Texas Tango: A Flint Rock Novel Read Online Free PDF

mind if he kissed her.   He would not have objected either.   But he knew that should wait.   Her appointment schedule demanded to be dealt with.
     
    Chapter 5
     
    As a surgeon worked on Bill Murphy's knee at San Leonardo Hospital on Europe Street in Naples, Flint nodded to the woman at the reception desk in the lobby of the Austonian.   He had already selected Zeta’s number in his   electronic address book.   While her phone rang, he watched chilled raindrops slide down the plate glass as he looked at Congress Avenue.
     
    “Flint.”
     
    “Zeta!   I can meet you now if you are available.”
     
    “Can you come here?   It’s at 5805 North Lamar.”  
     
    “Yes, I know the place.   Might take me half an hour.”   But traffic was light on Saturday morning, New Year's day .   Twenty minutes later, Flint parked at the single story facility that houses Texas Ranger headquarters.   Harry met him in the parking lot so he could keycard him into the building ..
     
    "Look at you!" Flint exclaimed upon seeing Zeta.   At 5' 4" she weighed 112 pounds.   She was wearing a knee length off white A-line skirt, tall cowgirl boots, a white blouse with a neck tab instead of a tie, a contrasting leather vest, and a light colored soft Stetson cowgirl hat.  
     
    "It's not her working uniform," Harry noted, "but it is unofficial Ranger attire for weddings, funerals, and group photos.   She and the other women Rangers normally wear slacks or jeans to work.   Every Ranger dresses as he or she chooses, but Stetson's and western boots are still common.   Zeta and I were at a New Year's party last night when the EMTs pulled you out of what was left of your car.   I got a few hours of sleep, but she came here when she left the party."  
     
    Zeta had only been on the job for three days.   Harry had filled her in on Ranger history and dos and don'ts.   She was a natural learner, an expert with firearms, thoroughly practiced in the Tang Soo Do tradition of martial arts—and she was the most intuitive computer genius in the United States and China combined.   At least that was Flint's opinion.
     
    "Hey Flint.   How about teaching me to fly?   Instrument ticket too.   The Texas Department of Public Safety won't pay for it though."
     
    "I'll teach you for free."
     
    "Okay, I'm ready now, but maybe we better take care of this thing with Dr. Milan.   What do you think of her?"
     
    "She strikes me as the real deal, an original—like you."
     
    Zeta offered Flint coffee and a chair in a room used for interrogation of suspects.   Harry sat also and spoke.   "I know a CIA agent in Italy named Bill Murphy.   Murphy called me from a Naples hospital a few minutes before you got here.   An informant of his has been killed and Murphy thinks it was connected to Ava Milan's situation."
     
    "Did he say what the connection was?"
     
    "No.   I'm not sure whether he doesn't know or isn't saying."
     
    Flint pulled out the sheets of paper containing names that Ava had supplied and explained what they were.   Zeta walked to her desk, typed them into a program she had developed for quickly searching data bases to build accurate profiles of individuals.   Her software was a refinement of what some internet based social networks had developed to sell individual personality profiles to advertisers.
     
    While Zeta was at her desk, Harry filled Flint in on what he had learned from Murphy about the Mafioso's mother ,   Gina Francesca Lezioni.   He also commented on his friend Murphy's competence and reliability which he admired.   By the time Zeta came back after being gone slightly more than twenty minutes, the two men were reminiscing about how they had met in Marine Corps officer basic.   From there Flint had gone to flight training and Harry had become an intelligence specialist before he left the Marines and became a Texas Ranger.   Flint and Murphy were the right vintage to have met in the Marines but their paths had