Friday, June 23rd, 2017
08:00 GMT+2 (06:00 GMT June 23rd)
Berlin, Germany
COCKBURN ONE
Everyone was stirring after what they all thought was a remarkably good sleep.
As they opened their eyes, they could smell food cooking and coffee brewing – the smell lured them all out of their lie-flat seats and through into the main cabin. Harper and Rylee looked very tired, but they were too hungry to worry about sleeping. Each grabbed a steaming plate piled high with everything a growing Predator needed for a day of exercise. The adults also needed plenty of sustenance as they had to control said Predators in the field without causing an international incident.
"Last time Mindy was in Germany, she was declared Persona Non Grata," Jasper chuckled.
"Well, we're not uncouth Yanks," Keira pointed out.
"Speak for yourself," Laurel said with a snarky smile as she bit into a sausage.
"I stand corrected," Keira said. "Still, we Brits can behave better."
"Let's just see how the day unfolds, shall we?" Jasper suggested.
"I'm more worried about how the day is going to end," David said as Cameron nodded his agreement.
"Just think positively," Lara tried.
"With this hormonal bunch of animals?" Keira queried.
Lara simply shrugged as she went back to her breakfast.
..._...
After breakfast, as everybody dressed for the day, Laurel began to feel a little bit unhappy with the way things were going.
She had been kept under guard in a curtained off section at the rear of the aircraft while everybody else had got themselves ready. Her clothes had been brought to her and she had dressed alone. She sensed that things were not going her way and that she was not to be trusted; she could not exactly blame them there as she was intending to double-cross them, the first chance she got. However, things then took a turn for the worst as Keira and David came to escort her forward. There she found herself facing the adults and Kate – all the others had vanished. Then she was pushed into a seat and pinned in place by David and Cameron.
"Laurel, it's not that we don't trust you...," Keira said.
"I know; you don't trust me," Laurel responded.
"So, we think we need to cover ourselves," Keira continued as she knelt down beside Laurel's feet and opened the lid of a small plastic case.
Laurel saw Kate's expression pale slightly as a device was brought out of the case – Laurel recognised it immediately. The girl sighed as Keira pushed up the bottom of her left trouser leg to reveal her left ankle and the device was securely attached there.
"We just want you to be safe, Laurel," Keira said. "Now, there are two versions of that ankle accessory, one with explosives in and one without – I am unsure which version you have, but I would not recommend messing with it."
For a moment, Laurel considered that the explosives comment was a joke, but then she saw the fear in Kate's eyes, and she knew that it was no joke.
Later that morning...
10:15 GMT+2 (08:15 GMT June 23rd)
Berlin, Germany
Keira, Kate & Laurel
The German capital city was a satisfying 22°C with a few passing clouds in the otherwise blue sky.
Laurel had quickly noticed that the group had grown even smaller as she found herself in a taxi alone with Kate and Keira. Everyone else seemed to have scattered long before she had left the aircraft. She could feel the added weight of the device strapped to her left ankle and she felt like a criminal – which maybe she was. Part of her had actually felt bad when Rylee had had her burns redressed that morning, but only a part of her. She focussed her mind on her tasks ahead as she figured that it would be a difficult day for her as she worked through her plan to save the life of someone particularly important to her. However, that was a few days away, so for the moment, she was going to be a good girl so that she had the help of the people she was with, at least for the moment.
The Mercedes saloon was air-conditioned which helped with the outside temperature, but Laurel still found herself sweating in places which she did not care to think about. Kate had not said much, but then neither girl had much in common with the other – apart from their upbringing – but Laurel could tell that Kate was in charge and Kate was about the only person who had spoken to her on the aircraft which was probably why they had been bundled together. Laurel's expert eyes had identified that Kate was armed with at least two firearms and probably some bladed weapons. The girl also carried concealed communications equipment which meant that she was connected to another team. That would be a first task – to figuratively unmask the shadowing team.
