Balance of Power - An Action Thriller Novel (A Noah Wolf Novel, Thriller, Action, Mystery Book 7)

by David Archer

  Noah hesitated, making it seem that he was honestly thinking it over. “No,” he said simply. “Now what do you want?”

  “I want you to understand that you belong to me now,” the voice said. “I want you to know that there is absolutely nothing you can do to stop me, and that failure to obey my orders will result in the death of one or both of your parents. Do you understand that?”

  “Yeah, I understand, but I need you to understand,” Noah said, sounding nervous. “Do you have any idea who I work for? If they ever find out…”

  “I know exactly who you work for, and I know exactly who you are. The only way your employers could ever learn about this contact is if you tell them, so you need to be more afraid of yourself than of me. I’m certainly not going to reveal anything about it, and the messages I sent you will vanish from the servers any second now. There’s no possible way you can prove this conversation ever took place, because even the number you dialed is untraceable. After we get off the phone, it will revert to being the private number of a doctor in Alabama.”

  “Then what was the point of all this? What good is it for you to threaten me if…”

  “The point is that you know what you must do. I will contact you when I need your services.”

  The line went suddenly dead, and Neil stopped recording. Noah looked up at him.

  “So, were your bugs able to trace the email origin?”

  Neil opened his computer and woke it up, then started tapping on the keys. He stared at lines of data that streamed across the screen, then suddenly struck the table with his fist.

  “It was bounced too many times,” he said. “We didn’t get enough data to trace it back.”

  Noah nodded. “Then we wait for him to contact me again. Neil, we don’t discuss this on the phone with anyone. I need you to go to Allison’s office today and let her and Jefferson know about this one. You probably ought to get hold of Molly, too.”

  Neil nodded as he closed his computer and stood. “I’ll head that way right now. It’s always possible he left some kind of trail when he hacked that phone number, too. We’ll try everything we can think of.” He walked out the door.

  Noah leaned back in his chair and looked at Sarah. “Well, the plan seems to be working. For now, we just keep on acting as normal as we can. Let’s get ready for our usual morning routine.”

  Sarah smiled sadly at him. “I guess the honeymoon really is over, isn’t it?”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  The rest of the day and the weekend passed with no further development, and Noah and Sarah continued acting as if nothing had happened. Nothing about the mole was ever discussed over telephones, and it was considered too risky for members of the team to keep making appearances at the office.

  On Monday, Doc Parker was brought up to date and became part of the information relay. The next time Noah was contacted by the mole, Sarah would tell Parker, who would then visit Allison. This way, since Parker was often in and out of the offices, it was less likely anyone would pay any attention, while Allison and Jefferson were kept fully in the loop.

  It wasn’t until that Thursday that Noah heard anything further. He received another email message from the same automotive website, but this one contained only a phone number, a different one. With Sarah beside him, he took out his phone and dialed.

  The same distorted voice answered. “I have a job for you,” it said. “Do you understand what will happen if you refuse?”

  “Yes, I do, dammit,” Noah said, sounding angry. “But you need to understand that I can’t jeopardize my job, and I won’t betray my country.”

  “You will do whatever I tell you to do,” the voice said, “or your father will suffer the consequences. There is a man in your organization who is aware that you would be working with me. This makes him a danger to both of us, and so I want you to eliminate him. He should not be hard for you to find, and I’m certain you will be able to take care of the situation. His name is Randy Mitchell, and just in case you feel some kind of loyalty to him, you should know that he was the one who gave me your identity. He must be eliminated within the next forty-eight hours. I will make contact with you again after that is done.”

  The line went dead. Noah looked at Sarah. “I’ve just been ordered to kill Randy Mitchell within the next forty-eight hours.”

  Sarah’s space took on a crestfallen expression. “Oh, Noah,” she said. “How do you plan to handle this?”

  “I’m leaving that up to Allison. It’s possible she’ll tell me to go ahead and do it, but I want it to be her decision.”

  Sarah nodded. “Yeah, really. Well, I’ll tell Parker this morning. Forty-eight hours isn’t a lot of time, so hopefully they’ll get back to you pretty quick.”

