‘Pop in and make a social call during the gunfire?’

‘Maybe it’s not as serious as reported,’ Sam said optimistically. ‘Maybe you can persuade the nasty men to put away their guns, pour margueritas for everyone and go lie on the beach.’

‘As if.’

‘You never know,’ Sam said, yawning. ‘But at least it’ll be action. See if you can find a few bodies that need sewing up. Nice interesting cases. I’ll be there in a flash.’

‘You want to take my place?’

‘After you persuade the boys to put their guns away,’ Sam said, grinning. ‘You’re the front-line doctor. Not me.’

‘I can’t find Benjy.’

Lily was making her way through the crowded hospital, terror making her numb. All around her were people who needed her. The criminals who’d taken over the compound had shot indiscriminately, seeming to relish the destruction they were creating. The death count at the moment stood at twenty but there were scores of injured, scores of people Lily should be caring for right now.

But Benjy…

At first sign of trouble, when Kapua’s finance councillor had stumbled through Lily’s front door that morning, clutching her bloodied arm, Lily had told Benjy to run to Kira’s house.

Kira was Lily’s great-aunt, a loving, gentle lady who was like a grandmother to Benjy. She lived well away from the town centre, in an island-style bure by the beach. Benjy would be safe there, Lily had thought as she’d worked her way through the chaos of that morning.

Then, at midday, an elderly man had stumbled into the hospital, weeping. Kira’s neighbour.

‘Kira,’ the man had wept. ‘Kira.’

Somehow Lily had finished treating an islander she’d been working on. A bullet had penetrated the man’s thigh, causing massive tissue damage. He’d need further surgery but for the moment the bleeding had been controlled. As soon as she’d been able to step away from the table she’d run, to find that Kira’s hut had been burned, to find Kira dead and to find no sign of her son.