African Ice by Jeff Buick Page B

“You’ve only got two left.”
    Troy just laughed and turned to Samantha. “Thanks,” he said. “Extra shirts or prison. It’s an easy choice.”
    Sam just smiled. Travis got down to business. “I was talking to Philip Acundo on the trip from the airport. He says the munitions arrived in Kinshasa two days ago. Colonel Mugumba took a personal interest in the shipment. He met with Ng at the docks and offloaded the cargo into a few Land Rovers. Acundo told me the equipment should be en route to Goma sometime tomorrow. If all goes well, we should be armed and dangerous in two days.”
    â€œThank God.” Alain Porter breathed a sigh of relief. “I feel naked. All four guys who picked us up at the airport this morning were packing.”
    Dan Nelson agreed. “We’re sitting ducks. It would be nice to pick up a few handguns. Just in case.”
    â€œNo. I’m sure Mugumba made it pretty clear to these four guys to get us out of Rwanda and into the Congo. If we don’t arrive, they might as well not come back. If we get caught with weapons in Rwanda, they could shoot us on the spot. Zero tolerance toward foreigners.”
    â€œNice fucking place,” Ramage said.
    â€œThat’s why you’re getting the big bucks for this one, Troy. Let’s just stay out of trouble until we get to the border and get our hands on our gear. Then we can kick some serious ass if we have to.”
    The other three men nodded. Samantha watched them as they interacted. A bunch of overgrown macho men, she thought. And then she reconsidered. What kept these men alive was their ability to kill the other guy before he got them. And without guns, Dan Nelson was right. They
were
sitting ducks. If anyone wanted this entourage to disappear, what better time than before they picked up their guns? She realized the gravity of the situation. And in that, she found a new respect for these men.
    They were here to protect her, to ensure she found the elusive diamond formation in the Ruwenzori Mountains. They were ready to lay their lives on the line. That they were being paid for it suddenly became insignificant. These four men brought a commitment to their jobs that few others did. If they had a bad day at the office, they died. She glanced around the table as they continued talking about the upcoming mission. She liked what she saw. And for a fleeting moment, she felt safe.
    Then the doubt returned. Could she find the formation? The longer it took her to locate the diamonds, the greater the chance they’d all be killed. Ultimately, the success of the mission rested on her shoulders—her ability as a geologist. She felt a slight curl at the edge of her lips as this thought hit her. Kerrigan was right about two things. She had a knack for staying alive, and she was one damn good geologist.
    Things would be okay. Keep her alive long enough and she’d find the diamonds.

F IVE
    Samantha was up before the sun. She wriggled out of her clothes and started the shower. A trickle of dusty water spilled from the showerhead into the claw-foot tub. She stepped in and shivered in the early morning heat. The water was freezing. She wondered how in such a sweltering climate, the water could be so cold. Other than the planned stop in Butembo, she knew this would be the last decent shower for some time, and she tried to enjoy it. It didn’t work, but she emerged clean and refreshed after ten minutes. She dressed and took the stairs to the main floor.
    The front-desk clerk was the only sign of human life. She said good morning and walked into the street. She glanced both ways, then turned right and began to jog. The cobblestone road was rough and slippery under her feet, and she relaxed a bit when she turned off the main road and the stones turned to dirt. She picked up her pace, pressing her cardiovascular system to work harder. She was breathing heavily as she turned right into a narrow street a