by David Archer
Wally’s smile got even bigger. “We’ve got several sets made,” he said. “I’ll make sure to have one ready for you in the morning.”
The food arrived a few moments later, and they all dug in. They chatted a bit as they ate, but Noah, Sarah, and Neil were quite hungry, so they tended to listen more than speak. Jenny told them about her latest mission, which had involved the assassination of a Colombian drug lord, and Neil was careful to express shock, horror, and admiration in the right places. He’d already figured out that Jenny often second-guessed herself and needed some kind of approval for the way she handled her assignments in order to avoid self-doubt. The more he gave her, the happier she seemed to be in their burgeoning relationship.
When they finished dinner, Wally convinced them to stay a bit longer for a couple of drinks. Noah decided to forgo any alcohol, since he knew he would be going into surgery before long, but didn’t object when Sarah decided to have a wine cooler. Considering that there was still a chance the explosive in his arm would kill him before the evening was over, he figured the small bit of alcohol in the bottle might help ease her nerves slightly.
Wally’s phone chirped about half an hour later, and he glanced at it. He smiled and then looked up at Noah. “They’re ready,” he said.
The five of them, including Jenny, headed for the door. Wally took care of the tab, and then Neil decided to ride back to R&D with Jenny. That let Wally sit behind Sarah and stretch his legs out a bit more comfortably. It took them only a short time to get back, and the security guards did not even challenge them as they entered with Wally.
Wally led them straight back to where the hyperbaric chamber still sat in its trailer, and they were met by Tom and Bob, the electronics technicians, who had already given the doctors their handiwork.
Dr. Slocum was looking at it closely, comparing it to the image on the X-ray. “Looks almost identical,” he said. “Certainly seems to be the same size and shape. We shouldn’t have any problem at all sliding this right in where the other comes out.” He looked up at Noah. “What we’re going to do is use a cylindrical extractor. It’s sharp, like a hypodermic, and will pierce the skin the same way it was done when this was put into you, and we’ve got a tiny mechanical grapple that we can slip through it. That will grab on to the device and let us pull it out, and then we’ll drop it into the containment canister and use the same system to put the new device into place. The whole procedure won’t take more than twenty minutes, but we need to completely deaden the area first. I don’t even want to put a needle into you there until we’re inside the chamber and under pressure.”
“And then, of course,” Dr. Reed said, “once the explosive is in the containment canister, we have to decompress. Now, the pressure won’t be a lot higher than it is out here, but decompression will still take about a half hour. We’re probably looking at an hour, hour and ten minutes, from the moment we go in until we come out.”
Wally grinned and rubbed his hands together. “Which is why I’m going to take Neil and these lovely young ladies back to my office, where I have a rare and expensive bottle of wine I intend to share with them. By the time you come out, Noah, we’re all going to have a pretty good buzz going on.”
Sarah started to protest, but Jenny took her by the arm and pulled gently. Noah leaned down and kissed her, then gave her a little push in Wally’s direction. “Go ahead,” he said. “I’ll be there in an hour or so.”
Sarah stood there and stared at him for a moment, tears starting to flow down her cheeks. “You better be,” she said, and then she let Jenny lead her away.
Neil stood there beside Noah for another moment, then just held out a hand. The two of them shook, and Neil followed Jenny and Sarah.
CHAPTER FOUR
“Let’s get you inside and prepped,” Slocum said, and Noah walked up the stairs onto the trailer. Dr. Reed opened the first thick steel door, and the three of them stepped inside. The door closed behind them and was secured with a large wheel that slid a number of bolts into place.
“This is sort of an airlock,” Dr. Reed said. “Go ahead and strip down, and we’re going to spray you with an antiseptic mixture. It’ll probably be pretty cold, but there isn’t a way to warm it up, I’m afraid.”
Noah shrugged. “I’ve taken some pretty cold showers,” he said. “I doubt it can be much worse than that.” He stripped out of his clothes and stood where he was told as the doctors sprayed him down, and then he was handed a thick paper towel.
