Black Ops 03 - Deadly Games Read Online Free PDF Page A

talk.” The blare of a horn distorted the man’s words.
    Once more he paused and replayed, to hear the horn.
Yes.
He’d spent enough time near the docks to recognize a ship’s horn. The man had been on or near water while they talked. Bangkok harbor? Probably not. Too obvious.
    He thumbed the PLAY button once more, bracing himself for what would come next. Maddy’s scream. So help him, whatever they’d done to her would be paid back tenfold.
    Inaudible words came across the speaker. Someone had been shouting while Maddy pleaded. Again he backed up the recording. Then he increased the volume, needing to hear those words.
    The sound of Maddy’s scream filled his living room. “Her screams will draw attention,” someone had shouted in Thai.
    At that same moment, Rocco’s front door flew open, as if kicked in by an angry giant. Swinging wide, the door smashed into the wall.
    Rocco jumped over the arm of the couch and took cover in the hall. Staying low, he peered around the corner, his Glock drawn and ready.
    Two men spilled into his living room, their hulking silhouettes backlit by the ambient light from outside. The men moved quickly, aware of theirstatus as targets. They had handguns drawn and were oddly … familiar.
    A third man slipped inside, his weapon drawn as well. Rocco recognized the tall newcomer’s broad shoulders. Travis Franks. The other men had to be his newly acquired “shadows.”
    “Travis! It’s me!” Rocco shouted.
    “Where’s Maddy!” Travis demanded. “We heard screams.”
    “She’s not here. It was a recording.” Rocco didn’t waste time.
Ten hours.
“Close the door. I’ll get alight on.”
    The overturned coffee table made the place look worse than usual in the harsh overhead light.
    Travis glanced around as if not believing Maddy wasn’t there. Then he moved straight for the recorder still lying on the couch next to Rocco’s cell phone. “You were listening to this?”
    At Rocco’s nod, Travis hit REWIND and PLAY.
    Maddy’s tremulous voice came across the speaker again. “Rocco?”
    He stared at his feet as Travis let the entire conversation play.
    “When did this come in?” Travis’s voice was heavy with censure.
    “Less than five minutes ago. It’s why I ignored your earlier call,” Rocco said. “Look, I was going to buzz you after I finished listening to the tape again.”
    “This”—clearly furious, Travis held up the recorder—“suggests you knew in advance to expect the call. Exactly how long have you been meaning to call me?”
    “It’s not what you’re thinking.” Rocco glanced at the two watchers who’d taken up positions next tothe door, uncertain how freely he could talk in front of them.
    While Travis had been largely incommunicado the last several days, Dante Johnson, Rocco’s coworker and closest friend at the Agency, had suggested Travis wasn’t happy to be hamstrung with the mysterious shadows whom Dante had jokingly dubbed Thing 1 and Thing 2.
    Whoever they were, Rocco didn’t like them any more than Travis did. Both “Things” were big guys and each packed a small armory beneath their identical black suits. Clearly they were more than overseers. And they definitely weren’t spooks. NSA perhaps? Or bodyguards?
    Travis nodded almost imperceptibly when Rocco frowned, indicating he should speak cautiously. Interesting. Given that the Things had already heard the recording, they now knew about as much as Rocco did.
    “I got an e-mail from Minh Tran this evening,” Rocco said. “It had been sent yesterday to my personal account but got flagged as spam.”
    “I want to see it. And anything else you have from Minh Tran.”
    Rocco retrieved his laptop from where he’d left it charging on the small dinette table. He tapped in his password, opened a browser, and retrieved the e-mail.
    Your eyes only. Call this number or your girlfriend dies.
     
    Travis read the message. “Jesus! Maddy was abducted because Tran thinks you two are still