by David Archer
Noah suddenly snapped his fingers. “Then, that explains how I got here, right?”
Sarah stopped the car in a parking space and stared at him. Moose and Neil both leaned forward into the space between the bucket seats, their own eyes locked on his face.
It was Sarah who finally broke the silence. “Babe,” she said, “we all understand that you don’t really have much of a grasp on humor, so when you try to make a joke, all it does is come off as really disturbing.”
Noah looked from one to the other, blankly. “Does it really? I used to do it all the time, Molly said it would help me seem normal.”
“I can see that,” Neil said, “but let me ask you a question. Did Molly ever laugh at your jokes? If nobody else was around, I mean?”
Noah’s eyebrows came down just a bit. “Now that you mention it, I don’t think she did.”
Neil was nodding his head. “That’s because she knew you the way we do. We’re fully aware that you don’t have, as she put it, certain parts of the normal human programming. We’re used to you just being yourself around us, so when you try to act ‘normal,’ all it does is send a chill down our spines. Please don’t do that anymore, not when you’re just with us.”
The eyebrows popped back upward, and Noah got out of the car without response. The rest of them followed and they walked into the restaurant.
The next two hours were occupied with eating. Sarah surprised herself again by eating more than she had expected, but all three of the men made multiple trips through the line. Yankee pot roast, fried chicken, pork chops, beef ribs and several different varieties of fish made it onto their plates, along with generous helpings of mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans and sweet corn on the cob, and all of them finished up with ice cream, brownies and banana pudding.
There was no talk of missions or enemies, because the place was just too well packed. Noah had cued the rest of them to use their cover names by looking at Sarah and asking, “Rosie, baby, would you get me some iced tea, please?” From that moment on, they referred to each other as Wyatt, Rosie, Jimmy and Lenny.
They were finishing up dessert when Noah’s phone rang. The caller ID said the call was coming from Brigadoon, so Noah answered instantly. “Yes, Sir, this is Wyatt,” he said.
Parker chuckled. “Well, hello Wyatt,” he said. “Doc Holliday, here. I thought you might like an update on Annie Oakley.”
“Yes, Sir, I sure would. How’s she doing?”
“Meaner than a striped-ass snake! The doctors say the swelling in her brain has gone down, and she’s regaining most of what she lost. I can tell you that her tongue is definitely back to normal, because she’s been lashing me with it for the last two hours. Her abdominal surgery went through without a hitch, and the bullet in her leg didn’t do a whole lot of damage, so those aren’t much of a concern, right now. They’re going to keep her a few more days for observation, but she’ll probably be back in her office within a week.”
“Tell her we’re all glad to hear it, Sir. How about Mr. J?”
“He’s at home, now. I did find out that he lost about a third of his left lung, but he’s in good enough shape in general that it shouldn’t affect him too much, according to the doctors. He’s been ordered to stay off work for at least a month, possibly longer.”
“Again, good news. Things are going okay out here. I’ll call in a report later today, if that’s okay.”
“Yes, as soon as you can. I’m curious about a report we got of three known mercenaries who seem to have met an untimely end out your way.”
“You know my business motto, Sir, eliminate the competition.”
“I thought that might be how it was. Call me later with more details.”
“Yes…” Noah didn’t get any further because the line went dead. Everyone else had finished up while he was talking—even Neil, who literally scraped the minute bits of banana pudding from the bowl—so they got up and left.
As soon as they were in the car, Noah filled them in on Allison and Jefferson. All three of the others expressed delight that their bosses were doing so well, and then Noah called Doc Parker back.
“Report, Camelot,” the old man said.