After a twenty-minute drive through the northwestern suburbs of Berlin, they pulled up outside the Berlin Hauptbahnhof (Central Station).
..._...
Kate followed (escorted) Laurel inside the enormous railway station while Keira headed off in a different direction.
"Okay, Laurel," Kate said, "it's your show – where next?"
"Left luggage – Schließfach," Laurel replied as her eyes scanned all around her seeking out the watchers. "South end: up the escalators over there."
"You speak German?"
"A little bit – enough to get by; I'm more proficient in French and Russian. Oh, and you may as well tell the brat, Simon, that I can see him loitering over by the bakery."
Kate nodded. "Okay."
"There's Rylee, too – thought they'd be better at this."
Laurel was getting to see what she expected – the watchers. Only, she was seeing the ones which they wanted her to see and not those who were hidden in plain sight, plus their ace in the hole. Nonetheless, Rylee and Simon followed Kate and Laurel up the escalator and then the younger pair shadowed the older girls as Kate and Laurel walked the full 150-metre length of the first floor. The station was busy with many people moving in different directions as they made for the trains or to the street below. At the far end, Laurel stepped onto the elevator and they all descended downwards and then they turned right to where there quite literally hundreds of storage lockers stacked four high for the smaller ones.
"Locker 111, over there," Laurel said.
"Open it!" Kate said as she stood beside the locker.
"I need..."
"Open it!" Kate repeated and Laurel stepped over to the central control panel and she punched in the locker number and a pin code.
The locker door lock released, and Kate peered inside, not trusting a Predator's locker.
"Small wire, top right," Laurel said.
Kate reached in with two fingers while keeping the door open just enough for her fingers to identify a thin trigger wire. Kate lifted the wire up and off a small self-adhesive hook and then opened the locker door completely. Laurel simply shrugged as Kate spied a Glock 26 pistol ready for easy use along with a hand grenade whose cotter pin was connected to the trigger wire. If anybody had opened the locker – kaboom!
"Well?" Kate demanded.
"Stuck to the top of the locker near the back," Laurel directed.
Kate reached into the deep locker and she found something small secured to the back of the locker – it was Predator 101. The small object was a black USB drive which was exceedingly difficult to see and would have been easily missed during a cursory inspection as the locker was otherwise empty – apart from the gun and the grenade.
"Part one of the data," Laurel confirmed as Kate glared down at her.
"Is the gun clean?"
"Virgin."
"Lock it up," Kate directed, handing Laurel a handful of two Euro coins.
Once the locker was secured, Laurel returned the unused coins to Kate and then she looked past the lockers.
"Can a girl make use of the bathroom while we're here?"
"Go – and be quick about it," Kate said. "You have two minutes."
Laurel rolled her eyes as she vanished into the toilets.
..._...
Kate knew that Laurel was up to something.
Therefore, it was not much of a surprise when Laurel did not reappear after two minutes. Kate found no sign of the girl in the toilets, but she did find a back way out normally used by the cleaners. Kate swore but she did not worry.
"Firestorm has spread her wings," Kate radioed knowing that their ace in the hole was about to get some action.
Laurel had bolted out the back of the toilets having known about the exit – she had used it before – and she ran towards a small passageway located between two shops at the end of which was a back entrance to the station. When Laurel saw that she was not being followed, she grinned and she slowed to a walk, passing two station workers and a young girl. The girl was not a threat, or so Laurel thought, as she wore tight jeans which prohibited the hiding of any weapons while the girl's T-shirt and bra also hid no weapons. Therefore, as Laurel stepped past the girl, she was shocked to glance back and see a pistol, complete with suppressor, aimed at her head.
"Nicht bewegen!" the girl growled.
Laurel was too stunned to move – where the fuck had the pistol and suppressor come from?
"Get your fucking hands against the wall," the girl directed, her pistol not wavering.
Laurel did as she was ordered but then she tried to retake control of the situation.
"You a Predator?"
"Not on your fucking life!"
"Are you...?"
