by David Archer
Jefferson glanced at Allison, then turned back to Noah. “The first thing we need to do is clarify whether or not that was truly his son that you killed. I've been digging since early this morning, and I've only found two references to Vasily Andropov. That is definitely the name of Nicolaich's youngest son, but I've only scrounged up one photo of the boy, taken when he was about nineteen.” He pointed at the monitor on the wall, squeezed the button on a small device, and a picture appeared there. It showed a young man with dark hair and eyes, mugging for the camera with a couple of his friends. “Is that the face you saw in Kubinka?”
Noah and Moose both concentrated on the image, and then nodded. “Definitely,” Moose said, and Noah followed with, “That's him. He didn't look much different, at least until I gave him a third eye.”
Jefferson sighed deeply. “Then the situation is every bit as dire as you describe. Vasily's mother died in childbirth, and the little intelligence we can gather on Nicolaich says that he doted on the boy. He has two older sons, and a daughter, but he isn't very close to any of them. Vasily was his pride and joy, the only one of his children who shared his disregard for human life. We haven't been able to come up with any chatter regarding the boy's death, so it's a safe bet Nicolaich is keeping it quiet at the moment.”
Noah nodded. “Then, what would happen if I went back to Russia and began letting it be known that I had already taken the kid out, and come back looking for his daddy?”
Jefferson's eyebrows went up almost a half-inch, and Allison's eyes got a bit wider, as well. “Camelot, that would set off a storm…Oh, my God, you'd have all of the SVR crawling all over you.”
“I don't think so,” Noah said. “Nicolaich is going to want me all to himself. He may not intend to pull the trigger with his own hand, but I'm certain he'll want to be there when it happens. He's the man who gets to decide who lives and dies, remember? Godlike powers tend to make one believe in his own invincibility. He won't hesitate to become personally involved in trying to trap me or kill me.”
“Or capture you,” Allison said. “That's what you said last night, and I still think it's probably going to be high on his list of priorities. He's not going to want you dead, not at first; he's going to want to bleed you dry before you die.”
Noah nodded again. “That's true, but I don't intend to allow that to happen. If it becomes obvious that I'm about to be caught, then I'll use that belt. If I can't, then one of you will have to do it for me.”
Moose held a hand up in the air. “Excuse me? What's this about a belt?”
Sarah looked over at him. “Noah came up with an idea for an explosive belt, one that he can trigger himself, or that can be triggered remotely if he isn't able to do it. The idea is to make sure he can't be captured, so that he can't give up any secrets about E & E or Neverland.”
Moose's eyes also went wide at this point. “Can I hold the remote? I can blow them up, if it comes to that.”
Sarah backhanded him on the shoulder. “Moose! You asshole!”
“No,” Allison said. “I'm sending team Cinderella as your backup. Cinderella will hold the remote, and only use it on my direct order.”
“That's fine,” Noah said, “but don't let them get in my way. In fact, I would prefer there be no connection between us at all. The last thing we want to do is give Nicolaich or his people any further intel on one of our teams. I don't want anyone else exposed on this mission.” He glanced over at Neil, and then turned back to face Allison. “Neil is another one that Nicolaich knows nothing about, and I want to keep it that way. Let's send him and Cinderella together, and put them in the same hotel. They can keep an eye on him for me, while he's keeping his eyes on me electronically.”
“Now, wait a minute…” Neil began, but Allison cut him off.
“He's right, Neil,” she said. “If anything goes south on this, Noah, Moose and Sarah could all be killed or captured. We can't take a chance that he would get you, too.”
Sarah shivered. “If you're worried that Moose and I might be caught, then are we going to be wearing those belts, too?”
Allison gave her a sad smile. “I'm afraid so, dear girl. It's a necessity, in this case. If this were another mission, where the target didn't know who we were, I wouldn't even consider it, but we simply can't take a chance on someone like Nicolaich being able to question either of you. Cinderella will hold your remotes, as well, but they will not be used unless it is absolutely necessary, and then only on my own personal order. I think you know me well enough already to realize that I would never willingly give any of you up.”
