dark ops 3 - Renegade by Catherine Mann Read Free Book Online

it wasn’t required. Nothing would stop her from her mission, a deeper job than cruising the perimeter of Dreamland for overzealous tourists who’d attempted to sneak into restricted territory.
    She was out to catch a serial killer, someone they suspected hid in the bowels of the most secret military facility in the world.

FOUR
    It was his twentieth wedding anniversary, but Lieutenant Colonel Rex Scanlon didn’t need to worry about remembering to buy his wife her favorite candy or cologne. He’d already purchased the flowers, and tonight after work, he would deliver them to her grave.
    Rex stepped out of the military hospital elevator and followed the numbers and arrows printed on the wall, leading him toward Chuck Tanaka’s room. The flowers for Heather should stay fresh in his car. He’d picked up the bouquet of her favorite daisies from the grocery store on his way to the hospital. It was all too easy to remember exactly when she died, since it had happened on their anniversary. How damned ironic the number of times he’d forgotten the date while they were married. Now there wasn’t a chance in hell the day would go by unrecognized.
    But first, he had another member of his squadron to visit now that he’d finished up with Sergeant Randolph.
    A young airman in fatigues pushed a cart full of half-empty food trays past, the rank smell of mass-produced meals clogging the air. God, he hated hospitals and the memories they kicked up. Heather may have gone quickly, but the short time he’d spent outside her room in the ER felt like a lifetime as he’d waited to hear why his wife, forty-one years young, had suffered a heart attack. He’d expected the doctor to come out and explain that they needed to be more careful, eat better, exercise more, reduce stress.
    Instead, the ER physician informed him they were very sorry. Heather had died. They’d tried to bring her back but weren’t successful. Blah, blah, blah. The rest had blurred in his mind as he struggled to face a future without his wife. A future as a single father of twin boys just finishing up high school.
    Rex stopped in front of Tanaka’s room number and swiped his arm under his nose in hopes of diluting the antiseptic smell.
    A chaplain in fatigues stepped out and pulled up short, holding the door half-open. “Oh, excuse me, Colonel. Captain Tanaka is a popular fella right now.”
    “He already has another visitor, Chaplain”—he glanced at the name on the uniform to refresh his memory—“Hatch.”
    Yeah, he would have remembered the guy’s name if he didn’t spend so much time hiding from him.
    The chaplain tucked his day planner under his arm. “He’s allowed two visitors at a time. They probably wouldn’t even complain if he had more. Everyone likes Captain Tanaka.”
    Rex’s neck itched. He considered leaving and going straight to Heather’s grave, but he would only have to come back here again, which would mean wasted time when he had a suspicious in-flight incident to deal with. “Tanaka’s a good guy. Have a nice evening, Chaplain.”
    He cut the conversation short. Chaplain Hatch probably had a busy schedule, too.
    All about efficiency, he could hear Heather’s laughing voice in his head. He could imagine her lifting his glasses off and leaning to kiss him, hear her whispering, I like that best how particularly efficient you are in the bedroom . . .
    He cleared his throat and thoughts. Time to focus on Captain Tanaka and the airman’s recovery. Rex tapped on the door, the light pressure nudging the already cracked door open wider.
    Tanaka had a lady visitor.
    Good. The guy deserved some female TLC. The women had always gone for the Hawaiian’s charm and what Heather had called Tanaka’s exotic appeal.
    Tanaka lay in bed, the head of the mattress upright, his leg in a cast from the latest surgery. Nearly every bone in Tanaka’s body had been broken while he was held captive in Turkey last spring by a sadistic bitch bent on