Digging Deeper: An Adventure Novel (Sam Harris Series Book 1) Read Online Free

uneventful.  She spent a pleasant hour before her flight drinking tea and reading the newspapers in the upper class lounge. 
      There were several Europeans waiting for the same flight as her, some of them older women in Laura Ashley flowery dresses. A lot of her apprehensions melted away.  There was something reassuring about these unflappable colonial relics from another era.  These expatriate wives turned up all over the world and organised drinks parties and Hash House Harriers, more drinking but with running, for the expatriate communities in remote or developing countries.  The flowery dresses looked old-fashioned.  She wondered if these women were the only customers that Laura Ashley had left.
    The flight to Mondongo took about three hours. This was the first time that she had travelled in business class.   It was quite different to her usual cramped experience in the back of the plane. She slept all the way and woke refreshed on landing.
    She made her way through immigration, baggage collection and customs.  Again she had expected serious bureaucracy and procrastination, but none materialised.  Coming out into the bright arrivals hall, fighting her wobbly trolley, she squinted in her effort to find her welcoming party.  To her surprise there did not appear to be anyone with a Gemsite placard there to greet her.
    After walking up and down the inside of the arrivals hall twice, she checked outside in case they were parked and could not leave their car.  Stepping through the airport doors, she was hit by a wall of heat and laser-bright sunshine.  She could not see anything for a minute and fumbled around in her rucksack for her sunglasses.  There did not appear to be anyone to meet her there either.  Trying to disguise her nerves and keep an eye on her luggage, whilst being jostled by the taxi drivers desperate for a fare in dollars, she approached a security guard.
    ‘Um, excuse me sir,’ she asked in her rusty Portuguese, ‘Do you know Gemsite?  They are supposed to meet me here.’
    ‘Ah yes, Gemsite.  The driver has gone to eat.  He will be back soon.’
    Taken aback by this news, Sam sat disconsolately on her luggage outside the terminal.  She did not think much of the driver’s casual attitude.  Here I am arriving in a war zone, and no one has bothered to meet my flight.
    The Gemsite driver turned up half an hour later.  He found her still sitting on her suitcase.
    ‘Where have you been?’ asked Sam. ‘I was getting really worried that you had forgotten me.’
    ‘I am sorry.  They should have warned you.  I was taking lunch to some of the airport staff.  We need to help them if we want them to help us, you know.’
    Sam had misunderstood what the security guard had told her.  It was a good reminder of how rusty her Portuguese was.
      The driver showed her to the Gemsite minivan.  He gave her some brochures to read from a loony Christian sect advertising for members and donations.  He disappeared back into the airport looking for Jorge Ramos and the new metallurgist who was also expected on the same flight but had not appeared yet.
    They had been delayed by a piece of missing baggage and emerged blinking into the bright sunlight an hour later.  By then Sam was sure she did not want to join the church of Saint John of the Virgins or contribute any of her hard-earned cash to their cause. 
    It was over forty degrees in Mondongo.  She could feel the damp waistband on her trousers digging into her stomach.  Her t-shirt clung to her back, and her bra straps were too tight in the heat.  She shook hands with the two men.
    ‘Hello, you must be Sam,’ said the older one. ‘I am Jorge Ramos.  I work at Kardo with Jim Hennessy.’  He took her hand in his brown, calloused one.  She was struck by his open honest manner.
    ‘Hi,’ said the other younger man. ‘I'm Dirk Vetter.  This will be my first shift at Gemsite.  I will also be working at Kardo.  Where are you based?’