by David Archer
“Yes, I know,” Noah said. “I’ve avoided that as much as I could.”
Sarah looked up at him adoringly and slipped an arm up behind his head to pull him down for a kiss. He allowed their lips to linger on each other for a moment and then looked up at their guests.
“Something going on?”
“Not really,” Sarah said. “I was kinda lonely, so Neil was hanging out with me, and then Renée got off work early and the two of them came over. Marco brought a big basket of fried chicken—are you hungry?”
“Now that you mention it, I am,” Noah said as they walked toward the picnic table.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Sarah let go of him and jogged into the house, coming back a few moments later with a bottle of beer. She handed it to him and then sat down at his side, snuggling as close as she could.
“How’d it go, boss?” Neil asked. “Are they pounding your new identity into your head?”
“It isn’t that bad,” Noah replied. “Gary’s using a hypnosis technique. He put me under, then he played a recording that basically told me who I’m supposed to be and all about my new past. Rex Madison, at least the way we’ve manufactured him here, reminds me of some of the punks I knew back in high school. I didn’t have any trouble slipping into the character.”
Neil’s eyes were big and round. “Hypnotism? I’m not too sure how I feel about that. I mean, somebody hypnotizes you, they can make you do all kinds of things you might not really want to do.”
“No they can’t,” Noah said. “I actually read a lot about it a couple years ago. A person under hypnosis won’t do anything they don’t actually want to do. The reason that stage hypnotists can make people bark like dogs or hop on one foot, that kind of stuff, is because the people actually want to play along. There was a study done back in the late 1990s that found that most people who volunteer to be hypnotized on stage never really go under at all. They simply act the way the hypnotist tells them as a way to get their own few minutes of fame.”
Renée was nodding. “I read the same thing, back in college. As far as hypnosis to help you learn things, though, there is a staggering amount of evidence that it’s effective. I knew college students who used it on each other, especially when they were cramming for exams. It really seemed to work.”
“Hypnotism,” Marco said. “I don’t know a lot about it, but it seems a little spooky to me.”
“Hey, if it works, then it helps us stay alive,” Neil said. “If Noah can handle it, I guess I can.”
Noah turned his head suddenly, as a car seemed to be approaching the house. There were only a couple of other houses on his road, and it was rare for an unfamiliar vehicle to pass by, but he didn’t recognize the sound of this one. When it pulled up to his driveway and turned in, all three of the men rose to their feet.
It was a brand-new Jaguar, and its windows were tinted so dark that they couldn’t see in. Noah and Marco each moved toward the car as it stopped near the others, but then the driver’s window rolled down and Jenny smiled at them as she held both hands up to be seen. “I’m unarmed,” she called out with a smile. “I come in peace.”
The men relaxed as she climbed out of the car, and a moment later they were all seated at the picnic table. Neil ran inside and came back with one of Sarah’s wine coolers, passing it to Jenny, who had been introduced to Renée and was already munching on a chicken leg.
“Hey, this is good chicken,” she said around a mouthful. She quickly swallowed and actually blushed. “Sorry about that, forgot my manners. This really is good, though. Where did you get it?”
“Marco made it,” Renée said. “Hard to believe a macho hunk like this can cook, right?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Jenny said. “I’m always sort of suspected he might have a feminine side.”
“Hey,” Marco said, “we don’t need none of that. Ain’t nothing feminine about this macho hunk!”
“Okay, okay, I was just kidding.” She turned to Noah. “Noah, I wanted to come out and thank you. Allison explained things about Randy, and I just wanted to say thanks for finding a way keep him alive. There was a short time there when I was ready to kill him myself, but once he confessed everything and we knew what was going on, I kinda got over it.”
“No problem,” Noah said. “But the one you should be thanking is Neil. He was the one who figured out how to use the drugs to convince everybody Randy was dead.”
