The Missing Runner (Magnetic Railway, #2) / Magnetic Railway (ePub)

Bruce McDill made the transition from scanner tech for the RAM Magna system to an officer in the RAM Magna Police force after taking part in the investigation of the death of his old friend,Davey Ferrazo. Now he is called upon to find out what happened to a runner who has disappeared from the North Platte Yard. All signs indicate that the runner was snatched and taken aboard the Ali Khal animal train, which criss-crosses the world providing animals to zoos throughout the world. Ali assists him and his fellow investigators and the kidnapper is tracked to China, where he is captured and the runner is freed.
The kidnapper turns out to be a former runner who used his knowledge of the railyards to facilitate his crime. He reveals that he intended to sell his victim to a criminal cabal to be used for labor in the mines of Midori in Kenya. The mines were believed abandonded, but have been re-opened at the behest of an outlaw known as 'The Duke' who has been running a bandit army for 40 years, since the end of the Third War.
Bruce and his partner Igor are called to Kenya to meet with Kenyan officials and officers of the British Army, who have pledged to maintain a presence in Kenya until The Duke is captured and brought to justice. They are recruited to go undercover in the Dukes mining operation, and after travelling to Germany to investigate similar kidnappings they are sold to one of the Duke's agents and taken to the mines, where they wait for the Duke to show himself. When the Duke finally arrives, they are able to notify the British and Kenyan forces, and the last battle with the Duke's army takes place in the jungle north of Midori. With the 15th Kenyan Army and the British approaching from the south and Chinese forces from the north, The Duke realizes he has come to an end and throws himself into the fray.
Once the Duke is eliminated, Bruce and his partner are taken to a Kenyan hospital to recover from wounds they've incurred and then travel to Poland for a ceremony commemorating the life of a prisoner from the mine who helped them escape to sound the alarm and did not survive. They later return to Kenya to receive medals from the British for their bravery, returning to their home base in Nebraska just in time for Christmas.