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see however, and only above the palm trees, was a helluva lot of smoke and shooting flames.
    She tapped her throat mike. 'Redbacks? What the hell was that?'
    'Um,' Triko responded. 'The Americans are here.'
    'What? Why?' Gideon motioned to Dr Rossi to stay down and in the doorway as a racket of auto
gunfire suddenly hijacked the silence of the post-explosion void.
    'Not gonna ask. They just kinda arrived and blew up the bloody dive shack.'
    'And forget Ifran,' Finch reported, 'or any kind of containment, Gideon. We didn't get
near them. The rebels are firing at anything that moves now.'
    'And the Yanks are shooting at or blowing up everything else,' Triko said.
    A second explosion ripped the night air, sending debris and water 20 feet above the tree line.
    'That was the bar. Oh, and a swimming pool,' Triko said. 'Get the hostages out, Bryn,
before these fucken lunatics start carpet-bombing the cabins!'
    'Righto. Triko, fall back and get the boats ready,' Gideon ordered.
    The island lights went out. There was now no illumination but a starry canopy and a low-slung
crescent moon.
    'Generator go boom,' Triko reported unnecessarily.
    'Finch,' Gideon said, flipping her right eye night-lens into place to scan the garden. 'Give us a
hand with the hostages.' There was no movement in the vicinity. She nodded at Dr Rossi to get behind
her.
    Jana glanced over her shoulder. 'Move it, Alan.'
    'Cabin to cabin,' Gideon said, handing her mission's prime objective a small pair of bolt
cutters. 'Stay together. Take cover on the next veranda first. Go.'
    Gideon watched curiously for a second as the surprising Dr Rossi, all five-foot-four of her,
dragged the much taller, sandy-haired and handsome whoever-he-was in her wake as she ran. Gideon
shook her head, then scanned for danger as she backed along the path after them. She was
particularly relieved they'd taken out the machine gunners - or they'd be in deep shredded shit
right about now.
    Three minutes later, under Gideon's armed cover, Jana had finished cutting the padlock to the
fourth cabin in the semicircle and opened the door to the terrified hostages. Not surprisingly,
coaxing them out into a dark night of staccato gunfire, thumping explosions beyond the garden
barrier, and a lot of hysterical shouting had taken up most of that time, even though the source of
the noise was still out of sight.
    Gideon wasted a quick thought on why no one had come after them yet. Either the rebels and their
other unexpected visitors were keeping each other nicely occupied or the Americans didn't have a
clue where the hostages were actually being held.
    'Incoming team,' Finch's voice announced before he, Marco and Pete broke cover on the
other side of the garden.
    'Got you,' Gideon said. 'Pete, go help Coop with the other cabins.'
    'I'm on it,' Pete acknowledged, disappearing back into the vegetation.
    Gideon turned back to her charge. Dr Rossi flinched and swore as every extra loud blast smacked
the air over-and-above the clamour of the firefight, but she was obviously determined to get
everyone out. And by herself - if necessary. The woman was already on her way to cabin number five.
    Gideon took off after her, shouting orders to her squad as she ran. 'Marco, get over here. Finch,
take all five cabins from your end. I've got our package.' She leapt onto the veranda. 'Dr Rossi.'
    'What?' Jana asked, whacking the padlock to unwedge it from the door jam so she could cut it.
    'My team will look after the others. Come with me.'
    'I'm not leaving anyone,' Jana said and kicked open the door. Sally Tan and Shirley Moore,
another Australian and one of the Kiwi delegates, rushed into her arms.
    'Marco, take these nine to the boats,' Gideon said, indicating the clutch of ex-hostages huddled
on the path, and the two women that Dr Rossi had just released.
    Jana directed her colleagues towards Alan and the other eight delegates - oh, and another
soldier, she noted - then turned to make for the next cabin.
    Gideon rolled