Zack (In the Company of Snipers Book 3) (7 page)

“Sure, mister. Pumpkin pie, coming right up.” She beamed at the generous tip.

“Well, shucks now.” Marty smiled a crooked grin, for the moment just a mischievous old man, up to no good and proud of it. “Ya didn’t have to do all this.”

Zack stood to leave. “It was my privilege, Marty. You’re my friend and friends take care of each other. I’ll be waiting to hear from you. You be sure and call.”

Marty was already licking his lower lip like a kid at the Thanksgiving table as he pulled the fresh plate of pie toward him. Zack left him with a fork full of pumpkin and whipped cream in his mouth and a gleam of contentment in his eye. As the diner door clanged shut, he glanced back at the man who’d saved little Zhen Ting’s life. Marty would be chasing after a bottle before the day was done, but for one night and to one little girl, he would always be a hero.

Zack shivered as he hit the remote to unlock his pricey ride. The sleek black horses reminded him once again that he had it all, while right behind him sat a man who had nothing. Hopefully, Marty would notice the almost brand new leather bomber jacket now hanging on the back of his chair. It might be a little large for the old fart, but Zack hoped he’d at least get one night’s warmth out of it. A hero deserved a helluva lot more.

Mei searched online for The TEAM, looking for a way inside. Surely it listed job openings and maybe an online job application, at least something to get her inside the fancy building in Alexandria long enough to steal an ID badge, or whatever they used. The well-designed homepage flashed onto her screen in brilliant red, white, and blue.

The TEAM

Covert Surveillance

Owner and CEO

Alexander B. Stewart

Ex-Marine Corps Scout Sniper

Symbols of every branch of the military lined the banner at the bottom of the screen. There was no ‘about me’ page, no links for further information, no tabs for FAQs, and no Facebook, Twitter, or other social network icons. Only two phone numbers, one east coast, the other on the west coast, graced the site. She groaned at what the lack of information undoubtedly meant. Alexander B. Stewart didn’t need to advertise. His clients knew him. And he wasn’t hiring.

Try as she might, she could not get past The TEAM’s firewall either. Her hacking skills were weak at best, but one failed attempt after another made two things crystal clear. The business could afford an excellent computer programmer, and maybe it wasn’t such a fly-by-night outfit after all. It had to be involved with counter-intelligence somehow. The design of their home page said as much. They were too good. Too secure.

“What am I going to do?” She pushed away from her kitchen table, angry at that Zack Lennox guy all over again. What did he have to worry about anyway, with his leather bomber jacket and Ray-Bans perched on top of his shaved head like some preppie college boy? He was another privileged kid whose parents probably paid his way; a guy who didn’t have a clue when it came to what really mattered in life.
The jerk.

But...he had rescued the third little girl. He’d risked his life to steal her away from those gangsters. As much as she wanted to dislike Agent Lennox, she couldn’t. Not completely. Her feelings confused her.
Why do I hate him? I was so rude. Why couldn’t I at least have been polite?

The succinct information on the website tantalized. “You guys know something,” Mei muttered to herself. “I know you do. You can get into the ME’s office. You’re rich. You’re–men.”

Hopelessness dragged its long black fingernails across her weary shoulder blades. Time was running out. She had to get into their office. It was just a matter of how.

Coffee brewing already? The familiar aroma energized as much as it concerned Zack. If Mr. Coffee was already on and brewing, that meant—

“You got anything yet?”

That meant Alex had worked all night after a long cross-country flight. Barely at his desk, Zack turned to face his over-the-top, flaming type-A, and very hyper boss. Not a good way to start what already promised to be a busy day.

“Morning. Went back to the hospital yesterday to see how she’s doing, and—”

“How is she?”

“She might be released today if—”

“You found her parents yet?”

Zack shook his head. “Not yet, but—”

“Where’s David?”

Zack sighed. There was no sense talking. Alex had too much caffeine in his system to shut up long enough to listen.

“Here, Boss.” Thank goodness David had come in early. “Mind if we meet in the Sit Room?”

Alex didn’t answer, just turned on his heel and marched straight to the Situation Room.

“Watch out,” Zack muttered out the side of his mouth. “He’s already wired.”

David nodded in agreement. “I called his house. Kelsey said he hasn’t been home yet.”

“Figures.”

