"Feehan, Christine - Leopard 02 - Wild Rain" - читать интересную книгу автора (Feehan Christine)

sheep."

Rachael remembered the old man with shifty eyes and great gaps where his teeth
should have been. Most of the people they met were friendly, more than friendly.
Laughing and always willing to share everything they had, the people along the
river lived simply yet happily. The old man had bothered her. He sought them
out, talking Don Gregson into leaving in spite of Kim Pang's obvious reluctance.
Kim had nearly backed out of guiding them to the village, but the people needed
the medicine and he guarded it carefully.

"Is the medicine worth money to the bandits?" She shouted the question to Simon
above the roar of the river. Bandits were reputed to be commonplace along the
river systems of Indochina. They had been warned by more than one friendly
source to be cautious as they continued upriver.

"Not only the medicine, but we are too," Simon confirmed. "There's been a rash
of kidnappings by some rebel groups to supposedly raise money for their cause."

"What's their cause?" Rachael asked curiously.

"To get richer." Simon laughed at his own joke.

The boat bumped over the water, jarring them all, shooting sprays of water into
their faces and hair. "I hate this place," Simon complained. "I hate everything
about this place. How could you want to live here?"

WILD RAIN 5
"Really?" Rachael looked into the jungle as they rushed by. Tall trees, so many
blurring together she couldn't tell one from the other, but they looked
inviting. A refuge. Her sanctuary. "It's beautiful to me."
"Even the snakes?" The boat pitched wildly and Simon grabbed for a hold to keep
from being thrown overboard.
"There are snakes everywhere," Rachael replied softly, unheard above the roar of
the river.
She had been careful to disappear from her home in the States, had planned out
each step carefully, with patience. Knowing she was watched, she had gone
casually to the department store and paid a huge sum of money to a stranger to
walk out wearing her trendy clothes, dark glasses and jacket. Rachael paid
attention to details. Even the shoes were the same. The wig was perfection. The
woman strolled slowly along the street, window-shopping, picked a large store,
changed clothes in the rest room and walked away a good deal wealthier than she
had ever imagined. Rachael should have disappeared without a trace right then.
She purchased a passport and identification in the name of a woman long deceased
and made her way to a different state, joined a church group on a medical relief
tour of the remote areas of Malaysia, Borneo and Indochina. She managed to
escape the United States undetected. Her plan had been brilliant. Except it
didn't work. Someone found her. Two days earlier a cobra found its way into her
locked room. Rachael knew it wasn't a coincidence. The cobra had been
deliberately planted in her room. She had been lucky to see it before it had a
chance to bite her, but she knew better than to depend on luck. Anyone she met