"Breeding Ground" - читать интересную книгу автора (Montague Madelaine)

and respect the customs and beliefs of various cultures and ancient civilizations, but she
didnТt believe.

SheТd been uneasy ever since sheТd arrived at the dig, however.

SheТd dismissed it. This was her first field operation and a certain amount of
trepidation was to be understood, particularly considering the remote location. They
were miles and miles from the nearest speck of civilization, and even that couldnТt be
truly categorized as civilization, not in her book, anyway. The village was a throw back,
virtually untouched by modern civilization.

SheТd regretted taking the assignment almost as soon as sheТd agreed to it. She
regretted it even more as they left the tiny airstrip and set off in ancient vehicles down
narrow twisting roads, traveling deeper and deeper into thick, twisted jungle filled with
more poisonous creeping, slithering reptiles and insects than any other part of the world.

The trip alone had been enough of a jolt to her system to account for her
jitterinessЧpaddling for miles and miles in canoes that sat barely above water level and
watching snakes and crocodiles slither past. It had comforted her somewhat when sheТd
arrived to find the dig well in progress. The jungle had been cut back. The dig site was
populated with a dozen scientists and students and about twice or three times that many
native workers. A tent village had dotted the periphery of the siteЧbut the tents were the
best money could buy and filled with every modern convenience that could be lugged this
deeply into the jungle.

The conditions were still ungodly primitive, and she didnТt especially like the
speculative gazes of the dark eyed nativesЧapparently fair women fascinated them. Not
that she qualified as a Сreal blondТ in the real world. Her hair had darkened as sheТd
matured to a color closer to brown than blond, but she still had the blue eyes, pale skin,
and freckles of a true blond and that seemed sufficient to the brown skinned pigmies that
made up the bulk of the tent village to earn her more hungry male glances in the few
weeks sheТd been there than sheТd had in her entire life before.

Loathe to encourage them to believe she might welcome their sexual overturesЧ
and she didnТt think she was imagining that they looked her over like a particularly
choice piece of assЧshe spent most of her time pretending they were invisible, which
was another thing that made her uncomfortable. SheТd been accused of being frank to the
point of bluntnessЧwhich no one seemed to consider a virtueЧbut part of that frankness
was the tendency to meet everyone eye to eye. SheТd been taught that Сshifty eyedТ was a
trait that spelled untrustworthy. She wasnТt a liar, a cheat, or a fraud, and she was as
good as, if no better than, anyone. It made her feel dishonest to avoid eye contact.


BREEDING GROUND Madelaine Montague

Beyond the physical discomforts, though, beyond the uneasiness at having short,
dark men staring at her as if she was Venus incarnate, beyond the very real dangers that
lurked beneath every leaf, shrub, and tree limb, there was something about the ancient
city theyТd uncovered that was just plain otherworldly creepy.