Skyjack!. Tim Vicary

M VICARY

      Skyjack!

      SKYJACK!

      When people use guns to take what they want, how do you stop them? If you give them what they want, they will be happy – and they will use their guns again, and again. If you don’t give them what they want, then they will be angry – and they will kill. It is not easy to decide what to do.

      In this story, the person who has to decide is the Prime Minister, the head of the government. But the Prime Minister is also an ordinary person, just like the rest of us – a person with a family and children.

      How can you think clearly, if someone is pointing a gun at your family? What do you do? You take advice, you talk to the hijackers, you find out what they want, you keep everybody calm, you try to move slowly. But terrorists don’t like waiting, and sooner or later, you have to decide what to do …

Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine VietnamOXFORD and OXFORD ENGLISH are registered trade marks of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countriesThis edition © Oxford University Press 2008 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published in Oxford Bookworms 19892 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1No unauthorized photocopyingAll rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the ELT Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirerAny websites referred to in this publication are in the public domain and their addresses are provided by Oxford University Press for information only. Oxford University Press disclaims any responsibility for the contentISBN 978 0 19 479130 4A complete recording of this Bookworms edition of Skyjack! is available on audio CD ISBN 978 0 19 479102 1ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Illustrated by: Ramsay GibbWord count (main text): 8685 wordsFor more information on the Oxford Bookworms Library, visit www.oup.com/bookwormswww.oup.com/bookworms e-Book ISBN 978 0 19 478662 1e-Book first published 2012

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      The air hostess smiled. ‘Welcome aboard, sir. Would you like a newspaper?’

      ‘Yes, please.’ Carl took the newspaper and looked at his ticket. ‘I’m in seat 5F. Where’s that?’

      ‘It’s near the front of the plane, sir. On the left, there. By the window.’

      ‘I see. Thank you very much.’ Carl smiled back at the air hostess. She was young and pretty. Just like my daughter, he thought.

      He put his bag under his seat and sat down. His friend Harald sat beside him. They watched the other passengers coming onto the plane. Harald looked at his watch.

      ‘9.30 p.m.,’ he said. ‘Good. We’re on time.’

      Carl agreed. ‘And in three hours we’ll be home,’ he said. ‘That’s good. We’ve been away for a long time. You’ll be pleased to see your family, won’t you, Harald?’