“Yes, Sir,” Noah replied. “Three of Nicolaich’s men followed us this morning after we left Molly’s office. I decided it was time to send Nicolaich a message of my own, so we allowed them to trail us out into the countryside. I spotted an abandoned industrial building and instructed Sarah to pull in suddenly and drive behind it. Moose and I jumped out of the car and waited for our shadows to appear, and I took out the driver first. The car crashed and the other two climbed out. By the time they got to their feet we were able to disarm. One was Pasquale Morabito, who refused to tell me anything, and the other was a man named Tom Bridger. Bridger offered to reveal Nicolaich’s location if I would kill Morabito, so I did. Afterward, Bridger admitted that he didn’t know where to find Nicolaich, but said that Nicolaich calls his daughter every Wednesday at precisely 11 local time. Neil said that he could trace the call to get a location, and I killed Bridger to ensure that he could not warn Nicolaich.”
“Excellent work. Of course, I’m certain you considered the possibility that this is part of Andropov’s plan, that he may have deliberately planted this Bridger with such a suggestion. He’s quite capable of sacrificing his own pawns for a chance to capture a king.”
“Yes, Sir, I think that’s quite possible. Bridger may have been instructed to offer the information if confronted, and to sacrifice Morabito to make it more believable. If that’s the case, Nicolaich will undoubtedly be gone by the time we arrive, with snipers in place to try to take us out.”
“Exactly. When I saw the report come in about the three casualties, I suspected that it might have included information that could lead you into a trap. I can’t risk losing you right now, so I’ve taken the liberty of requesting a Delta Force squadron to be placed under your command. They’re being transported to you in a C-130, and you should hear from their commanding officer within the next three hours. Your orders are to separate them into response teams and deploy them around the area. That way, at least one of them should be within a reasonable distance if you get a location on Andropov. Let them handle the takedown, Camelot. Stress to them that there is no need to take Andropov alive. His corpse will suffice and can be positively identified. We obtained samples of his DNA from the broken glass Ms. Child used to put out his eye. It seems our man in Moscow has some connections with the police, there, and was able to get it after your confrontation with him in the bar.”
“Yes, Sir,” Noah said. “Under the circumstances, that’s a logical decision. May I request permission to join the active engagement when it begins?”
“Camelot, we’re talking about Delta Force. These guys are the equivalent of SEAL Team Six, the active engagement will probably be over before you can get there, but permission granted anyway. Just don’t get yourself killed in the process.”
The phone went dead and Noah relayed the instructions to the rest of the team.
“Okay, that just sucks,” Neil said. “I know I got shook up when you killed that guy earlier, but I was looking forward to watching you take out Nicolaich. Attacking Neverland was a mistake, and he needs to pay for it.”
“He will,” Noah said, and the coldness in his voice was deeper than usual. “It’s well after five. Let’s take a ride down by Molly’s place and see if we can pick up another shadow.”
“You got it,” Sarah said as she backed the car out and pointed it in the right direction. “Um—is this going to be like the last time?”
“I’m not sure,” Noah said. “Depends on how they react. Odds on, they already know what happened to the last batch. I doubt they’ll be so easy to draw into any kind of a trap.”
“What’s to keep them from just opening fire on us?” Neil asked. “I understand this is a supercar, but I don’t think it’s bulletproof.”
“It probably isn’t,” Noah said, “but I don’t
think that’s something we have to worry about. Nicolaich isn’t likely to want someone else taking me down. Whatever he’s up to, he simply wants to know where I am and what I’m doing.”
“Wait a minute,” Sarah said. “I thought we were certain he was still going after Molly.”
“He almost certainly is, but with the security we’ve got on her right now, it would be damned hard to get to her. It isn’t likely he’ll try it tonight; he’ll want to observe the heightened security for at least a couple of days, first. On the other hand, he’s probably getting frustrated that we keep losing his tails. He’ll have somebody there just to watch and see if I show up. We don’t want to disappoint them, now, do we?”
SEVENTEEN
As Noah had predicted, a white Ford Crown Victoria was parked less than a block from the entrance to Molly’s subdivision. Sarah had to drive past it as they approached the entrance and Noah looked into the car as they did so, smiled and waved at the four men inside and then watched in the visor mirror as the car pulled out behind them.
“Amazing,” Neil said. “They seem to think it’s a good idea to stay back a ways. Wonder what gave them that idea?”
