Fatal Truth: Shadow Force International Read Online Free Page A

the door, she took a breath and steeled her mind. The clock was running. She had twenty minutes, tops, before her boss would know she was here and come after her.
    After him .
    She tugged at the hem of her suit jacket, a nervous habit. One she’d long ago lost through endless training. Yet, on the brink of her impending death, her training seemed a moot point. She’d foolishly believed she could outrun and outsmart the government who’d created her.
    Maybe she could run and stay alive, but she didn’t want to. She wanted to stay in America, doing her job, and able to see her family and friends like normal. She didn’t run from threats. Wouldn’t run from this one if she could find another way.
    Blackmail was the only option unless she wanted to conspire to kill the president. She couldn’t do it herself and, even with all the nefarious and downright crazy assassins she knew, none would touch that particular operation.
    She had to find a way to stop her own assassination and the man inside held the key.
    The door opened and she stepped across the threshold, unsure of exactly how she was going to get Trace Hunter to cooperate.
    And then she pulled up short.
    The man behind the table wasn’t the man she’d come for.
    “I heard you were looking for one of my inmates,” the prison warden said, whirling to face her with his hands in the pockets of his camouflage pants.
    “Commander Polonsky.” She nodded in respect although she felt none. “I’m here to see Lt. Trace Hunter.”
    “Hunter’s in solitary confinement.” His hard stare held no emotion. “No visitors.”
    “I’m not a visitor. This a matter of national security.”
    “These prisoners are all a matter of national security. They’re Americans who turned against their own country. Violent, dangerous men who’d just as soon kill you as talk to you.”
    A pissing match? This was taking too much time. “Take me to solitary. I’ll question him there.”
    “On whose orders are you here?”
    “Whose do you think? You know who I report to.”
    He was silent for a moment, assessing. “Take her to Hunter’s cell,” he told the nearby guard. “I need to make a phone call.”
    He brushed past her on his way to call her boss.
    She was quickly down to a few minutes. Good thing she had an exit strategy if things went to hell. They were about to. “Lead the way,” she said to the guard.
    Solitary was off by itself, a long walk down more halls that once more lost the yellow paint and carpeting. The pungent smell of sweat and excrement filled her nostrils, making bile rise in her throat.
    They arrived at the end of the building. A row of concrete-enclosed cells formed the wall. Each cell was no more than six by four. There was no sound here, little light. She doubted a man could even lie flat and fully stretch out.
    The guard pointed at the last cell. “That one.”
    A slit in the concrete for food trays was the only way to communicate. She leaned down, tried to peer inside.
    Dark, dank, horrible. She could see nothing past the slender beam of light falling on the floor. She listened for movement, breathing, anything. Heard nothing. Her senses went on high alert.
    The man was a SEAL. A SEAL with enhanced abilities. He could make himself invisible, stay completely immobile for hours waiting for his prey.
    But she knew without a doubt that Hunter wasn’t inside.
    “He’s not in there,” she said.
    The guard, who had moseyed away, gave a snort. “He’s in there. Trust me.”
    “Open the door.”
    “I can’t do that.”
    She whirled on him. “On orders of the president, open this door. Now.”
    “Lady, this guy put two of my coworkers in the emergency room last week.”
    “It’s doctor, not lady.” Feeling all of her pent-up nerves come crashing down, she fought the urge to send the guard to the ER with his friends. Trace Hunter had been her only hope, and now…
    Overhead, an alarm went off, causing the guard to look up. His walkie-talkie