by David Archer
“Let it go, Neil,” Noah said. “There’s nothing you can do, and it wasn’t your fault. You have to let it go or it’ll eat you alive.”
“Yeah, and that’s from the man who can’t even grieve over the woman who loved him. Forgive me, boss, if I don’t think you’re all that qualified to advise me on emotional matters, okay?”
“We all grieve in our own ways, Neil,” Marco said, but Neil cut him off.
“Not him,” he said. “Noah doesn’t grieve at all. He doesn’t even know how.”
The kid shook himself, then, as if he was just hearing the things that were coming out of his own mouth. “Noah,” he said, “man, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean any of that...”
“Let it go, Neil,” Noah said.
Noah and Jenny had both called in before leaving Thailand, and both were scheduled for debriefing the following morning, Noah at nine AM and Jenny at eleven. Noah climbed out of the Hummer and walked into his house without even saying goodbye to Neil and Marco. Marco got into his own car and drove away while Neil cut across the yard to park beside the trailer he rented from Noah.
Inside the house, Noah dropped his luggage and went into the bathroom. He took a quick shower, then walked into the bedroom and pulled the covers down on the bed and climbed into it. He set an alarm on his phone and closed his eyes, drifting to sleep only a few minutes later.
Noah Wolf dreamed only rarely, and most of his dreams involved the afternoon his parents had died. That was the tragic event that had shaped the rest of his life by leaving him completely devoid of emotion. It was a rare form of PTSD known as histrionic affect disorder, but rather than cripple him, the condition had allowed him to form a code of ethics all his own, one that made him the incredibly efficient soldier and killer he had become.
On this particular night, however, he had a dream that was completely unrelated to that tragedy.
He was lying in bed, and suddenly felt Sarah’s arms go around him. He turned his head to look at her and saw her face. It was bruised and bloodied, and the expression it wore was a pleading one.
“I’m not dead, Noah,” she said in a hoarse whisper. “Don’t leave me behind.”
“I won’t,” he replied. “But I have to find the trail before I can come for you. I won’t give up, I promise you. Stay strong, Sarah, and I’ll find you.”
She stared at him through bloodshot eyes for a moment, then shook her head. “No, you won’t,” she said, and then she was gone.
Noah awoke instantly and turned to look at her side of the bed. For the first time in many years, it took him almost an hour to get back to sleep.
When the alarm went off, Noah rose and dressed quickly, then made himself a cup of instant coffee and carried it to the Corvette. He started the car up and backed out of the drive, then hit the road toward Allison’s office in the conference room.
He arrived ten minutes early, but Allison’s secretary told him to go on in. Donald Jefferson was already there, just setting out the doughnuts, and Allison came in only a moment later.
“Report, Camelot,” she said. “Tell me what the hell went wrong out there.”
Noah had not shared his suspicions with anyone yet, and especially not over cell phones that were on two separate continents. When he had called in, he’d simply said that he would make a full report during his debriefing.
“Somebody sold Sarah out,” he said. “I haven’t figured out who yet, but I suspect it was someone on my team. While I don’t believe Neil would ever betray her, I haven’t ruled him out as a suspect. If it was one of mine, I’d have to put my suspicions on Marco.”
Allison didn’t seem surprised, but Donald Jefferson leaned forward. “Sold out to whom?”
“I have no information about that,” Noah said. “While it may have been coincidental that Sarah was taken from the prison, the fact that she was in the possession of the Nay Thas and was then sold to someone before she was broken and trained tells me that the buyer had to have known something about who she really is. When I saw what was obviously lots of her hair scattered among ashes at the temple, I realized that she had not only been compromised, but was being turned over to someone for interrogation.”
“And yet you did nothing about it before leaving Thailand,” Allison said. “That sounds odd, Noah, especially for you.”
“Pak involved the monks of the temple in the deception, so that tells me this is a lot bigger than just trying to cover up a girl sold into sexual slavery. While I might have gotten some information on where she was taken by torturing him, the people he surrounds himself with make it more likely that we all would have died in the attempt. I had to decide whether it was more important to attempt to retrieve her or to find out how she was compromised and identify the traitor, and I chose the latter. The security of E & E has to take precedence over the life of any particular agent. Once I know how this happened, I’m going to request permission to go back after her.”
“Then you believe whoever has her was told who she is and who she works for?” Allison asked.
Noah nodded. “Logically, it’s the only scenario that makes sense. I’ve gone over the mission repeatedly, and every member of both teams had at least one opportunity to make contact with someone, and that includes our people in Thailand.”
