The Otto Bin Empire Read Online Free PDF Page A

Neighbourhood Centre.
    But Madge had been referring to far more than the mobile. He’ll be leaving us soon , she thought, watching him go. She’d miss him.
    Funny, isn’t it , she thought. There doesn’t seem to be anything at all wrong with Clive, but he’s a lost soul, just like the rest of us. Good that he’s found a niche for himself, or at least that he will shortly, but I wonder how long it’ll last? Wonder if he’ll come back to us when it’s over? Madge had the strangest feeling that he would, that Clive was a true member of the Otto Bin Empire.

Read on for an extract from Judy Nunn’s new novel
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    SPIRITS OF THE GHAN
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    Available November 2015

 
    In Spirits of the Ghan Judy Nunn takes us on a breathtaking journey deep into the red heart of Australia.
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    It is 2001 and as the world charges into the new Millennium, a century-old dream is about to be realised in the Red Centre of Australia: the completion of the mighty Ghan railway, a long-lived vision to create the ‘backbone of the continent’, a line that will finally link Adelaide with the Top End.
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    But construction of the final leg between Alice Springs and Darwin will not be without its complications, for much of the desert it will cross is Aboriginal land.
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    Hired as a negotiator, Jessica Manning must walk a delicate line to reassure the Elders their sacred sites will be protected. Will her innate understanding of the spiritual landscape, rooted in her own Arunta heritage, win their trust? It’s not easy to keep the peace when Matthew Witherton and his survey team are quite literally blasting a rail corridor through the timeless land of the Never-Never.
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    When the paths of Jessica and Matthew finally cross, their respective cultures collide to reveal a mystery that demands attention. As they struggle against time to solve the puzzle, an ancient wrong is awakened and calls hauntingly across the vastness of the outback …

PROLOGUE
    1876
    James McQuillan knew he was a dead man. He knew the instant the snake struck. A large king brown, a good six feet in length. He didn’t know how long his death would take or how much pain might accompany it, but he was aware the sight would not be pretty. ‘Get back to the homestead, Emily, and fetch help,’ he said. Quelling as best he could the fear that accompanied his awful knowledge, he kept his voice authoritative: ‘Hurry along now, there’s a good girl.’ There was no point in her fetching help, he would be dead long before her return, but if his daughter were to witness his death she might panic and lose her way home. It was imperative he give her a sense of purpose.
    Legs outstretched on the dusty red earth, he leant his burly frame back against the rock, the very rock with the very crevice from which the snake had darted its head. The very rock he’d steadied his hand upon while leading the way down to the rock pool. He’d so wanted to share with his daughter this oasis, this perfect gift of nature nestled in the desert. A place of such beauty, where white-trunked gums grew stark and ghostly out of ochre-red rocks that walled a pristine lagoon of blue. He cursed himself now. How could he have been such a fool? He was a dead man, and his daughter’s life was in jeopardy. Emily should besafely home in Adelaide. He should never have brought her to this wilderness.
    Sixteen-year-old Emily stared down at her father, dumb-struck with fear. She had seen the snake. Light brown in colour with a flat cobra-like head, it had struck with such speed and ferocity and then disappeared so quickly that she hadn’t even screamed. Now, upon her father’s instruction, she was galvanised into action.
    â€˜No, Father, no,’ she said, crouching beside him and urgently taking a hold of his arm. ‘I can help you to your horse. We’ll get you home together and Alfred will look after you.’ Alfred