Chapter 55

I used the turning momentum he'd given me to help power the heel of my right hand into his nose. With a loud 'CRUNCH' he lifted off his feet and fell backwards.

Well, they say no plan survives the first encounter with the enemy.

With a screech Alison dropped onto the man and started ineffectually pummelling him with her small fists. While the man was initially taken by surprise, he quickly responded, with a sickening thud his fist smashed into Alison's face sending her reeling with blood flying from her nose.

With an angry growl he stood and approached me, "I'm going to bre..." Harold's shotgun barrel smashed into his teeth. I'm sure it broke a couple.

"In Martinè we don't like people who punch little girls, Monsieur. Now get off my land." Harold's words were punctuated by the clicks as he cocked both barrels of the shotgun.

"I've called the gendarmes to deal with this thug, my dearest," shouted Cecy. "They're on their way now." In the far distance we could hear the blaring siren of the gendarme's car.

"Don't you know who I am!" demanded the man.

"I don't care who you are!" I held my hand out to Harold. "Give me the gun Harold, I'll deal with this piece of trash for you."

Dickhead must have read my naval personnel files, the real ones, and knew that I was perfectly capable of killing him and disposing of his body. Looking at the people around me he guessed, quite rightly in my opinion, that they would bare witness to the fact that the killing was self-defense.

"You'll hear from me again!" he shouted as he got back into the car. We watched as the car sped away, much faster than it arrived.

I broke the shotgun and was actually gratified to see two shiny new shells in the chambers. I extracted them and handed gun and ammunition to Harold. "I always knew you were smart, Harold. I'm very glad to discover that you're not afraid to defend you and yours as well." Harold smiled, Cecy beamed and hugged her man's arm.

I turned to look for Paula. All I could see was a bunch of her girls, some facing outward, most facing inward, seemingly laying on, pressing down on something. Now that the danger was over they started to move apart. I saw that the girls had formed a protective shell with their bodies. In the centre was Paula, and underneath Paula, Mei Su lay crying.

I turned to Alison, she was being helped to her feet by Julia. I went and hugged her, "I'm so sorry you got hurt, my precious."

She smiled up at me, "Got everything and he didn't feel a thing Master." I looked at her, her nose was obviously broken, her upper lip split and blood seeped from her mouth.

"Em!" I shouted.

"I'm here, my Master," she replied from right behind me.

"Please look after her, Em. Whatever she needs get it for her."

"Of course, my Master. I take especially good care of my sisters," she replied a little huffy.

I kissed Alison on her forehead and Em on her cheek, "I have things still to do, I'll see you soon."

"Yes Master," they replied in unison.

Hurrying, I made it to the security room before Dickhead's car got to the plane. We had an audio feed from the plane, which was being recorded, and knew that two video recordings were also being taken.

With a clatter we heard Dickhead climb up the boarding steps and into the aircraft.

"Take off now." Dickhead demanded.

"Are you sure, Sir. We..." The pilot started.

"YES DAMN IT! Get this fucking thing moving or I'll make sure you never fly again." Dickhead was almost beyond reason now.

"OooKay..." We heard the cockpit door shut, and then a noise we hadn't heard before, two distinct 'clack's', like heavy locks being thrown shut.

"He's locked the cockpit door," commented Elastic.

The cabin door was shut and we heard the engines power up and a rumble from the wheels. Within two minutes the plane was in the air.

"Where are they going?" asked Sasha.

"Luton," I replied, and then I smiled. "The long way."

It took a moment or two before realisation set in and Sasha laughed. "Where do they land first?" she asked.

"North Africa, precisely where I left up to the pilot and navigator, then I think that they're off to the Middle East, Iraq or Iran. Next stop Russia, Gander is going to be a bit of a bitch though, the temperature is down to minus ten Fahrenheit. And I understand that I booked the last four rooms at the hotel for the flight crew. The way he's behaving, if he's still with them, I doubt that they'd be willing to share."

"What do you mean 'if he's still with them'?" asked Harold.

