Ebola K: A Terrorism Thriller: Book 3 by Bobby Adair Read Free Book Online Page B

Africa wasn’t on his way there right now.  If I was, that’s where I’d go.  Sounds like safety to me.”
    “Djibouti?” Olivia let her skepticism glow through the tone of her question.  “How far is that from Kampala?”
    Barry shrugged.  “Google it.  I don’t know.  Five hundred miles, a thousand?”
    Olivia sat up and typed.  A moment later the screen provided the information.  “Close to seventeen hundred miles driving,” she groaned.  “They’d have to cross Uganda, Kenya, and Ethiopia.  None of that sounds safe to me.”

Chapter 10
    Feeling strange to be sitting in a moving vehicle maneuvering around water-filled holes in the muddy road, Austin asked, “How do you know Olivia?”
    Mitch laughed.  “The jealous brother thing?” Mitch showed Austin a smile.
    “Just curious.  She asked about you on the phone.  She wanted to know how you were doing.”
    Glancing down at himself, Mitch asked, “What’d you tell her?”
    “I told her you looked like Indiana Jones.  Like you’re in your element here.” Austin’s grin slipped away.  “Seriously, is she worried about something? Are you infected?”
    “No.” The truck caught a slick patch of mud and slid sideways as the engine revved on loose wheels.  Mitch spun the steering wheel first in one direction and then the other, and then got control.  “I’ve been lucky so far.”
    Austin looked through the gaps in the jungle and saw cultivated fields overrun with tall weeds between the rows of crops.  “Me too, I guess.”
    “You guess?” Mitch asked.  “My bet was that you’d be dead.  Based on what you looked like last time I saw you.”
    “Yeah.  I suppose.”
    “Now look at you.  Strong.  Lean.”
    “Starved is a better description.” Austin looked into the back of the truck.  “You got any food in here?”
    “Yeah.” Mitch pointed at a cooler pushed against the doors in the back.  “Bottled water back there, too.  You want to climb over the seat or you want me to stop?”
    Austin looked at the trees and fields outside and didn’t see any people at any distance.  Still, to stop was to open them to risk.  “I’ll climb over.  Watch the bumps, if you don’t mind.”
    Glancing in the mirror, Mitch said, “Grab me something, too.”
    Austin opened the cooler and felt like he’d opened a pirate’s chest full of gold.  “You loaded up.”
    “I didn’t know how long I’d be gone,” Mitch shrugged and looked at Austin in the mirror.  “I stock up where I can.  With things the way they are, you never know how long it’ll be before you can find your next can of SPAM.”
    Austin laughed.  And that felt unusual, too.  He was speaking English to an American.  He had an armful of food and clean water to drink.  “How bad are things?”
    “You mean with Ebola?”
    “What else?” Austin tumbled his booty onto the console between the front seats and climbed his way back to the front.
    “Bad.” Mitch’s face turned frustrated, even a bit angry.  “We missed our chance when Almasi got away.”
    “Najid?” Austin confirmed as he shook his head.  “He got away then?”
    “I spent a good deal of time in Nairobi.  It’s like something out of a medieval story about the Black Death.  Pyres in the markets.  Bodies in the streets.”
    “Everywhere else?”
    “I mostly know what Olivia tells me.” Mitch glanced at the satellite phone.  “Every other number I know, there’s nobody home.  Know what I mean?”
    “No.” Austin looked at the phone.  “What do you mean? I’ve been living in a grass hut in the jungle.  For months, I think.”
    Mitch picked up the phone and looked at it as he drove.  “No reason I can think of that they’d stop answering unless they took ill or died.”
    “Could there be something wrong with the connection? Maybe something with the satellite?”
    “Maybe.” Mitch laid the phone between the seats.  “Not the most likely explanation, though.”
    Mitch’s