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down as some of his best, but he wasn’t kidding himself. Good reason or not, he’d cost the federal government and Alex a lot of money. Someone had to go down. If Carducci wanted blood on a rock, it might as well be his.
    “Carducci wants you fired.” Alex pushed back from the table, his eyes boring through Zack’s head and out the other side.
    Zack nodded. He had nothing to say. He didn’t work for the ATF, and he cared less what the pretentious man in the thousand-dollar suit wanted. It only mattered what Alex thought, and right now, it obviously wasn’t much.
    Alex turned to Murphy. Both men looked as bleak as the other. “What do you think, Murph?”
    Murphy was the definite good cop to Alex’s lethal bad cop. Until now, he’d been quiet. The old guy was in his sixties, thinning gray hair, and the first to admit he wasn’t as smart as the new generation when it came to gizmos and computers and such, but he was a good man. Zack waited on him now.
    “I don’t know.” Murphy sighed. “Seems to me we still have an active operation on our hands. I’d hate to lose what corporate knowledge we’ve got just because Carducci’s pissed.”
    “I don’t give a damn about Carducci,” Alex grunted.
    Murphy’s blue eyes twinkled. Zack held his breath. Were these two toying with him? If so, it wasn’t funny.
    “Just so you two geniuses know,” Alex paused long enough to stare him down and keep him wondering. “I got my butt reamed good. You’re off the Espinosa case.”
    He liked the sound of those words. Off. Not fired.
    “But you owe me. Big time.” Again with the evil eyes. Man, the guy didn’t quit. “You’re both on this little girl’s case. You’d better not screw the pooch, Lennox.”
    “Yes, Boss.” Zack took the hit and let another breath of relief whoosh between his teeth. Hell, yeah.
    Alex leaned across the table, his fingers laced together and all those pointed, killer skills aimed right at his trouble-making junior agent. “I’m flying out to the Seattle office for a couple days. By the time I get back, I want everything settled. You locate her parents. You find out why a couple of punks had her in the back of their van, and you find a way to make that little girl happy. I want your written reports on my desk, ready for my signature by Monday.”
    Zack glanced at David. Yes, they were both still employed, but damn, it was going to be a busy week.
    “Email me a copy of your final reports no later than Friday night. I’ll be home. I’ll be waiting.” Alex glared. He wasn’t finished.
    Zack stilled. Here it comes. He braced himself.
    “Screw Carducci. I’d have done the same thing.”

FIVE
    What have I gotten myself into?
    Zack groaned. He was an ex-Marine sniper. By definition, a man of action. A dedicated covert consultant on The TEAM , he enjoyed the people he worked with. Most of the time he could handle any assignment his boss gave him, but this one was driving him crazy. He was used to tracking down twenty-one-year-old babes who wanted a good time. Little girls? Never.
    He’d been at it since his boss left for Seattle the day before. So far, every search on a missing Asian girl around five or six years old had proved a dead end. There was no AMBER Alert, no reports of missing children, nothing. He’d barely broadened his search to the international arena when David tapped on his desk.
    Zack looked up. “You finding anything yet?”
    “No, but I have another idea. Let’s go visit her.” David’s leaning over his desk with an expectant look on his face told Zack plenty. No matter what he said next, he was already on his way to the hospital.
    “Why?” Zack pushed back in his chair.
    David, another Marine, hailed from the west coast and had served in The Fighting 13 th out of Pendleton, California. The irony of a sniper being a devoted family man and father of four boys never ceased to amaze Zack. Yet that’s exactly who David was, as well as a devout Buddhist. He was as