Highest Order_An Action Thriller Novel

by David Archer

  “It’s interesting,” Noah said, “but not really to my tastes. I prefer Anglo Gothic or Russian styles, especially in older buildings. The curves in this one, the odd little patterns of ceramic items that cover the outside, that just doesn’t strike me as functional.”

  “I can agree it doesn’t seem very functional,” Marco said. “Me, I like more primitive constructions, like log cabins and old American buildings. Those are the kind that appeal to me.”

  “That’s because your brain is primitive,” Neil said. “Neanderthal, almost.”

  Marco grinned. “I resemble that remark,” he said.

  They continued looking around a while longer, and then Noah decided it was time to check in with Jorge. He took out his phone and dialed the number again, and Jorge answered on the second ring.

  “Camelot,” Noah said.

  “Good timing. Okay, I’ve got everything set up for you. Can you get to the airport?”

  “Yes, we can take a taxi.”

  “All right, perfect. There’s a store in the duty-free area called Tascon. Meet me there in forty minutes. You’ll know me when you see me, I’ll be wearing a purple hat.”

  “We’ll be there,” Noah said. He put the phone in his pocket and pointed at a taxi across the street. The driver agreed to take them back to the hostel to get their bags, and then on to the airport.

  Finding the store proved to be the most time-consuming part of the trip. The duty-free section was rather large, and the store was close to one of the ends. When they finally found it, they had no trouble spotting Jorge. His purple hat was the center of attention for a group of children, who were pointing at it and laughing.

  Noah looked around carefully before approaching him, just to be sure no one was paying attention. When he didn’t see any apparent surveillance, he told the others to wait while he walked up to the man who was E & E’s local operative.

  “Jorge?” Noah asked.

  The man turned and smiled at him. “Jimbo,” he said. “Man, I thought I’d missed you. You guys ready for some lunch?”

  “Sure,” Noah said, returning the smile. He waved at the rest of the team, and they came walking toward him.

  “Okay, come on,” Jorge said. “I found a quiet spot close to one of the pizza places. You guys all like pizza, right?”

  “Love it,” Neil said. “In fact, I’ve been craving it all day.”

  “Then I’ve got you covered,” Jorge said. He led the way to the food court area, and bought several large slices of pizza in different varieties, then took the group to one of the picnic style tables that was away from other diners. They all sat down and began eating, while Jorge lowered his voice.

  “Okay, this isn’t the best way to do this,” he said. “I’ve got ID for each of you, including American drivers licenses, passports, and a couple of credit cards each. The cards draw on special accounts we keep back for this type of situation, something nobody else in the government would even know about. If you don’t go crazy, you could live on them for a couple of years.” He carefully slipped a hand up under his shirt and began passing out envelopes under the table. “Take them into the bathrooms to look at them, don’t open them out here. You’ll also find a few hundred euros and around two hundred pounds sterling, British money, your plane tickets, and a set of codes to reset your cell phones with new numbers. You are on British Airways flight 1429, which leaves in about an hour and a half. You’ll need to be past security at least twenty minutes before departure time, so eat up and get going.”

  “Okay, I just got to ask,” Jenny said. “You’re American, right? With that accent, I mean?”

  Jorge grinned. “Born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, but I’ve been over here for almost 4 years now. I get the same question from locals all the time, who think I must’ve been raised right here in Barcelona.”

  “I’m just glad you speak English,” Marco said. “I can handle French, but Spanish was the worst subject I ever had at school.”

  “Well, around here, we speak Catalan, although most people can speak Castilian as well. That’s what you call Spanish. I actually like it when some of you come over, because I get to practice my English.”

  “Well, you haven’t lost it,” Neil said. “Thanks for everything, Jorge.”

  “No problem, that’s my job. You guys better get moving, if you’re going to make the flight. You’ll meet up with the London chief when you arrive at Heathrow. He’ll be there waiting for you, so look for the sign with your name on it.” He aimed that last at Noah. “Listen, guys, have a good trip and stay safe. I’ve got to get going, I have a local job I have to take care of, as well.”

