Pon found Tighe’s house with relative ease following the directions given to him by Brigadier Lee. He leant the bike up against Tighe’s wall and covered it with shrubs and foliage from the embankment. He scaled over a wall that seemed more densely covered with trees and made his way through high mango and banana trees until he’d reached a five-foot high embankment of Tighe’s house. He climbed a large thick mango tree and wedged himself into a crook of the tree and covered himself with peeled off bark and waited. From his vantage point Pon had an excellent view into Tighe’s drawing, dining and living room, also the driveway and porch. He stayed in his camouflaged hiding place for about two hours. As he waited to get a glimpse of Tighe, confirm his identity and formulate his next course of action.
Tighe came into his living room and used his landline several times, which gave Pon the confirmation that he needed. Pon noticed several of Tighes household staff milling around and decided that once the coast was clear, he would sneak into Tighes house, confront him, get the holy box or, information on its whereabouts and then dispatch Tighe. After several hours, Pon noticed the staff had dispersed out of sight, and saw that Tighe is again on the phone in his living room. He knew this would be the ideal opportunity and started to climb down the tree. Just then his phone rang, it was Lee. Pon, tried to muffle the sound as he scrambled back into his hiding position and answered.
After he finished speaking to Lee, Pon scanned the house for Tighe, and spots him in the drawing room using a fax machine. Tighe went to look out of the window several times but Pon thought his camouflage was excellent, and knew that only a very experienced trained sniper would have had any chance to spot him. Pond, now knowing that Tighe knew that he was on his trail decided to act swiftly and once again started to climb down. Once again his actions were thwarted, as a Toyota Tiger came up the roadway.Pon returned to his camouflaged spot and watched
The Toyota parked next to Tighe’s hummer. Tar got out and went to Tighe’s door.
‘Tar,’ thought Pon ‘Now I have both my targets’
Pon saw Tighe and Tar speaking in the drawing room and Tar go over to the window.
Pon decided to act and started his slow climb down. He reached the bottom, removed his Glave and sprung out the blades. He stopped when he heard the side door open and Tighe shouted at Tar that he had the box and ordered him to remain there.
Pon hid behind the tree and saw Tighe get in his hummer, Pon knew that even with his speed he would not be able to reach the vehicle without being spotted, or in time to stop the Colonel.
The hummer pulled away. Pon retracted the blades of the Glave, tucked it into his jeans, picked up his backpack and ran to get his bike. Knowing that he wasn’t far behind Tighe, he sped off to join the main road. He saw Tighe’s Hummer which seemed to be driving along slowly and he caught up and stayed a short distance behind. Having no mirrors on his bike and the noisy 250cc engine, he never noticed Tar’s Toyota following him.
****
“We’re bloody lost,” said a frustrated Stu.
“No we’re not,” said Spock.
“Where are we then?” enquired a frustrated Stu.
“I’m not 100% certain, but we must be on the right track” said Spock in a reassuring tone.
“You’ve been saying that for nearly three hours now, and we’re still bloody lost. I thought you said that Strat told you that it was only twenty minutes away,” said Stu
Spock grumbled under his breath and carried on bumping along a small trail. Spock drove through a dense palm and coconut tree jungle and there had been no room to turn the vehicle around. They drove on for another thirty minutes and decided to stop and look at the small map Strat had given them. They stopped in front of a large tree and scrutinized the map, and the turnoff.
“According to this, we should have taken the first turn off and a lake was supposed to be on the right hand side,” noticed Stu.
“I did,” said Spock indignantly as his mate doubted his navigational skills.
“No you never, we must have passed at least three turnoffs before you took one” said Stu.
“Shortcuts,” said Spock.
“We’re lost then,” Stu repeated.
“Not exactly, if we can find some place to turn around and follow our tyre marks, we should come out around here” Spock said, pointing at the map “Then we just turn right and that should bring us up here.” Again pointing
Stu looked at Spock, raised one eyebrow and pursed his lips. Spock knew this cutting look and he had received it several times, usually before he got bollocked over something.