  They got dressed and headed out to their usual morning, with Sarah visiting Doc Parker and Noah taking his group of trainees for yet another run. He had been pleased to note that no one had dropped out of his group when he gave them the chance, and they were all managing to keep up with him to some degree.

  When the run was finished, he drove back to pick Sarah up as usual, but she stepped out the door and motioned for him to come inside this time. He climbed out of the car and followed her in, and she led him into Parker’s office.

  “I have a secure line to the main office,” Parker said without preamble. “Allison wants to speak with you.” He picked up the handset of a wireless phone and handed it to Noah. “She’s already on the line—go ahead.”

  Noah put the phone to his ear. “Camelot,” he said.

  “About time,” Allison said. “Sarah filled me in on your phone conversation this morning. I’m a little concerned about how to handle this, to be honest. We know that he had Randy, and apparently he had the girl in North Korea, under his thumb, so it’s quite possible he’s got someone else within our organization. In fact, it’s almost certain, so it’s doubtful he’ll believe you if you simply tell him it’s done. The problem is that we have no idea who else might be tied to this bastard, so it won’t be easy to fake Randy’s death.”

  “I agree,” Noah said. “He’ll have someone who can absolutely confirm Randy’s death, and for all we know it could be someone in the morgue.”

  “Exactly. I just hate the idea of having to kill him after he’s done everything he possibly could to help us bring this son of a bitch down. Any ideas?”

  “Assuming the mole does have someone else inside, I don’t know how we could actually fake his death in a way that wouldn’t be found out. The only other possibility would be to eliminate him, or appear to, in such a way that there isn’t a body to examine. I’ve got no idea how to do that, but if I come up with one I’d need Marco and Neil in on it. The only problem with that would be how to make it convincing.”

  Allison was quiet for a couple of seconds, then spoke. “Do what you can. I don’t want to lose Randy right now, not if we can avoid it. But, Noah, if you can’t come up with a foolproof way to fake it, then he is expendable. It’s absolutely imperative that you gain the mole’s confidence, even if it means you have to eliminate Randy.” The line went dead, and Noah handed the phone back to Parker.

  The old psychiatrist looked into Noah’s eyes. “I could hear most of that,” he said. “I don’t know the details, but there’s more than one way to make someone appear to be dead, even allowing the body to be examined, but still let them survive it. Talk to that whiz kid of yours—he’s got a mind like a walking encyclopedia. If anybody can figure it out, I’d bet on him.”

  Noah nodded. “That was going to be my next move. I’ve heard of things like that but usually just in movies. I figure if there’s really a way to do it, Neil would be the one to find it.”

  He turned to Sarah. “Let’s go,” he said to her. “I’ve got to move fast if I’ve got any chance to pull this off and get away with it.”

  Parker said nothing more as they walked out of his office, and they were in the car and moving only seconds later. “Tell me exactly what you think of Renée,” Noah
said suddenly. “Can she be trusted?”

  Sarah looked at him, her eyes wide. “Renée? I don’t know her all that well, but she seems pretty nice. Well, as nice as anyone connected to this outfit can be, anyway. Why?”

  “Because she works at R&D, and I’m probably going to need some things from out there. Trouble is, I can’t go out and ask for them, so I need someone on the inside there. Call Marco and tell him we’re playing cards tonight and to bring her along. Try to let him know, without coming out and saying it, that it’s absolutely urgent they show up. I’ll get hold of Neil when we get back home.”

  Sarah looked at him for another moment, then took out her own cell phone and punched the icon for Marco. He answered after a couple of rings.

  “Marco, it’s Sarah,” she said brightly. “Hey, listen, Noah and I want to play some cards tonight. Do you think you can convince Renée to come along? It’d really mean a lot to us to have another couple there, and you guys are our favorites.”

  “Yeah, we were planning on getting together tonight, anyway. Want us to bring anything?”

  “Just be sure you both come,” Sarah said. “We really, really want to play.”

  “Well, then put some beer in the fridge. Oh, hey, what time?”