  Jorge walked away, and Noah told Sarah and Jenny to hit the ladies room, while Neil and Marco went to the men’s. Noah would stand guard over their luggage until they came back, and then he would make his own trip to the restroom.

  Marco was back within minutes, and Noah slipped into the men’s room and went straight to a stall. He closed the door behind him and opened the envelope.

  The ID documents told him his name was Travis Lightner, originally from Memphis, Tennessee. He rid himself of the ID he had been using for the mission, tucking it into the now empty envelope. He took the precaution of breaking the credit cards and ripping up the passport, since they were now replaced with new ones.

  Reprogramming his cell phone was a simple matter. A slip of paper held four strings of numbers. When he entered the first string, it opened a special settings menu. He chose “Reset Number,” and then entered the second string. The phone then asked for a confirmation code, which was the third string, after which it went back to normal. The fourth string of numbers was his new cell phone number, which was on a British exchange.

  As he left the stall, Neil was also coming out of one. They nodded at one another but said nothing until they were back at the table with Marco and the girls.

  “I’m Travis Lightner,” Noah said.

  “Somebody was watching over us,” Sarah said with a grin. “My name is Penny Lightner.”

  “John Davis,” Marco said.

  Neil shrugged. “Gary Jamison. At least they won’t be hard to remember.”

  “I’m Stacy Jamison,” Jenny said, looking at Neil with a grin. She held up her hand and showed him the simple wedding band that had been in her envelope. “Maybe we can consider this a trial run?”

  That got her a smile from Neil.

  Noah nodded. “All right,” he said. “Let’s exchange phone numbers.” It turned out that all of the numbers were assigned to the same exchange, and it took them only a minute to add in the new contacts. “Good. Marco, I’m sending you through security first. Once you make it to the gate, send Neil a text message. Sarah and I will come next, with Neil and Jenny coming last. Once past security, we don’t acknowledge each other until we land at Heathrow.”

  “You got it, boss,” Marco said. He picked up his bags and walked away, passing through the duty-free once again. He stopped and bought a book at one of the stalls, then proceeded to the security checkpoint.

  Fifteen minutes later, Neil’s phone chirped to indicate a text message. Weather’s nice over here, it said. Come on over and visit.

  Noah and Sarah went directly to security and checked in, while Neil and Jenny hung back for a few minutes. When a few other people had gotten between them, they also stepped up to the line, and fifteen minutes later, the five of them were sitting on benches at their departure gate. They all sat quietly, pretending to be tired, and only occasionally speaking when another tourist addressed them.

  “Any idea when we’ll know something?” Sarah asked softly.

  Noah shrugged. “I’m going to check in after we get settled in London,” he said. “Maybe Uncle Don will know something by then.”

  Sarah sat beside him, leaning against his side while he kept an arm around her. “You know, as much as I wouldn’t mind getting out of this life, I don’t want anything bad to happen to Aunt Alice. She’s never been anything but good to us.”<
br />
  “Yeah. I feel the same way. You know, it’s possible I’ll have to take care of some business to help her out. I might need to go back home for a while.”

  She looked up at him. “I know,” she said. “Because I know you. You couldn’t leave her stuck with a problem like this, any more than you could leave me in a bad situation. That’s just how you are, but you’re not going without me. I’m pretty sure everybody else would feel the same.”

  Nodding, Noah said, “I figured that out. We’ll just have to wait and see. For now, we’re going to do exactly what we’re supposed to and stay low.”

  A dozen feet away, Neil and Jenny were having a similar conversation.

  “What will you bet,” Neil asked her, “that Noah decides to go back and try to rescue Allison?”

  “Um, how about we don’t bet? There’s no way he’d leave her in this situation, and neither would the rest of us. If he goes, you know we’re all going to go.”

  Neil grinned and pulled her closer. “That’s where I was going,” he said. “If this goes bad for her, I think we’ll end up breaking her out of wherever they put her. She can go off the grid with us.”

