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

from Fox and folded her arms across her chest. “OK, then—were you planning on living in my attic forever?”
    Both men rolled their eyes.
    â€œWe knew we’d have to tell you eventually,” Ozzi tried to explain to her. “We just stayed quiet while you were here, and waited for you to go to work in the morning. But, I have to tell you, we didn’t think you’d be coming back tonight. I mean, of all nights …”
    Li took another moment trying to make some sense of this. Then it hit: they knew about her and Nash, and about her unused overnight bag.
    â€œDamn! You’ve been tapping my phone, too?”
    Neither man replied. They just hung their heads. Guilty … . A very uncomfortable moment ensued. Li studied them by the dancing light of the candle. They looked so different, especially Fox. Unshaven, tired, eyes sunken in, he wasn’t the sunny person who’d left on his last mission just a few weeks ago.
    â€œHave you called your wife?” she asked him coolly.
    It was like Li plunged a knife into his chest. Fox’s face dropped a mile.
    â€œNo … I haven’t,” he replied softly. “I can’t. Just like with you, this is simply too dangerous to involve her.”

    There was a tap on the door. Li’s tea was here. Fox got up to retrieve it, disappearing for a moment into the shadows.
    â€œWell, that should show you how serious this is,” Ozzi told her now, his voice low. They both knew how much Fox adored his wife. “And like the major said, we can’t tell you everything, because then you’ll wind up in front of a firing squad, just like we’re going to. We’re doing this to protect you.”
    He lowered his voice even further. “But I can tell you this: Someone in Higher Authority made the Major a real fall guy while we were away. He cleaned up a big mess for them—and then they cut him off completely. Iced him, right out in the cold. And then they arrested him. So before you rip his heart out, just realize that of all of us, he got screwed the most.”
    Now Li studied Ozzi. He was a different person, too. He’d always looked like nothing more than a nice, slightly overage college student to her. The person sitting here now seemed old before his time. He’d seen terrible things, done terrible things. Li could tell.
    Fox returned from the dark and very gently placed the warm cup of Morning Madness in Li’s hands. Rain was now splattering against the bedroom windows.
    â€œBut why did you come here at all then?” she asked them. “Especially if you’re so afraid of involving me in anything. I mean, once they figure out you’re not dead, this will be the first place they’ll look … .”
    Fox and Ozzi nervously glanced at each other. “Well, we’re not staying that long,” Fox told her. “And besides, you have something of ours. Something we need … .”
    â€œSomething of yours? What?”
    Fox held up his other hand to reveal he was carrying Li’s laptop.
    â€œCan you get on-line up here?” he asked her. “Because we have to get into your e-mail right away.”
    Â 
    They set up her laptop on the creaky vanity near the window, running a long modem wire to a telephone port on the first floor. Li opened her e-mail as instructed, more confused than
ever. And just like every day for the last three weeks, the first entry contained two files: “Fast Ball ” and “Slow Curve.”
    â€œThat’s what we need,” Fox told her simply.
    â€œThese files?” she exclaimed. “I thought they had something to do with you two. Someone’s been trying to send them to me for weeks. But I was never able to open them … at least not all the way.”
    Fox and Ozzi froze. “What do you mean?” Fox asked. “‘Not all the way?’”
    â€œI mean I was able to get in through a few