Zack (In the Company of Snipers Book 3) Read Online Free PDF

places she could not–the county morgue, the emergency room, hospitals, and even the D. C. main police precinct. She’d gotten creative then and fashioned badges and official-looking ID cards for other federal agencies. Too soon another call came. Anacostia. An old man claimed he’d found a child in a garbage receptacle. A little girl. Drugged. Nearly dead.
    Mei became an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Officer then. No one at the emergency room questioned when she flashed her phony ICE badge. The nurse led her straight to Claire Langley, the Family Services child advocate assigned to these desperate cases. A plump woman with silver hair, Claire liked to talk, so Mei learned of the comprehensive FBI database for missing children.
    “That’s two babies in one week,” Claire lamented to the young police officer who’d accompanied the little girl into the ER. Mei feigned an important cell phone call and stepped into the hall, not willing to face the scrutiny of law enforcement.
    “Yes, and they’re both Chinese.” He pulled up a chair to sit with Claire in the waiting room, barely glancing in Mei’s direction.
    “The two-year-old too?” Claire had asked. “The one you found in the river? She was Chinese?”
    He’d nodded somberly. “Some of us down at the precinct are thinking there’s a child trafficking ring in the area. Looks like it might be straight out of China.”
    Hope raised its paralyzed head for the first time in days at the startling news. Mei had not known the ethnicity of the first tiny corpse. Suddenly, everything made sense. That’s who had kidnapped LiLi. It had to be. LiLi was American Chinese. Mei listened intently.
    He sounded so sincere when he said, “It makes me sick.”
    Yes, but not sick enough to help me find my daughter.
    The dark night let loose the first of a late autumn rain, jolting Mei out of her depressing reverie and chilling her soul. She turned her car on and cranked the heater to high. The last time she’d seen her daughter was a sunny day, too warm for even a light jacket. Mei shivered. Wherever she was, LiLi might be cold. Or worse.

FOUR
    “I asked if you heard me.”
    The bellowing voice had to be Kevin Carducci’s, as in ATF Director Carducci, the man who’d organized the operation Zack had just bungled. He slipped by the barely open Situation Room door, hoping no one noticed. The last place he wanted to be was where his boss now waged war. Zack had to be in Alex’s office by the end of the nasty meeting, where he fully expected he’d get his ass reamed before he got fired. It wouldn’t be a pleasant meeting, but this one was much worse.
    Everyone knew by now. The whole team. He was a screw up. It wouldn’t be so bad, but he really loved his job. Working for Alex Stewart could be a tough row to hoe, but he’d never felt more alive and fulfilled. Heck, most times he didn’t even have to use his weapon. Zack bit his lip and clenched his gut. Way to go, Lennox.
    “I stand by my agent.” Judging by the level of volume from the Sit Room, Alex was giving as good as he got, his voice hard as steel.
    “I’m not asking if you stand by your agent. I don’t care if you think they all walk on water. I’m asking if we have an understanding.” Carducci again. Loud. Rude. Arrogant.
    Zack grimaced. At least Alex defended him–for now.
    “No, sir, we do not.”
    “Be careful, Stewart. Small time players have no business in a high stakes game. I can make your life very miserable.”
    Zack cringed. Big mistake, Carducci. No one bullies Alex. A chair scraped. Had to be the boss. If he was on his feet, that meant—
    “For the last time. I stand by my agents,” Alex snarled.
    You tell ’em, Boss.
    “Then we’re done here,” Director Carducci snapped.
    “No, sir, you’re done here. You’ll get no apology from me.” Alex had the nastiest tone when he was pushed too far. Apparently, Carducci didn’t know.
    “That’s not mitigation, you arrogant