  “Well, I’m hoping it doesn’t go bad,” Jenny said. “I—I need this job, you know? It takes care of that certain part of me. If it comes to an end, I’m not sure how long I’d last.”

  “We’ll figure something out,” he said, and then he chuckled. “This has got to be the weirdest romantic conversation ever,” he said. “I’m trying to reassure my girlfriend that I’ll help her cope with it if she has to give up her hobby, which happens to be something terribly frowned on in polite society.”

  Jenny looked up at him, and her face reflected sadness. “Are you starting to regret being with me? Because of my—hobby?”

  “No, and don’t even think that,” Neil said. “Baby, while I might not always do the things you do, we are in the same line of work. I’ve had to do those things before, and I can even tell you that I understand how it can become—I’m looking for the right word, maybe addictive? The first few times were hard, but after that, I started to realize that I could do it when I need to.”

  Jenny looked at him for a long moment, but didn’t say anything more. They sat quietly together until the flight was finally called, and then they were the first ones to board the plane because they were closer to the door.

  Their seats, it turned out, were directly behind Noah and Sarah. Since Noah had suggested they not board together, they pretended not to notice. Neil had allowed Jenny to take the window seat, and Noah did likewise with Sarah.

  Marco boarded last, and found that his seat was all the way at the back of the plane. He ignored the two couples as he made his way down the aisle, then buckled his seatbelt and opened the book he had bought.

  Twenty minutes later, after some last-minute minor delay, the plane was in the air. The flight wasn’t a long one, a little less than two and half hours. Noah, Sarah, Neil, and Jenny watched a movie on the seatback screens and tried to relax, but it was difficult with so much unknown.

  The flight landed at Heathrow at just past two thirty in the afternoon. It took a few minutes for all of them to get off the plane, and then they met up at the baggage claim area.

  “Don’t look now,” Sarah said, “but we’ve been spotted.”

  “What do you mean?” Noah asked.

  “Well, if I remember correctly,” Sarah said, “we are actually supposed to be staying out of England, right? Which is probably why an old friend of ours is standing over there grinning at us right now. The only question is whether she’s here to say hello or to drag us off to jail.”

  Noah turned and looked, and saw Catherine Potts, E & E’s liaison with MI6, coming toward him.

  “Mr. and Mrs. Lightner?” Catherine asked. “I trust you enjoyed your flight?”

  Noah gave her a smile. “We did,” he said. “We weren’t expecting to see you this trip, though.”

  She winked and leaned close, lowering her voice to a whisper. “The station chief was supposed to meet you,” she said softly, “but he was unavoidably detained by a friend of mine. I thought I’d rather come and see you settled in safely, myself. I hope you don’t mind.”

  “Then I take it,” Noah said, “you’re here in your capacity as our resident liaison? Rather than as an official of the British government?”

  “I’m here as your friend,” she replied. “I picked up a memo that was intended for Mr. Kendall, the station chief, and managed to decipher it. It made reference to ‘Arthur’s abode’ coming here to drop off the radar for a while. Doesn’t take a bleeding rocket scientist to figure out what that means, so I wanted to come and see to you myself. Kendall is dealing with one of my superiors, trying to explain his way out of a little mess I might’ve created for him; he’s the tourism officer at the American embassy, and a couple of tourists got into some minor trouble yesterday. He’ll be fine, but he was glad to let me take care of this for him. Have you got everything?”

  They had all picked up their luggage, and followed Catherine out through the terminal. She had a diplomatic transit van with her, and invited them all to climb inside. It was roomy and spacious, with large, comfortable custom seats. Noah and Sarah sat just behind the driver’s compartment so that Noah and Catherine could talk.

  “All right, we can speak freely in here. I think you know that, besides my dual capacity between E & E and MI6, I’m also a special ambassador to Her Majesty. Because of that, I felt it absolutely necessary to brief her on your situation, and she instructed me to ask you not to cause any kind of trouble while you are guests in our country. She also told me to wish you luck in whatever the situation is that brings you here, and that she regrets she will not be able to meet with you. Officially, you are not here at all, and no one but myself, Mr. Kendall, and Her Majesty are aware of your presence.”