  “How about six? I’ll have dinner ready by then, okay?”

  “Six o’clock,” Marco said. “We’ll be there.”

  “He says they’re coming,” Sarah said to Noah. “I think he caught the hint that it was important.”

  Noah nodded but didn’t say anything. When they got back to the house, he stopped the Corvette beside Neil’s trailer and walked up to knock on the door.

  “Hey,” Neil said as he opened it. “Everything okay?”

  “I have to come up with a way to make it look like I killed Randy Mitchell. I’ve got Marco and Renée coming over this evening, and I’m hoping to recruit her to help us get anything we might need out of R&D. I need you to come help me figure out a way to pull this off.”

  “Right now? No problem, I was just loafing anyway. I’ll grab my computer and be right over.”

  Noah got back into the car and drove over to his own house, and Neil was walking across the yard as he and Sarah opened the door. The three of them went in and sat at the kitchen table, and Sarah put on a pot of coffee.

  “Okay,” Neil said, “I was actually kinda dozing on the couch when you knocked. Did you say we have to kill Randy, or make it look like we did?”

  “We need to come up with a way to make it seem like we did, but it’s possible the mole has other people within our organization who will be trying to verify. What I need to do is come up with something that will convince anybody that he’s dead, but without actually killing him. If we can’t come up with an answer, then I’ll be forced to put him down for real.”

  “Well, considering what he did to Sarah, I’m not going to lose a lot of sleep if that happens. Why are we going to any effort to keep him alive?”

  “Neil,” Sarah said, “the guy was blackmailed into doing what he did. If he’d done it for money, I’d probably volunteer to blow his head off myself, but all he was trying to do was protect his little sisters. As much as I hate what happened, I can understand why he did what he did.”

  “Besides which,” Noah said, “Allison thinks he’s still an asset. She’d prefer not to have him eliminated at this point, if we can come up with a way.”

  Neil rubbed his hands over his face, then looked at Noah again. “So, what are we thinking? Car bomb, maybe? Take him out on the boat and give him some concrete overshoes?”

  “Maybe nothing so drastic. In movies, they sometimes have a drug or something that makes people appear to be dead. Is there actually such a drug?”

  Neil’s eyebrows went up. “Well, yeah,” he said. “It’s pretty tricky stuff to use, though. Tetrodotoxin is what it’s called; it comes from the livers of puffer fish and the venom of the blue-ringed octopus. Just a minute, let me look it up.” He turned to his computer and started tapping on the keys. A moment later, he turned it around so Noah could see the screen.

  “It takes an extremely small amount to completely paralyze a human body to the point where the person would appear to be dead. No detectable pulse, no detectable respiration, body temperature starts dropping—the only problem is that there’s a very fine line between ‘he looks dead,’ and ‘oops, he really is dead.’ I don’t think there’s ever been any kind of study on just what the dosage should be to get the effect you’re looking for.”

  Noah stared at the screen for a moment, then looked up at Neil. “This is what’s so frustrating about having to be careful who knows what we’re up to,” he said. “If this were a sanctioned mission, I’d just go out to R&D and ask Wally. I’d be willing to bet someone out there knows exactly what dosage we should use.”

  “And they probably have some in a refrigerator out there,” Neil said, nodding. “Which, I suppose, is why you’re hoping to corrupt Marco’s girlfriend tonight, am I right?”

  “Yes. When we invited them over, I hadn’t really come up with an idea, but I was almost certain I’d need something from Wally’s department.”

  “But why involve Renée?” Sarah asked. “Why not just go to Allison and see if she can get it for you?”

  “No,” Neil said, “Noah is right. The Dragon Lady, if our mole has people inside, would be the main one he’d want them to watch. How often does she go out to R&D? The answer is just about never, because she doesn’t go into the field.”

  “Well, only when she’s going out to recruit someone, anyway,” Noah said. “No, the smaller the group that knows about this, the better. I’m taking the chance that Renée can become an unofficial member of the team, at least while the mission is to take down someone like this.”

