Rogue Angel - 08 - Secret of the Slaves by Alex Archer

Author:Alex Archer
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Fantasy
ISBN: 9780373621262
Publisher: Gold Eagle
Published: 2007-09-11T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

"Forgive my laughter, my friends," Gomes said to Annja and Dan, who lay on their bellies on the packed yellow dirt just beyond the black asphalt landing apron. "You look so comical there hugging the ground."

"That explosion – " Annja said.

"It is nothing. A shot for the mining operation, nothing more. Probably they clear big fallen logs. We are not under attack here."

Gomes drew a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped sweat from his face. It struck Annja as being like taking a mop to a beach with the tide coming in. "If you will please follow me, and not dawdle," he said, "I'll see you inside the citadel."

He gestured toward the gate. Beyond it lights blazed into life against the rapidly advancing tropical twilight, up on towers inside the inner perimeter. Annja and Dan shouldered packs and followed their guide.

A fenced-in passageway fifteen yards long and maybe twenty feet wide ran from the landing pad to the citadel. A chain-link gate swung open before them. Annja realized that machine guns in a pair of towers flanking it were tracking them as they approached.

Annja's shoulders tensed and her stomach crawled as if she'd swallowed a nestful of millipedes. She found little to love about being entirely at the mercy of the men behind the weapons, and the steadiness of their nerves and their trigger fingers.

Our lives depend upon the goodwill and judgment of men who'd guard a place like this, she thought.

They passed through the inner gate. A pair of men in mottled-green-and-brown camouflage battle dress waited inside. They carried Brazilian-made IMBEL MD-2 assault rifles. They stared at the newcomers with a blend of contempt and disinterest before turning away to close and secure the gate.

A rattle of gunfire sounded from somewhere outside the wire. Annja winced and forced her mind not to envision what the sounds might mean.

"So," Dan said conversationally, "was that more stump clearing?"

Gomes frowned. "Please don't make such jokes, Mr. Seddon. Your employer, Sir Publico, understands the realities of what goes on in here."

It was as if a fire hose suddenly blasted ice water between Annja's shoulder blades. "He does?" Her voice sounded half-strangled to her own ears.

Dan looked thoughtful. "He knows about this place," he said in carefully metered tones. "I suspect he does what he can to mitigate things."

"Oh, yes," Gomes said with a wide, oily smile. "Of course he does. He tries to help. He sends us the medical supplies!"

Annja kept one eyebrow raised. "You mean those shipments I saw in Manaus might have been his all along?"

Dan shrugged. He looked honestly embarrassed – and honestly befuddled. "I don't really know. I know he knows about this place – just like he told us. But that doesn't mean he knows everything that goes on here."

The sky had gone indigo overhead, shading into black downriver. Off to the west the last of the day lay in bands of sour lemon and ochre. Their guide led them between the neat pitched-roof structures that made up most of the buildings inside the interior wire perimeter.

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