Ryan Quinn and the Lion's Claw by Ron McGee

Author:Ron McGee
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2017-08-18T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

29

MOUNT SATORI,

LOVANDA, AFRICA

The road was chiseled into the side of the mountain. The SUV had traveled steadily uphill for almost an hour, taking the sharp curves fast enough to throw Ryan into the door repeatedly. Laughlin and the driver sat up front. Reilly was in back to keep an eye on Ryan.

Not that Reilly had much to worry about. Ryan was exhausted, having barely slept. His body ached from lying on the concrete floor with his hands bound for hours. He had finally dozed off when he felt Laughlin kick him awake. The men yanked Ryan to his feet just before dawn and tossed him into the SUV.

The rising sun crept over the ridge, casting long shadows across the mountain. From the narrow road up here, there was no view of the lake below or the countryside. Sheer cliffs of forbidding stone surrounded them on all sides. No wonder people called it the Devil’s House.

The SUV pulled to a stop in front of a giant iron gate. A thick metal fence topped with razor wire made the entrance look more like a prison than a workplace. The gate opened and a guard with a submachine gun glanced at the driver, then waved them through.

Laughlin turned back and smiled at Ryan. “I think this is gonna be good for you, kid. Hard work builds character.”

“Then I guess you’ve never done much,” Ryan said.

“I’ll give you this, you got backbone. Not that it’ll do you much good here. In fact, it’ll probably get you killed. These guys don’t fool around.”

Inside, a sheer cliff rose hundreds of feet straight up. At the bottom was a large tunnel opening that led into the pitch-black depths of the gold mine. Workers carrying equipment and baskets of debris lumbered in and out of the tunnel with the slow, sluggish pace of zombies.

The SUV came to a stop, and Laughlin turned once more. “We’ll find your friends. The borders are sealed tight, and there’s nowhere in Lovanda they can hide for long. Madame Buku has her nasty little heart set on making an example of them. And one way or another, Madame Buku always gets what she wants.”

The back door opened, and Ryan was jerked out. Two men with guns slung over their shoulders yelled orders at him in Swahili as the SUV looped around and drove back out. The men pushed Ryan forward and he stumbled, barely righting himself before he fell.

The mining camp contained clusters of ramshackle buildings that had the feel of a military base. Some looked like offices and others more like barracks. Dump trucks and heavy machinery crisscrossed the area, engines rumbling and producing a cloud of dust. The whole place was dirty and loud.

The men marched Ryan over to a wiry little man whose left eye was white and cloudy. He examined Ryan with his one good eye, not bothering to hide his surprise.

“You very pale for Lovanda,” he said in broken English. He looked to the two guards, and they all laughed.

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.