Digging Deeper: An Adventure Novel (Sam Harris Series Book 1) by PJ Skinner

university.’
    ‘Well, once an area is targeted for mining, it’s drained of water.  Then the hydraulic excavators and draglines clean off the barren top sands and gravel and dig out the basal or bottom gravel, which contained the diamonds.  This gravel is transported to the processing plants along the river where it is concentrated.  The diamonds and some of the heavier materials in the gravels are separated from the lighter materials for transporting to the diamond recovery plant where the material is concentrated some more.  The diamonds are hand-picked from the final concentrate in the same place.’
    ‘Where’s the concentration plant?’
    ‘It’s just outside Kardo.  Did you know that Black decides where to mine by listening to his balls?  If his balls start to itch as he walks over a terrace, then there are diamonds under his feet and we must mine there.  What do you think of that?’ he asked her with a wry grin.
    ‘I’m afraid that I’m not familiar with genital technology,’ she said.
    They both laughed.
    They got back to the office about mid-afternoon.  The air conditioning was not working, and the heat made Sam feel queasy.  She tried to look at some scientific papers about diamonds, but they were very turgid and she was flagging.
    Jim was working on his numbers.  She went into in his office with a cup of tea.  ‘Jorge is pretty important around here, isn’t he?  Is he senior management?’ asked Sam.
    ‘No, he’s just an engineer.  He's a special case at Kardo.  His long service and friendship with Black have earned him privileges way above his position in the hierarchy of the mine.  He's a road builder who was tempted over to the dark side by Black when he was on a contract building roads for the government in Tunde Norte.  Jorge is coming up to retirement and his wife is desperate for him to come home.  Black is trying everything he knows to make him stay.'
    'How long have you been manager of Kardo?’
    ‘I started as a geologist but I caught Black’s eye.  He promoted me after six months.  I’m now acting as interim general manager because Murphy was fired by Black.  So what do you think of our lord and master?’
    Sam wasn’t sure if she could trust Jim yet so she tried to be diplomatic and said, ‘I don't know yet.’
    He laughed.  ‘So have you had the ‘you must follow my orders to the letter’ lecture yet?’
    ‘Yes, I have.’
    ‘Did you see that sore on his arm?’
    ‘Yes, I noticed it.  What happened?’
    ‘It’s self-inflicted.  It was a mosquito bite but he never let it heal and he chews on it when he's agitated.’
    Sam made a face. If the comment was calculated to make her shudder, it had the desired effect.  ‘That’s disgusting.’
    It was dark outside by six o’ clock in the evening.  She had forgotten how close Kardo was to the equator.  She looked around the house where she was staying.  She found an old washing machine in the back and decided to do some laundry while there was water and electricity available at the same time.  She opened the water valves to the washing machine, which were shut for some reason. The electric circuits in the house left something to be desired.  The air conditioning had to be switched off before plugging in the kettle to avoid blowing the fuses.
    The next morning, she commented on the state of the wiring in her house to her colleagues in the office.
    ‘If you can’t cope in that house, we can give you a tent down by the river,’ said Bob, the engineering manager.  Barbed comments had been common since she had arrived on site. The management team could not disguise their hostility at her presence.
    Sam assumed that her unexpected arrival had not given her a head start in the popularity stakes.  Perhaps one of the team was expecting to be given Pat Murphy’s house and resented her getting it.
    After the morning production meeting, she went to see Jorge’s latest river diversion.
    ‘The river has