"Why can't you fucking Predators ever shut the fuck up!" the girl growled, cracking Laurel's head with the suppressor. "Down on your sodding knees."
"You speak good German," Laurel said as she sank to her knees.
"Had some time on my hands when I was in hospital for a while – now shut the fuck up!"
"Ow!" Laurel exclaimed as she was cracked on the side of the head again.
Laurel never noticed the arrival of a third person, but she did notice the strong arm across her throat, and she fought but failed as blackness soon led to unconsciousness.
Early that afternoon...
12:05 GMT+2 (10:05 GMT June 23rd)
Westhafen
Laurel awoke to find herself lying on a cold concrete floor.
She opened her eyes to see the very same girl who had taken her down – Laurel glared, and she made to move but then she found that her wrists were cuffed. Then she felt anger coursing through her but then she felt a strong hand on her left upper arm. Laurel looked up to see Kate looking down at her. Then it made sense.
"You put me out," Laurel said in more statement than question.
"You appeared to be doing something stupid, so I stopped you," Kate said.
"Who are you?" Laurel asked the girl watching her as she was helped to her feet by Kate.
"My name is Diana."
"You sure you're not a Predator?"
"Nah – you got taken out by a nobody."
"No way!"
"I had a really good teacher," Diana grinned. "The best."
"Oh, brother!" Rylee scowled as she saw Harper's massive grin.
"That little fuck trained you?" Laurel asked, dumbfounded.
Diana just nodded.
"Bet that smarts, Firestorm!" Kate grinned.
"That was so low..."
"And running out on us wasn't?" Kate challenged without an ounce of humour in her tone.
Laurel just glared down at the concrete around her feet.
..._...
Laurel found herself taken out of what looked like a bare warehouse into an office and she was pushed into a chair by Kate.
Jasper sat behind a desk and he did not look all that happy. He did not say anything for a number of minutes – he did not have to as for the first time in a long time, Laurel felt a mixture of shame and fear. Then Jasper stood up and he came around the desk. He walked behind Laurel and the girl could feel the man's eyes boring into the back of her head. Damn, he was good, she thought; the man had to be from an intelligence agency, but he was a Brit, so that made him MI5. Then she felt him lean down to her right ear.
"You are wasting my time, girl."
The tone was cold, and it sent a shiver down Laurel's back.
"There are forces at play here that you know nothing about, and forces which would make you piss your panties even as you sit in this chair."
Laurel forced herself to ignore the voice, but she had never heard anything like it, and she found herself shaking,
"You think you're scared of me?"
Jasper laughed, unnerving the girl even further.
"Oh, you should be, mark my words, but there are some who make me seem like a pussy cat, and we all hate – lying – little – bitches."
The shaking was getting worse and Laurel was beginning to lose control of her emotions.
"Now . . . ARE YOU GOING TO STOP MUCKING ABOUT AND PLAY THE BLOODY GAME, GIRL, OR DO WE NEED TO DO THIS ALL BLOODY DAY!" Jasper roared and all Laurel's self-control vaporised in an instant and she cracked.
Jasper ignored the sobbing girl as he casually sat back down behind the desk.
"One other thing I don't like – you listening to me, girl?"
Laurel nodded as she struggled to pull herself back together.
"You put my people at risk, and nothing will prevent me from throwing you to the wolves. Oh, yes, there are wolves who would just love to tear you apart. Do I have your word that there will be no more mucking about?"
Laurel nodded.
"I CAN'T BLOODY HEAR YOU, GIRL!"
"Yes, I'll stop mucking about."
Laurel wiped away the tears with the backs of her cuffed hands.
13:30 GMT+2 (11:30 GMT June 23rd)
Jasper, Kate, Rylee, Simon, Harper, Diana & Laurel
It was time to leave, to head back to the airport.
As they stepped out into the sunshine and onto Westhafenstraße, Kate happened to glance to their right. Under any other circumstances it could have been humorous, but as Kate performed a classic doubletake, so did another group about fifty yards distant at the bend in the road.
