African Ice Read Online Free PDF Page A

dialects. We’ll leave Rwanda and enter the Congo at the Gisenyi-Goma border crossing. Mugumba himself will provide a small military escort from the border to Butembo.” Sam nodded. The plan was not appealing, but Kerrigan was obviously well organized. “Whom do we report back to?”
    â€œYou’ll relay all information back to me, personally. This entire operation is very tight-lipped, and I’d like to keep it that way. You report only to me.”
    â€œWhat
is
your position with Gem-Star?” she asked, suddenly aware that she had no idea.
    â€œPresident,” he said.
    â€œBut not CEO?” she asked.
    He stared at her, his eyes searching, but not finding what they were looking for. “No, Ms. Carlson, I’m not the chief executive officer of the company. That title is held by Davis Perth, grandson of the founder.”
    â€œSome people are just born into it, aren’t they?”
    Patrick Kerrigan rose from his chair, this time extending his hand to her. “I’ll make sure you have your spectrometer, Ms. Carlson, in addition to any other equipment that would be considered standard. Take care; I’ll be in touch later this week.”
    â€œThanks. And please have your accounting department make the initial check out to Samantha, not Sam. The bank still thinks anything made out to Sam is for my father.”
    â€œAs you wish.”
    Sam left the office and the building. She glanced about her as she walked, taking in the cityscape—the concrete jungle. It was widely known to be dangerous and difficult to live in New York. It was a cakewalk compared to what lay ahead—the real jungle. Butembo bordered the equatorial rain forest, and to the east it was solid jungle to the base of the Ruwenzori Mountains. On her previous visit she had hiked in a few miles, just to get the feel. It was eerie moving about the ancient forest, surrounded by multitudes of rare and exotic species. And dangerous. The smaller creatures had more enemies, and therefore better defense systems, often poison. The larger animals could simply eat you.
    Her mind drifted back to Travis McNeil. He intrigued her. His demeanor was calculated and wary, but she suspected a very different man would emerge once they were on the go. He had never led a mining expedition before, so the chances were good that this was his first business arrangement with Patrick Kerrigan. She had a sixth sense that Travis didn’t trust Kerrigan. She could understand why, because she didn’t trust him either.
    He troubled her, but she couldn’t put her finger on why. He came across as a consummate businessman, professional and organized. The firm was successful, and he had achieved the leadership of the company without being born into it. Davis Perth, the CEO,
had
been born with a silver spoon, and that obviously riled Kerrigan. It didn’t take a master’s in psychology to pick up his body language when she had made the comment in his office. Kerrigan didn’t like playing second fiddle. And he had proven his tenacity by bouncing back from a disastrous divorce and rebuilding his financial net worth to sixty million. Quite a feat.
    But Patrick Kerrigan was the least of her worries right now. In the next few weeks her skills as a geologist would be tested under the most rigorous conditions. Her ability to survive the deceit of the diamond traders, the corruptness of the military, the constant threat of disease, and the perils of the jungle were foremost in her mind. She swallowed hard as full reality hit her.
    She was going back to Africa.

T HREE
    Travis McNeil swung his 330xi into a parking stall at the end of the strip mall and locked the car. The trip from Manhattan to Hoboken, via the Holland Tunnel, had been a nightmare. Some idiot had slid the front end of his Porsche under a five-ton delivery truck and the tunnel traffic backed up, causing him to be half an hour late for his meeting. Still, the