Jenny turned to Neil and gave him her nicest smile. “Really? Maybe I should have guessed. I tell you, Neil, the more I learn about you, the more I think maybe you’re just the guy I’ve been looking for.”
With the exception of Noah, the entire group chuckled when Neil turned pink. He lowered his eyes and said softly, “I just—Noah wanted me to find a way, so I—it was just the only thing I could think of.”
“I understand Randy will be coming back to your team?” Noah asked, drawing the attention away from Neil.
Jenny looked at him and nodded. “Yeah,” he said. “Allison says he’s going to be out for a few weeks, getting a new face and identity, but that I’ll get him back. He really has been a great help to me, and—well, something I’ve never told anyone other than the Dragon Lady and Donald is that Randy actually saved my life once. We were on a mission in Germany when something went wrong, and I was suddenly locked in a room with five really big guys who thought beating me to death would be great sport. When I didn’t come out of the building when I was supposed to, Randy came in looking for me. He heard the commotion and kicked in the door, shot two of the guys himself, and that gave me a chance to grab a gun. I took out a couple more, and then Randy got the last one just as he was about to shove a knife in my back.” She shrugged. “I don’t think I’ve ever really thanked him for that, now that I talk about it out loud. I have to remedy that, when he gets back.”
The six of them sat and chatted through the afternoon, but by five o’clock it was starting to cool off considerably. Sarah suggested they go inside so she could make dinner, but Marco and Renée begged off. There was a movie playing at the local theater they wanted to see, so they drove away a few minutes later.
Jenny agreed to stay, and so did Neil. They went inside and Jenny helped Sarah put together a medium-sized stack of sandwiches and potato chips; then they all went into the living room to watch a movie. Neil wanted to find something in the action genre, but Noah handed the remote to Sarah and told her to choose. The four of them settled on the couch that faced the big TV over the fireplace, with the men on the outside and the girls tucked into the middle.
Sarah chose a romantic comedy about a plastic surgeon who convinces his receptionist to pretend to be his ex-wife, part of a plan to persuade a beautiful younger woman to marry him. The four of them relaxed as they laughed at the antics on the screen, and somewhere along the line Neil realized that his arm, which had been on the back of the couch, had somehow ended up around Jenny’s shoulders.
Sarah had been watching them out of the corner of her eye and caught Neil glancing down at the pretty girl beside him several times. Jenny seemed to be focused on the movie, but Sarah could tell from the way she was snuggled in under Neil’s shoulder that she was enjoying the position. When Jenny glanced her way for just a second, the two of them shared a very small smile.
When the movie ended, Jenny said she needed to get home and get some sleep because she was going to have a big day. As far as locals knew, she was Randy’s cousin, so she was making arrangements for his “memorial service.” Publicly, it had been announced that his body had been cremated, but it had turned out that he had a number of friends in Kirtland. Noah, Sarah, and Neil all promised to attend the service the following evening, and Jenny rose to leave.
Neil decided he needed to go home at the same time. “I better get some sleep,” he said. “I’ve got to get with Molly in the morning to start learning about this new game.” He said good night quickly and followed Jenny out the door.
Alone together at last, Noah filled
Sarah in on his hypnosis session, describing as much as he could remember of the induction method and then surprising her with his retention of the many details of Rex Madison’s life that he had been fed. “Gary’s planning to use the same technique on everybody,” he told her. “I think it’s going to be very helpful for all of us.”
Sarah looked at him from under lowered eyelids. “But you’re not confused about who you really are? I mean, you know your name is really Noah, right?”
“Yes, of course,” he said. “It’s not like I really remember all this stuff, it’s just—any question that’s directed to me about the life of Rex Madison is going to trigger a response from the information that’s being embedded for that purpose. That’s the whole idea of using hypnosis, so that we don’t make an accidental slip that gives us away.”
Sarah seemed to relax a bit. “I wonder if the FBI agent went under something like that,” she said. “They said she’d been there like three years or something, right?”
