Lords of Corruption (2009) by Mills Kyle

Author:Mills, Kyle [Mills, Kyle]
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2010-12-26T00:42:22.842000+00:00

Chapter 24.

The satellite phone in Josh's pocket began to ring just as the soldier frisking him started up his left leg. Normally the fact that he was scared shitless would have prompted him to let the caller leave a message, but he hadn't been able to reach his sister in two days, and it was killing him. He took one of his hands off the Land Cruiser's scalding hood and dug the phone out.

The rifle butt to the kidneys he'd been expecting didn't materialize, and instead the soldier wandered off to start what would ultimately be a disappointing search of the Land Cruiser. It had been emptied of virtually everything of value at a similar military checkpoint two hours ago.

"Hello? Laura?"

"It's Stephen, Josh. I wanted to call and tell you I was sorry we couldn't talk when I was at the project. I know you must be concerned about what happened there, and I want to explain. Those weren't our crops Mtiti's government loaned them to us for the shoot. If we had the funds, we would have bought them and had them planted permanently. But the truth is that we don't right now."

"I understand," Josh said.

"Do you? Good. We're hoping the donations we get from the brochure we're putting together will give us the money to get your project going again."

Across the hood from him, Annika grabbed the hand of the soldier frisking her when it got a little too close to her left breast. She said something with a passive sternness that Josh recognized from the first three roadblocks they'd been through that day. It seemed like an impossible balancing act -- she had to be forceful enough for the man to take her seriously, but not so forceful as to make him angry. And, miraculously, she once again managed to create the illusion that they weren't completely defenseless.

"It's not my project anymore, Stephen. We --"

"I know, we still need to talk about your sister and about the possibility of you going home --"

"The possibility of me going home? You said --"

"Look, we're going to relocate some of the refugees you've been working with to one of our more successful projects. It has enough capacity to absorb them, and we can get them on the road to self-sufficiency. I'm knee-deep in that right now."

The soldier searching Annika tried to duck into the Land Cruiser's backseat, but she grabbed his sleeve and showed him the pictures and maps Flannary had collected.

"Which project?" Josh said, watching the soldier shrug and shake his head.

"What?"

"Which project are you sending them to?"

"It's in the northeast part of the country."

"Really?" Josh said. "I hear it's pretty up there. Maybe I should go check it out.

Where is it exactly?"

"I don't think it would be worth the trip -- we've got it under control. In the meantime, I need you to come back to the capital so we can get together. There are some things we need to talk about."

"I'm telling you that there aren't, Stephen.

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