“Wipe yourself off with that,” Slocum said. “That solution will kill any germs that might have been on you, so that we won’t be risking any infection once our extractor punctures your skin. Once this is done, we’ll be using surgical superglue to close the puncture back up, so a simple stick-on bandage will be enough to protect it after that.”
He pushed a button on the wall and Noah heard a hissing sound.
“That’s the pressure valve,” Dr. Reed said. “It’s letting pressurized sterile air into this room so that we can open the door into the next one.”
The two doctors removed their anticontamination suits, and Noah saw they were wearing scrubs underneath. Slocum picked up a hypodermic that was lying on a shelf and turned to Noah.
“Would you lift your arm, please? I want to go ahead and deaden the area.” Noah did as he was told, and the doctor injected the area around where the device had gone in four different times. “That’ll take a couple of minutes to work, but it should stop you from feeling any pain once we begin.”
There was a loud beep, and Reed spun the wheel on the inner door, then pulled it open. “In we go,” he said with a smile. Noah stepped into the actual operating room and saw that it was very much like any other he had ever seen, although a bit smaller. The lights were very bright, and there were many different kinds of surgical instruments lying on trays near the operating table. “Jump on up there,” Slocum said, and Noah did so, lying on his back. Dr. Slocum picked up a blanket and laid it over his lower half, concealing his nudity.
Dr. Reed took hold of Noah’s arm and positioned it on a shelf that extended out from the table, twisting and turning it a bit to get it right where he wanted. “Hold it right there,” he said, and then he nodded to Slocum, who went to the other side of the table and affixed a blood pressure cuff to Noah’s right arm, then began sticking sensors to his chest.
“This is just a precaution,” he said. “I’ll be monitoring your vital signs while Dr. Reed performs the procedure. It’s probably not necessary, but we don’t want to take any chances. If your blood pressure drops drastically or your heart rate slows or speeds up, we want to be certain we are aware of it and can take whatever action is necessary.”
“Okay,” Noah said. He felt a strange sensation on his left arm and glanced over to see Dr. Reed poking at it with a sharp implement.
“Can you feel that?” Reed asked.
“I can feel pressure,” Noah said, “but I can’t feel the point of that thing. Kind of feels like you’re just pressing on it with a finger.”
Reed nodded. “We’re ready, then,” he said. He turned around and picked up another implement, a long tube with a large hypodermic needle–type point on one end. Without saying anything else, he leaned close to Noah’s arm and quickly pushed the sharp end into his skin.
Noah could feel the point moving around inside his arm, but there was no pain. It seemed to be searching, and he realized the doctor was trying to find the implanted device with the point. There was a slight thumping sensation a moment later, and Dr. Reed smiled.
“There it is,” he said. He picked up another device, something that looked like a miniature broom made of wire, and slid it into the center of the extraction tube. He pushed it farther in, and Noah felt a slight sensation as it came into contact with the implanted microbomb. Reed seemed to concentrate hard for a moment, and then he grinned. “I’ve got it,” he said. “Now, what I’ve got to do is push the extraction tube farther in around it. If I tried to pull it, I mi
ght lose it, so I’m just going to hold it in place while the tube frees it from the surrounding tissues.”
Noah felt a few odd sensations, and then Reed smiled again. “Okay, here comes the tricky part. Dr. Slocum, are you ready?”
Noah glanced at the other doctor and saw that he was holding the containment canister, a round metal container with walls that seemed to be a couple of inches thick. It was about the size of a coffee can and filled with water. There was actually very little space inside, and the lid was on a hinge and looked like a miniature vault door. There were several thick rods that would lock it into place once it was closed. Slocum was holding it over Noah’s chest and leaning forward to get it as close to his left armpit as possible. “I’m ready,” he said.
In a very quick motion, Dr. Reed withdrew the flexible grapple and dropped the microbomb into the containment canister. Slocum slammed the lid and turned the center of it once, and Noah could hear the rods lock into place.