Moose pointed at Noah. “What did I tell you? I said we weren't going to live long in this job, didn't I? I should have made it a bet, then you'd be paying up, right now.”
“Okay, okay, people,” Jefferson said. “Let's get back on topic. Camelot, have you devised a basic plan for this mission?”
Noah nodded his head. “I have, and I just gave it to you a minute ago. What I'm planning to do is go back to Russia and start looking for other SVR agents who might have been involved in the plan to use President Habib's daughter against him. That will make it look like I'm simply doing a follow-up on the mission we already completed, and I shouldn't have too much trouble. I already know of one person who was involved—Vladimir Sokoloff at the Russian Embassy in London. Assuming he's still there, I'll snatch him up and twist him for information. I'm fairly sure I can get him to give me at least a few names, which I'll use to work my way back to Russia. Once I'm there, I can make enough noise to get Nicolaich's attention, let myself be caught on some security video and such. I'll make it look like I'm cocky, like I think I'm too smart for him to track me down. Then, when he comes after me, he'll have to expose himself. That's when I'll take him out.”
Jefferson pulled a computer that was sitting on the table closer to himself, and began tapping on the keys. A moment later he grinned. “Vladimir Sokoloff is listed as the commercial attaché at Russia's embassy there. NSA keeps close tabs on him, and he's still there.”
“Good,” Noah said. “That's where I'll start, then. We actually still have the safe house we rented available, so I can use it as our staging area. We'll see how Sokoloff responds to the same treatment I gave Pendergrast.”
“Speaking of Pendergrast,” Allison said, “I wonder how much he actually knew about what was going on? Do you think he was aware of what the Russians were really up to with this scam?”
Noah shrugged. “I suppose that's possible, so it might be a good idea if I grab him again, too. In fact, putting him and Sokoloff in the same place might generate a little extra intel. Of course, it will mean that Pendergrast will have a target on his head, unless I terminate Sokoloff. Any opinion on whether I should do that?”
Allison looked at Jefferson, who was still reading the file on Sokoloff. “He's done a lot of typical commercial stuff, but he's been tied to a number of purely political operations, as well, including the assassinations of some low-level British and European functionaries.”
Allison pursed her lips for a moment, then turned back to Noah. “From what you said in your debrief, I'm going to sanction his elimination. The British seem to feel that Pendergrast has value to them, so let's do them a favor and keep him alive.”
“Okay, good. Incidentally, he might be a source of information leading back to Nicolaich. From what he says, he's done a lot of work with the SVR. I'll twist his arm again, too, and see what I can get.”
“Camelot, I'm not going to even imply that I'm happy with this plan,” Allison said, “but I'll admit that I'd be at a loss to come up with anything better. I'm going to run it past our mission-planning people, just for the sake of keeping them in the loop, but for now you can consider this mission a go.” she turned to Jefferson. “Donald, get the IDs and accessories they used on the last mission, and then take them to see Wally. I already got him started on the belts, but he might have some other gadgets that could be useful on this mission. They've got carte blanche, let them ha
ve anything he's got that Camelot feels he can use.”
“Yes, Ma'am,” Jefferson said. He closed the laptop and slid it into a soft case, then got to his feet. “Let's go.”
Noah and the team got up and followed him out the door and down the elevator. When they got to the parking garage, he turned to Noah.
“We'll take the van,” he said, leading the way to a large Mercedes panel truck. He opened the door in the side and climbed in, and the team followed. There were a number of plush, comfortable seats inside, the kind you might find in a fancy conversion van. Jefferson stepped to the front and slid in behind the wheel, and Noah took the seat beside him on the passenger side.
