Free Code of Honor (Special Ops Book 7) by Capri Montgomery

wasn’t just trying to put a game out there; he was trying to put the truth out there. Somehow he must have known with the chatter that would come about this epic new game that somebody was going to recognize the story, and somebody was going to see that justice got served. Unfortunately, this real life turned game was going to get her killed just as it had gotten boy genius and the senator killed too.
    She wanted to help him, but she didn’t know how.
    “Rhys,” she waited until he looked at her with eyes full of the rage in his heart. “He didn’t keep notes but I took notes when he told me things. I also kept notes on the code names that weren’t optional and the ones we were able to change along with what we changed them to. My notebook,” she pointed. He nodded his understanding but he didn’t say a word. She ran back to her room and grabbed the five-subject butterfly decorated notebook before jogging back to him.
    She sat down and watched as he up righted the chair and returned it to the office like table. This room wasn’t the kitchen, but he had it set up in a way that allowed him to fix sandwiches and eat without having to step away from his work.
    She opened her notebook and turned to the section marked ‘characters’.
    “Our leading man is Rick, no last name. He’s a Cuban-American,” she held up her hand. “A name like Rick…I know, but that’s what we got as a name and that was a name that wasn’t changeable. His code name was Spirit.”
    He grunted. “In real life Spirit is Arapaho, red, and very Native in looks.”
    She nodded. So Spirit was real too then. She read off the other code names while he gave her the real life counterparts.
    “Our bad guys, those are difficult because all we had for the top of their bad guys are code names. Black Dog, Tracer, Halo and Red Knight.” The names were pretty cool and fitting for the characters at least. She had figured people would love playing whichever character they picked to be theirs in the game, joint or computer assisted wouldn’t matter here because the names were cool and should the players want to play the bad guy instead of the good guy in a group playing they could still have kick butt names.
    She looked at her scribbled notes because she had to write swiftly with the notebook on her lap for four hours. Her hands were hurting but those were the rules—no electronic notes. This was from a guy who believed paper brought trouble.
    “I’ve heard Tracer, Red Knight, and Halo before. I haven’t heard of Black Dog.”
    “Hmm,” she turned a page. “One of the good guys, two actually, that names were changed were Lilith and Night Force One.”
    He groaned. “Lilith was a woman with the CIA. She was killed two years ago while working in Afghanistan.”
    “And Night Force One?” She questioned, more curious than not as to how real life became fiction. How a tragedy became a game. And how what she knew might just help Rhys solve a decades old crime.
    “That would be me during my Special Forces days.”
    “That explains the character. He’s the master of disguise, the man who can get in, do the job, and get out, but he’s also super lethal like you can be when you’re angry.”
    He shook his head. “How did this guy get all of this?”
    “I don’t know. Until today I didn’t realize this was real life turned into gaming. But I think he did it like this so he could get the information out there.”
    “It was his idea of a cover operation but they still found out. Maybe he knew they would. Maybe…”
    “What?” She hated when his mind trailed off to silent thoughts because it meant she was left hanging on the outside.
    “Maybe he knew they would get me to protect you.”
    “What?”
    “The program you’re in, even though it’s Special Conditions and these guys are top level, they are not skilled to go up against somebody with my kind of training. Maybe this guy knew he was going to die. Maybe he knew the details of this