The Deadly Sky

The plane bucked sideways, flinging Darryl against the cabin wall. It plunged vertically, jolted so hard that his teeth clacked together, then started skidding downwards through the sky. The screams rose to a frenzy. Then Darryl felt the aircraft turning, swinging towards the right. They were heading towards Mururoa. And towards the nuclear bomb waiting there. The bomb due to explode in fifty-seven minutes. It’s 1974, and a dark, cold New Zealand winter. So when Darryl’s mum announces she is going to the remote Pacific island of Mangareva for work, and she’s taking him with her, he is thrilled. But even as Darryl soaks up the warmth and idyllic beauty of French Polynesia, his holiday is darkened by ugly anti-nuclear protests. And then there’s Alicia. She might be smart and beautiful, but her angry opposition to the bomb is really getting on his nerves. And something – or someone – else seems to be troubling her. As Darryl boards Flight 766 he is about to face a terrifying test, and there will be no more time for apathy . . .