Read Ghost Sniper: A Sniper Elite Novel for Free Online Page B

idea.”
    Vaught got up from the chair. “You let me worry about that.”
    “I don’t think you’d better go fucking around out there,” Crosswhite said nonchalantly, setting down his beer on the counter. “You’ll only make shit worse.”
    “I know what I’m doing.” Vaught shouldered past. “Thanks for the beer and the shitty stitch job, hero.”
    Crosswhite let him pass. Then he slipped the stun gun that Mendoza had given him from beneath his jacket and zapped Vaught in the ass. The agent dropped to his knees with a shout, and Crosswhite stepped forward to zap him again between the shoulder blades, sending him flopping forward onto his face.
    Paolina came through the door a few seconds later with a plastic bag of groceries in each hand and stood in the threshold gaping. “Daniel, he’s drooling on my kitchen floor.”
    Vaught lay paralyzed with his cheek mashed against the ceramic tile watching a tiny piss ant making its way past his face as it carried out its little piss ant business. “You fuckin’ cocksuckers,” he mumbled.

6
    MEXICO CITY, MEXICO
    21:20 HOURS
    Later that evening, Vaught sat brooding on the floor in the corner of the living room, handcuffed to an eyebolt protruding from the concrete wall. Paolina sat on the leather sofa, reading a book to her young daughter, Valencia. Crosswhite had stepped out for more beer and limes.
    Vaught cleared his throat, and Paolina looked up to see what he wanted. He tugged at the handcuff. “Can I have my can of tobacco?” he asked in Spanish.
    “No,” she said. “I don’t want you spitting in my house.”
    “Can I have a cigarette?”
    “We only smoke in the bedroom.” She caressed the dark-skinned child’s curly black hair. “And never around my daughter.”
    Vaught sat looking at her. She was heartbreakingly pretty, but there was a stark maturity about her that he had to admit was intimidating.
    “What have you been through?” he asked.
    “None of your business.” She returned her attention to the storybook.
    “You know, you don’t have to put up with me,” he said after awhile. “Give me the key, and I’ll be gone in ten seconds.”
    “I would love to. Now shut up and let me read to my daughter.”
    Ten minutes later, Crosswhite arrived with more beer. “Did you make the salsa, baby?”
    “It’s in the refrigerator,” she answered. “There’s guacamole also.”
    “How’s our guest?”
    “Annoying.”
    Crosswhite laughed from the kitchen. “Has he been giving you trouble?”
    “He wants to spit in my house.”
    “I wasn’t going to spit in the house,” Vaught said in protest. “I’ll swallow it, for God’s sake.”
    Crosswhite came into the living room and offered Vaught a bottle of beer with a wedge of lime in it. “I don’t set the rules of the house,” he said in English. “I just live by them.”
    “I’m getting that,” Vaught said gloomily.
    Crosswhite took a pull from his beer. “It’s been awhile since I’ve had another dogface to drink with. Too bad you’re shackled—kinda feels like drinkin’ with a fugitive.”
    “Then let me loose.”
    “Can’t do it, not until I hear from Ortega.” Crosswhite went and sat beside Paolina, taking the little girl into his arms. She nestled against him, hugging a stuffed turtle and sucking her thumb.
    “Is there a woman waiting for you back in the States?” Crosswhite asked.
    “Would you give a fuck if there were?”
    “Watch your language around this little girl,” Crosswhite warned. “And I’m not the reason you’re here. You put yourself in this mess.” A phone rang in the other room, and he went to answer it. He came back a few minutes later and offered a satellite phone to Vaught. “Doctor Doom wants to talk to you.”
    “Who?”
    “Fields.”
    Vaught took the phone. “This is Special Agent in Charge Chance Vaught. To whom am I speaking?”
    There was a chuckle at the other end of the line. “That sounded rather official coming from a man