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Dean Wesley Smith The Rundown
Pocket Star 20030901 0743480945 / 9780743480949 MM Very Good
0743480945 0743480945 Product Description BLOOD AND GOLD! Deep in the heart of the Amazon jungle, far from the constraints of civilization, the wild and lawless town of Helldorado attracts only the most daring of visitors -- and the most foolhardy. When Travis, the son of an underworld kingpin, disappears in the Amazon in search of a priceless artifact, Beck, the Kingpin's retrieval expert, is sent to get him. Despite their hostility -- and their love for the same woman -- the two must eventually join forces to fight the evil head of a gold-mining corporation who is after the same treasure. But the jungle holds many dangers, as does the greed of Helldorado's ruthless inhabitants. Will Beck find treasure at the end of his perilous quest -- or only a swift and brutal death? Excerpt. ? Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Chapter One Beck turned his pickup truck onto the long, palm-lined boulevard. Expensive cars lined the curbs for blocks, signaling to anyone driving on the four-lane Los Angeles street that there was something nearby that was important to the rich and trendy. In this case, it was a nightclub, the place to be this week for the in-crowd of Hollywood and the rest of the Southern California area. Next week, Beck was sure, it would be a different club, on a different street. It always was. For him, the names of the clubs blended together into a blur, and he hadn't bothered to learn the name of this place any more than the others. Couples and small groups of people stood along the sidewalk, sometimes leaning against their cars, as if being close to the club was enough. More than likely none of them had the clout, or the money, to get in. To Beck, there was nothing more pathetic than a wanna-be trendy. The high palm trees and the orange streetlights gave the entire area along the boulevard the feeling of being on a stage, and the low night haze and smog blocked out any chance of seeing the night sky, creating even more of a closed-in feeling. Hundreds of life dramas played out on this street, in this club, and along the sidewalks. Tonight Beck was going to be a player in one of those acts, even though the main actor named Knappmiller didn't yet know Beck was even coming. And more than likely Knappmiller wasn't going to like having the starring role. The area around the front door of the club looked a lot like a mob scene jammed into the middle of a stage. This wasn't a normal mob with its high-fashion clothes and trendy looks. This mob didn't rebel against any police, only the guards at the doors as the flashes of paparazzi cameras cut the night air like faint bursts of lightning, freezing moments in time in bright, white light. Beck knew the club well, including the layout, the main man at the door, and the owner. It wasn't a place he would ever go on his own time, but tonight wasn't his own time. Tonight he had a job to do. Beck's older-model pickup looked clearly out of place driving past the rows of Porsches, Jags, and Mercedes. And he had counted on that. No one in this crowd would even dare to give him a second look as he went by, his driver's window open, letting in the thick evening air. On the pickup's radio, Beck had been listening to a cooking show as he worked his way across town, and he half-wanted to stop and park and wait on the job until the show was over, but he knew that wasn't a good idea. Not now, not this close to the club, and not with Rudy waiting. "Welcome back to Food Radio," the radio host said as the ad for an impotency drug ended. "We're talking with Chef Gilberto Oso about his famous ricotta ravioli." Beck snorted. He could make better ravioli than Gilberto, but somehow this guy had made a name for himself. Beck had tried the man's ravioli twice and couldn't put his finger on the trick to his recipe. It clearly had a strange aftertaste to it that Beck wasn't sure he liked. As the chef rambled on, Beck quickly scanned the crowd at the club entrance as he drove past, seeing no one that worried him. Rudy, one of the waiters in the club, had called him when Knappmi
Price:
1.69 USD
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