Noah nodded. “Yes, but she’s just an observer. From what I understand, she basically just keeps track of new stories and rumors about the outfit, and reports back to Quantico. Considering the fact that seven other FBI agents have met with suspicious accidental deaths in that area, I think she must be quite a courageous woman.”
“It sounds like it,” Sarah said. “Just remember, she’s your sister.”
Noah looked at her in confusion for a moment, then recognized the humorous look on her face and knew that she was teasing him. “You don’t have anything to worry about,” he said. “There’s only one woman in this world for me.”
The rest of the week was busy, as Noah spent eight hours each day with Gary. Sarah resumed her sessions with Doc Parker, Neil spent each day with Molly, and Marco practiced his reversion to his Cajun roots.
In the evenings, it wasn’t uncommon for them all to get together at Noah’s place. Since he lived out in the country with no nearby neighbors except for Neil, they all felt comfortable hanging out there. Marco and Renée showed up around dinnertime each evening, and Neil was usually already there. Sarah made dinner a couple of times, Noah fired up the grill twice, and Marco surprised them once with a huge pan of what he called “bodacious gumbo.” Noah, Sarah, and Renée all agreed it was delicious, but Neil hadn’t made it that evening.
He had mumbled something earlier about having a date, but there was so much going on that no one had actually paid a lot of attention. It wasn’t until he came in late that night that they noticed Jenny’s car following him and parking next to the Hummer at the trailer.
“Somet’ing going on dere,” Marco said. “Looking like de boy done go sweet on dat girl.”
“It’ll be okay,” Sarah said. “I already warned Jenny that if she hurts him, she’s dead.”
Marco looked at the expression on her face for a long moment, then nodded solemnly. “Dat be enough,” he said.
Jenny’s car was still there the following morning, as Noah and Sarah each prepared to drive away. As they started out the driveway, she came out of the trailer and waved with a big smile. Both of them waved back and then turned onto the road to head to their respective appointments.
As soon as Noah walked into Gary’s office, the questions began. They continued throughout the day, only pausing as the two men went to lunch, but by three o’clock in the afternoon Gary pronounced Noah ready.
“I haven’t been able to trip you up for the last three days,” he said. “Considering that I know exactly where the weaknesses are in this background, if I can’t do it, then I don’t think anyone can. You have an amazing ability to actually become the character you’re playing, and that blows my mind.”
“Like I told you before,” Noah said, “I’ve been doing this all my life. It was how I survived, so it became a habit.”
“That just makes it even more amazing,” Gary said. He got to his feet and extended a hand. “You’ve got your ID and everything for the mission. Noah, all I can do now is wish you the best of luck, but I think you’ve got this. You literally become Rex Madison, so I don’t think you’re going to have any problem with that part of the job.”
Noah shook hands with him. “Thank you,” he said, and then he turned to leave.
Since it was a little early, Noah swung by R&D and asked to see Wally again. Just like before, Wally hurried out and ushered him back into his office. “Camelot,” he said, “good to see you, good to see you. Listen, I did a little more thinking about your mission. I still think the printed explosives are the way to go, but I came up with a few other little ideas on how you might put them to work.”
“Okay, I’m listening,” Noah said.
“Okay, okay, okay, here’s what I think. We talked about you giving people presents, but what about selling stuff to them? Remember I was talking about guns? If you started trying to give these people guns, they might wonder what was going on, and that started me thinking that they might even wonder if you were giving them things like pens and sunglasses. But what if you weren’t giving them anything? What if you just happened to have some really good deals on stuff they like?”
Noah lowered his eyebrows and cocked his head as he looked at Wally. “I think I see your point,” he said. “Just about everybody likes a good deal, and especially if it’s a bargain price on something they were planning to buy anyway. What you’re suggesting, if I read you right, is that I can take orders for guns or whatever, then just have Neil make them?”