His hard-charging boss could be a pain in the ass. How did his sweet wife put up with him? As quick as the conference door shut, Alex hit the floor running. As usual, he positioned himself across from them.

“Let’s get something straight. My first concern is our little girl. She’s our primary mission here. How is she?”

David took the lead, so Zack let him. Alex and he were the concept of yin and yang personified; one’s calm balancing the other’s lack of it. “Physically, she’s okay. Her name is Chai Yenn. She’s eating, and she’s safe. The hospital released her late yesterday. She’s at Child Services until they can place her with a foster family, which could be as early as today.”

“But?” Alex leaned forward, his fingers drumming the tabletop.

“I know it’s out of our control, Alex, it’s just that—”

“She’s not happy, huh?” Alex asked, his intensity more and more annoying. “You’re right. It’s out of our influence. What else?”

David took a measured breath and began again. “There have been two other Chinese girls found in the same area. One was pulled from a dumpster, the other drowned in the river.”

“Where?”

“Near the Eleventh Street Bridge along the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail.”

“Let me get this straight.” Alex stilled. “Three, and they’re all Chinese girls? How old?”

“We have two five- or six-year-olds in protective custody–Chai Yenn and Zhen Ting. The child in the county morgue was maybe two.”

Zack straightened his back. He recognized the look. The caffeine buzz was gone. The predator in Alex had just shown up for work.

“Those are babies,” he hissed.

“Yes,” David agreed. “Another thing. I checked with the Medical Examiner’s office. All of these girls have been marked with a tattoo.”

“A black dragon tattoo,” Zack added.

“Where?”

David pointed to the backside of his bicep. “I researched that specific design. The tattoo signifies a child trafficking ring in Mainland China. Have you ever heard of Lenny Huang?”

Alex clenched his jaw. “I’ve heard of him. He runs the Black Dragon Syndicate. You’re sure the tattoo is his mark?”

“Yes, but that’s not all.” David slid a CD across the table to Alex. “In my internet searches for Mr. Huang and his syndicate, I came across an online video game called Black Dragon Conquest. The object of the game is to smuggle children from various Chinese ports and then sell them to international locations around the world, including Washington D.C. and New York City. The younger the child, the greater the risk, and the higher the player’s score.”

Zack shook his head in disbelief. David had been busy.

“I walked through the game as far as I could,” he said. “In fact, I’ve spent most of the night on it. The challenges include imaginary beasts, law enforcement demons, mazes, caves, and natural disasters.” David swallowed hard. “The worst challenge is called the Monsters of all Monsters. The
MOM.
She’s depicted as a terrible beast with five heads that eats the children alive if they escape. It’s a graphic, bloody game.”

“The bastard’s set up a child trafficking ring right here in D.C.,” Alex muttered, his voice hard. “Right here in my neighborhood.”

“I still don’t know what the color-coding means, but I found green and red dragons, too. If we’ve got three children with the black dragon tattoos, there are a lot more little girls in trouble.”

“What do you think the colors mean?” Zack asked.

“I honestly don’t know,” David admitted grimly. “They might designate the country these girls came from, or where they’re going. It might mean rating or pricing. I’m just guessing.”

“The game may not be connected to Lenny Huang at all,” Alex said.

Zack’s gut clenched. No. Alex didn’t believe it either. The game was no coincidence, not since they’d found the girls at the same time. His gut told him true. Alex was right the first time. A syndicate boss from a world away had opened a despicable business on the east coast.

“I need to decipher the game,” David said. “Perhaps there are clues I’m not seeing. Can you spare Mother or Ember?”

“You bet,” Alex said quickly. “Todd can help, too. He’s sharp with computers.”

Zack turned to Alex. “How do you know Lenny Huang? I don’t recall any ops involving him before.”

“Interpol sent a report on him just yesterday,” Alex said. “He’s ruthless and extremely powerful. They’ve been watching him for years. What do you have, Zack?”

Zack cringed. It was hard for an over-achiever like him to have hit so many dead ends, especially when David had found so much. He pulled the puny evidence bag from his pocket. “Not much. The old guy who found Zhen Ting gave this to me. Not sure it’s worth anything. He said she had it in her fist when he pulled her out of the dumpster. Could be a piece of trash for all I know.”

Alex grimaced at the single, black button. “This is all? A button? Nothing from your CIs?”