They rode out of the garage and through Kirtland, past the area they called Alley Town and into the restricted area where the Armory could be found. Noah and Jefferson were quiet, but the three in the back were holding a muffled conversation, something about working out their own plans to keep Noah alive and healthy.
Jefferson pulled into a parking lot beside a large concrete building. Anywhere else, it would have been taken for a factory or repair shop, but Noah knew that he was about to enter a wonderland of weapons and inventions. From rumors he'd picked up around Neverland, Wally was the American counterpart to “Q” from the James Bond movies.
Jefferson led them through a door into the building, and the team was instantly surprised at how clean the interior was. They could see a number of workstations that seemed to be enclosed in Plexiglas, where men and women were tinkering with various devices. A short, thin man with a receding hairline was waiting a short distance inside, and smiled when he saw them.
“Donald! It's so good to see you,” the little man said.
Jefferson smiled and shook his hand. “Hey, Wally,” he said. “I want to introduce you to Team Camelot. This is Noah Wolf, Sarah Child, Neil Blessing and Moose Conway. Camelot, this is Wally. If you need something that hasn't been invented yet, he's the guy to come to.”
“Really?” Neil asked. “Can I get a time machine? I want to go back a couple of years and beat the snot out of myself for ever thinking about hacking into a bank.”
“That wouldn't help,” Moose said. “You're such a wuss that neither one of you would actually land a punch.”
Wally smiled at the two of them. “Well, I haven't quite cracked the time continuum yet, but I can assure you it's something I'm interested in. If I ever make it, I'll let you know. Meanwhile, I've got some goodies for you to look over. Allison tells me that you have a pretty serious mission ahead of you, and told me to make sure I give you anything you want.”
Noah shook hands with Wally. “I appreciate that,” he said. “You got the belts ready?”
Wally grinned and nodded his head. “I do, I actually had some already made up in various sizes. We've never used them on one of our own, but you’d be absolutely amazed at how cooperative someone will be when you put one on them and let them see a demonstration of just what they can do. They even have an electronic lock that requires a digital code in order to take them off. I understand the remotes are going with another team, but we're going to give you each an app on your phone that will allow you to take them off when you need to, or set them off should the need arise.” He giggled and leaned close to them. “Personally, I hope you don't have to use them. I've heard good things about you and your team, and I'm just dying to build you some equipment.”
“Yeah, we hope we don't have to use them, either,” Sarah said.
“I appreciate that, Wally,” Noah said. “Now, why don't you show us things you think might be helpful.”
Those were apparently the magic words, because Wally giggled again, then turned and started off through the maze of workstations. He assumed the others would follow, and he was right. He came to a stop at one cubicle where two young women were working on what appeared to be iPhones.
“These are the phones we're giving you,” he said. “I wanted Marcia and Gina to show you what they can do. Come on in.” He opened a door into the cubicle and stepped inside, and once again they all followed. “Marcia, Gina, show us what you got.”
The two women turned to face their visitors, each of them holding an iPhone. The one on the left bore a nametag that read, “Marcia,” and the other was obviously Gina. “Hi, gang,” Marcia said. “We've got something here that we think might be pretty useful out in the field. You know about backscatter radiation, right? A way to look right through walls and such?”
The team nodded, and Marcia grinned. “Watch this,” she said, then tapped an icon on the phone's screen. She held the phone up in front of Gina with the screen facing forward, and the team saw what appeared to be a clear x-ray of her head. Her entire skull was clearly visible, and the image moved as she did. Marcia moved the device downward, and they saw her cervical vertebrae, then her sternum.
“That's cool, right?” Marcia asked. “But watch this, it's even better.” She took the phone away from her work partner and picked up a metal box. “Now, you want to know what's in the box, but it's locked, right? Just use this phone and who needs a key?” She passed the phone over the box, and they could see that it contained a gun and what looked like stacks of paper. She held it in position for a moment so they could all see, then pulled it away and opened the box. A Beretta handgun lay inside, along with three bundles of hundred-dollar bills.
