"Congratulations." Alex didn"t miss a beat. "Chai Yenn is a lucky little girl. I"m glad you and Nancy have her."
Me, too. Zack nodded toward David, a man"s unspoken approval. David understood. That"s why he was senior agent.
Alex turned to Mother. "Tell me about Tony Brown."
Here we go.
Mother didn"t need prompting to continue. A good manager knows how his people think, and Alex knew talking was her therapy. Who didn"t know that?
A light flickered in Mother"s blue eyes. "Remember the b.u.t.ton Zack found?"
"I do."
"Okay, so I checked the list of customers at the shop in Paris, and Tony Brown was on the list all right. Only the suit he ordered was a forty-eight regular, and Mr. Brown wears, umm, sorry, wore a thirty-six long."
Zack turned away. Too soon those knowing blue eyes of his boss would catch him in their beam. He wasn"t ready.
"So then I checked a couple other things," Mother rattled on. "Do you know why he was in Paris in the first place?" She didn"t give Alex time to answer. "Well, I"ll tell you why. Tony Brown was on ATF business with his boss, Director Carducci. You want to know who wears a forty-eight regular?"
"Carducci." Again Alex"s voice was incredibly calm.
"Right. So I got to thinking. If the little girl from the dumpster had a b.u.t.ton from Carducci"s suit in her hand, he must"ve had a hold of her right before she was dumped, don"t you think?"
"Whose skin cells besides Zhen Ting"s were on the b.u.t.ton?" Alex asked patiently.
"Still don"t know, but the spectra-a.n.a.lysis proved that person is diabetic. And do you want to know who"s diabetic?"
"Carducci?"
"Right again." Mother didn"t crow like she usually did when she impressed her boss, but Zack could tell she was pleased. She had a way of radiating when she was right. An annoying way....
"Good job."
"But there"s more."
"Okay, what else?" Alex was infinitely kind today.
Zack understood. Really, he did. He"d been in this exact situation too many times in the past. The most important thing everyone needed was to acknowledge their grief and their strength. It made sense. The only way forward was through. Zack just wasn"t ready to go through. Not yet. He had work to do.
"I"ve been checking on Tony Brown. You"re right. He was on the mission to China with his parents, but I got to thinking." Mother was on a roll now. "He didn"t seem like the kind of kid to get involved in child trafficking. I mean, one minute he was trying to help the orphans in China, and the next minute he smuggled babies? It didn"t feel right, so I ran his cell phone records again. He only called Richards one time while he was in China. You want to know who called Richards a couple times a week during the same time frame?"
Alex raised an eyebrow. "Carducci again?"
Mother nodded.
"Did I tell you I don"t pay you enough?"
Now you"re just sucking up, Boss. Zack drummed his fingers together. Much more of the mutual admiration society BS, and he"d have to ask to be excused.
Alex put a hand on Murphy"s shoulder. "How"s the van coming, Murph?"
The older man looked tired as he spread a diagram in front of Alex. That piqued Zack"s interest. "Found this inside the backdoor. I had a hunch before, but now I know how the little gizmo works. Look at this little arm right here. It"s an aperture that springs the latch. It"s remote operated. It proves someone wanted our guys to see the door pop open at that exact moment. Zack and David were set up. Chai Yenn was bait."
"Do we know who triggered it?" Alex asked.
"Well now, that"s tricky. It"s triggered by a cell phone signal, so I asked Mother to track all the cell towers within the area of Espinosa"s hangout. Looks like David and Zack had company that day."
Zack straightened in his seat. What sonofab.i.t.c.h did that?
Murphy slid an eight-by-ten photo across the table. Zack craned his neck to see. It showed the plate gla.s.s window of a storefront a couple doors down from the Espinosa hangout. A black Lincoln sedan reflected in the window. Zack leaned closer. This windshield he could see into. There was a man at the wheel of the vehicle holding a cell phone up to his face.
"Looks like Carducci needs reading gla.s.ses," Alex commented drily. "Anything else?"
Carducci? The b.a.s.t.a.r.d who wanted me fired? Zack"s blood began to boil. Now he knew where he was going after this meeting.
Murphy continued. "The FBI wants to talk with you about Shawn Washington, you know, the g.a.n.g.b.a.n.ger who killed Todd. Washington claims he"s got a big fish on the hook. He wants immunity first. The FBI wants you there when he talks."
"Immunity for the punk who killed one of my agents?" Alex shook his head. "I don"t think so. Tell them no deal. We"ve got enough evidence to put Carducci away with Washington and Richards as it is."
Murphy pushed back from the table. "One last thing. Remember all those furs that came out of the van?"
"Yeah. What about them?"
"Metro PD tracked them to an estate sale in Vermont. An elderly gentleman left an estate of antiques, furs, even a vintage Morgan-"
"He got a name, Murph?" Alex gently interrupted Murphy"s rambling.
