 acres. Williams was worried about the time it would take them to find their final positions, three areas offering excellent cover and close enough to their targets. He checked his watch as his three teams radioed in to confirm they had arrived and were in position, it was 4.42 a.m. Perfect, he thought, three minutes early.
Williams sat over a mile away with the back-up team. He was watching everything as it happened through video feeds from cameras attached to his lieutenants’ helmets. He watched carefully as each lieutenant scanned the scene in front of them for him. Teams One and Two had four and five guards to deal with respectively, Team Three had a clear run to the villa.
“Snipers One and Two come in,” he radioed to the snipers who covered the south end of the Hotel. They would be able to knock out the four guards for Team One.
“Snipers One and Two come in,” he repeated. He looked towards the high ground where they were, it was over half a mile away and dark, he couldn’t see a thing.
“Sniper Three and Four come in,” he said, trying the snipers who covered the North end and would knock out the guards for Team Two. Nothing.
Williams looked again into the distance where they should be. Again, it was dark, there was nothing to see.
“Sniper Five come in.” Sniper Five was covering the villa and would assist Team Three.
“Yes Sir,” said Sniper Five immediately. He was the closest to them, only a couple of hundred yards up a small hill which offered the best view of the villa.
“Have Snipers One to Four reported difficulties with radios?”
“No Sir th…” Williams heard a distinct thud through his headphones as Sniper Five stopped talking and his line went dead.
He checked his video feeds, they were fine.
“Driver! Move us up the road a mile,” shouted Williams, “and make it quick.” Sniper Five had been very close. If he had just been taken out, Williams was not hanging around to find out if he was next.
The small truck bounced down the road and Williams watched the video feeds. He noticed them bouncing also, but realised it wasn’t from the truck moving, it was his lieutenants’ heads moving quickly. What the hell was happening?
“Teams check in!”
Nothing. He checked the feeds. They were still again.
“Teams check in!”
Nothing.
One islander had been sent to deal with the snipers. Saki had watched them as they set up earlier in the evening. Papa and two islanders took the UK Prime Minister, Kano and Kisho took the Australian Prime Minister while Saki and the other islander watched the villa. Saki had supplied everybody with Tonfas, traditional baton-style sticks with handles two thirds of the way down the shaft. Police batons were a modern derivation of these ancient weapons.
Each of Saki’s groups were also kitted with small communicators. Once they got word the snipers were down, they would begin to take out the teams. The plan was to be as quick and as quiet as possible. Saki was conscious of the army of bodyguards filling the hotel, all of varying levels of professionalism and ability. They could very easily and quickly have a bloodbath on their hands.
As they received confirmation that the snipers were down, they moved in.
Team One was ready and waiting for the Go command. The lieutenant watched from the edge of the small wooded area where he and his men waited. The guards in front of them would be taken out at any moment. The door they were guarding led directly to the UK Prime Minister’s room. There were only four more guards inside, if his guys were quiet enough, they wouldn’t even have to fight their way back out. His watch glowed 4.44 a.m., he would get the Go any second now. With his eyes fixed on the scene in front of him, he raised his hand and readied his men.
Papa watched as the leader raised his hand to ready his team, that was Papa’s signal to go.
The lieutenant had to blink to see if his eyes were deceiving him as a man materialised next to him. He had just appeared from behind the tree. He heard some noises behind him but nothing else after the baton struck him on the side of the head.
