Read Online Daughter of Destiny by Lindsay McKenna - Free Book Online Page B

miles from the famous Uluru, or Ayers Rock. The red sandstone mountain would be most people’s destination, but not theirs.
    â€œAt least it’s dry heat,” Jake said, smiling slightly. He was reeling with exhaustion. The twenty-hour flight from Montana, through Seattle, Washington, and then across “the Pond”—the Pacific Ocean—to Sydney had been a helluva long haul. Of course, first class seats made it bearable, and he’d slept off and on, but not well.
    Settling his gaze back on Kai, which was always a pleasure for Jake, he saw she had plaited her hair into two thick braids shortly before they landed. She wore what she called her field gear—the Rail Rider tough-as-nails olive-green nylon pants, her brown leather Ecco boots, a dark red T-shirt with capped sleeves and a boat neck that revealed her beautiful collarbones and emphasized her slender neck.
    Kai was the embodiment of power melded with beauty, as far as Jake was concerned. And she’d shut him out just as if she’d shut a door in his face. Sighing inwardly, he tried again to not take it personally. The flight over had been mostly silent.
    They’d received their weapons, briefing, money and other information from the Perseus Sydney officer, Lionel Smythe, before coming to Yulara. Jake had wished for a helicopter flight from Sydney, but that was impossible due to the distance. It was nearly twenty-five hundred miles from the east coast to the interior, where Yulara sat in the middle of some of the most important Aboriginal sacred sites on the huge continent.
    Jake had seen two rented helos at the Yulara airport, small commercial types, although one was a 1970s-era Huey painted blue and yellow, which had been a combat helo at one time in the past. The other was a white-and-silver Bell Longranger helicopter. Jake would be happy to fly either of them around the area in air-conditioned comfort, instead of heading out in a car in this suffocating heat.
    â€œWell,” Kai said, dropping her hands from her hips. “I guess I have to figure out where we go to find Kalduke and this Ooranye woman.” She swung her gaze around, tryingto grasp the enormity of the Red Center. She saw red sand dunes in the distance that were anywhere from three to fifteen feet in height. The sand ridges seemed to ripple like the skin of Mother Earth, or maybe a sidewinder moving, Kai imagined. She’d read that these ridges had been formed more than thirty thousand year ago by the strong southerly winds. Well, it was still windy here, if today was typical.
    The land was scattered with rugged vegetation, from wildflowers to clumps of grass, shrubs and even mystical looking oak trees, which was surprising to her. These plants had hardy spirits to survive this oven, for sure. From the air, as they flew over the national park, Kai had seen ditches, dried up stream courses, vast lake beds that were the color of bleached bones. She’d seen mines, a few water holes with lurid green water in them, and the red sand that reminded her of Mother Earth’s blood. For indeed, Mother Earth’s bones were composed of rock, and her skin was considered the soil and vegetation.
    â€œI’ll pick up our rental car,” Jake said. “You watch the luggage?”
    â€œSure.” Kai watched him saunter back inside the airport. Frowning, she tried to ignore all the emotions that Jake’s continued nearness brought up in her, all the yearning. Oh, Great Spirit, she felt a longing in her heart and an ache in her body for Jake. Kai didn’t like herself very much. One moment she was grumpy with him, the next, she tried to be nice—her way of apologizing for her prickly emotional state. It wasn’t his fault that he’d been ordered on this mission with her. He was as much a pawn in it as she was at the moment. Still upset with Mike Houston and MorganTrayhern because of their stupid insistence that every team need a male and