"Panther Brigade, I presume," Jasper commented as he followed Kate's glance.
The men – twelve of them – were tall and athletic. They were also wearing body armour. Beside them were a trio of black Mercedes-Benz G Class off-road vehicles. The men had been studying maps when they had noticed the team leaving the MI5 safehouse.
"Contact! Contact! Contact!" Simon radioed.
The seven members of the team began running down Westhafenstraße, although Harper stayed with Diana who could only move as fast as her running gait and legs would carry her. They all heard the slamming car doors and high-powered engines starting some distance behind them. Then they heard the squeal of rubber on tarmac as an Audi Q7 slid to a halt at the end of Westhafenstraße where it joined An der Putlitzbrücke.
"Need a ride, do we?" a voice called out. "Do get in."
Rylee smiled up at the long-suffering butler to the Cockburn family and she swiftly yanked open the rear door of the Audi to see the grinning faces of Mackenzie Morley and her brother, Isaac. The two youngsters threw themselves into the third row of seats allowing Rylee and Simon to climb in. In the front right seat, Lily O'Brien grinned as she readied a G36K assault rifle she held in her hands.
"Here," she said as she passed back two identical weapons to Rylee and Simon.
Another Audi Q7 slewed to a halt behind the first with David at the wheel and out jumped Keira and Tanya both of whom began to open fire on the inbound Mercedes-Benz G Wagons and provided covering fire for Diana and Harper. Kate and Laurel dived into the back of a third Audi Q7 which had Cameron at the wheel while Jasper jumped in the front passenger seat. Once Harper and Diana were aboard the second Q7 with Tanya and Keira, all three sped off, turning one-eighty-degrees, and heading south on An der Putlitzbrücke. They then found their escape options slightly limited.
"Sleuth, this is Akuma, over."
"Go ahead, Akuma," Jasper replied.
"We've been given the heads up that Panther Brigade are moving in to take Cockburn One – we're launching directly."
Jasper could hear the engines spooling up in the background.
"Go for Zurich – we'll see you there," Jasper ordered.
The plan was for them to have spent the afternoon in Berlin, before heading back to the aircraft for a brief evening hop to Zurich, but as usual, all had gone to shit!
..._...
The three Audi SUVs raced south, catching a green light as they crossed over Birkenstraße and passed onto Stromstraße.
Almost immediately, the dual tones of a police siren could be heard and a Polizei BMW made to turn after the trio of Audi SUVs but the BMW was struck in the front wing by the first of the trio of Mercedes-Benz G Wagons belonging to the Panther Brigade. The BMW span around, crashing into two other cars as it went. Neither man inside was hurt but they instantly put out a radio call. Therefore, Polizei were waiting for them at the next road junction where Stromstraße crossed Turmstraße. Hillary cranked the wheel over, taking to the opposing carriageway after bouncing over the low concrete median, two dozen yards before the mass of flashing blue lights, blazing past the four Polizei BMW and Volkswagen vehicles. At Alt-Moabit, Hillary clipped a German motorist as he went through a red light.
"Sorry! I'll send you my insurance details!" the man yelled out his window.
Lily laughed as she enjoyed the ride. In the back of the Audi, Isaac was loving it – not so much Mackenzie who was getting a little worried. They crossed the River Spree as Stromstraße became Lessingstraße. Then at Altonaer Straße, Hillary took a hard left upsetting some other road users.
"Sorry! My fault!" he called out as they bolted under the railway.
Less than a minute later, they approached Großer Stern, the central square of the Großer Tiergarten park. In the centre of a large roundabout stood the...
"That is the Berlin Victory Column, children," Hillary lectured as if they were enjoying a simple day out sightseeing, "erected to commemorate the Prussian victory in the Danish-Prussian war of 1864."
"Cool!" Isaac responded.
