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mentioned your conversation earlier and talked about two
secret islands and told us the story about the bankruptcy. I just worked back
from that.”
    Both Lela and Donald did not follow his logic and looked at him
blankly and Sam Mitcham appeared to be in the same
boat.
    “I’m sorry son, can you just explain that again so this old brain
here can understand just how you discovered, in a matter of hours, what we
believe to be one of the best kept secrets.”
    “Actually it took him 45 minutes,” blurted Lela. “I timed him,”
she added nervously, realising she was not helping matters.
    “What !? How in the hell did you do
that?” asked Sam.
    “Quite simple really,” began Tom explaining his process. “The
five years gave me a timeline to work with, I deduced it probably took at least
a year for any decision to be made so I reduced that to four years. I then
focussed on areas which had marine and air exclusion
zones enforced within that time scale. Only a few areas had both, narrowing my
search down dramatically. I then looked at those areas and found only one with
two uninhabited islands which fitted the profile,
secluded and remote. You don’t get much more remote than those two in the
middle of the Mozambique Channel. You can pretty much find anything on the internet but you do have to know what you’re looking for.”
    “Very impressive Tom and very concerning.” Sam paused as he considered
the implications of Tom’s discovery. Finally he added, “Donald if you don’t
mind, I’ll call you back tomorrow. Do you want to talk to Rachel and Saki in
the meantime?” he asked.
    “Will do, speak to you later,” replied Donald.
    “OK, cheers,” said Sam as he ended the call.
    Donald wasted no time in calling a family conference. Rachel,
Saki and the grandparents joined them in the study.
    “Well?” asked Rachel after everyone was settled.
    “It sounds amazing,” replied Donald. “Really amazing, he’ll get
back to us as soon as he can…”
    Donald was interrupted by the sound of a helicopter coming into
land. Tom and Lela’s friends had arrived.
    “I suppose you two should go and greet your friends,” said Donald
to Tom and Lela. “We won’t hear back from Sam until tomorrow, OK?”
    “Yep,” they replied as they got up to leave.
    “Just one thing, can I at least know where the school is?” asked
Rachel.
    Tom and Lela shot a look at each other, before rushing out of the
room as fast as they could. Fortunately, Donald paused before answering,
allowing the door to protect their ears from Rachel’s scream.
    “IT’S WHERE ???!!!! ”

 
 
    Chapter
14

 
 
 
 
 
    The EH-101 helicopter, another of Tom’s winning
proposals, touched down. The eight friends who had spent the morning
travelling, in some cases over a thousand miles, rushed out to greet Tom and
Lela. After a very noisy reunion, the group split in two, Tom and his four
friends headed straight to the basement for a bit of flying, while Lela and her
four friends headed across to the Lodge House.
    The Kennedy Estate had three houses, the Main House with five
bedrooms, the Lodge House with four and the Guest House with three. The Lodge
House was Saki and Lela’s, a mere 250 yards away from the Main House. The only
difference between it and the Main House was that one bedroom had been replaced
by a small gym for Lela’s training. Other than that, everything else was
identical. During the construction of the two houses, Rachel had ensured that
both Tom and Lela’s rooms were identical (in size, not décor). Although they
would live in separate houses, they were to be raised as brother and sister and
one would never feel more special than the other.
    Lela and her friends spent the next few hours listening to music
and catching up on gossip. The boys enjoyed a slightly more adventurous time,
crashing as dramatically as possible in the simulator. They had given up trying
to do the best landing and resorted instead to the best