Allison nodded back. “I agree with your conclusions,” she said. “I’ve already got CIA working on our people over there, to see if any of them might have been compromised, but the reports thus far are clean. As for your team and Jenny’s, I frankly find it hard to believe that any of them could have betrayed us this way, but I can’t deny that I’ve seen it happen before. Agents who seem loyal and trustworthy may harbor feelings of resentment or dissatisfaction that lead them to betray teammates, organizations, even the country. At this point, no one is above suspicion.” She looked him calmly in the eye. “That includes you, Noah.”
Noah nodded. “Of course. I’ve been considering possible avenues of investigation, but I wanted to discuss all of this with you before making any recommendations.”
Allison shook her head. “First, you made the statement a moment ago that every member of both teams had at least one chance to make contact and sell Sarah out. Explain.”
“There are three logical possibilities.” He held up one finger. “First, the people who took Sarah out of the prison may have known already who she was, and the roundup of girls may have been nothing but a smokescreen to hide the fact that they were after her in particular. If that were the case, then the most logical scenario would indicate someone from the E & E station in Bangkok, or it could be that either Marco or Neil made contact with a foreign agent and revealed that she was coming in. Marco was out of my sight twice before she got to the prison, and Neil is capable of making contact with anyone through his computers, possibly even right under my nose.”
Noah held up a second finger. “The second possibility is that the roundup actually was coincidental, and that the unknown persons who took her were contacted after the fact. Marco and Neil are still possible suspects, but now we have added factors: Jenny and her team. Jenny spent several hours inside the prison posing as Sarah’s sister, and it’s possible she was compromised and gave up information to save herself, or sold it to benefit financially. David Lange went out with Neil to purchase some equipment, and could have made contact while he was out of Neil’s sight. Randy Mitchell and Jim Marino also had opportunities to communicate with someone unobserved.”
“Have any of them displayed what you would consider atypical behavior?” Jefferson asked.
“Nothing that I can specifically identify. Neil has acted perfectly normal for Neil, and while it’s possible he could have done this, I personally find it inconceivable. Marco seems occasionally dissatisfied with my decisions, but he never offered me any argument and always obeyed my orders. Jenny’s team is unfamiliar to me, but their behaviors were consistent from the moment I met them.”
“What about the third possibility?” Allison asked.
&n
bsp; “At Jenny’s suggestion, we involved two women from the E & E station in Pattaya. It’s entirely possible that one or both of them have some sort of contact with Pak and the Nay Thas. If so, the fact that an E & E agent had been captured in the roundup might have been too tempting an opportunity to pass up. That information would undoubtedly be extremely valuable.”
Allison leaned back in her chair and looked at him. “I detest the thought that any of my people could have done something like this,” she said, “but I can’t find any flaws in your deductions. As I mentioned previously, I have CIA going over all of the communication and activity logs of our people over there, and they haven’t found anything yet that could be a discrepancy. What do you recommend as the next step?”
“I considered suggesting polygraph tests, but most of the people in our line of work could probably beat one. What about a deception expert? From everything I’ve read, it’s impossible to prevent the minute facial expressions and body language they watch for.”
Allison frowned and ran a hand over her face. “It’s difficult, but not impossible, and especially not for anyone with psychopathic or sociopathic tendencies. Unfortunately, the people best suited for this work display some of those. Donald and I have both been trained in deception detection, but we’ve been fooled in the past.” She turned to Jefferson. “Donald? Any suggestions?”
Jefferson chewed his cheek for a couple of seconds, then nodded his head. “The thing to do is keep whoever betrayed us unbalanced. We’ve got the situation in Pyongyang that we need to deal with right away; it’s complicated and dangerous, so my thought is to tell Jenny that Cinderella and Camelot work so well together that we’ve decided a joint operation between them is what we need for that mission. Put them back together and in the field again, with no time to rest, and give Noah a better chance to observe them.”
“Then you’re convinced Noah is not the one who sold Sarah out?”
“I don’t think he could possibly have done it unless it somehow benefited the mission, and it certainly did not. As of this moment, Noah is the only one in this group that I trust completely.”
“Good,” Allison said. “We are agreed on that.” She turned to Noah. “Noah, there are four CIA agents in North Korea who have been captured, and unfortunately they possess a great deal of knowledge regarding certain Top Secret plans that the president has authorized in dealing with the little madman who runs the country there. CIA says rescue is impossible, so they have requested immediate termination of all four in order to maintain National Security. We were about to brief Hercules on the mission today, but I’m going to accept Donald’s recommendation. Because the mission will be difficult and dangerous, we’re going to send you and Jenny and your people on this one.”
“Yes, Ma’am,” Noah said. “May I ask a question?”
