Read Online Midnight in Ruby Bayou by Elizabeth Lowell - Free Book Online Page B

the other side of the desk. Right now Walker looked like a backcountry gem expert and bush pilot, duties he often fulfilled for Donovan International. Jeans, blue work shirt, fleece-lined waterproof jacket, scarred hiking boots.
    And a low-tech wooden cane. Archer had the feeling the cane was a precaution rather than a necessity. Even recuperating, Walker was catlike on his feet. Quick mind, too, though he did his best to hide it behind a good-ol’-boy drawl and dark, close-cut beard. Archer’s own beard had a bit more length; his wife liked the way it felt on her skin.
    â€œFaith was burning up the phone lines,” Archer said.
    â€œDidn’t like my replacement?” Walker asked innocently.
    â€œShe’s coming here to yell at me in person. And to hear all about how I yelled at you. At least, that’s what she hopes I’ll do. So tell me, am I going to yell at you?”
    Walker almost smiled. Archer wasn’t the yelling kind. He got better results without opening his mouth. He had a way of staring at people that made them hunt for a hole to hide in. “Yell away, boss. It will make your little sister feel a whole lot better.”
    Archer raked his fingers through his hair. “You’re pretty cocky for someone who could barely stand less than a week ago.”
    â€œI was lucky. Those bandits were too poor to buy bullets for their Kalashnikovs.”
    Archer smiled thinly. “Kalashnikovs? Russian antiques.”
    â€œYou load ’em and they shoot real fine.”
    â€œThey make pretty good clubs, too.”
    â€œNo argument here,” Walker said dryly. “I’ve got the lumps to prove it.”
    â€œYou’re lucky those clowns didn’t have knives.”
    â€œThey did.”
    Archer’s eyes narrowed. He pulled a thin sheaf of papers out from under a stack of file folders. He flipped through the papers quickly. Three pages summarizing three months of work. Walker was famous for his terse reports. “I don’t see anything here about knives.”
    Walker shrugged. “They didn’t cut me, so why waste words?”
    â€œI suppose if you didn’t have any bruises, you wouldn’t have reported the ambush?”
    â€œYou and Kyle are hell-bent on getting some high-quality rubies that haven’t been cooked in the Thai cartel’s furnaces. My job was to scout the possibilities, not bitch about the conditions.”
    Archer pulled out the last page of the report and began reading aloud. “ ‘Chance of reaching ruby miners and/or smugglers before the Thais do: real slim.’ ” He looked up, pinning Walker with the kind of look that made most people uncomfortable. Walker didn’t react. That was one of the reasons Archer liked him. “Anything to add?”
    â€œFucking.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œAs in real fucking slim. I didn’t want to offend the data input pool.”
    â€œMitchell does all my private reports. He doesn’t offend easily.”
    â€œI’ll keep that little thing in mind,” Walker said, his voice slow and amused.
    â€œAnything else you left out of the report?”
    â€œIt’s damn cold in Afghanistan at this time of year.”
    Archer’s eyes narrowed. “How far did you get?”
    â€œJust to the mines at Jegdalek and Gandamak.”
    â€œTravel conditions?”
    â€œThe southern route is still littered with land mines. The northern route is decent enough until you get to Sorobi. Then it unravels into a Jeep trail that swallows itself in dry washes and rockslides. A lot of the travel is done by the local equivalent of a mule because you can fuel a critter easier than a truck. The bandits are real active. The clans are slitting throats right and left, trying to catch up from all those years when the Soviets owned the real estate and the guns.”
    Archer glanced at the report. Walker’s arduous trip through the backwaters of