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"Ladies and gentlemen, your attention, please. We are now coming in to land at Kai Tak Airport,
Hong Kong. The temperature outside is 35 degrees Celsius, humidity 92 per cent. Please fasten
your seat belts and extinguish all cigarettes. All passengers ___1___ at Hong Kong should ..."
"By now," thought Hannah, "I should be used to this. But I'm not. Twenty flying hours and five
landings after London, I should be quite a ___2___ air traveler. But I'm still not. Here we go.
Down we go. We'll never do it this time. It's all so rapid, this descent. Always so rapid. My ears are
in agony at this pressure."
She unwrapped a butterscotch candy and ___3___ . "Look at those mountains. We'll never
get in there on that thin airstrip stretching out into the harbor. We'll go right off the end.
O Lord,
don't let it happen. I've come so far."
She checked her safety belt.
"It's like a picture from this ___4___ . Those green island horseshoes in the blue sea. It's all
rather doll-like, innocent-looking, this little bit of British land. But they say it's fascinating. Oh, why
couldn't Mum and Dad ___5___ ? Why did Daddy have to give those University lectures on the
way to Hong Kong? Quite a cruise they're having, while I am ___6___ and going to stay with
people I don't even know -- some old school friend of Mummy's or something. At least they've got a
girl my age."
She looked out along the ___7___ of the vast plane. "There go the wing flaps. Now that
screaming noise. Oh, yes, Hannah my girl, you know the drill now. Here's the bump and we're
down, in contact with ___8___ again. Just that endlessly long run to do and you, Hannah Carey,
are in Hong Kong."
Hong Kong was like a steaming bathroom to those disembarking from the BOAC jet from
London. Rows of local spectators watched the queue of ___9___ trail into the Customs hall. A
tall, relaxed-looking man eased his way through the waiting crowd, nodding in a knowing way to an
officer with stripes on his cuff, and made straight for Hannah. She looked up hesitatingly as he took
her arm.
"You must be Hannah. Hannah Carey. ___10___ Hong Kong, my dear. I'm Tim Matthews."
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