"Valentine. As in Sophia Valentine, Carducci"s wife. Her father pa.s.sed last spring. Those furs were from his estate."
"It doesn"t make sense." Alex straightened in his chair. "Why would Carducci dump furs on Espinosa?"
"h.e.l.l, I don"t know, Alex. Could be a payoff. Furs are easy enough to move." Murphy"s voice betrayed his weariness of the whole affair. Zack agreed. There were so many angles to the operation it was hard to know who was doing what to whom.
"Thanks, Murph. You"ve always got my back." Alex was saying all the right words. Zack had to give him credit. The man knew his team.
The door cracked open and an ashen-faced Ember walked in. Instead of sitting at the table with everyone else, she took a seat by the door. Zack bit his lip. Dressed in an all black and very tight fitting pants suit, she"d chosen to hide her eyes behind dark gla.s.ses. He should"ve thought of that. A pair of Oakleys would provide the wall he needed.
Alex swiveled his chair to face her, his hands on his knees. "Ember. You didn"t have to come in today. Why are you here?"
She didn"t speak, just faced him behind the shades.
"Say your piece, but then I want you to go home," he said gently.
Ember had dyed her pretty blonde hair black, a harsh contrast against her pale skin. She raised her chin and handed Alex a sheet of paper. "I"ve got the Cayman Islands for you, Alex."
Zack detected a definite note of coup de grce in her soft, sad voice.
"ATF Director Kevin Carducci has seventy-two million dollars in various bank accounts in the Caymans. They all track back to a single point of origin." Her voice quavered, breaking Zack"s heart all over again.
"Whose?" Alex asked.
"Interpol"s most wanted man on the planet. Mr. Lenny Huang. He"s behind the Black Dragon syndicate."
"I know who he is." Alex watched Ember. "Are you okay, kiddo?"
She looked away and Zack wanted to go to her, muss her hair, hold her and let her cry. It just wasn"t his place. It was Todd"s.
Alex laid the report on the table in front of him and looked around at his team, slowly making eye contact with those who could. When he"d made the complete circle, he looked down at his hands, still splayed on the paper Ember had given him.
"I know how much this particular operation meant to all of us, but we"re not going to pursue the China connection any longer. D.C. Interpol Director, Mr. Daniel Peters called yesterday. Told me to b.u.t.t out."
David opened his mouth to protest, but Alex held his hand for silence. "It"s all good. We"ll b.u.t.t out. It"s their op. Let them bring the b.a.s.t.a.r.d, Lenny Huang, down. Guess they"ll call if they need us. In the meantime, we"ll take care of Carducci. And when we"re done with him, maybe we"ll go after Debargio, Espinoza, and the 4th Street gang, too."
Zack"s hands were instantly on his armrests, ready to push off. As difficult as it was to get on with the business of living, that"s exactly what everyone would do, simply because that"s all there was to do. That was life.
Alex caught Zack"s eagerness to leave. "You"re another one who shouldn"t be here."
Zack steeled his face and offered nothing back.
"Why are you?"
"I have to do something," Zack ground out, his heart clenched as tight as his fists.
"You can"t bring him back."
But I can make someone pay.
"What about Mei"s daughter?" Zack barked. It was either bark or fall apart.
"Go home, son." Alex"s words were soft and sad. "Trust me. I haven"t forgotten LiLi, but I can"t lose you, too."
Steel doesn"t cry, but it does choke up when someone hits below the belt. Mother sniffed into her tissues. Ember coughed a tight little cough, her hand to her mouth, and Zack wished like h.e.l.l he were the one lying six feet under at Arlington. It should have been him who"d gotten shot. Not Todd.
"We do an ugly and a d.a.m.ned tough job in the world," Alex said. "Sometimes we take a beating while we"re doing it. We"re branded a.s.sa.s.sins and mercenaries. We get investigated, and most times we get hung out to dry by a federal government that wants to look good without really being good. It"s been a h.e.l.luva week. We"ve lost a brother and a friend."
He seemed to struggle for his next words. "It"s not easy. It sucks. And it hurts. You all know the Marine Corps motto is Semper FiAlways Faithful. I"d like to think that"s how we"ll finish this op. We"ll be ever faithful to our country, always to each other, but especially to our own fallen friend and brother. Todd Chandler was a d.a.m.ned good man."
Zack felt the mood in the room shift, just the tiniest fraction. d.a.m.ned if Alex hadn"t done it again, made a course correction so small as to be almost imperceptible. The man looked sad, but proud. How does he do it? Zack straightened his shoulders ready to follow his boss into whatever h.e.l.l he aimed to go.
"Let"s finish what we started," Alex spat out his last words. "Get this sonofab.i.t.c.h."
TWENTY-FIVE.
"Come here, little one."
