Free Zack (In the Company of Snipers Book 3) by Irish Winters

didn’t understand. Half of him wanted to punch something, the other half to throw up.
    “I’ve been reading the ME’s report,” David continued quietly. “It listed an identifying mark on her arm, so I asked to see the body.”
    Zack peered through the magnifying glass, following the tip of David’s ballpoint pen to what looked like a black splotch on the arm of the remains.
    “What am I looking at?” As much as he respected his senior agent, David’s method of always making a man come up with his own conclusions was aggravating, especially at times like this.
    “What does it look like to you?” David persisted.
    “I don’t know.” Just spit it out. I need to get out of here.
    The longer Zack looked, the edgier he got. Fish had nibbled these tiny hands. The fingernails were gone. No toes remained on her feet. He couldn’t even begin to look at her face. The cold smell of death in the morgue had thoroughly squashed any good feeling left from his visit with Chai. She could have ended up on another tray in the same morgue.
    Tears blurred his vision. He gritted his teeth and willed them away.
    Focus, Lennox. You’re a Marine. You’ve seen worse.
    “Look again.” David pulled the magnifying glass closer. “Tell me what you think you see.”
    Damn it, David. Spit it out. Tell me what I’m looking at, so I can get—
    Zack looked closer. “What the hell?”
    “You see it now, don’t you?”
    “On a child this small? Why? How?” Zack looked again, disbelieving his eyes. This baby had been marked all right with what looked like a black dragon tattoo.
    “Chai is very lucky you found her when you did.” David nodded sadly.
    “Does the ME have a COD?”
    “Not exactly. This little one has been in the water too long. Agent Xing was right. There’s no way to know cause of death for sure,” David said. “I’m headed back to the hospital and then to the foster family who has Zhen Ting. I want to know if she and Chai have been marked, too. What about you?”
    “I think I’ve tracked the gentleman down who pulled Zhen Ting out of the garbage. He hangs out at the men’s rescue mission over in Anacostia. Thought I’d buy him dinner and see what he can tell me. Madam Mim didn’t seem to think that was important, but I do. Who knows?”
    David rolled his eyes at Zack’s description of Agent Xing. “I’m surprised you know who Mad Madam Mim is.”
    “I’ve got a kid sister,” Zack explained. “She’s fifteen years younger. I watched a lot of Disney before I joined the Corps. Xing and Mim have a lot in common, only I think Mim might be nicer.”
    “We have another problem.” David lowered his voice as the ME covered the small corpse and removed the tray. “Alex is on his way back from Seattle.”
    “Already?” Zack groaned. “Wasn’t he supposed to be gone all week?”
    “Apparently ATF Director Carducci has some clout in Congress after all,” David said. “The boss has been targeted for a Senate investigation. He’s scheduled to appear before a committee in the Russell Senate Building later this week.”
    “Damn.” Zack didn’t know what else to say. Alex was probably cursing him at this very minute. “He only left yesterday. When’s he due in?”
    “Seven-thirty tonight.”
    “Damn,” Zack repeated. Could things get any worse?
    “Be careful, Zack,” David warned. “I have a very bad feeling.”

EIGHT
    “Who wants to know?”
    Marty was smelly, whiskered, tipsy, and suspicious. It seemed his entire face squinted, his lips pursed together like he was thinking real hard when Zack caught up with him. “Do I know you, young fella?”
    “No, sir. You don’t. Name’s Zack Lennox.” When the man didn’t accept his handshake, Zack sat on the fold-up cot with him. “I was hoping I could buy you dinner in exchange for your story of how you found the little girl the other night.”
    “What little girl?” His shaggy brows crinkled in suspicion. “Do I know you?” he asked again.