The Selfless Gene

Chapter 27

The sun is setting and Thame's sitting in his hire car, safer to use than his own vehicle, which might be being tracked. His gear is in the boot and everything is set. If he survives both Mbozi and Isabella, he'll be flying to Miami where he'll find out if he really is a father. Still a bit groggy from his afternoon nap, he readies himself for what was in hand. For once, Mbozi having a security detail would be beneficial: he could pick up a weapon. Mbozi was likely alone but, being in a terraced upmarket Holland Park, the house would only be accessible behind or in front. Not ideal at all.

After eating dinner and watching football quietly hidden in a pub around the corner, he starts his recon. At 10pm he slowly walks around the block of buildings, where Mbozi's sits in the middle. From the front, the grand terrace villa has no security but it would almost certainly have some inside. Around the back he can't see anything, the villa obscured by more housing on the adjacent road. On his second loop, a long car with darkened windows pulls up. Out steps Mbozi and his security detail. Thame hangs back, blending into a neatly trimmed hedge. Mbozi enters the house without his security, who return to the car and leave. Thame makes a note, assuming there must be another team inside.

Thame takes another turn. It's unavoidable: he needs to see the back. Entering at the front would draw too much attention and he didn't plan to loop around for hours on end. From the side of the street, he leaps into the garden at the end of the houses on the adjacent road. Moving quietly in the darkness to the spot where Mbozi's villa must be, Thame positions himself in the corner, hidden from all the houses around but with a view of the residence. He settles in, hoping nobody has a guard dog. This would be his position until 4am, when people were fully asleep and the world had again been temporarily forgotten.

Most of the action was happening at the back of the house. A man came out of the kitchen door on every quarter to the hour and walked around the corner. He was pretty lapse, sometimes smoking, sometimes not. The same person each time. Thame closed his mind, trying to listen for movement or heartbeats. As he predicted, there was just one other who manned the front but teams nearby, on command. Security was pretty light but given The Order now had no overt enemies, perhaps arrogance had got the better of them.

Thame has a clear view of Mbozi's bedroom window, where he watches him begin to undress before moving to the bathroom. After twenty minutes he returns to the bedroom, glances out without really looking, and closes the French shutters. His light stays on until one thirty and then goes out. The world goes still.

Thame flips up his hood, lifts up a scarf and slips on thin cycling gloves with grip. Three forty am, five minutes until the man does his round. He slips over the back fence stealthy as a cat, barely making a sound. Circling around the garden to an area of deep vegetation, Thame crouches down and waits. Like clockwork, the security man pops out. He lights up a cigarette, slings his gun over his shoulder and starts his normal route, slowly meandering around taking quick drags. Thame holds his breath, poised, crouching on the front of his feet. As the guard passes, he leaps out, a pouncing lion. Flying through the air, he comes down hard on top of the guard. The blow knocks the man out cold. Thame looks back at the house, waiting for any reaction, but hears nothing. He drags the man into the vegetation and starts patting him down, taking the gun, a knife and some hand ties. Thame drops the man face down into the soil and ties his arms to his legs. He removes his boots and takes the socks, balling them up and shoving them into the guard's mouth.

Slowly Thame moves towards the house. He creeps up to the door and listens. He can feel two bodies, one downstairs and one resting heartbeat upstairs. Quietly he slips in the door and crouches behind a kitchen island. The room is empty, the other security detail in the next room. He can't rush her because she has a gun and would easily hit him. No matter how fast Ormr can heal, a bullet to the brain or the heart would be it for him. He also needs the attack to be silent so no alarm is triggered. And ultimately she's just hired help; he doesn't want to kill her. Thame slowly opens a cupboard and takes out a glass. If he can get the additional security person into the room and past the island, he can jump out. He smashes a glass on the floor and it shatters, piercing the silence.