Margaret Mingay

Outback Conflict Margaret Mingay

Mick Mathews has enviable outback skills, and when international criminals invade his personal space, it forces him to outwit nefarious, highly trained drug runners. Alexandra Beaumont, a university biology student, drives to Pilbara in Western Australia to study unique flora and fauna. Alex finds out all too soon that the outback is not for the fainthearted. Initially, Mick and she collide. Mick sees Alex as a potential hazard, a worrying liability. However, Alex has some unique skills of her own, which Mick begins to admire. Together, they use their combined expertise to thwart six hardened and sadistic killers intent on making millions of dollars out of illegally imported heroin. Helped by Mick's red dog-Bess, a well-trained dingo cross-Mick and Alex have further advantage as Bess has the wild dog instincts no man can ever possess. A flooded river, capture, torture, and bitter fighting to endure-all seems impossible to overcome. However, with ingenuity, outback skills, and masterful maneuverability, Mick and Alex begin their reluctant fight for survival. During a brief interlude, they have a welcome reprieve, a blissful night spent on top of an escarpment where they bathe with warm water from a shallow gnamma hole. After capturing two of the brutal thugs and imprisoning them in a large gnamma hole, Mick, Alex, and Bess head for the abandoned airstrip where the remaining drug runners await the plane's arrival with its illicit cargo. Mick disables the plane, renders their vehicles out of action, and wounds two criminals. Alex is captured. Mick and Bess free her. After a deadly fight with the remaining two thugs, they capture and incarcerate them with their fellow criminals and radio the authorities. Mick and Alex are rewarded by the government and have found love in the most unlikely place-the rugged Australian outback.