Diamond Legacy. Monica McCabe

fault. His enthusiasm for this trip rivaled hers. “I promise to restrain myself until the bitter end. Satisfied?”

      “I don’t believe you.”

      She scowled at him.

      “Don’t go getting all fussy. Wait here. I’m going back for our bags.” He took two steps and turned around. “Stay out of trouble.”

      “No problem.”

      With a dubious glance, Jason headed for baggage claim again, taking his prize camera bag with him. Yet the second he turned away, her eyes shot straight for the door.

      The lion was gone.

      Chapter 4

      Sitting on the outskirts of town and adjoining the Gaborone Game Reserve, Katanga rose like an oasis in an endless expanse of brown. A three-story, gray stucco and stone castle, it jutted from austere surroundings like a fortress amidst a canopy of green. Imposing English turrets and battlements stood sentinel, guarding her domain with gothic irony. The eye-catching grandeur was unexpected in the African desert, a contradiction that stood severely out of place yet somehow belonged.

      Matt smiled to himself as he drove onto the grounds early Tuesday morning, day one of his new job. From the look of things, this promised to be the Tiffany’s of undercover jobs. He usually worked baser digs where he was lucky to have a private tree to piss behind. Katanga would be a welcome change of pace.

      He pulled slowly through the parking lot, absorbing every detail of one seriously spread-out compound. Their website claimed thirty-two hectares of land. Beyond the main castle, there were two elephant-sized stables, a warehouse, several smaller outbuildings, and their most recent addition, an oasis pool under a massive glass-domed roof.

      Finding diamonds in a haystack this big may prove a challenge. He definitely had his work cut out for him.

      He parked as far back as possible and used the long walk to the front to scope out his latest employer. Unlike castles of yore, Katanga had no protective moat. But it did have enough landscaping to hide an army. They also sported pivoting floodlights, visible security cameras, and miles of fence to mark its boundaries. The place was built for show and clearly spelled big money, not the sort of place to run conflict diamonds. Too bad all signs pointed toward corruption. If his sources proved true, then he and his new employer were going to have issues.

      He rounded the castle’s front, passed a towering flagpole flying Botswana’s light blue flag, and navigated a gratuitous drawbridge to massive oak and iron doors.

      The minute he crossed the threshold any resemblance to a castle vanished. He stared in amazement at a two-story grand rotunda that greeted visitors with the wonder of a celebrated museum. The massive room was a tribute to tribal life, village art, and symbolic totems. There were plants, animals, fossils, and enough children running loose to fill the half-dozen school buses in the parking lot.

      “Where would you like your safari to begin, sir?”

      A teenage boy carrying a walkie-talkie had slipped up on him while he’d stood gawking. That kind of inattention got a guy in trouble. Not a good start.

      “Employment office,” Matt replied. “Got a date with Warren Graham.” He gave the kid his name and watched him repeat it into the radio.

      With a short jerk of his head, his tour guide led the way to one of three vast tunnel-like hallways that exited the main rotunda and stopped at a set of elevators.

      “Been working here long?” Matt asked as they stepped inside a lift.

      “A while,” the kid mumbled.

      As they headed up, Matt tried again. “They treat you good here?”

      The two-way radio crackled, and the teen fiddled with a dial on the top, ignoring his question.

      He wasn’t getting much out of this one. If everyone around here kept this closed-mouthed, finding information might prove a challenge.

      At the third floor, the doors slid open, and the kid pointed down the hall. “Graham’s the fifth office on the left.”

      “Thanks for the ride.” Matt took off down a hallway filled with opaque glass doors. As promised, number five read Warren Graham, Employment Director.

      He took a deep breath to settle into his new role, rapped twice, then stepped inside.

      “You Bennett?” asked a heavy-set man with a full white beard. He slammed a filing cabinet closed and carried a few folders with him to his desk.

      “Yeah,” Matt fired back. “You Graham?”

      “Don’t get cocky.” A leather executive chair groaned under the man’s weight as he sat. “I don’t care if you have friends in high places. They won’t get you any special treatment around here.”

      “Not expecting any.” Matt settled into a substantially less comfortable chair in front of Graham’s desk. “And for the record, there’s no such friend. I needed a job and knew somebody that knew somebody. I called in a favor.”

      “Guess that’s why you’re the new janitor and not some hoity-toity with a fancy title.” Graham let loose a hearty guffaw and shoved a stack of papers toward Matt. “These outline the job. Got a problem hauling trash, mucking stables, or following orders?”

      Matt ignored the display of attitude and lifted the top sheet of paper, a flyer on safety. “Not as long as it comes with a steady paycheck,” he replied evenly.

      “We expect more than a full day’s work around here,” Graham continued.

      “Won’t hear any complaints from me. Hard work is good for what ails you.” At least that was what his dad had always believed.

      “Keep in mind that non-friend of yours won’t prevent you from getting fired.”

      If he were to guess, Matt would say Graham didn’t like being forced to offer a job. Too bad. That was the price paid for government concessions.

      “I’ll manage,” Matt declared drily.

      Graham sat back in his chair. “Let’s get straight to the point. We have strict rules around here. Break one and it’s over for you.”

      The warnings were getting downright old. “You got a handbook listing all the no-nos?”

      “In those papers,” Graham said with a flat stare. “Activity goes on here day and night with supply shipments and animal deliveries. Security is tight and some areas off limits. If you want to keep the job, always operate for the benefit of Katanga. Is that clear?”

      “Maintain privacy and expect controls.” Matt nodded. “Check.”

      Graham leaned forward, elbows on his desk as he cracked his knuckles. He stared hard at Matt, animosity clear as daylight. No doubt he debated hiring him despite government persuasion, but Matt waited, knowing Graham couldn’t refuse.

      “Haul your ass down to the end of the hall,” he finally said. “Fill out some paperwork and Rob Jenkins will get you a badge and uniform. He’ll show you around the facility.”

      Matt grabbed his papers and stood. “Been a real pleasure getting to know you, Graham,” he said with a forced smile.

      “Yeah,” his new boss snorted. “It’s the start of a beautiful friendship. Now get the hell out of my office.”

      * * * *

      Four people perched high atop a manmade safety ridge in Katanga’s oasis pool. They were soaking wet, muddy, and a little bruised, not to mention humbled from being outsmarted by a hippopotamus. Estelle had quickly turned into the most difficult patient Miranda ever had. The hippo was beyond unhappy. She was in pain. And any animal with a jaw capable of opening four feet wide and lower incisors twenty-eight inches long, well, they had the kind of deadly force no one took lightly.

      Leaning back against the