Zack (In the Company of Snipers Book 3) (4 page)

I can do it. One more time. I can!

Mei swallowed hard, straightened her blazer, and tilted her chin up. She paused with her hand to the hospital room door, needing to be convincing. Claire had come to take the girl to the Family Services office. Today was Mei’s last chance to pump the friendly child advocate for information about the child trafficking ring. They were Mei’s next targets. She fully intended to infiltrate them. Somehow. The only problem was where to start?

She rapped quietly to announce her arrival, pushed the door aside, and cringed. Two men looked up, their sharp eyes running over her, and immediately she panicked. Could she fool them as easily as Claire? Better yet, could she intimidate them like Kathleen? She gulped past her dry throat and entered. Showtime. Again.

“Why, Agent Xing, how nice to see you.” Claire waved her into the room. “I was just telling Agents Tao and Lennox you might drop by. You’re right on time.”

“Good morning.” The muscular bald fellow jumped away from the counter he’d been leaning against and politely extended his hand. Deep brown eyes swept over her again, appraising what they liked and didn’t like, no doubt. A wide-open kind of a smile brightened his face, making her very aware when his warm hand engulfed hers. “I’m Zack Lennox. It’s good to meet you.”

“G-good morning.” She returned the favor by raking him up one side and down the other, the same way he’d done to her.

He wasn’t half-bad looking. Confidence tugged at the corner of his mouth. Laugh lines crinkled across his forehead. The dark glasses perched on top of his head combined with his leather bomber jacket and jeans made him look like some college preppie, carefree but going places. The man looked like he had it all.

She tried not to notice the ripple of corded muscles down his abdomen when he’d reached for her hand, or the way his shirt fit too tight across his chest. A thick, muscular neck supported his bare bobble-head. She made up her mind right then and there she didn’t like him. He thought he was good looking. It showed in his smirky eyes. The man was a player, and she wasn’t playing. Maybe, never again.

Pulling her fingers free of his gentle and oddly warm grasp, she turned to the other man, Agent Tao. Now there was a real man. He knew how to handle a child. The little girl was snuggled on his lap. By the looks of it, she knew a real man, too.

“You’ll be happy to know Agent Tao was able to learn our little girl’s name,” Claire announced. “Agent Xing, please meet Chai Yenn.”

Little Chai had already peeked out from beneath her cover when Mei entered the room, but the minute Mei looked at her, Chai ducked behind Agent Tao’s arm. Hiding. That hurt. Mei had never frightened a child before. All she wanted to do was hold Chai, if only for the joy of feeling a little girl in her arms again. Had she changed so much that a child would hide from her?

Agent Lennox still watched, rattling Mei’s confidence even more.

“I am pleased to meet you, Ms. Xing.” The older man reached for her hand with genuine hospitality. Now that she’d stepped closer, she could see he wasn’t older at all. She glanced back at that Zack guy. They were both around the same age. Agent Tao just looked more mature. Or something.

“I understand you’re working with Claire?” he asked.

“Yes.” She stalled. The sight of these guys had thrown her off balance. She couldn’t put her finger on the reason. Anxiety climbed up her throat, but she pushed it back down. Kept it at bay. Her stomach churned. She had to get the upper hand.

Get tough, Mei. You can do it. Be the ICE agent. Be mean if you have to.

“You the ones who found the girl?” She arched an imperious brow, as least, that’s what she hoped for. It had worked before.

Agent Lennox took immediate credit as he lounged back against the counter, his feet crossed at the ankles. “Yes. Just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Snagged her away from the Tigers. She looks a lot better this morning. You should’ve seen her yesterday.”

“I did,” she bit out, turning to Claire. Talking with another woman was so much easier. “Are you taking her with you today?”

“I plan to if her doctor releases her.” Claire’s worried eyes drilled through Mei’s crumbling façade. “Are you okay? You look a little flushed. You’re not coming down with—”

“I’m fine,” she cut Claire off.
Great. Can everyone see through me?

“Claire mentioned you’ve been involved with two other Chinese girls found recently?” Agent Lennox asked. “What can you tell us about them?”

Mei bit her lip. She took an extra long minute to brush an invisible smudge off the sleeve of her blazer, fighting her nerves. “We pulled one out of the Anacostia River. The other was found in a dumpster. Why do you want to know?”

