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Giordino couldn't stand the delay any longer Dawn had arrived, and the eastern sky above the island was already glowing orange fro under the rotating blades as the van carrying the security guards raced onto the dock What the devil had happened to Pitt and Maeve? he wondered anxiously Pitt wouldn't have wasted an unnecessary second Theslack in the water, and the yacht had already caught the outgoing tide and had drifted nearly thirty meters away from the dock

Haste was vital The only reason the guards had not fired on the helicopter or yacht was because they were afraid to dauards were only a hundredin

Giordino was so engrossed in keeping his eyes on their pursuers and hishis friends that he failed to notice the sound of dogs barking froht of birds ascending and flying in confused circles in the sky Nor did he sense an odd hu on land and see the sudden agitation of the lagoon's waters as the sound waves of staggering intensity, driven by an immense velocity, slammed into the subterranean rock of Gladiator Island

Only when he ithin a few steps of the door to the uards They were standing transfixed on the dock whose planking was curling like waves across a sea They had forgotten their quarry and were pointing to a sun to rise and spread above Mount Scaggs Giordino could seelike ants from the tunnel entrance in the volcano's slope There seemed to be so about the island going up in smoke and cinders came back to him

He burst through the doorway of the salon, stopped dead and expelled a lowfrom the wounds in Pitt's chest and waist, the puncture in Maeve's midriff and the body of Deirdre Dorsett bent back almost double over the coffee table

"God, what happened?"

Pitt looked up at hi "The eruption, has it started?"

"There's s"

"Then we're too late"

Giordino immediately knelt beside Pitt and stared at Maeve's wound "This looks bad"

She looked up at hi "Please take my boys and leave me"

Giordino shook his head heavily "I can't do that We'll all go together or not at all"

Pitt reached over and clutched Giordino's arm "No time The whole island will blow any second I can't et out now"

As if he had been struck by a boic nonchalance, the wisecracking sarcasm, fled fro in his entire life had primed him to desert his best friend of thirty years to a certain death His expression was one of agonized indecision "I can't leave either of you" Giordino leaned over and slipped his arms under Maeve as if to carry her He nodded at Pitt "I'll come back for you"

Maeve brushed his hands away "Don't you see Dirk is right?" she murmured weakly