As they approached the amazing structure, they caught a green light and ignored the Polizei heading up Altonaer Straße in the opposite direction. They passed around the Großer Stern, aiming to take the Straße des 17. Juni towards the south, but just as they took the turn, the eagle-eyed Mackenzie spotted one of the Panther Brigade Mercs emerging from Spreeweg over to their left. The mercenaries saw them, but they were constrained by the traffic and they were blocked as they tried in vain to navigate the roundabout. That gave the fleeing Audi SUVs a head start, however, a Polizei BMW blocked them from turning to the south and they ended up being funnelled by the heavy traffic towards the north. They found themselves racing directly towards the...
"Ahead of us, we have the Brandenburg Gate..."
"H!" Lily exclaimed. "Is now really the time?"
...at speed, doing their best not to upset too many of the other drivers.
At the Brandenburg Gate, the three Audi SUVs took a left and then another left at the Reichstag, doubling back, and heading south.
That same time...
13:35 GMT+2 (11:35 GMT June 23rd)
Several miles away &
a few thousand feet above Berlin
COCKBURN ONE
Alya was extremely angry.
The large airliner had roared into the sky, safe from the Panther Brigade. Once they were orbiting the German city at 15,000 feet, Captain Jeremy Hodges had appeared in the main cabin from the direction of the cockpit.
"What the devil is going on?" the man demanded, all business.
"Captain, we need to remain airborne, and we need to see what we can do to help those on the ground below."
"Well, I was sworn to secrecy when it was installed but I believe we can assist here, Lady Cockburn."
"Indeed, Captain!"
Captain Hodges picked up a phone and pressed a button.
"Deploy the FLIR," he said and replaced the phone.
"FLIR?" Alya asked.
Lara grinned as she pulled the French tech-wiz over to the starboard side forward where the foremost single leather seat turned fully forward and at the press of a button, two large screens rose out of a small sideboard along with a small desk and a set of controls as well as a keyboard. Alya grinned as she recognised the equipment and she sat down as the screens came to life. To the left, she could make out the underside of the Boeing jet. Unknown to her, a small domed FLIR system was lowering out of the underside of the aircraft where it was all but hidden a few feet forward of the main landing gear. The FLIR turret was state-of-the-art and consisted of several cameras which could operate in daylight, no light, and several other wavelengths including infrared.
Alya rapidly setup her laptop and she downloaded the location of the team below into the FLIR system. Almost immediately, the cameras slewed across the city before focussing on one area. Alya selected a button to zoom in and even from a few miles away, Alya was able to identify the individual cars but not the exact vehicles in which the team was travelling due to the lack of detail from that range. However, the camera would remain locked onto the area of the city where the vehicles were approximately located no matter how the large Boeing moved across the sky; some three kilometres high.
"Can we get lower?" Adrien asked, knowing the answer.
"If I want to lose my licence."
Alya nodded as she began to figure out a plan to help her friends on the ground below.
13:39 GMT+2 (11:39 GMT June 23rd)
Ground Team
They raced south along Straße des 17. Juni, negotiating Großer Stern and the full almost three-kilometre length of Großer Tiergarten park as they went.
They raced around Ernst Reuter Platz upsetting a dozen or so motorists and picked up the broad Bismarckstraße which was crowded with traffic and peppered with junctions. Over the next two-and-a-half kilometres, the Panther Brigade Mercs drew closer and closer before the first vehicle drew alongside the rear Audi Q7 being driven by Cameron. Jasper, in the right front seat, was unable to do anything as he was on the wrong side of the car, but Kate had her window down and she out three bullets into the apparently armoured windscreen to little affect. Then the driver of the Merc turned hard into the Audi and with a shuddering crash, they collided and inertia shoved the Audi over onto two wheels and then simple physics took over as the large SUV wobbled before it tipped over completely and crashed to the tarmac, glass exploding over Jasper and Laurel who were on that side of the vehicle.