"Well, he might decide that he can just get off and go to the British embassy or consul and demand their assistance. But with two black eyes and a swollen face and cut lip I don't think that he'll have an easy time. And I think that my girls have some things of his."

"That's why Alison attacked him." Cecy was thoroughly enjoying this.

"What things?" Harold asked.

I saw Alison by the door, "What did you manage to get, precious?" I asked.

Alison held up his wallet, passport, watch, a set of keys, and a gold ring.

We all looked at her hoard in amazement. "That's phenomenal my precious, just mind blowing."

"Julia got all of the papers out of his briefcase." Alison turned the spotlight onto her friend and sister slave.

"And I think that you should see some of these, Master. This especially," she held up a small laminated card, about the size of a credit card. It was filled with blocks of numbers, and in the glint of the reflected lights I could see that one number had a fine underscore. I took the card and held it to read the numbers. There was no indication that any of them had been marked. But if I tilted the card, just so, in the light, then the marking was faintly visible. This wasn't just a valuable find. It would be as effective as a suitcase nuclear device in the wrong hands.

I thought for a moment. "Elastic, how well do you know the local police inspector?"

"Very, Boss." She smiled, "If I let him play with some of my toys I think he'd do almost anything for me."

I looked at her ... toys ... the ones I liked playing with.

"No Boss," she laughed, "I think he'd be looking at you for those games."

"Call him and see if you can get him here, we must be quick though."

"Yes Boss," and Elastic pulled out a mobile phone and dialled a number. She went to a corner of the room so she could speak quietly.

I sat and thought and planned the beginning of the downfall and destruction of Dickhead Spalding.

The Inspector of Police, with Elastic's promise that he and his friend could come at the weekend and play with a few of her ... more specialised ... toys, was more than happy to do as I asked. He left with the card and Dickheads wallet (after a judicious burning where I scorched the wallet) and some torn up papers.

Karolina was already playing with her computers, setting up a numbered Swiss bank account, that was opened yesterday, with an initial deposit of ten million US dollars, ten million because I'm not a piker, US dollars rather than Pounds Sterling because I'm not that generous.

I had spoken with the pilot and he'd agreed to carry out a simple task for me, and to keep the plane aloft for as long as possible.

Now I waited.

I was swimming another set of lengths, the pool and poolside almost empty. Ross and Helen had taken Shannon up to their rooms to 'protect' her from the violence that she'd witnessed earlier. Paula and Mei Su were in their rooms catching up on Mei Su's treatment. Harold and Cecy had told Nina and the girls to leave me alone for a while as I needed time to think about what was going on. Sasha and my girls were examining the papers Julia liberated from Dickhead's briefcase. All except Karen who was kneeling on the poolside and talking with

Shannon who'd sneaked out of her room and found me by the pool. Shannon had decided that she could play her DSi in the sunshine just as easily as in her room and that she wanted to say hello to Granddad as well. So Shannon was getting an all over suntan and talking to Karen, who already had one. And I was clocking up another lap of the pool.

Elastic came to the poolside, "Paul, the plane is about to land."

"Where did he get to?" I asked.

"Tripoli," she laughed.

"Has your Inspector called yet." I asked.

"Ten minutes ago, Boss." She slipped of her shoes and sat dangling her feet in the pool. "He handed the things over at the embassy. He said that the 'minor functionary' that he spoke to recognised what the card was and Spalding's name. I think you've kicked over a hornets nest Boss."

"That's what I wanted, Elastic, that's what I wanted." I resumed my swim.

The next time I approached her, Elastic was ready for me. "Boss, you've swum enough, out now and have a massage." I looked over and saw Karen and Julia were ready for me.

"OK, Elastic," I lifted myself out of the pool; this was more difficult than usual as my arms felt like pieces of wet string. The towel running over me eased a few of my tensions. I knew that Karen and Julia's hands would ease more.

Dinner was a quiet, subdued affair. Paula and Mei Su talked quietly, even Shannon was quiet.

Elastic came in with some news I'd been hoping for just after the desserts were served. "Boss the plane has just taken off again. Spalding isn't on it. He went wandering and the crew were able to embark and taxi without any problems. He's now in Tripoli without any documents or money."