He shrugged, his eyes soft and gentle. Inviting. “Where was the dumpster?”

“Behind an IGA store. A transient found her.”

“I’m sorry.” There was a smirky light in his eyes again. Agent Lennox had long thick lashes that accentuated his good looks, rattling Mei even more, making her feel like–a woman. “I should’ve asked a better question. I meant, where in Anacostia was she found?”

“I knew what you meant,” she snapped. She’d lost credibility fast with that stupid answer. Of course he’d meant which city, not which store. “Near the Eleventh Street Bridge.”

A bemused smile shifted over his face. He was laughing at her. She could tell. “What can you tell me about the others?”

This arrogant man was grilling her? Mei stiffened. Time to pull out the snarky FBI agent routine before she really fell apart.

“I don’t see how it’s any of your business, but if you insist.” She poured it on. “The one found in the dumpster is the same age and size, malnourished and dirty with two fractured ribs. She’s been placed in a foster home. The other was in the water too long. She was maybe two, maybe three years old. Hard to tell.”

The memory of the tiny body at the morgue reached out and pierced Mei’s heart all over again. Tears sprang to her eyes. She looked to the door. Another mother was out there somewhere looking for her baby girl; only she’d never find her alive.

Agent Lennox’s brows furrowed. Either he was used to working with bitchy women, or she hadn’t fazed him at all. At any rate, he had the upper hand and she was making a fool of herself. She glanced at the door again.
I have to get out of here.

“I’m sorry, but are you waiting for someone?” he asked. “You keep watching the door like—”

“No.” She all but growled. “Get on with it. What information do you have?”

He ran his tongue deliberately over his bottom lip, like he didn’t know if he wanted to continue the conversation. God knew she didn’t.

“As I mentioned earlier, a couple of the 4
^th
Street Tigers had this little gal in their possession.” He nodded toward Chai. “Thanks to what you’ve just told us, it seems whoever’s behind it is working a pretty tight area in Anacostia. We’ll start canvassing and asking questions. I’ll tag a few confidential informants. Maybe they’ve heard something.”

“Child trafficking could be involved,” she blurted out the only lead she had.

He nodded, a puzzled expression shadowing his face. “Could be. That would explain a lot. Do you have the clothes from the other girls? We might be able to pull evidence from them, and what was the transient’s name? I’d like to talk with him, see if he remembers anything.”

Mei shivered. He’d reached the extent of her very limited knowledge. Even Claire was watching now. The floor had turned to shifting sand along with her composure. She was going down.

“The answer to both of your questions is no and no,” she snapped, to disguise her rising panic. “I have no idea which transient found her. How would I know?”

“Did you ask?”

Her heart pitched at his probing question.
God, yes! I’ve asked everybody, but no one knows where she is. No one will help. Will you? I doubt it. You’re like all the rest.

“Of course I asked.” She tapped her toe against the polished linoleum floor hoping rudeness might set him back in his place. Those brown eyes of his weren’t honing in on her anymore. He looked annoyed. Certainly not cowed like she wanted.

“Sounds like we might be able to help each other, Agent Xing.” Agent Lennox turned to his friend even though he’d spoken to her. “What do you think, David? I know the boss wanted us to locate Chai’s family, but it seems there’s a lot more going on. Want to work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement? Maybe we can help more than just your little friend.”

What? Mei’s breath caught. She shot a sideways glance to Agent Tao. Was it even possible these guys would help?

His eyes rebuked her before he spoke a single word. “Just so you know, Agent Xing. This
one
has a name. Chai Yenn is a lost and frightened little girl. Right now, she doesn’t know who to trust. She isn’t just
the girl
.”

Her hand flew to the back of her neck where muscles wound too tight for too long ached all the way to the soles of her feet. His reprimand was well deserved, but she couldn’t let him see her embarrassment. She’d never meant to imply she didn’t care. Everything out of her mouth had come out wrong since she’d opened Chai’s door.
Why did I think I could do this?

“Can you tell me the names of the others? Do you know?” Agent Tao continued with the same gentle chastisement.

“The five-year-old is Zhen Ting. The other is a Jane Doe.” Mei stifled her tears.
And LiLi is six and it’s cold outside. It’s going to snow, but I don’t know where she is. And she needs her coat!

