Read Online Strike Force Charlie by Mack Maloney - Free Book Online Page A

… . Her mind went into overdrive. Suddenly Nash’s text message was back in her head: DGSE op term’d ex prej this PM west ave improv car bmb. Translation? A French intelligence agent had been killed in D.C. last night by an improvised car bomb.
    Li began fighting again. This time she was just plain scared. She knew what was needed to make an improvised car bomb—and most of the ingredients were on the floor in front of her. The intruders held her down firmly, though, while Fox kept imploring her to take a deep breath and just listen … .
    It took more than a minute, but she finally settled down a third time, exhausted and out of breath. Her mind was racing now, her heart beating right out of her chest. Ghosts in her house? A French agent killed? Was any of this real?
    But then, for some reason, she started counting faces. Fox and Ozzi. And now five others. Seven in all … . Something was beginning to come together here. Seven Americans killed in the supposed plane crash over the Caribbean, including Fox and Ozzi. Seven people now standing over her … including Fox and Ozzi.
    â€œHow?” was all she could ask them. “How come you weren’t all killed, like they said you were?”

    Fox just shook his head wearily.
    â€œSorry, Li,” he said. “But that’s top-secret … .”
    Â 
    They finally let her up. One of the masked men went downstairs to make her a cup of tea; another helped dust her off. Then Fox and Ozzi brought her into the next room, closing the door behind them. Outside, it had begun to rain.
    They were in the master bedroom. Li had been here only once before, the day she first moved in. With its ancient four-poster bed, decaying lace curtains, and cobwebs everywhere, the place was just too creepy for her. Ozzi lit another candle as Fox led her to an old dilapidated divan, sitting her down with a plop. Then he and Ozzi pulled up chairs in front of her. For a long moment, the three friends just stared at one another in disbelief.
    â€œI just can’t accept this, Major,” Li finally said. “I mean, I know what’s going on. You faked your own deaths somehow, and came up here to kill this Frenchman? Why?”
    â€œBecause he deserved to go,” Fox responded coldly. Ozzi grunted in agreement.
    â€œBut you’re already escaped prisoners,” she shot back at them. “Am I right? Now you’ve become murderers, too?”
    â€œIt’s not like that,” Ozzi told her, adding. “not exactly, anyway.”
    â€œYou just ran a car-bomb attack inside our own country, for Christ’s sake!” she cried. “How does that make you any different from a bunch of terrorists?”
    Fox took her hands in his. She was on the verge of tears, and maybe so was he.
    â€œI know it will be hard for you to get your head around this,” he said. “I have a hard time believing it myself—and I lived it. But OK, yes, we managed to get out of Gitmo. And yes, we whacked the French guy. And he did deserve it. But that’s all we can tell you. Not because we don’t want you to know everything—but because if you did know, it would mean serious trouble for you down the line, guaranteed.”
    â€œBut Major,” she said soberly. “This can’t be part of any
DSA operation. You’ve broken some serious laws and certainly some national security edicts … .”
    Fox just shook his head sadly. “We can’t be concerned about those sorts of things, Li,” he said. “Not anymore. It’s gone way beyond the DSA … .”
    Silence … except for the rain thumping on the roof of the old house.
    â€œYou won’t tell me how you got out of Guantanamo?” she asked them.
    â€œWe can’t …” Fox replied.
    â€œOr how you got mixed up with the ‘special prisoners’ down there?”
    â€œI’m sorry, Li … .”
    She took her hands back