“All you got to do is hold it up like you're taking a picture, and it uses a specially adapted emitter and camera that we designed right here to send out my new, almost undetectable bursts of electromagnetic radiation, then forms an image based on how that radiation is reflected back. You can use it to look through walls, examine the contents of a safe, scan people to see if they've got weapons on them, all that stuff. Pretty awesome, right?”
Noah reached out and took the phone from Marcia, then looked at his own hand through it. Each bone was clearly visible, and he could even see the ripples of muscles and tendons. He passed it to Sarah, who did the same thing and then passed it off to Moose.
Moose looked at his hand for a second, then suddenly held the phone up toward Noah's head. He stared at it for just a couple of seconds, then said, “I knew it! There's a computer in there!”
Everyone laughed but Noah, and even he managed a small grin. Neil was given a chance to look at the phone, and then Wally was ready to show them something else.
Once again, they moved through the maze of cubicles, and they were shown several items. One was a perfectly ordinary-looking forty-caliber Glock pistol, but they were shown that it was connected wirelessly to a ring worn on the hand of one of the technicians. He picked up the gun and calmly fired a shot into a ballistic catcher, then handed it to an assistant who seemed nervous. That fellow pointed the gun at the catcher, but when he squeezed the trigger there was no shot fired. Instead, he dropped the pistol and fell to the ground. His partner reached down and helped him get back to his feet, though it took a few seconds, then explained that the pistol had a stun system built into the grip. If the hand holding it wasn't wearing the ring that matched that gun, squeezing the trigger would do nothing but deliver a shock that would instantly incapacitate the person. Noah and Moose immediately requested their own, and Wally said they would be ready before the team left the building.
They saw other marvels of technology, as well. Besides the pistols, Noah selected a few other items that he found to be interesting. These included a pair of earpieces, similar to the Bluetooth devices that allowed you to remain hands-free with a cell phone. This pair, however, had their own built-in communications structure, working through cell towers and keeping them in constant communication with each other. They were slightly larger than the average Bluetooth headset, but that was because of the special battery they carried that could keep them working for up to seventy-two hours at a stretch.
There were also a number of disguised weapons, common devices that concealed guns or knives. One was a completely normal soda can, and the technician demonstrated how it worked by taking one ou
t of a cooler and opening it. He put it to his lips and took a drink, then held it in front of a ballistic catcher and tilted it as if trying to give a drink to the bullet-catching box. As soon as the liquid inside began pouring out, there was a loud bang, and the can leaped out of the technician’s hand. “It's a gun,” the technician said. “When you open it and take the first drink, it's armed. When it's tilted for a second drink, a forty-five caliber slug is fired straight up through the center. There's a three inch barrel, so it has plenty of punch to blow someone's head off. You can simply hand it to your target and let them open it and literally drink themselves to death, or you can open it yourself, take the first drink so that they suspect nothing, and then pass it to them.”
Another disguised weapon caught Noah's eye. It looked like an ordinary black plastic comb, but twisting it so that the ends were at ninety degrees to each other caused a quarter-inch-wide stiletto blade to shoot out of one end. The blade extended for about three inches, and when Noah tested it against a board, he found it to be incredibly strong and was unable to bend it. He twisted it again and the blade slid back inside.
He looked at Wally. “You got one of these I can take with me?”
Wally smiled. “Take that one. Trust me, we've got dozens more.”
“Holy crap,” Neil said. “Where was all this crap when I was getting the shit beat out of me in high school?” He looked around the building for a moment, then shook his head. “You know what blows my mind? There's as much brainpower in this building as there probably is in Silicon Valley, but here, it's all dedicated to new ways to kill people.”
Moose grabbed Neil's shoulders and gave him a little shake. “Neil, Neil,” he said. “I know it's hard for you to look at reality, but that's what we do, here. We kill people. Isn't it nice to have a complete laboratory working out new ways for us to accomplish it?”
FOURTEEN