“Actually, no,” Wally said. “I think we need to go ahead and send you one of the smaller printers, rather than the big one I had in mind. Instead, I took the liberty of setting up—well, I had somebody else set it up—it’s a little company that looks like a brokerage; it can get you anything you want. Donnie Jefferson liked the idea, and we put it all together so it looks like it’s owned by a guy that you did time with, somebody you’d be really close to. That way, you can tell people you can get them just about anything they want at real low, bargain-basement prices, and all you gotta do is find out what they want and make a phone call. I’ll put a couple of people on that line who can look up real quick what it would normally cost, and then you can tell those people they can get it for like sixty or seventy or eighty percent off if they go through you. How much you price it to them doesn’t matter—that’s just the way to hook them into wanting it and being willing to go through you to get it. We use the big printers here to produce the items and overnight them to you so you can deliver and collect. It all looks legit, and nobody is wondering why you’re playing Santa Claus all the time.”
Noah was nodding. “Now I know why they call you a genius,” he said. “Wally, this is brilliant. I think you just gave me exactly what I need.” He leaned forward in his chair. “Now, you’ll go ahead and set them up with detonators that will all go off at once, right? No matter what the item is, it will go off when I send the signal?”
“Exactly. No matter what it is or where it is, when you send the signal it goes boom.”
Noah stared at him for a couple of seconds. “This is probably the way we’re going to have to go,” he said, “but it’s bound to mean there’s going to be some collateral damage. There is almost no chance that every one of these people will be alone when that signal goes out, so there’s certain to be casualties other than the targets.” He lowered his eyes and thought for a moment, then looked back up at Wally. “The explosive is extremely powerful, right? What if somebody was wearing like a necklace, with a chain made of this stuff?”
Wally reached inside his shirt collar and pulled out a gold chain with an eagle dangling from it. Each link of the chain was roughly an eighth of an inch in diameter, the loops made of gold-colored wire that was about as thick as a pencil lead.
“A chain like this, made with our product, would completely sever the head from the body,” Wally said with a grin. “I think I see where you’re going. Now, even that could possibly kill someone who was sitting or standing very close, but if they were more than four or f
ive feet away they’d probably survive.” He blinked. “They might be deaf or blind, or have one bastard of a concussion, but I think most people would live through it. Only the person wearing the chain would be certain to die.”
“Okay. And what if I wanted some that wouldn’t explode? What I’m thinking of is maybe coming up with some kind of an emblem for this Morgan Mafia, something that we could put on a chain that everybody would want to wear. What if a guy thought it was so cool he wanted to give one to his wife, his girlfriend? Could you make some that wouldn’t blow up?”
“Of course, of course,” Wally said. “Remember, this stuff is absolutely stable unless it’s hit by our special detonator. That’s the only thing that’s going to create enough of the concentrated heat and the proper chemical reaction that sets it off. You can even burn it in a normal fire without it going boom. The only problem I can see is how you know the guy gives the right one to the wife or girlfriend, and keeps the loaded one for himself.”
“We make two different designs,” Noah said. “Maybe one is a little bigger than the other, something like that. Only actual members of the outfit get to wear the big one, and everybody else has to settle for the little one. We still run the risk that the wrong person might be wearing it when it goes off, but if this outfit is as disciplined and tightly controlled as they say, that’s probably going to be a pretty small risk.”
Wally clapped his hands. “And now who’s the genius? I still wouldn’t rule out selling them other things, though. From what Donnie and Allison have told me, it’s pretty important this mission succeeds, even if there is some collateral damage. If one of these people left his necklace at home that day, he’s still pretty certain to have his gun, right? Can’t hurt if they both go off at the same time.”
Noah nodded again. “You’re right,” he said. “I just personally prefer to limit nontarget casualties whenever I can.”
Noah’s phone rang suddenly, and he pulled it out to look at the caller ID display. The call was from Neil, so he answered it quickly. “It’s Noah, go ahead.”
