Cian

Cian and Saxon’s meeting in the heart of the Amazon is more than an encounter of two people; it’s the coming together of two different worlds. Their explorations and adventures take them deep into the rain forest, then halfway around the globe in search of a peaceful place to settle down. But instead of finding peace, their shared sense of justice finds them traveling from Europe to New York, then back to Brazil, where they must confront the evil network of the ambitious and heartless Oxana, who will stop at nothing to advance her trade in endangered animals, as well as women and little girls.

Excerpt from Chapter One

I came to a timber and sand wharf extending out into the river. It was deserted except for one person sitting at the end. I dropped my empty paper cup into a trash barrel and walked out along the dock. Perhaps I could ask about the fishing and get a little information.

When I stopped beside the sitting figure, the young lady took me in with a quick look from my scuffed leather boots up my khaki trousers and shirt to my weathered Panama hat. Her eyes hesitated on my old Zippo cigarette lighter tucked into the sweatband of the hat. She turned her attention back to the water, obviously unimpressed.

She was bare above the waist except for an amulet hanging from a leather string around her neck. I tilted my head for a better look.

“Is that an IBM modem?”

Her eyes narrowed on me as if I’d said something improper. A length of damask cloth served as her skirt, and she sat with one knee raised, resting her foot on the planks of the dock. Her other leg, roughly hewn from a length of mahogany, dangled in the muddy water.

She ignored me and pulled a struggling rat from a burlap bag, then tossed the gray rodent to the piranhas. Her expression was cold, as if she didn’t care which creature ate the other, as long as one of them was devoured.

Her modem wasn’t the primitive sluggish type one would expect to find in the wilderness, but a modern device designed for rapid communications; the width of a pack of Juicy Fruit gum and as thin as a woman’s ring finger. ‘IBM’ was printed on the side, followed by ‘USB’; probably from a notebook computer, and it was of recent manufacture. A length of braided leather ran through a hole punched in one corner, and fleecy triangles made from animal hair padded the corners, protecting the softest part of her body.

Too bad about that hole in the modem.

It might have worked in the notebook computer I planned to buy for Kaitlin after our voyage back to Lisbon. That computer was going to be a big help to my sister in organizing the data she collected.