Quest (Dane Maddock Adventures) Read Online Free Page A

fact, but the mere thought of asking him to risk his life to save her boyfriend made her stomach churn. “I think so.” She bit her lip and stared out at the street. “But I don’t know if he’d do it.”
    “Thomas swore that solving this mystery, whatever it is, would rock the world—his words, not mine. He seemed to think he was going to be rich and famous.”
    “But that doesn’t make sense. He’s an academic. Even if he solved some sort of mystery in the Amazon, there’s no money in that. What would he get out of it? Mostly fame among scholars, maybe a few mentions in the media.” Closing her eyes, she took two deep, calming breaths and rubbed her temples. Before getting Andy’s message, she had convinced herself that Thomas was not truly in danger. He’d been overdue before and always returned safely. Now, her whole world had been turned upside down. She almost wished for a return to a few hours ago, when her greatest concern had been an irrational fear that her boyfriend was cheating on her. She needed to think about this calmly and logically. “Okay, so we don’t know what mystery he was working on. What do we know?”
    “Nothing. I’ve looked at what’s in the envelope, and I’m baffled, though he insisted it would be sufficient to set us on his trail without giving anything away were it to fall into the wrong hands. I think you might have more luck with it than me. When you see it, you’ll understand why.”
    “There’s so much about this that doesn’t make sense. Why didn’t he tell me anything? If he thought he might not come back, why didn’t he leave us a map or something? He could have written a note saying, “Look for me here,” and put it in a safe deposit box. And why did he confide in only you?” She wanted to add “and not me,” but she’d already embarrassed herself once today with her jealousy.
    “In respect to the first two questions, I can only tell you that he believed someone might be after not only him, but anyone else who might know something about what he was doing. I think he was right. I’ve been on holiday for the last week, and yesterday I received a call from a colleague who told me that a man has been asking after me around the university. I called a neighbor, who said someone had come to her door asking about me as well. Now I’m afraid to go home.” He sighed. “As to the latter question, he knows I keep his secrets.”
    Before Kaylin could follow up on that last cryptic comment, his head snapped up and he once again looked up and down the street before turning to face her.
    “There’s no more time for talk. The Powder Magazine is coming up on the right. The carriage is not going to slow down, but he will pull as close to the curb as he can. I want you to slip out right in the middle of the tour group that’s waiting at the gate, and then get to your car as quickly as possible. I don’t know if you should go home, but you definitely need to get help. In fact, you should probably get out of town, just to be safe. I’ve gotten you involved now, and I regret it.”
    “Andy I…”
    Ever the professor, he hushed her with a raised index finger, as if she was a student. “I’m sorry to bring you into this, and I hope the situation is not as grave as I fear, but who really knows?” He gave her a small, sad smile. “Here’s your stop.”
    He gave her a gentle shove and she sprang from the carriage. Her last thought before she hit the ground was, Why did I wear heels? And then she was stumbling into the midst of a dozen or more tourists waiting to see the colonial-era gunpowder magazine and its museum.
    She landed in the arms of a dark-skinned young man in sagging jeans and an Under Armour shirt. He helped regain her balance and looked her over, though his expression was one of concern rather than lewdness. Satisfied she was all right, he looked toward the carriage, which was now rounding the corner onto Church Street. “Did that dude try to push you