In stunned shock, the other two Audi SUVs slammed on their brakes. David in the second Audi Q7 pushed the gear selector into reverse and then stomped on the accelerator causing the vehicle to fly backwards at speed towards the crash scene before they skidded to a halt as close as they dared get. Keira, Tanya, Diana, and Harper jumped out and ran for the damaged vehicle with David close behind. Bullets began to fly in all directions as the Panther Brigade vehicles also stopped. The damaged Merc which had caused the crash had spun and crashed back-end-first into several parked cars parked on the bricked median. They had to pass that vehicle to get at the wrecked Audi Q7 where there was little to no visible movement.
In the wrecked Audi, Jasper shook his head and scowled as he felt blood running down the side of his face. He looked back and saw Kate grimacing as she sorted herself out.
"Time to move, I think," Cameron suggested as he drew his pistol.
"Don't let me regret this," Kate said as she released Laurel's handcuffs.
"You won't," Laurel said, knowing that her safety lay with Kate.
Kate fired two bullets into the glass sunroof of the luxury 4x4 and then kicked out the shattered glazing. Kate pushed Laurel out ahead of her and they were followed by Jasper and Cameron. The commotion all around the four stunned accident victims was loud and obnoxious to their stunned minds. Kate shook her head a few times before she could properly focus on what was going on around them. Bullets thudded into the chassis of the wrecked vehicle which acted as a shield to them as they prepared themselves to move. They could see the other Audi SUVs further down the street as well as a damaged Mercedes-Benz G Wagon. There was pandemonium as gunfire chattered from different directions. It was imperative that they made it to cover and then to the remaining pair of Audi Q7s so that they could make their escape. Kate could see Harper and Tanya edging closer to their right, G36K assault rifles to their shoulders, the muzzles spitting fire. To their left, she could see three large men wearing torso body armour advancing on them with G36C assault rifles at their shoulders. It was a hopeless tactical situation – for both sides.
"Fuck this!" Kate growled as she pulled out her knife and she edged around the Audi. "Cover me!"
Cameron and Jasper put down two of the approaching men and caused the third to hesitate. Kate used the distraction to move around to the chassis of the Audi where she was badly exposed. She did not hang around as she stabbed the exposed fuel tank twice in success at what was now the bottom. Petrol leaked out onto the roadway and Kate grinned as she pulled a cardboard matchbook from her pocket and she ignited all twelve matches before she tossed the matchbook to the roadway.
"Eat your heart out, Firestorm!" Kate growled as the petrol ignited. "Fire in the hole!"
Kate threw herself to the roadway. Cameron and Jasper followed suit with Jasper pushing Laurel to the roadway.
..._...
The fuel tank failed catastrophically.
Normally, the fuel would be relatively safe from ignition due to the fuel tank being relatively devoid of oxygen, but the two stab holes had let oxygen in, and then heat had been added which had then ignited the petrol fumes and the tank was torn apart and the Audi was shoved sideways six feet by the size of the blast from the all but destroyed petrol tank. The Panther Brigade mercenaries fell back, the concussive wave shoving them against their vehicles. Harper and Tanya fell back even as Diana dropped down behind a large van. Kate ran forward, seizing hold of Laurel's left arm and she pushed the girl towards the nearest Audi. The erupting fireball had proved to be the perfect cover – actually too perfect as it turned out. In the melee to escape the Panther Brigade, nobody had noticed two men moving in from the damaged Mercedes-Benz G Wagon. The pair ran at Kate and Laurel, one punching Kate in the side of the head and then clubbing her in the left side with the butt of a G36C. Kate fired off several shots from her pistol as she tried to prevent Laurel from being taken, but she only caught one man as Laurel was wrenched from her. Cameron and Jasper tried to intervene but gunfire from a fourth mercenary sent them running for cover, even as Keira tried to provide covering fire for Tanya and Harper as the two girls backed away from the raging inferno which had been an expensive Audi Q7 just seconds previously.