“Not yet. None of my informants have heard a thing.”

“Which only means this kind of business hasn’t touched them yet,” David said. “Most people wouldn’t recognize human trafficking if they saw it.”

Alex called over the intercom for Mother to join them. She joined them at the table with her cup of coffee, taking the chair at the head of the table at Alex’s right.

“Morning, Boss. Whatcha need?”

He handed her the CD. “I want you and Ember to dig into this game. Find out everything you can, highest scoring users, who created this piece of crap, everything. Zack has something, too.” Alex held out the evidence bag. “What can you do with this?”

She took it, her nose wrinkled like she could barely see the tiny button. “What is it? Oh. Sure. I’ll take care of it. I know a guy. Get back to you as soon as I know where it’s been. Umm, Boss?”

“What?”

The atmosphere in the room shifted. Zack swore he could feel Alex’s hackles rise. Mother always walked a fine line with the boss. As good as she was, she seemed to push his buttons without even trying. She was by nature a collector of other people’s personal information, a huge off-limits zone for him she never seemed to appreciate. Or respect.

She kept on going. “I’ve been in your office.”

“So?”

“Well, so.” She glanced at Zack and David for emotional support–or something. Zack leaned into his chair, offering nothing but observation to what might be an entertaining morning after all. “You have reports all over your desk. They’re all from old operations. I coordinated them with you. What are you doing in there?”

Alex pushed away from the table, staring at his nosy techie. “What do you think I’m doing?” he asked icily.

“I don’t know. At first, I kinda thought you were using those paper copies to prepare for the Senate investigation. You’re all holed up in here with your door closed. Looks like you’re studying for a bar exam. The place is a mess.”

“Is everyone worried, or just you?”

“Well, that’s what I’d be worrying about but, umm, am I worrying for nothing?” Her voice changed from smug to downright nosy. “Then whatcha doing in there, Boss? You been working all night again, haven’t you?”

Zack pushed back from the table.
Here it comes. Watch out.

“Do you recall our first black op into China a couple years ago?” Alex asked quietly.

“Sure do. You sent Murphy, Roy, and Mark. Roy got dysentery so bad he had to come home early. I never thought a black man could look so white.”

“That’s the one,” Alex replied. “I need the name of the kid they ran into in Beijing. He wasn’t part of the operation, but the discovery of Chai Yenn got me thinking, especially with the Interpol alert on Lenny Huang. Didn’t that kid have something to do with an adoption agency in Mainland China?”

Mother stared for a few seconds. She paused, blinked a few times, and continued. “Tony Brown. His name was Tony Brown. He was a tall, skinny kid. Looked like he should’ve played for the NBA. Mark got a bunch of pictures of him.”

Alex sighed. “I knew you’d come up with it.”

“Oh yeah.” Mother had her smug on now. “He went over there with his parents on some kind of a mission. Let me think. It was either UNICEF or Save the Children.” She stirred her coffee. “No. Now that I think about it, he was there as an envoy for Charity Adoption Services. He and his parents went from orphanage to orphanage to set up arrangements between the United States and China so Americans could more easily adopt Chinese orphans. The only problem was they couldn’t get enough little boys to make it work. Plus, they ran into a few diplomatic snags. You know how it is working with China.”

Zack’s mind instantly caught what Mother had not said. If they couldn’t get enough boys, did that mean there were too many girls in China, the only country on earth known for its one child law, where parents were known to favor sons? His gut was talking to him again, pouring acid into the dilemma of all those unwanted baby girls. Was that how Chai Yenn fit into the picture? Was she part of some bizarre adoption scheme gone wrong? Was she one of those throwaway babies?

“Are you thinking Tony Brown and Lenny Huang are connected?” Zack asked.

“I don’t know.” Alex shifted in his seat to face Zack. “But Tony Brown was in the meeting yesterday. He works for Kevin Carducci.”

“The ATF Director?” Zack hadn’t seen that one coming. There was no such thing as coincidence. Stars only lined up when they were meant to. What was going on?

Alex turned back to Mother. “Find Mr. Brown’s itinerary. I want to know who he talked to, their current location, and a good contact number for them. I don’t want the people he said he talked to, though. He probably doctored the information he reported to the State Department when he got home. Whatever you do, do not contact Mr. Brown. Understood?”