  “Please extend to her our thanks,” Noah said, “and our pledge to stay as low and quiet as we possibly can. That’s the whole point of coming here, to be off the radar for a while.”

  “Right, I know. Now, can you tell me what the hell is going on stateside? All we’ve been told over here is that Lady Allison has been removed from her position as director, and that there is an investigation going on.”

  “At the moment, that’s about all we know. If you’re certain this vehicle is clean of wiretaps, I’ll try to find out something now.”

  “I had it swept thoroughly an hour before I left to pick you up,” Catherine said. “I’d love to know what’s actually going on.”

  Noah took out his phone and dialed the office number. It was answered right away.

  “Brigadoon Investments, how may I direct your call?”

  “Would Mr. Donaldson happen to be in? It’s Mr. Arthur calling.”

  “One moment, please.” Hold music began, but it vanished only a few seconds later.

  “Camelot, report,” said Donald Jefferson.

  “We are in the fog,” Noah said. “All secure and comfortable. Any news on your end?”

  “Nothing worth talking about,” Jefferson said. “Some members of the committee are supposed to go and see Allison today, but we don’t know what’s going on. So far, we can’t even find out who started this witchhunt, and we’ve been allowed no contact with Allison at all. Your orders are to stay off the grid and out of sight until further notice. Unfortunately, I have no idea how long this might last.”

  “Understood, sir,” Noah said. “Is there anything we might be able to do to help?”

  “Lord, no,” Jefferson said emphatically. “I don’t want you anywhere near the U.S.A. until this is over, you got that? Right now, these people don’t know for sure who you are, but there’s very little chance we’re going to be able to keep it that way for very long. Best you get accustomed to your new identities, because they may be the last ones you ever use. And by that, I mean that I expect you to live a long time under those names.”

  “Yes, sir. I can assure you, we will do our be
st. You know how to reach us if you need to?”

  “Absolutely. Our text message system can find your phones no matter where they are, or what numbers are assigned to them. I can promise you that we’ll let you know as soon as we have any information that can help you.”

  “Thank you, sir. Camelot out.” Noah ended the call and dropped the phone into his pocket. “No new developments,” he said. “There’s a Senate committee that seems to think we’ve been violating some rule about not operating within the United States, even though it doesn’t apply to us, and only the DOJ can request actions within our borders. They decided to go after Allison, but they’re also trying to identify my team and arrest us, as well. Jefferson says we are not to return to the United States at all until this is settled, and to get comfortable in our new identities.”

  Catherine shook her head. “What a bloody mess,” she said. “Well, as for getting comfortable, I’m going to help you with that. Kendall had already made arrangements for your accommodations, which is where I’m taking you. You’ll be living just outside the city, near Guildford. It’s actually an old manor house, called Feeney Manor.” She grinned at Noah in the mirror on her sun visor. “It’s not quite a kingdom, but you get to be the lord of the manor.”

  “We’re actually supposed to be keeping a low profile,” Noah said. “Is this going to work?”

  “Of course,” Catherine replied. “Kendall said he was told to give you means, so you are now the owners and stockholders of a company that sells books through the internet. As far as anyone can tell, it’s making you quite the tidy fortune.”

  Chapter NINE

  The drive to Feeney Manor took just over half an hour, and Sarah, Jenny, Neil, and Marco were all excited when they got a good look at it. The house was huge and built of stone, with a dozen chimneys protruding from its tiled roof.

  “Limestone,” Noah said. “I wouldn’t think there would be a good limestone quarry around here.”

  “And you’d be correct,” Catherine said. “The stone for this mansion was transported from Brighton, nearly a hundred kilometers away. That was back in the time of William the Conqueror, around 1070. It was once owned by William Sutherford Feeney, who was Attorney General during the early 1900s. That’s where it got its name, of course.”