“I’m sure Nicolaich is monitoring police radio traffic,” Noah said. “Somebody would have found the results of our earlier handiwork by now, so they’ve undoubtedly been told to do what they can to stay out of range. All they’re supposed to do is keep us in sight and try to find out where we’re staying.”
“Oh, that’s peachy. What do you say we disappoint them on that part, can we do that?”
“I second that motion,” Sarah put in.
“Don’t worry, I have no intention of letting them trace us back to the hotel. With any luck, we can stay completely off their radar until after Nicolaich makes his call tomorrow. If the situation is unresolved tomorrow afternoon, we’ll need to find a new base of operations. There are only so many hotels in the area; sooner or later, Nicolaich would find us.”
“Yeah, I was thinking about that when we were back at the hotel,” Neil said. “I looked around online to see if there might be a better place and found a couple of good prospects. There’s an extremely private estate sitting in the middle of forty acres on the Potomac River that caught my eye, and it’s less than thirty minutes from DC. No staff, and all it would take to rent it for anywhere from a week to a year is a phone call.”
“Good, we’ll keep it in mind. Hopefully these Delta Force operators can bring this to a conclusion tomorrow so that it isn’t an issue. If not, we’ll snatch that up.”
They spent the next two hours just riding around the Metroplex, keeping their followers occupied. When Sarah glanced down at the gas gauge and saw that it was getting low, she looked over at Noah.
“We’re gonna need gas,” she said. “Want me to shake them now?”
Noah was quiet for several seconds, then shook his head. “No. Everyone get weapons ready, just in case they decide to make a move. Go ahead and hit the next gas station. You’ll all stay in the car, and I’ll get out to pump the gas.”
Sarah swallowed hard, but she pulled into the next gas station as she was told and parked beside the pumps. The Crown Victoria drove on past the gas station, but then pulled over and stopped less than half a block ahead.
“Keep the weapons ready, but it looks like we don’t have a problem,” Noah said as he got out of the car. He walked around to the driver’s side and inserted a credit card into the pump, then removed the nozzle and began filling the tank. As the gas flowed in, he stood there and watched the white car.
The occupants were apparently watching in the mirrors, because no one turned around to look at him. He waved in their direction and the sudden bobbing of heads inside confirmed that they were keeping an eye on him, even though they carefully avoided looking directly back in his direction.
When the pump clicked off, he put it back and secured the gas cap, then walked around to get back into the car. As they pulled away, the Ford fell in behind them once again.
“Yep!” Neil said. “They know what happened to the last guys, they’re not going to get close enough to let us get a shot at them, are they?”
“Us?” Moose asked. “As I recall, Noah and I were the only ones who did any shooting.”
Neil spun his head toward Moose and stuck out his tongue. “I would have pulled the trigger, if you guys didn’t have it already under control. Sarah and I were only there as backups, remember? Trust me, if I have to, I’ll pull that trigger!”
“Don’t let him get your goat, Neil,” Sarah said. “I swear, you two really must be brothers, the way you bicker.”
Moose grinned. “Hey, you two are always treating him with kid gloves. Somebody has to stay on his ass, might as well be me.”
Noah sat quietly in his seat, occasionally raising his eyes to look at the Ford in the visor mirror. His analytical mind, however, was making note of the fact that his team had so well developed into a close and loyal unit that they were all comfortable picking on each other.
His phone rang as he was having these thoughts. “Hello?”
“Camelot?”
“Yes, go ahead,” Noah said.
“Sir, this is Captain Oliver Hayes with Delta Force Squadron A. I have orders to report to you for assignment.”
“Yes, Captain. Where are you now?”
“Sir, we just landed at Joint Base Andrews, but we are currently being loaded into a pair of buses that will take us out to a Joint Special Operations Command facility near Dulles. If you like, we can meet there. Is your phone secure?”
“Yes,” Noah said. “Can you text me the GPS coordinates?”
