Free [Thomas Caine #1] Tokyo Black by Andrew Warren

granite, like an ancient monolith, watching over the city. It was not as fancy or ostentatious as the Park Hyatt, but it was known for its spectacular views of the city.
    Caine stepped into his room and drew back the drapes. The lights of Tokyo spread out before him, a rolling carpet of stars, twinkling, flickering, burning, and dying. They surrounded him, taking up his entire field of vision. There was no other city like it. No other place on Earth felt so alive. It was like watching evolution on fast forward.
    He locked the door behind him and taped over the security hole. He considered dragging the dresser in front of the door, but he was just too tired.
    He collapsed on the bed and looked around the small room, his vision blurry. It nothing like the spacious, luxury suite he had left at the Hyatt. But it was anonymous. No one knew he was here. He was hidden. Invisible. Safe.
    And that was the greatest luxury of all.
    Within minutes, he was sound asleep. No nightmares disturbed his rest. Instead, he dreamed of dark, haunted eyes. They were waiting for him in the sea of light, just outside his window.

CHAPTER TEN
    Rebecca wiped her brow and took several shallow sips from her water bottle. She had begun her run early, leaving the lobby of the Bali Hai Bay hotel at 6:00 am. She had been out only an hour, but the temperature was already in the high eighties and climbing. The humid air made the park trails and walking streets feel like a sauna, and her sleek body glowed with a sheen of sweat.
    She had circled around the hotel and then made her way down the Bali Hai pier and back. The pier was of recent construction, part of Pattaya’s efforts to attract family tourists. The pristine, white beams jutted out over the teal sea water. An array of bright, colorful fishing boats were docked at the various berths along the way. Few tourists ventured out so early in the morning, and she was grateful to have the serene beauty of the ocean to herself for a short time. But even the stunning view couldn’t distract her thoughts from one uncomfortable subject…
     Caine.
    She was still processing the series of events that had brought him back into her life. One moment, he was a memory, a shadow, dead to her and the world. The next, has was standing in front of her, staring at her with those intense green eyes. She shivered in spite of the heat and humidity. The anger in those eyes, in his voice … something had happened to him. Something not in his file. Something so bad he preferred the anonymity of death rather than seek her out. Rather than confide in her.
    Operation Big Blind. His last mission. The file said Caine had been working a long-term deep cover operation, posing as an arms dealer and international criminal operating out of Japan. Through his association with the yakuza, he was able to forge connections to Aydin Turel, a Turkish arms dealer. Turel was believed to be the primary weapons supplier to a collection of fundamentalist terror groups in Afghanistan and throughout the Middle East.
    Turel was simply a step along the way in Caine’s mission, which was to identify and eliminate key players in the White Leopards. The Leopards were an upstart drug cartel operating out of the southern Kandahar region of Afghanistan. Their drug money was believed to finance numerous extremist terror groups in the area.
    The yakuza linked Caine to Turel. Caine gained his trust, then set him up for a CIA rendition. All standard procedure. After a short but brutal stay in a black site prison, Turel was ready to play ball. He vouched for Caine, and introduced him to the Leopards.
    A meet had been set, complete with merchandise samples. Caine and his partner, an operative named Tyler, were both there when something had gone wrong.
    Intel was sparse on what actually happened. All anyone knew for sure was Tyler was reported killed, and Caine had dropped off the grid. Turel’s guns and the Leopards’ heroin disappeared with him. It had been a