“How sad.” He stroked the blanket over the tiny child in his arms.

That tender movement stabbed Mei. The hole in her heart roared with all she had lost. Little Chai Yenn was safe and warm. Everything in the room reminded her that her daughter was not. Chai’s tiny hand slumped free of the blanket. She’d fallen asleep in the warmth of this kind man’s arms, and Mei could not bear to be in the same room one more second.

“The name Zhen means ‘precious treasure’ in the language of my ancestors,” Agent Tao said quietly.

Mei bit her lip. She was versed in the language of her ancestors, too.
Li
meant pretty. That’s why she had chosen it twice. LiLi–for the most beautiful, most perfect daughter in the world.
And I miss her.

“What’s her name mean?” Agent Lennox nodded at Chai.

Agent Tao hesitated, his eyes full of bleak emotion. He cupped the girl’s limp hand in his, his thumb softly massaging the center of her palm. “Tea.”

The empty word met silence, a pebble dropped into a deep dark well with no bottom. Enlightenment darkened Agent Lennox’s already dark eyes, and Mei wanted to shake him. She’d been researching the problem of excess baby girls in far off China since she’d heard the possibility of the awful child trafficking ring. Yes, Agent Lennox. Yes! There were no loving parents to bless this child with a sweet, meaningful name. She’s one of those unexpected pregnancies, one of those statistics the Chinese government uses to enforce their success in a program so diabolical it forces parents to choose how to kill their daughters. Let them starve? Drop them at an orphanage and never look back? Drown them in the rice paddies? Smother them and never tell a soul your wife was ever pregnant?

This beautiful baby girl’s name was most likely assigned in the depths of some Chinese orphanage where it didn’t matter what she was called. She could’ve just as easily been named after a chair. Or worse.

Mei wanted to scream,
‘Do you get it now, Agent Lennox? Life isn’t easy for the rest of us!’
Instead, she stared at the floor, tired of fighting the world. She’d gained no leverage today. None. If anything, she’d lost ground along with her composure. There was only one choice. Searching alone these past four weeks for LiLi had taught her well. Attack. Always attack.

“I don’t have time for this,” she snapped. “You’re right. They all have names. They’re all lost children, but it’s a cold hard world. There are a lot more than three kids on the streets. I’ve been working these cases for years, and let me tell you, there are hundreds. Do you hear me? Hundreds. I don’t have time to get cozy with every missing kid.”

Claire stiffened. Mei had crossed a line and she knew it, but Agent Tao turned to Agent Lennox as if she hadn’t spoken at all. “You’ve given me another idea. I’ll check the morgue when we’re done here, and yes, I see no reason we couldn’t work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. I’m sure Alex will agree. You know how he is. Maybe Mother can coordinate with the FBI on the evidence as well. The more people we have working on behalf of these children, the better.”

“We’ll need to visit the other five-year-old,” Agent Lennox said. “Who knows? Maybe she can tell us something. What’s her name? Zhen Ting?”

Agent Tao nodded approvingly. “I’ll visit her.”

“I was hoping you would,” Agent Lennox muttered. “Looks like you’ve got a knack with the ladies.”

For the first time since the nightmare began, hope surfaced in Mei. These guys actually sounded like they cared, like they were going to do something to help. Maybe they could help LiLi, too? She turned to really look at Agent Lennox, but indifference had replaced the earlier gentleness in his eyes. Now his boot tapped the floor. He had some place else to be. Mei didn’t blame him. She didn’t want to be around herself, either.

“You are welcome to visit our office.” Agent Tao offered one of his business cards. The kindness in his eyes still glimmered, but it was the last straw. Mei could endure no more of the mess she’d made. She headed for the door.

“Agent Xing,” he called after her. “How do we contact you?”

He sounded hopeful, but the opportunity was gone. Without answering, she flung the door open and fled, tears stinging her eyes. She’d blown her cover and ruined everything. Intimidating Kathleen had been easy, but she’d only angered these guys.

Selecting the ground floor button at the elevator pad, she clutched her upper arms, rubbing them for warmth she hadn’t known in weeks. When had she become so cold? So heartless?
What’s happening to me? I do care about Chai and Zhen. I do.