Both of the doctors suddenly wore expressions of great relief, and Noah realized instantly just how terrified they had been. If the device had blown, none of the three of them would have survived it.
“Okay, the hard part’s over,” Reed said. “From here on out, it’s all downhill.” He picked up the little transmitter Tom and Bob had made and fitted it into the extraction tube, then used the flexible grapple to push it down and into the same spot where the bomb had rested only a minute earlier. As soon as he was satisfied that it was in place, he withdrew the grapple and pulled out the extraction tube, then applied the superglue to the slightly gaping hole.
“We are all done,” he said with a smile. “How are you feeling?”
Noah looked up at him. “Haven’t really felt anything,” he said. “I imagine I’ll be a little sore tomorrow, but it already was, so I might not notice.”
Slocum chuckled. “Your vitals are all perfect,” he said. “I’m going to start the decompression sequence, so we should be able to leave here about half an hour from now.”
There was a vibration that began, and Slocum told Noah that it was the decompression valve. It would slowly reduce the pressure by opening and closing rapidly, letting only a tiny bit of pressure out at a time.
“Is decompression actually necessary?” Noah asked. “I didn’t think we were actually under enough pressure to require it, were we?”
“Probably not, to be honest,” Dr. Slocum said, “but we decided to err on the side of caution because, as minor as it was, you did just undergo a surgical procedure. It’s entirely possible that some of that pressurized air got inside your body. If we let the pressure off too quickly, there’s always the risk of an embolism, and you’re just too valuable for that risk. Another half hour isn’t going to kill you, but rushing actually could.”
Noah nodded. “Okay, I can see the logic in that.”
“Yes,” Dr. Reed said with a smile, “I thought you might.”
Noah looked over at the canister. “What’s going to happen with that?”
“I understand Wally wants to examine it,” Slocum said. “Something about finding out how much power it actually contains. He seems to think it might involve some kind of technology that was stolen from us, but I’m not sure whether he means the explosive or the controller. Until then, the canister can maintain the pressure so that it won’t go off on its own.”
“I’ve seen what his explosive can do,” Noah replied. “I can’t say I like the thought that thing might have been made of the same stuff he came up with a while back. If it is, it would’ve taken off more than my arm.”
Slocum gave him a wry grin. “Yeah, there probably wouldn’t have been anything left of you.”
“Or anyone within twenty feet,” Reed added. “I got to see what that explosive can do a while back, myself. That’s some powerful stuff.”
Noah sat up on the table, and the three men chatted while they waited for the decompression to complete. When the machinery finally beeped to say it was safe to leave the chamber, Slocum opened the door into the airlock, and Noah picked up his clothing.
“I smell like iodine,” he said. “Is there a shower around here I can use?”
“How about this?” Slocum asked. He held out a jar and several of the thick paper towels. “This is a cleanser we use on our hands,” he said. “Just scoop some out and spread it over yourself, then it will wipe right off and not leave a residue. Sorta smells like cheap aftershave, but that’s better than smelling like iodine.”
Noah thanked him and used the cleanser and towels as directed, then agreed that he smelled better as he got dressed. When he was finished, Dr. Reed opened the outer door and they stepped out into the late-afternoon sun. The air was slightly cool, but Noah paid no attention to it as he skipped down the steps and led the way back into the building.
A moment later, he tapped on the door to Wally’s office-slash-workshop and then turned the knob. Sarah leapt out of her chair when she saw him and threw both arms around his neck.
“Oh, God, I was so scared,” she said, trembling as he wrapped his arms around her. “Are you okay? Did everything go all right?”
“I’m fine,” he said, “and it’s gone. It’s okay, babe.”
Neil, Jenny, and Wally were standing around them, each of them patting his shoulder or congratulating him on the successful removal of the device. Noah thanked each of them, especially Wally, and then suggested they go home. “We’ll be back in the morning,” he said to Wally, “to pick up the phones. They should all be done by then, right?”