Cameron managed to make it to Kate even as the down thrust of a helicopter could be felt as a light machine flew over and then settled down beyond the raging inferno. Laurel was last seen being dragged off in the direction of the helicopter, screaming for help. Then came another scream and Keira turned towards the burning Audi and she saw a shape backing past the flames with a smaller shape held across his front. Keira began to panic as her eyes darted everywhere, but she saw everything and everyone, but one. Then it was confirmed as the Airbus H145 helicopter began to lift off and Keira caught sight of the face she had been looking for, only it was being pulled inside the helicopter by a large man.
"DIANA!" Keira screamed even as she felt the strong hands of Jasper dragging her to the nearest Q7. "DIANA!"
The two Audi Q7s took a left onto Messedamm which in turn took them onto the A100 bundesautobahn and then onto the A115, where Hillary, who was still leading, put his foot down and he kept it down as the powerful vehicles accelerated to over one hundred miles per hour as they roared down the road.
Five hours later...
18:45 GMT+2 (16:45 GMT June 23rd)
Flughafen Leipzig, Germany
They had covered 190-kilometres and they were waiting for outside support.
The mood had been sombre as they had driven off from Berlin, leaving behind two people, one of whom was irreplaceable. On the drive south, Keira had torn into Harper, blaming the girl for not keeping an eye on Diana, but when Keira had seen how upset Harper was, she had relented. Keira, in the front seat beside David had eventually sobbed herself to sleep, as did Harper in the third-row seat beside Tanya. They had hoped to board COCKBURN ONE at Leipzig, but the Boeing 787-8 Business Jet had been refused permission to land due to what the tower had called, 'capacity issues'. Therefore, the jet had been forced to continue onto Zurich in Switzerland where it had landed without fanfare and was safely secured in the southwest corner of the airport reserved for private jets to park close by the eleven helicopter pads used by well-heeled clientele to fly into Switzerland's largest city, nine kilometres to the southwest of the airport.
The outside support was, even then, just arriving. The stunning silver Gulfstream G650ER known as 'Alpha Foxtrot' taxied onto the concrete hand standing and then came to a halt at the exact spot required. As the airstair came down, Amy Davenport appeared and her keen eyes darted all around, searching out danger. Finding none, the woman waved everyone forwards. Keira did not pay much attention to anything as she climbed up the airstair and then turned right into the main cabin, then her jaw dropped open.
"Blake!" Harper exclaimed as she ran past her sister and wrapped her arms around her 'father-figure' as Harper termed the man.
Harper was swiftly joined by Keira and the floodgates opened.
A little over one hour later...
20:00 GMT+2 (18:00 GMT June 23rd)
Zurich Flughafen, Switzerland
COCKBURN ONE
The Gulfstream G650ER executive jet was parked up with its port wingtip just six feet from the starboard wingtip of COCKBURN ONE.
"You certain?"
"I have a CCTV feed from cameras around the bank – we have not seen any faces we recognise," Alya replied.
Keira was really struggling to hold it together. Her daughter was missing, taken by a group of mercenaries with an unbelievably bad reputation. After what she had gone through with Harper less than a year previously, she could not go through it again. Harper was a basket case and she was huddled on a couch refusing to talk to anybody – Rylee was sitting with her, even though Harper was ignoring her. The only thing, person actually, who had kept Harper and Keira from falling apart had been Blake. Indeed, the man had his own demons, but he was able to bury them for the sake of his wife and sister-in-law/daughter.
Alya had been able to track the helicopter for some fifty nautical miles as it headed south of Berlin, but then they had moved out of range as the big jet had been forced to keep to the air lanes, and they had lost sight of it on the FLIR. Then the tracker on Laurel and Diana's mobile phone had gone dark. In retrospect, Diana was probably perfectly fine, considering that the Panther Brigade wanted something which they had. Indeed, a rather bruised and battered Kate sat at a table staring at the small black USB data device which had been the cause of it all. Nobody had mentioned Laurel as everyone was more bothered about Diana. But it was blatantly obvious that Laurel had been taken to show the Panther Brigade how to get to the second memory storage device while Diana had simply been insurance. Harper kept babbling on about whether she had trained Diana well enough – nobody had ever seen Harper in such a state as she was, and her friends were genuinely concerned for her wellbeing.