“Yeah OK, we’re lost,” confessed a beaten Spock, “but I think we are near this place,” and pointed on the map to Ta Prohm temple, to which he received another of the looks.
“Or maybe not” He conceded.
They both stood with hands on hips and surveyed the area. Spock then hollered.
“There it is,” and pointed to a lake just visible through a small clearing of trees.
Stu looked and said,
“That’s not it, we are miles away.”
“It’s a lake isn’t it?. . . . And there is fish in a lake.”
Stu couldn’t argue with this logic and walked a few paces forward, stopped at a ledge and looked down at a fifty foot drop to the ravine below, with the lake on higher ground beyond.
“Right then brains of Britain; tell me how do we get there? We can’t drive around there are no roads or paths and if we walk, how the fuck do we get down there?” said Stu returning to an agitated state. Spock walked to the edge and looked down into the ravine and then around the trees that lined the edge.
“There, Mr. glass half empty” said Spock pointing to a rope ladder” see it must be a good spot, someone’s put a ladder there.”
The lads went to the Range Rover and unloaded their fishing tackle and drank a can of beer before they started having to do something physical like climbing down a rope ladder. Twenty minutes later they, and the equipment, were at the bottom of a small valley. They thought the lake would only be a short walk, but now they were level with its base, it looked a long way off and the foliage that covered the floor with rocks, which had looked small from the top of the rock wall, was now dense and large. They sat on a rock and looked around.
“We’ll have another beer and go that way,” said Spock pointing, “that should take us around those rocks and, as the lake seems to disappear around there it should be …..”
“Another bloody shortcut” interrupted Stu and his eyebrow started to rise.
Spock then announced,
“Bollocks, I haven’t locked the car and I’ve left the keys in the ignition.
“Oh great” said Stu and looked at the ladder and didn’t like the prospect of having to climb up.
“It’ll be Ok” said Spock “who’s going to find us out here, let alone steal the car” also not relishing the thought of another climb.
“Yeah you’re right, so long as we remember where it is,” said Stu. They picked up their gear and headed towards the rocky outcrop.
****
Tighe arrived at the temple, parked his Hummer in the grounds at the front, went into the temple, over to the elevators intercom and asked Norman to be brought down into the citadel.
Pon cut the bikes engine, free wheeled it into undergrowth near Tighes Hummer, covered it over and moved stealthily up to wall at the side of the temple. He had seen Tighe go into the temple ruins, but as Pon looked through one of the ancient window holes he could see no sign of him.
He hurried around to the rear of the temple, which would be a perfect place for an ambush, but still no sign of Tighe.
He never noticed Tar walk into the temple and position himself behind a walled copse inside, watching his every move.
Pon was confused, he stayed round the back of the temple and looked around at the burial slabs strewn around the grounds. He noticed one was slightly raised. He went over to the slab and shone the light from his mobile phone, and put his head into the small gap which was deceptively wide, he crawled under the slab and into a small compartment and stared down the maintenance shaft, illuminated by the citadel lights, He crawled farther along and saw the metal rungs of a ladder at the side of the elevator. He continued along to the end of the compartment and came face to face with a descending slab and a Glock 17 being held by Tar as he descended on the elevator slab, and the sound of a guns action being cocked from the floor below.
Tighe had sprung his trap. He had been trained to be a skilful sniper with the Government forces and it was he who trained Tar, they had both easily spotted Pon. Tighe had gone into the citadel and waited for his signal from above. Tar watched Pon disappear under the slab, used to disguise the maintenance shaft and another lookout post, and alerted Tighe.
Tighe had left Normans office when Tar buzzed on the temple CCTV, went to the elevator and brought it down to the level of where Pon would be. Pon knew that he could not move quick enough to avoid a bullet and he was ordered out of the compartment and down the rungs of the ladder, with two guns aimed at his head.
Tar bound Pon’s hands behind his back and he was shoved down a corridor towards Norman’s office.
On the way he passed the hospital ward, and noticed through a large glass window, a familiar figure in a room. The Nick replicant looked at him. Pon became confused as he continued to be pushed along and into Professor Norman Rumble’s office.