from around the world. The location of the base was a well-kept secret and served as an excellent training ground for those specialist soldiers. They also offered unique and overwhelming protection to the island’s main inhabitants, the children of the world’s elite.

The base however was not the only protection afforded to the students. The island also stood within the shadow of a fully operational NATO base which lay a mere 75 miles away and housed the Air Force, the Navy and the Marines. There was no doubt that The Academy was in the most highly protected area in the world.

The Academy in itself was spectacular, no expense had been spared creating the world’s most elite school. The grounds were perfectly manicured, the beaches were spectacular, white sand lapped by the crystal clear waters of the Indian Ocean. The facilities were second to none, Olympic sized pools, golf course, tennis courts, sports stadiums and a Marina stocked with every conceivable type of boat.

The classrooms were full of the latest technology. Desks were replaced by notepads which recognised students by their fingerprints and allowed them to log on with one touch. Their virtual desktop opened up a fully computerised curriculum and coursework. The Academy was the first truly paperless environment.

For entertainment, the students could choose between cinemas, ten pin bowling, ice skating or playing about in a recording studio, amongst many other activities. Everything had been thought of and if it hadn’t, it was added. Following feedback from the previous year, a new skate park had been added, modelled on the famous Marseille skate park.

The quality of accommodation and food was such that many students whose parents were amongst the richest in the world, actually complained that it was all much better than at home.

When it came to protecting Tom and Lela, following the events of the previous year, Mr Sakamoto had offered to shuffle students around to enable Kisho and Kano to live in the same block as Tom and Lela. However, everyone had agreed that this would alienate them from the other students and in any event, new procedures were in place to prevent an impostor from assuming another student’s identity and infiltrating the premises. On arrival, students’ identities were checked using DNA samples from their parents. Initially, this led to some embarrassing discoveries about the parentage of a number of students when the mothers’ DNA matched but the fathers’ didn’t. In one instance, the mother’s DNA and father’s DNA matched but unfortunately it was not the right father, it was another student’s father. Mr Sakamoto had spent a sleepless night before calling a Special Governors’ Meeting, special in that only governors with no children at the school were invited. The special session had lasted most of the day before reaching the decision that it was not up to the school to destroy families. A very relieved Mr Sakamoto went back to work, the DNA tests were immediately changed and only a maternal match would be required. The offending results were destroyed and forgotten forever.

Tom and Lela entered their empty block. As in the previous year, they were the first to arrive. Tom wasted no time. On entering his room, he switched on the TV to catch up on developments in Equatorial Guinea. He managed to navigate through the TV menu, it was new and like most of the gadgets in his room appeared to have been upgraded. The Play Station and the XBOX had definitely been upgraded, even though the ones they had had the previous year were not in the shops yet. He looked forward to having

a go on them later. He finally found CNN.

“They think up to 2,500 people may have died,” he shouted through to Lela’s room, next door to his. Lela joined him a minute later dressed in her pyjamas and jumped on the end of his bed.

“It’s dreadful. And to think your dad watched it happen. Have they identified what it was? Was it really a meteor?”

“They haven’t mentioned what it was. But there were definitely some dodgy explosives involved but they won’t know until they sift through the debris. I’ll give my dad a call and see if he knows any more.”

As Tom made the call, Lela continued to watch the TV. An explosives forensics team from the UK were due to arrive and would be joined shortly afterwards by specialists from the ATF, the Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms agency from the US. Both teams were recognised as the best in the world and had been requested by the Guinean President to find the reason behind the most tragic disaster to have befallen his country. Both the UK and the US had responded promptly and had their teams in the air within the hour.

“What did he say?” asked Lela as Tom hung up the phone.

“He tried to call the Guineans to tell them about the meteor but can’t get through. He’s going to phone CNN Africa instead. He reckons they should be able to pass on the information.”

“I can’t believe a meteor could do so much damage,” said Lela.

“I know, it’s unbelievable.”

“I’m sorry Tom, I can’t watch anymore, it’s too upsetting. I’m going to bed, goodnight, see you tomorrow,” she said as she disappeared to her room.

“Goodnight,” replied Tom as his door swung closed.

Chapter 15

Beaumont watched the scenes unfold on his giant plasma screen. CNN were reporting a 100 % fatality rate. His best estimations had predicted a 40 % fatality rate, nobody had predicted that the whole town would just cease to exist, killing everybody.

He had cracked open a bottle of champagne and was in the process of toasting himself when the phone rang.

“Hello?” he answered.

“We may have a problem,” said Smith.

“What, we hit the target and everybody’s dead, what’s the problem?”

“There’s a witness,” replied Smith coldly.

“A What??!!” choked Beaumont. “What do you mean there’s a witness?”

“Exactly what I just said. Somebody saw the explosion,” replied Smith, tension building in his voice.

“Jesus man, I’m sure thousands of people saw the explosion, it was huge,” said Beaumont beginning to relax and thinking this guy would have to go, what a panic merchant.

“No, they witnessed the missile flying down the shaft, only they thought it was a meteor or something,” explained Smith.

“Impossible! It’s a stealth missile, you can’t see it,” replied Beaumont.

“If you had read the specs properly, you would have noticed that the reason the weapon is still experimental is that they solved every problem except for the glow of the missile on its way back to earth.”

“Damn, I missed that bit.” Beaumont thought for a second. “Who’s the witness? Some goat farmer or something?” He began to see a way to cover their tracks.

“I don’t know, I just heard it third-hand but they say they couldn’t have hoped for a better source. It’s going to break soon, they’re finalising the editing on the piece.”

“Oh God,” said Beaumont as he paused for thought. There was only one thing he could do. “I’ll call you back.”

He hung up on Smith and hit Speed Dial Button 1. The phone dialled the anonymous number and it began to ring.

“Hello, what’s wrong?” answered The Chairman.

“We may have a problem you should be aware of,” replied Beaumont.

“What is it?”

“Our Africa operation has begun and has exceeded our expectations. However, it appears we may need to kill a story. Do you have contacts at CNN?”

The laughter at the end of the phone told Beaumont all he needed to know, it had been a silly question, The Chairman had contacts everywhere.

“What do you need quashed?”

“CNN Africa have a witness and are about to run the story.”

“OK, give me a minute.”

Beaumont waited as The Chairman made his call. After two minutes, he came back to the phone.

“Done, dead and buried. But I can tell you it’s going to cost me. They had one of their biggest stories of the

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