"So what happens now?" asked Helen.

"Well that really depends on how nice the Libyan authorities want to be. At the moment our government has been moaning about the human rights abuses by the Libyan government. And the PM has been asking the UN to tighten the economic sanctions. So I can't really see Gadaffi being very helpful."

"So he's in deep shit then?" said Ross.

"Yeap." I replied.

"Oh good, couldn't have happened to a better person." Ross said with satisfaction, then he eagerly tucked into his cheese and biscuits.

"Won't you get into trouble because your plane landed in Tripoli?" asked Cecy.

"Sasha asked Nigel about that. The opinion of their International Law expert is no. I acted as an individual, even my companies are privately owned not publicly. Dickhead doesn't have any comeback either. The pilot was careful to get the aircrafts departure announced in the terminal before he left. The fact that he saw Dickhead wandering over by the maintenance areas is irrelevant. Maintenance is a restricted area and Dickhead had no right being there." I relaxed for the first time since this whole thing started.

"So we just wait?" Cecy asked in surprise.

"Oh no, that's just the one half of the play. Act two starts in about twenty minutes. The card that Julia lifted from Dickhead's briefcase, contained a special card..."

"The small one, the one with all the numbers?" said Harold.

"That's the one," I agreed. "Well, that card is what we called a panic card. Its job is to help top crisis managers in the event of a crisis. So it needs to be easy to use. The number at the top is the card is part of a phone number. One of the number blocks was marked, very discretely marked, but marked all the same. In," I looked at my watch, "sixteen minutes Karolina is going to start trying to dial that number. Now knowing Karolina, she'll probably make it look like the US President is calling, or maybe Osama Bin Laden. Anyway the number won't be traced back here."

Sasha sniggered at the thought of a UK crisis centre receiving a call from Osama.

"They're going to go fucking berserk!" exclaimed Harold.

"Especially when Elastic's Inspector has handed that card in to the British Embassy and told them that he got it from a dead Moroccan assassin." I added.

Harold thought for a moment, "When Spalding does turn up, especially in Libya, they're going to think that he's part of the plot. They'll crucify him." He thought for a moment, "Literally," he added.

"Girl! Bring me beer!" I called, footsteps raced away. "He shouldn't have threatened one of my ladies then should he?"

Lynne placed a pint of John Smiths on the table in front of me. Her tears dropped onto my arm.

"Thank you, my Master." She kissed my cheek, then dropped to her knees and lay her head on my thigh.

I looked down at her, "It was nothing less than what you deserve, my Precious." I smiled at her. She remained facing down but I could feel her tears wet my thigh.

"So what was in the briefcase then, Sasha?" I asked, she smiled at me and lay down her favourite comfort blanket, a yellow legal pad.

"They wanted to screw a directorship out of you," she replied.

"What?" I almost shouted. "Was that it?" I exclaimed.

"That's it. The PM wanted a job when he's kicked out of office."

"Don't they know that all of my companies are privately owned; we don't have directors?"

"They didn't care. The papers were a contract employing the PM when he leaves politics, he wanted a hundred and fifty thousand a year and expenses. And he wanted you to finance him on the US lecture circuit." Sasha sniggered, "I doubt he's actually worth a hundred and fifty pounds a year, let alone what he wanted."

"The fucking idiot, who the hell would employ him? No private company I know of." I was exasperated, infuriated. All of this was over a greedy politician.

"My dearest darling, they're all fucking idiots and there are so many publicly owned companies that will pay them for their contacts." Sasha pressed against me, "Haven't we got anything else we ought to think about rather than Spalding?" she asked nibbling my chin. It turned out that we had rather a lot to think about, nibbling her nipples was one thing. The scalding heat of her mouth on my cock was another. All in all we didn't think about Richard Spalding for quite a long time.

It took two days before the papers published anything about the excitement that night. One of the political commentators noted that there was a sudden rush of the inner cabinet members to Number Ten, and a lengthy meeting of COBRA. (Note 1) There were no details but the meeting went on well into the night.