“Hell, I’ll just send you the address. The place looks like an old motel, but you’ll need a pass code to get past the guard shack. I’ll send you that, as well. We should be there in just about an hour, look forward to seeing you then.”
“That sounds good, Captain,” Noah said. “We’ll meet you there.”
He ended the call, but his phone buzzed only a moment later with the address and pass phrase that would gain them entrance. Noah tapped the address and his phone’s GPS immediately began giving directions. It would take them slightly over half an hour to arrive, but first they had to lose the Crown Victoria that was following.
“Okay, Babe, it’s time to shake our tail.”
Sarah grinned, then rolled down her window and stuck her hand out into the air. “Just waving bye-bye,” she said, then pulled her hand back in and powered up the window. A moment later she made a hard left turn and gave the turbocharged Hemi engine its head.
The car shot forward as if it had a JATO rocket strapped to its tail, and the Crown Victoria was hopelessly left behind within three blocks. Sarah weaved around a semi truck and then tapped a button to change the silver car to yellow just before braking hard in order to take an on-ramp for I-495. Noah watched in the visor mirror as the Crown Victoria sailed past the ramp in a vain attempt to catch up to the elusive silver Chrysler.
Sarah dropped her speed to eighty-five miles per hour, keeping up with the traffic on the loop highway. They would have to make their way around most of the Alexandria/Annandale area to get to I-66 for the rest of the trip to their destination.
“That was awfully easy,” Neil said. “Would you expect them to be better at following someone?”
“Not really,” Sarah said. “They were hanging back so far that it was easy to put some distance between us. They were trying to keep their eyes on a silver car more than two blocks ahead, they never noticed a yellow one going up the on-ramp. If I’d had this car back when I was running blocker for my dad, we never would’ve gotten busted.”
Neil and Moose looked at each other, and Moose shrugged. “What’s that mean, running blocker?” Neil asked.
Sarah laughed. “Unless it was absolutely necessary, Dad didn’t want me actually stealing a car myself. Instead, he’d give me something fast and flashy and I’d use it to keep the cops off his ass. I’d get in front of them and slow down,
weave around so they couldn’t pass me, and he’d get away with whatever car he had just snatched. As soon as he was out of sight, I’d shake the cops the same way we just shook those idiots.” She twisted her face into an irritating grimace. “That’s how I got caught and ended up at E & E. We tried it one time too many in San Francisco and the cops caught on. I was driving a new Mustang and they managed to get one ahead of me. He T-boned me in the passenger side, but my dad saw it in the rearview mirror and came back to see if I was okay. He was surrounded by the time he got out of the car and they tased him, then stuffed him in a squad car and took him to jail while they were still waiting for an ambulance for me. I woke up the next day with tubes sticking out of me and my leg in a cast, and Allison was sitting there looking at me. She told me that if I would join E & E, she would see to it that my dad didn’t do any time and would be offered a big-money job using his skills to help the FBI fight interstate auto theft. I agreed, and as far as my dad knows, I died in that wreck.” A single tear made its way down her cheek. “Anyway, if I’d had this? They could have kissed my ass!”
All three of the men were silent for a moment, but then Neil reached up and patted her shoulder. “I hope you won’t take this the wrong way,” he said, “but I’m pretty glad you did get caught. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have you to make sure we get where we’re going in one piece. I don’t think anybody could outdrive you.”
Sarah smiled again. “Mario Andretti, maybe, but I think he’s dead. Isn’t he dead?”
“Just a minute, I’ll tell you—nope, he’s not dead, he’s just old.”
It was almost seven thirty when Sarah pulled up to the gatehouse at the JSOC Compound, and two Marines carrying M4 rifles stepped out and flanked the car. Noah rolled down his window.
“I’m here to meet Squadron A. Pass code is 14 Alpha 5-9 Zulu Charlie.”
“Your name, Sir?” the guard asked.
“The name is Camelot,” Noah said.
“Yes, Sir, you’re approved for entry. Please follow the blue stars on the roadway, they’ll take you directly to the TOC. There’s a Colonel Abrams there waiting for you now.”
