here. It’s a bit like a giant computer game, except when you press a button here you’re manoeuvring about four tonnes of equipment in outer space. You can’t afford mistakes.” Sing shook his head. “There will be no mistakes,” he assured them.
“Have we had the latest weather reports?” Drevin asked.
“Yes, Mr Drevin. I’ve gone over the meteorological charts myself and the conditions are exactly as predicted.”
“Good.” Drevin was pleased. “Nine o’clock on Wednesday morning. It’s a sight you boys won’t forget.”
“Can’t we get any closer?” Paul asked.
Professor Sing looked away, as if the question was too stupid to answer. Alex wondered what it was about the man that he didn’t like. Perhaps it was his complete lack of enthusiasm. There was no emotion in his face—and none in his voice. How could he be in charge of such a huge project and not feel the excitement of it?
“If you were any closer you’d be deafened.” Drevin said. “When Gabriel 7 is launched, the vibration levels will be huge. They’d destroy your eardrums if you were too close. Even in here we’ll need to be completely insulated.”
“I’m afraid I must ask for some time with you, Mr Drevin,” Sing interrupted. “I need to discuss the launch trajectory dispersions.”
Drevin turned to Alex and Paul. “Magnus will show you around the rest of the base if there’s anything else you wish to see. We’ll meet again at dinner.”
“Sure.” Alex tried to smile, but he didn’t look up. He could no longer trust himself to meet Drevin’s gaze.
And there was something else that was worrying him. The more he saw of the island—the rockets, the launch pad, the space centre—the more he felt a nameless sense of dread. It was hard to explain, but Alex was beginning to think that Joe Byrne and the CIA had got it all wrong. Drevin wasn’t behaving like a man about to run away. He had something else in mind. Alex was sure of it.
There were less than forty-five hours until the launch. That might be all the time he had left to find out what it was.
But later that afternoon, Alex was able to forget some of his worries. Paul took him down to the beach and, as promised, gave Alex his first lesson in kite-surfing.
The sport, very simply, combined surfing and kite-flying. As Paul said, you stood on a board and flew a kite, and the wind did the rest. Of course, there was more to it than that. The kite was actually a giant polyester wing—nine metres across—which had to be inflated with a pump. It was connected to Alex by four lines which clipped onto a rubber harness around his waist. Then there was the board, similar to a surfboard but with four fins and twin tips, making it bidirectional. And finally there was the control bar, which he held in front of him. The mechanics were simple enough. The control bar was his steering wheel, which he could raise and lower, turn left and right. The rest was balance and nerve.
Alex was lucky. There wasn’t much wind and the sea was fairly calm. But even so, he soon felt the power of the new sport. He started on the edge of the water with Paul about twenty metres behind him, holding the kite. Paul released it and Alex quickly brought it up until it reached the zenith, directly over his head.
While it was there, the kite was essentially in neutral. Carrying the board, Alex waded into the sea until the water was up to his ankles. He put one foot on the board. Then he lowered the kite into the wind.
And he was away. It was an incredible sensation. He could feel his arms straining at their sockets, his whole body tensing against the pull of the kite. Before he knew it, he was moving very fast, skimming over the surface with the spray flying into his eyes. The board was incredibly flexible. All Alex had to do was pull on the control bar and he could change direction instantly. With the late afternoon sun beating down on him and the palm trees rushing past, all his worries about Drevin, the CIA, Ark Angel and Force Three were forgotten. For the next two hours he was happy, finally enjoying the holiday he had been promised.
After the two boys had exhausted themselves with the kite, they flopped down onto the sand and watched as the sun began its descent. It was still very warm. The breeze, blowing gently across the beach, carried the scent of pine and eucalyptus. From this part of the island it was impossible to see the launch pad and the two waiting rockets. A single grey heron perched sedately on the end of the jetty, its eyes fixed on the water, searching for fish. The sailing boats and motor launches bobbed up and down, jostled by the waves.
Alex was lying on his back, enjoying the warmth of the setting sun. He glanced sideways and noticed Paul staring at his bare chest. The scar left by his surgery had healed quickly but it was still very red.
“You must have really hurt yourself,” Paul said.
“Yes.” Alex was reluctant to talk about his fake bicycle accident.
“You’ve got lots of other cuts and bruises too.”
Alex didn’t even look. Every time MI6 had sent him out on a mission, his body had come back with more souvenirs. He sat up and reached for his T-shirt. “I’m starving,” he said, changing the subject. “When’s dinner?”
“Not for another hour. But we can grab a snack, if you like.”
“No. I’ll wait.”
Alex pulled on his shirt. The sun was a perfect disc, cut in half by the edge of the world. The sea had turned blood red.
“Do you like it here?” Paul asked.
“It’s fantastic. Really great.” Alex did his best to inject some enthusiasm into his voice.
“It makes a real change to have someone like you here.” Paul stared at the horizon as if searching for the right words. “It must be awful not to have parents,” he went on. “But you don’t know what it’s like having a dad like mine. He’s got so much money, and everyone knows who he is. But sometimes I think I don’t even know him myself.”
“Do you enjoy being with your mother?” Alex asked. He wanted to steer the conversation away from Drevin.
Paul nodded. “Yes. I wish he’d let me see more of her. And it doesn’t help being on my own all the time. I sometimes wonder what I’m doing in the middle of all this. It would be a lot easier if there was someone else around.”
Alex was feeling increasingly uneasy. Paul had no idea that his entire life was about to self-destruct and that
