"Doranna Durgin - Heavy Metal Honey" - читать интересную книгу автора (Durgin Doranna)

dropped the subject with a series of tacit glances among themselves, and then Keen
cleared his throat again. "Here's what you need to know. The woman you failed to
intercept last night also thought she carried drugs."
Thought? Kimmer quit scratching her wrist; beside her, Rio's foot thumped to the
ground.
"What," Owen said with distinct care, "was she carrying?" And Kimmer heard his
unspoken words, the cold, hard what did you send my agents into? demand.
DuBois looked as though he could hardly bring himself to say the words. "The
powdered remains of a spent fuel rod from the Lagura Verde plant."
"Whoa," Kimmer said, implications reeling through her. "That stuff is hot."
Spellman offered, "As far as we know, the woman had no idea what she carried.
She, too, thought it was drugs. She was chosen to smuggle the material so that our
main targets could dissociate from her if there was trouble."
"And you thought this would make no difference to us?" Rio's voice seemed only
to hold calm query, but Kimmer knew better. Her congenial ex-CIA agent on his first
Hunter assignmentтАжand he was about to walk away. The CIA had taught him some
hard lessons about trusting the chain of command.
"We sent you with more than adequate container materials," Keen pointed out. No
wonder that pouch had been so damned heavy. Lead-lined. He eyed her, meant to
quell any objections. "You were to intercept the woman and obtain her cargo. It
wouldn't have gone down any differently had you known the details."
"Gentlemen, I'm surprised at you." Owen stood. His hard, rugged features were
tightly set and he, too, was on the verge of walking out.
Not Kimmer. Kimmer still wanted the bad guys. And Kimmer had grown up with
worse betrayals. Still, she backed Owen, standing beside him. "Except we could
have been ready for them. Do you think real drug dealers would have risked
apprehension to grab a package that small? Do you think they would have had the
inclination to swoop in on a busted mule for a firefight over the goods? Terrorists
and drug deals have different resources; they have different goals. We could have
been ready for them тАФ but now they're on the loose with their radioactive goods.
Just how hot did you say that stuff was?"
"Dirty bomb hot," Rio muttered, and by their reaction Kimmer saw he was right.
"From Lagura Verde? Probably some cobalt-60; definitely some cesium-137.
Gamma ray stuff, would have triggered border patrol detectors."
God. "Then quit playing agency games with us and tell us the whole story,"
Kimmer said, snapping the words out. "We've got some bomb boys to catch."
And Rio, compassionate Rio, looked at the men with a drawn brow and said,
"What about the woman?"
DuBois looked Rio in the eye and said, "She was never meant to survive тАФ and
unless she gets immediate medical attention, she won't."


Chapter Three


Bisbee, Arizona. Copper mining ghost town turned tourist town, shadows shifting
in the late afternoon sun, summer heat just beginning to fade.
"Wishful thinking, tourist town," muttered Kimmer, shifting on the seat of the
stealthy motorcycle she'd so quickly grown fond of. She'd named hers She-Ra.
"More like a leftover skeleton town."