As the sky outside darkened, Keira took Harper aft and put her to bed – Rylee insisted on going with the younger girl to keep her company.
..._...
When Keira returned half an hour later, she quite literally collapsed into her husband's arms and Blake decided that desperate times called for desperate measures to reach a desperate solution.
"Kate, would you go to my seat, please, and fetch me the package there?" Blake asked.
Kate jumped up and headed aft.
"Lara, could you scrounge up half a dozen glasses, please," Blake went on. "David, Jasper, Cameron, would you care to join us as we drown our sorrows the traditional way?"
Everyone nodded, including Jasper who was busy speaking on his encrypted satellite phone to a buddy of his who worked in the Central Intelligence Agency. By the time Kate had returned with a small brown paper package wrapped up with cord, Lara had produced six expensive cut-glass crystal tumblers. Blake unwrapped his package and produced two glass bottles.
"Pusser's Gunpowder Proof Black Label," Blake grinned has he pulled off the wrapper and uncorked the first bottle and poured out a double measure of the potent spirit into each glass.
"Am I allowed this, Dad?" Kate asked David.
"As good a time as any to start on the good stuff," David said with a nod.
Keira took her glass and she held it up.
"Diana and her safe return."
David, Blake, Cameron, Lara, and Jasper all took a glass.
"Diana and her safe return!" they all intoned.
Each then took a swig of the original Admiralty strength 54.5% ABV 109 proof dark rum. Kate began to cough as she placed her glass back down upon the table. David and Blake laughed as the girl took a deep breath or two.
"That'll put hair on your chest, lass!" Jasper grinned.
"Just what I need!" Kate groaned. "That's potent stuff!"
"Nelson's Blood, girl," Keira stated for the record. "From the mid seventeenth century, a pint of rum was issued to every sailor in the Royal Navy, half at noon and half six hours later."
"Unfortunately, their Lordships chose to discontinue the ration July 31st, 1970 – Black Tot Day," David added. "Almost caused a fleet-wide mutiny, it did."
"Why's it called Nelson's Blood?" Lara asked curiously – rum was nothing new to her.
"As you should know, when Nelson was killed at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, his body was preserved in a cask of spirits for the voyage home. Legend says that holes were drilled into the sides of the cask and the liquid was drained during the voyage. Sailors quite literally drank his blood," Jasper explained.
"Ewww!" Kate exclaimed as Lara grimaced.
"What day is it, Cameron?" David asked.
"Friday, I think."
"Ah, very apt," David commented as he stood up, raising his glass. "A willing foe and sea room!"
"A willing foe and sea room!" everyone intoned before they took another swig of rum.
While Kate coughed away, Blake topped off each glass with some more of Nelson's best.
"Death to our enemies and may they all suffer in hell!" Keira said, causing more rum to be consumed and more coughing from Kate.
The drinking continued until almost eleven, by which time, Kate was in the bag, face down on the table, and Keira had nodded off in her seat. Lara was not too far behind and she slunk off to her suite and bed before she 'made an arse of herself'. The every-present Hillary ensured that her ladyship found her bed and was safely tucked up for the night. Indeed, the other half of her giant queen-sized bed was occupied by a sleeping Mackenzie and the little Isaac. The boy looked so sweet and innocent when he was asleep, Hillary considered. Further aft, Blake carried his wife through to her seat which had been laid flat by one of the stewards and he laid her down, covering her with a blanket. He then headed back forward.
"She needed that," Blake admitted. "Should help her to sleep some."
"Well, the bank does not open before ten o'clock tomorrow morning," Jasper said as he downed the last of his Pusser's Rum. "Let us all get some rest."
Those left soon headed off to their seats and sleep.