Close Quarters Read Online Free PDF Page B

really differently than either Beau or I do.”
    â€œI bet they just love your current occupation.”
    â€œIs that sarcasm, Roman?”
    â€œCould be. Is that the mess hall?”
    â€œYes. Meals are served twice a day, but there is always something in the pot for people who can’t make it to official mealtimes and who get hungry in between them.” Positions within the compound were highly coveted because living conditions were so much better than outside. “Come on, I’ll introduce you to the cook and her helper.”
    They spent a short time in the dining hall introducing Roman to the kitchen staff, who did most of their cooking in an open-air lean-to situated behind the one-room hut where everyone in the compound took their meals. The rest of the cooking happened in and on fire pits situated far enough from the buildings to minimize the risk of an errant spark sending the compound up in flames.
    â€œThe fence does not look too hard to breach,” Roman said as they walked past the staff living quarters, where Tanya made no effort to point out where she slept.
    No matter how she was tempted by the thought of his joining her there.
    â€œIt’s meant to discourage small animals and petty thieves. Serious threats wouldn’t be deterred by anything less than an electric fence with barbed wire. We can’t afford the power to run one, much less get Sympa-Med to fund the cost.”
    â€œWhere do you and Dr. Andikan sleep?”
    â€œWe share that hut with her daughter, Johari.”
    â€œShe has a daughter?” he asked, sounding both annoyed and suprised.
    â€œYes.”
    â€œThere is no record of that.”
    â€œYou read our personnel records?” Tanya asked, taking her own turn to be shocked.
    â€œBennet Vincent’s safety is in our hands. His job is not popular with the Zimbabwean government, no matter how much they pretend to be glad he is here. Assessing any potential threats in his domicile is standard procedure.”
    â€œOh. Well, Johari isn’t Fleur’s natural child. She adopted the girl when she was orphaned in the Congolese Wars.”
    â€œThat is commendable.”
    â€œYes, it is. And Johari is a wonderful child.”
    â€œYou sound wistful.”
    â€œPart of me longs to do the same thing.”
    â€œBut you haven’t.”
    â€œI’m on the road a lot more than Fleur. Since my arrival, she’s pretty much limited herself to running the stationary clinic.”
    â€œI imagine it’s a big enough job.”
    â€œYes, and I don’t mind taking team lead with the traveling clinic, but being gone for weeks at a time doesn’t lend itself to good parenting.”
    â€œNo, it doesn’t.”
    She stopped outside the medical hut as they finished their tour. “You sound like it’s something you’ve thought about too.”
    â€œNot being a parent, but relationships require time that constant and prolonged travel does not allow.”
    â€œIs that why you’re single? You travel too much for your job, the one that isn’t in a lab?” As the words left her mouth, she felt heat climb her skin, unable to believe she’d asked something so personal of the standoffish man.
    â€œYes.”
    â€œWow, you actually answered.”
    He gave her a look that probably should have chastised her, but instead just made her toes curl.
    â€œYou’re certainly not single because you’re ugly.”
    â€œYou sound like Myk’s new wife.”
    â€œShe thinks you’re hot too?” She couldn’t see that going over well with a Chernichenko male.
    â€œNo. She doesn’t have any filters between her brain and her mouth either.”
    â€œOh, I have filters. I just don’t choose to exercise them all the time. I don’t see a reason to pretend an indifference I’ll never be able to sustain for the length of your stay.”
    â€œWe’re only supposed