  “Okay, I guess,” Sarah said. “I just wish we knew her a little better. I mean, if it was Elaine I wouldn’t hesitate, but we haven’t really spent that much time around Renée yet.”

  Noah looked at her for a moment, then turned to Neil. “Can you tap into her cell phone? If there’s even the slightest chance she’s been corrupted by the mole, then she’d almost certainly try to send some kind of message to him that she’s coming over here tonight, wouldn’t you think?”

  Neil rolled his eyes. “I could do that in my sleep,” he said. “Anybody got her number? I can use that to get her ESN, and then my computer can record every call or text or email, or anything else she does on it.”

  Sarah gave him the number while he called up the program he would use, and it took him less than half a minute to have it all set up. He looked at the screen for a few seconds, then broke into a big smile.

  “Check this out,” he said. “She’s got an app on her phone that already records every call, every text, every single keystroke. There’s about three gig worth of data stored, which would probably be about the last two weeks or so. I’m setting up a search algorithm to look for anything suspicious in it right now.”

  “How long will it take?” Noah asked.

  “That much data? Probably an hour or so, but it’ll tell us if there’s any kind of increased risk to letting her in on this. I can’t say for certain that not finding anything would mean she was clean, but I think it might give us a general indicator.”

  “Then do it. We need every indication we can get of who we can and cannot trust.”

  “It’s running. Now, here’s a question for you. Assuming we find some way to make Randy look completely dead without actually killing him, how are you going to get him to cooperate? I’m pretty sure he’s smart enough to realize that a slight miscalculation in the dosage might make him enter ghosthood a lot earlier than he wanted to.”

  Noah blinked. “Why would you expect me to let him in on the secret? If it did scare him, he just might go running straight to the mole to try to talk him out of it. That would ruin everything we’re trying to do.” He shook his head. “If we can get our hands on the drug, my next move is to find a way to deliver it without him seeing
it coming. It’s got to be as much a surprise to him as to everyone else. Absolutely everyone outside of our small group has to think he’s dead.”

  “Then what’s going to happen to him?” Sarah asked. “I mean, he’s gonna be lying in a morgue in some kind of coma, right? How do we make sure he doesn’t get buried alive?”

  “That’s a good point,” Noah said. “I’m probably going to have to find a way to make his body disappear. We can’t bring anyone else in on this, so it would be strictly up to me.” He looked at Neil. “I’m assuming there’s a way to wake him up?”

  Neil shrugged. “Epinephrine, probably. I’ll see if I can find anything on the dark web about this. If anybody has ever used this stuff, that’s where I would find it.” He turned back to his computer and started tapping on the keys.

  Noah and Sarah sat and watched in silence as Neil worked his magic. Page after page of data rolled across his monitor, and the skinny young man’s fingers almost flew over the keyboard. He kept at it for more than twenty minutes without taking his eyes off the screen, then suddenly asked, “You guys got anything for lunch? I’m starving.”

  Sarah’s eyes went wide and then rolled sideways, but she got up and opened the refrigerator. It was a matter of only a few minutes to make sandwiches out of leftover steak and pile potato salad onto plates, and she set one at each of their places. Neil reached out and picked up his sandwich without appearing to even look at it first, took a huge bite, and then smiled.

  He chewed quickly and swallowed, then said, “I got it. TTX, tetrodotoxin, isn’t enough by itself, but a highly unethical and illegal study done by the Russians in the 1960s found that a cataleptic state—completely indiscernible from death, but from which the victim will awaken—can be induced by the injection of one milligram of TTX along with twenty milligrams of haloperidol for every forty-five kilograms of body weight. That equals about a hundred pounds, so somebody weighing 150 pounds would need roughly one and a half times that dose. The victim will be completely without signs of life, even though heart rate and respiration are still present, but faint, for up to thirty-eight hours. And no, there is no need for an antidote. The victim will slowly increase respiration and heart rate in the last couple of hours and should regain mobility around the same time.” He looked up at Noah. “One of the more interesting things they found was that the victims are usually wide awake and fully aware of their surroundings the whole time, but simply incapable of doing anything to let anyone else know what’s happening to them.”