“Oh, yes, yes,” Wally said. “They’ll actually be done within a couple of hours, but I’m sure you want to get home and get some rest. I’ll be here at seven, so you can pick them up anytime you want to after that.” He patted Noah’s right shoulder one more time, then leaned close. “I think you better take this girl home and just let her hold on to you for the night,” he said softly.
Noah nodded and turned to go out the door with Sarah clinging to him. Neil and Jenny, holding hands, followed them out to the parking lot, then climbed into Jenny’s car, and they made a small convoy back to the house.
They’d all had a late lunch and weren’t terribly hungry, even though it was a little after six thirty by the time they got there, so Sarah broke out some bags of chips and soft drinks to snack on. The four of them went into the living room and found a movie, but Neil and Jenny couldn’t seem to concentrate on it. About halfway through, they excused themselves and headed over to Neil’s trailer.
Sarah looked at Noah. “They seem to be getting pretty serious,” she said. “Think there’s anything we need to worry about?”
Noah shook his head as he looked into her eyes. “They’re both adults,” he said. “I’ll grant you that it sometimes feels like Neil is part of the family, but we’re not his parents. I don’t think Jenny will hurt him, so we might as well just let it play out.”
“I’m actually a little more worried about him hurting her,” Sarah said softly. “While we were waiting in Wally’s office, Jenny told me she’s happier with him than she’s ever been. I guess he’s the kind of guy she’s been looking for, the kind who doesn’t mind taking charge in the relationship. I just hope he doesn’t get tired of it.”
“He won’t,” Noah said, “not anytime soon. Neil has a lot of alpha traits, but between his height and his brains, he’s always been picked on. He’s finally developing the confidence he’s needed, and it’s showing in his personality. That’s why he and Lacey broke up, because he couldn’t handle her trying to run things. I think Jenny gives him what he needs, and he does the same for her.”
Sarah giggled. “I’m sorry, I just still have problems trying to understand how Jenny, with the way she loves to be violent and murderous out on the job, can be so—I don’t know, I guess submissive is the right word, with Neil. It just seems like such a contradiction.”
“I see what you mean,” Noah said with a shrug, “but it really isn’t. On a mission, she has to be the team leader and in contro
l, and the violence is just something inside her that lets her do the job. When she’s off duty, though, she can let that part go and just be herself. Her idea of a proper romantic relationship seems to include a man who takes care of her, and the only way she can have that is to let him be in control when they’re together. As long as it works for the two of them, that’s all that matters.”
She popped a potato chip into her mouth and crunched it, then smiled up at Noah. “I know what works for us,” she said. “And it isn’t this movie.” She kissed his cheek and got up, heading toward the bedroom. Noah waited a full minute before following, then stripped down and joined her in the shower.
The sexy negligee he had told her to pack was completely forgotten.
* * * * *
Noah woke up just before six in the morning, then took another quick shower while Sarah slowly came to life. She entered the bathroom as he was about to get out, told him to leave the water on, and pushed past him to get one of her own. She was out by the time he had finished shaving, and they were both dressed and ready to go a half hour later.
Noah started to walk across to Neil’s trailer and wake him, but Neil and Jenny came out the trailer door at that moment. They waved as they crossed the yard, and Sarah came out a moment later.
“I need breakfast,” Neil said. “Charlie’s?”
“That’ll do,” Noah said. He and Sarah got into the Charger as Neil and Jenny climbed into her Jaguar. Noah pulled out first, with Jenny following closely.
It was already seven o’clock by the time they got to Charlie’s, so Noah called Wally to let him know that they would be late.
“Hey, no problem at all,” Wally said. “I’m actually running a little late myself, not there yet. I’ll see you after breakfast.”
They were sitting at their table, their orders already in, when Noah heard his name. He glanced around to see Marco coming through the door and headed in his direction. The burly man grabbed a chair and turned it around backward, straddling it and crossing his arms on the back. Since their table was off to one side, Noah wasn’t worried about being overheard as long as they kept their voices low.
