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reali zed her mistake but couldn’t stop herself from laughing, and felt something pass between them.
    He pulled her in close to him. “I just want to say –” with an enormous ground shaking bang a flare burst above their heads flooding the area in bright light. “- Shit.”
    Machine-gun bullets plopped into the water a few yards from them. Quick as a flash, Luke jumped onto the ink-black Kawasaki Jet Ski and fired it up, “Get on!”
    She leaped onto the back and they sped away, with the machine gun bullets slapping into the water inches from them.
    Luke zigzagged away as the flare dimmed. He saw the high-powered searchlight ahead, banked stee ply nearly tipping them off, then corrected the maneuver successfully. He opened the throttle fully and headed for the nearby coastline when the landing craft sailed into their path.
    On the landing craft, the searchlight picked them out only yards ahead. “There!” said the gunner pointing out the fugitives. He spun the mounted machine-gun around, but his colleagues were in his line of fire.
    The second lieutenant noticed and pulled hard down on the wheel to turn the craft around. Luke swerved to dodge the landing-craft and realized they were about to cross the craft’s wake, he stood to take the impact of the wave, Sophie followed suit, as the first wave hit they took off, soared ten feet into the air and crunched back down onto the ocean still in one piece.
    “Oh, maaan, that was awesome! Wanna do it again?”
    The lumbering landing craft was slower to change direction than the zippier Jet ski, which Luke used to his full advantage. He aimed at the beach and drove hell for leather towards the target, not letting up on the throttle e ven as they made land. The Jet ski cut a groove up the beach until they came to a grinding halt and fell unceremoniously onto the sand. They lay on the beach, catching their breath, before remembering they were still in danger.
    Nearby tourists rushed to them, some to help, others to film them with their camera-phones. Sophie and Luke mingled with the crowd that thronged along the promenade, although he was still easy to spot wearing his hospital gown.
    Hard as Luke tried to blend in with the crowd, the machine-gunner still sought him out, had him in his crosshairs and readied to shoot, when his Superior put his hand on the barrel forcing him to lower his weapon. “Not in front of witnesses – besides you can tell they’re not the terrorists.”
    “How come, lieutenant?” asked the Gunner.
    “Because they’re white.”

CHAPTER 6
     
     
    DAY TWO
     
    SATURDAY JULY 2 ND
     
    06:45 AM
     
    The American United Boeing 777 flight 416 out of Miami bound for London glided through the sky silhouetted against the rising sun. Luke sat in business class on his way to the British capital to cover yet another Royal scandal. He blasted down the air-phone to his boss back at the studio. “It’s the scoop of the century and you won’t run it?”
    “Only half of my staff turned in today,” said his boss. “I’ve never known anything like it. The ones that have turned up are dropping like flies.”
    “I’m telling you, they’ve got the virus,”
    “The authorities aren’t saying anything.”
    “I told you what happened.”
    “I did some checking,” said his boss. “It’s a bridge malfunction apparently.”
    “Sure it is,” Luke said sarcastically. “Then why are troops guarding it?”
    “To stop folk swimming across. There’s a dangerous alligator in there.”
    “Uhuh. Have you dispatched anyone to the island yet?”
    “Look, Homeland S ecurity’s on it. We can’t use it.”
    “You ain’t gonna broadcast a worldwide sensation?” Luke felt himself getting angry as his boss stonewalled him, trying to cover his sorry ass. “Show some balls. It’s a worldwide scoop.”
    “You want me to go up against the might of Homeland Security? You seriously want me to risk my job on YOUR hunch? Remember last time?”
    “OK, so I called