Mei gathered Song out of Zack"s arms and settled the sleeping baby back into the crib. Again. The little girl ended up with him in his bed at least once or twice every night. All Song had to do was make the smallest peep and he was at her beck and call. It was sweet in a way. He tried to be quiet, tiptoeing into Mei"s room so he didn"t disturb her. She"d lie there and listen while he got the baby a drink, talking quiet baby talk to a child who had yet to make more than a quiet coo once in awhile. He"d snuggle with Song until they both fell back to sleep. Mei would give them enough time before she"d reverse the scene; tiptoe into Zack"s room and return Song to her own bed.
Mei stood at her bedroom window, thinking. When Alex had first sent Zack home from work, he"d been angry. As beat up as he was, Zack wanted to be with his team. Mei understood. Not being able to change the tragedies in life was a bitter reality, but spending time with her and Song mellowed him out. He"d chatted with Rory and Connor. That helped, too.
The hard day came back to her. She"d been in awe knowing that Zack, Todd, and Ember stood in harm"s way, protecting her and Baby Song without hesitation. Ironically, Todd had been right when he"d said Zack was ready to die protecting her. Zack was, only it was Todd who"d ended up fulfilling the prophecy. The look in Zack"s eyes when he"d retrieved her from the safe room was shattering. She knew without a word something terrible had happened.
The fierce bond of warriors knotted Zack to Alex to David and then to their fallen comrade that morning. Like a chain forged in fire, no words were needed as they"d knelt around Todd and watched the medics do their work. The bond was so real Mei could almost reach out and touch it. They called it brotherhood, and those brothers loved their brokenhearted sister like no one else could. Ember"s grief still sliced to the core of Mei"s heart. As awful as it was not knowing where LiLi was, she still had hope to cling to. Poor Ember had nothing.
The wind whipped against her window. December had come with a great blizzard that brought the nation"s capital to a swift and icy standstill. There was no wind with the storm, just snow piled quickly into a thick, icy blanket covering everything. The landscape had changed into white lumps that used to be cars, narrow paths that once were sidewalks, and streets meandering between mounds of plowed and shoveled polar precipitation.
This was the season when people stayed inside their heated homes and made merry, but Mei"s heart was cast out into the world, wandering the snowy streets and worrying after her stolen daughter. There were no colored lights in the strange new hotel room. She had no time for merriment.
It was during quiet times that despair crept into her heart. Her arms missed the feel of LiLi"s warm little girl body hugged up against her in quiet slumber. Her lips longed to speak nursery rhymes, to sing songs, and taste chocolate milk and maple syrup kisses. Her nostrils yearned for the smell of her child"s minty toothpaste breath and lavender scented baby shampoo. Mei ached for each touch, sound, and sight of her stolen child.
As thankful as she was to bring Baby Song into her life, the knowledge that this child was safe and sound only emphasized the fact that her child was not. Where was LiLi now the days were cold and winter so deep? Was she safe and warm somewhere? Did she have enough to eat? Was she sick? Was she clean? Were the people who had her kind and decent, or did she cry herself to sleep at night because she was afraid? Please G.o.d, was LiLi even alive? Mei blocked the pain and tears before they took over. Despair came too easily. She refused it yet again. She"d cry after she had LiLi back in her arms.
Turning at the sound of Zack"s bedroom door quietly closing, she watched him enter her room. His eyes instantly strayed to Song"s bed.
"You took my baby," he whispered.
"She needs to be in her own bed."
"I know." He came to her side. "I just like to snuggle with my girls."
The transformation in him touched her. From the moment he"d picked Song up out of the dirty playpen, he had revealed an amazing heart. Zack seemed to live to make Song smile, the way Mei had once lived to make LiLi smile. He"d be an excellent father if his plan to adopt his little girl succeeded. Baby Song loved him. Mei did, too, but things had happened so fast between them. She needed to slow the momentum. Nothing must get in the way of her finding LiLi, not even a handsome man with a beautiful baby.
"I know you." He wrapped his hands around her waist, pulling her back into his chest. "You"re thinking about LiLi."
Mei leaned against him. "What are we doing? Are we fooling ourselves?"
"Fooling ourselves? About what, Mei? About Song? LiLi? About us?"
"About everything, Zack. What have we done? We aren"t even married, yet we have a child? What"s that about? What have we done to Song?"
Zack gazed at the sleeping baby. "I think we"ve done a great thing for Song."
Mei could read the love on his face the moment she mentioned the baby"s name. The anguish for her child reared its ugly head again. Mei didn"t begrudge the love he had for Song. She just wanted LiLi, too.
He tilted her chin up with two fingers, his eyes searching her face. "You think I"ve forgotten, don"t you?"
Mei turned away. "No. It"s just that-"
"We haven"t found LiLi yet," he finished for her. "We"ve been looking in all the wrong places. She"s still out there."
Mei tried not to cry, but Zack"s strong arms made her weak. All her work had been for nothing. She was not only off course, but now she was dead in the water, taking care of another woman"s child instead of her searching for her own. Pointing to the frigid wonderland beyond the window, her fear hiccupped out of her. "I want my baby...in here...with me."