Deadly Games - Cate Noble [10]
Hell, four hours wasn’t long enough to make plans, let alone set traps, tags, wires, and ambushes. He had no time to waste.
He also needed to return Travis Franks’s call. Despite Rocco’s anger over the mishandling of Maddy’s case, he knew that somebody at the Agency needed to be in the loop about Maddy’s situation and Minh Tran’s claim of knowing Rufin’s location. Even if it was a bluff, the Agency would take no chances.
While Travis might be pissed that Rocco had kept this situation close to his chest, ultimately Travis would understand. The two men had a long-standing, unspoken agreement when it came to Rocco’s tendency to “disappear.” As a high-ranking Agency official, Travis’s need for plausible deniability increased with each televised congressional hearing. What Travis didn’t know couldn’t be used as sworn testimony. And right now, Travis was dealing with his own peculiar set of circumstances.
Before contacting Travis, though, Rocco wanted to replay the recording. To see what he’d missed and to listen for background noise as well. Anything that might give a clue to where Maddy was being held. At one point there had been others talking in the background, too.
Grabbing the digital recorder, Rocco turned up the volume and hit REPLAY. Maddy’s soft voice came over the speaker. Minh Tran and company knew how to exert pressure. “Rocco?” Her single word walloped him again.
“Silence!” Tran’s crony roared.
To concentrate, Rocco closed his eyes as he listened to the recorded exchange. Or rather, around the exchange. The slight satellite echo distorted the words. Static from the jammers flared every two seconds. The man shouted in Thai.There.
Rocco paused and backed up. Replayed it. If he was translating accurately, the man had shouted the equivalent of “make the whore talk.” The blare of a horn distorted the man’s words.
Once more he paused and replayed, to hear the horn. Yes. He’d spent enough time near the docks to recognize a ship’s horn. The man had been on or near water while they talked. Bangkok harbor? Probably not. Too obvious.
He thumbed the PLAY button once more, bracing himself for what would come next. Maddy’s scream. So help him, whatever they’d done to her would be paid back tenfold.
Inaudible words came across the speaker. Someone had been shouting while Maddy pleaded. Again he backed up the recording. Then he increased the volume, needing to hear those words.
The sound of Maddy’s scream filled his living room. “Her screams will draw attention,” someone had shouted in Thai.
At that same moment, Rocco’s front door flew open, as if kicked in by an angry giant. Swinging wide, the door smashed into the wall.
Rocco jumped over the arm of the couch and took cover in the hall. Staying low, he peered around the corner, his Glock drawn and ready.
Two men spilled into his living room, their hulking silhouettes backlit by the ambient light from outside. The men moved quickly, aware of their status as targets. They had handguns drawn and were oddly … familiar.
A third man slipped inside, his weapon drawn as well. Rocco recognized the tall newcomer’s broad shoulders. Travis Franks. The other men had to be his newly acquired “shadows.”
“Travis! It’s me!” Rocco shouted.
“Where’s Maddy!” Travis demanded. “We heard screams.”
“She’s not here. It was a recording.” Rocco didn’t waste time. Ten hours. “Close the door. I’ll get alight on.”
The overturned coffee table made the place look worse than usual in the harsh overhead light.
Travis glanced around as if not believing Maddy wasn’t there. Then he moved straight for the recorder still lying on the couch next to Rocco’s cell phone. “You were listening to this?”
At Rocco’s nod, Travis hit REWIND and PLAY.
Maddy’s tremulous voice came across the speaker again. “Rocco?”
He stared at his feet as Travis let the entire conversation play.
“When did this come in?” Travis’s voice was heavy with censure.
“Less than five minutes ago. It’s why I ignored