Hunter's Woman. Lindsay McKenna

cab.

      Catt tried to gather herself together. She suddenly felt embarrassed by her wild reaction to seeing Hunter again. As the cab drove off toward Manaus, she took a shaky breath and tried to calm her shattered nerves.

      It was Andy who was the first to approach her. “You okay, Catt?” He laid a hand on her shoulder.

      Closing her eyes, Catt nodded. “Yeah, I’m okay, Andy.”

      “Ghost from the past?” he guessed gently.

      She opened her eyes and stared sightlessly toward the muddy Amazon. “You could say that.”

      Allowing his hand to slip off her shoulder, Andy looked around, running his fingers through his blond hair. “Well, if he can find us a tug and a captain, then we can get back on track.” He rubbed his beard thoughtfully.

      She heard the hope in his voice. “If I know anything about the bastard, it’ll be the last we see of him,” Catt breathed savagely. In her heart, she would be relieved if Ty never showed up again. “He’s got a past history of only being around when things are hunky-dory. But when things get into a choke hold, he abandons everyone and everything. He’s not to be trusted. No—” Catt shook her head adamantly “—if he doesn’t return, I’m not going to be sorry about it. We’re better off without him than with him, Andy.”

      “Did OID send him?” Steve asked as he joined them.

      Catt looked over at the thin, tall, balding man. Though Steve was in his fifties, he lived to globe trot from one epidemic to the next. Through the silver wire-rim spectacles that sat on his narrow, hawklike nose, his gray eyes were thoughtful as he met and held her gaze.

      “Yes,” she muttered bitterly. “Casey sent him. I have no idea why. We have our team. We’re good at what we do. We always get the damned job done!”

      “I wonder, could he be a virology specialist on the new South American bugs?” Maria Sanchez asked as she came over.

      Snorting, Catt looked down at her. “Somehow, I doubt it. That bastard was in the Marine Corps, an Annapolis graduate, the last time I saw him. Just because he’s not wearing the uniform of the day doesn’t mean he isn’t in the military now. No, something fishy’s going on here. I don’t know what it is, but Maria, will you call OID and track Casey down? I want to talk to her.”

      Maria nodded. “You bet,” she replied, digging the cell phone out of the leather knapsack that hung from her shoulder.

      “What are we going to do about a tug?” Andy asked her.

      “I want Maria and you two to walk down to those other docks and see if you can’t bribe one of the captains into taking us to that Juma village. As I understand it, the rate of exchange is about six hundred to one. Flash a twenty in front of them…or whatever it takes. A small amount of U.S. money will make them rich enough that they won’t have to work for a year if they’ll just get us downstream to Señor Antonio’s houseboat, near the Juma village. Get going. And good luck.”

      The two men nodded and turned as Maria approached Catt and held out the cell phone to her. “Dr. Casey’s on the line.”

      “Thanks,” Catt said, and took the phone. Maria, Andy and Steve walked down to the riverboats to find a willing tug captain.

      “Casey?”

      “Yes. Catt?”

      “You got me. You’re breaking up a little.” Catt turned a bit. “Is this a better connection?”

      “Much better. What’s going on? Are you in the Juma village?”

      Catt grimaced. “Hell, no.” She went on to explain what had happened. “Listen, you just sent a guy down here by the name of Ty Hunter. Is that right?” Her hand became sweaty and she held the cell phone a little tighter.

      “Yes, I did.”

      “What for? Don’t you have confidence in me and my team to handle this situation?”

      Casey laughed. “Confidence? Of course I do, Catt. That has nothing to do with this. Hunter is your assistant. I feel this situation is potentially so big that you need someone who can act like a gopher for you. Go for this, go for that. You know?”

      Unhappily, Catt realized Casey did not know of their past with one another. Catt wasn’t about to mix personal business with her professional life, either. “I really don’t need him, Casey. That was decent of you to send him, but really, you can have him back. My team is all I need. There’s no way we can assess the Juma outbreak until we get in there. We’ve been delayed by an unexpected problem with the tug we originally hired. We’re in the process of rectifying it.”

      “If I know Hunter, he’s probably looking for a tugboat for you this very moment. He’s a very handy person to have around, Catt. Believe me. He’s got a lot of time in grade over in Africa and South America. He’s handled a lot of dicey, dangerous outbreak situations. Hell, he almost died of Congo fever a couple of years ago during one of them. No, this guy is a jack-of-all-trades and a master of all of them. He’s the one person you want at your back if things break the wrong way.”

      Catt nearly choked. Her lips parted and she almost told Casey she was dead wrong. Hunter was the last person to rely on in a tense situation. “So where did he pick up his knowledge of epidemics?”

      “He’s got a minor in biology. I’ve used him from time to time on other outbreaks with other teams when the situation was dangerous and the factors were unknown. He’s an excellent go-between in many ways, Catt. He speaks Portuguese and no one on your team does. If nothing else, he can serve as your interpreter. Let him work for you. If you need something done, ask him. He’ll fill in and get it happening. He’s a can-do kind of guy, and my gut intuition on this particular mission is that you need a person with his varied experience to assist you in ways your other team members can’t.”

      “I really don’t need him.”

      “Sorry, Catt, but you’ll come to be glad he’s with you. Just trust me on this call, okay?”

      “But you’ve never done this to me before, Casey. You’ve always trusted me to run my team in the past and get the job done.” Desperate, Catt closed her eyes. She had to get rid of Hunter. She just had to!

      “Look, Dr. Alborak! Look!”

      Half turning at the sound of Maria’s high-pitched, excited voice, Catt saw her lab assistant two hundred yards down the bank, pointing out toward the slow-moving, muddy river. Scowling, she muttered to Casey, “Hold on a sec….” Raising her head, she focused her gaze. Her heart dropped. And then it thudded violently. There, less than a quarter mile away, was a tugboat coming directly toward their dock. On the prow was Ty Hunter. Damn! He’d found a tug owner willing to take them downriver before her team could.

      Her breath ragged, she turned her back on Maria.

      “I can hear shouting in the background,” Casey said. “What’s going on?”

      “It’s Hunter,” Catt said unhappily. “He’s found us a tug.”

      “See?” Casey said primly. “He’s already broken the logjam on your situation down there at the dock. I tell you, Catt, he’s a very handy person to have around.”

      Catt realized that no matter what she said, what fight she put up, her boss was not going to let her get rid of Hunter. Disheartened, all the fire draining out of her voice, she said, “Okay, Casey, he’s a part of my team.”

      “Don’t sound so glum. You’re the boss, Catt. What you send him to do, he’ll do, no questions asked. Okay?”

      “Yeah, fine. Look, I’ll call in once we get to the Juma village and make an initial assessment, all right?”

      “Sure. Just be careful, Catt. You and your team are too important in all of this.”

      Catt pressed the off button and glumly walked to where