Hot Rain by Kat Martin

Author:Kat Martin
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance, Suspense
ISBN: 9780821769355
Publisher: Zebra
Published: 2002-05-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

Hacienda Curazon de la Selva was the general’s name for the secluded farm he was currently using in the Orange Walk District of Belize. This was explained by a short Mexican soldier, a sergeant named Rodriquez.

Rodriquez took them to a big white, two-story colonial-style house built several feet off the ground that actually looked

more Caribbean than Spanish. Constructed of wood and surrounded by porches, it had louvered shutters and a slightly rusted, corrugated metal roof. The farm itself, a finca, it was called, had literally been hacked out of the jungle. Sometime back, it had fallen into disuse, the fields that had once produced sugar cane now sitting idle and heavily overgrown.

An area off to the left and some distance away from the house provided a clearing for equipment, tents, and supplies. This was where about thirty soldiers were encamped, the general’s elite guard, the sergeant proudly told them.

“I thought there would be more of them,” Allie said.

“It’s safer for the men not to be located all in one place. The PRA has a number of secret locations in the jungle.”

As they approached the wood-frame house and walked up the wide front porch steps, Allie expected the interior to be as rustic as the outside, but when Sergeant Rodriquez pulled open the screen door and escorted them into the entry, she was surprised to find cream silk sofas, Oriental carpets over polished hardwood floors, and expensive European antiques.

Valisimo walked out of a wood-paneled study that opened into a wide, high-ceilinged hall. Dressed in a perfectly tailored olive drab uniform with red and gold braid and flashy gold epaulettes, the general was a man of medium height and build, with dark brown hair, silvered at the temples, and very dark skin.

Except for the uniform and his particularly large, beak-shaped nose, he was fairly unimposing. Then he turned his nearly black eyes in their direction and Allie glimpsed a spark of fire in them that seemed to burn.

He smiled as he extended a hand to Jake, but the glance he cast Allie held obvious disapproval. “Major Dawson. Fate has been kind to you, it seems.”

“Yes. The lady and I escaped unharmed. Unfortunately, the others weren’t so lucky.”

“All of them were killed?”

“I’m afraid so, sir.”

“What of the cargo?”

“Still intact. If you’ve got a helicopter we can use, we can pick them up whenever you’re ready.”

The general’s whole demeanor relaxed. “That, at least, is a relief.”

“There’s something you ought to know, General.”

“Yes?”

“The plane crash… it wasn’t mechanical failure, pilot error, or anything like that. One of the men you hired in Los Angeles, Roberto Santos, attempted to divert the plane away from its projected course. In the fight that ensued, his gun went off, I was wounded, and the pilot was shot and killed.” It was the story they had concocted to explain the bullet wound in his side and the dead pilot they would find with a hole in his head.

“Por Dios. What were the man’s intentions?”

“I’m afraid I don’t know. I imagine he wanted the missiles.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.