“Go ahead.”
“Sarah has been captured, and she also possesses secret information. Will she be sanctioned?”
Allison leaned forward and looked him in the eye. “How long do you think she can hold out under interrogation?”
“Sarah is tougher than she thinks she is,” Noah said. “She’s loyal to the organization, but she’ll regard any demand to give up information about our organization as being forced to betray me as well as E & E. Combined, both of those factors will keep her from any betrayal until she’s subjected to enough pain to make her willing to die to escape it. Once that happens, the thought of dying will mean she won’t have to face any of us if she betrays us, so she can give up something in the hope of getting what she wants, which at that point will be death. Depending on the level of torture, we could be talking anywhere from three days to a week.”
Allison paused for a second then went on. “The most damaging information she could give up would involve the secret areas around Kirtland, and perhaps a few of our proprietary procedures or some of the inventions Wally’s kids come up with. The world intelligence community already suspects that we exist, and neither my name nor Donald’s is any secret in those circles. She might compromise your team, but we could simply switch up identities again and put you right back in the field.” She leaned back and put her elbows on the arms of the chair, steepling her fingers in front of her face. “Noah, I won’t authorize a sanction on Sarah. I don’t think she knows enough to do us any real harm, and frankly, I want her back. That means you’ve got no more than a week to identify the traitor and find out where Sarah has been taken. I’m going to authorize unlimited resources for you on these two missions.”
She sat forward again. “Go home. Tell Neil and Marco that you’re being briefed on an urgent new mission at one o’clock this afternoon, and will be flying out tonight. I’ll explain that to Jenny during her debrief this morning, so you’ll all be here at one.”
“Yes, Ma’am,” Noah said, as he rose and started toward the door.
“Noah?” Allison said.
He stopped and turned to face her. “Yes?”
“When you identify the traitor,” she said, “your orders are to terminate with extreme prejudice.”
Noah nodded once. “Yes, Ma’am,” he said. He walked out the door and was on the way home a few minutes later. As he drove, he took his phone out of his pocket and called Neil.
“Mmpf,” the boy said, trying to rouse himself from sleep. “Wassup?”
“Emergency mission,” Noah said. “Get yourself awake and head over to the house. We’ve got an emergency briefing at one, and we're going to be flying out tonight.”
“What?” Neil sputtered, and Noah heard Lacey’s voice in the background asking what was wrong. “We just got in!”
“As I said, it’s an emergency mission. I’ll call Marco now, so he’ll know to make the briefing. And just so you know, Team Cinderella is going with us on this one. The Dragon Lady likes the way we work together.”
“Oh, God,” Neil mumbled. “Jenny scares the crap out of me. That woman is just plain evil.” He let out a long sigh. “Okay, boss, whatever you say. I’m getting up.”
Noah ended the call and punched the icon for Marco. Unlike Neil, Marco was already awake.
“Hey, boss,” he said. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“We’ve got an emergency mission,” Noah said. “Briefing at one o’clock.”
“Geez, already? Doesn’t that break some kind of rule, sending us out again this quick?”
“The Dragon Lady thinks it’s necessary, and she makes the rules. See you at the briefing.”
“You got it,” Marco said, and then the line went dead.
Noah drove on to his house, deep in thought. No matter how many times he went over what he remembered of the snafu’d mission, he couldn’t make the facts line up enough to identify a particular traitor. Until he had some idea of who had sold Sarah out, it was going to be hard to find any leads on where she’d been taken, unless he retraced his steps and went back to Pattaya.
The problem was that trying to find out anything from Pak would still be likely to result in a bloodbath, and Noah couldn’t go after Sarah if he was dead.
* * * * *
Sarah was driven to the dock in the back of a van with no windows, but it wouldn’t have mattered if she had been able to see out. She didn’t know anything about the area, and had no way to signal anyone. If Lom had been correct, there was no one to signal in any case.
At first, when Lom had told her that Noah was leaving her behind, she had refused to believe it. Later, however, it dawned on her that if he truly believed she was dead, his logical mind would see no reason to remain. He would go home, and go on with his life without her.
That was the hardest part for her, the knowledge that he wouldn’t even grieve for her loss. It wasn’t his fault, she knew that, but still…
When they arrived at the dock, she was quickly taken out of the van and hustled onto a large motor yacht. The boat was big enough for her to think of it more as a ship, but she only saw its stern. She was hustled down a flight of stairs and pushed into a room.
She heard the door lock as soon as it was closed.
She seemed to be in a stateroom, a nice one with its own en-suite head. She had only showered a short time earlier, and she remembered what Noah had always told her about resting whenever she could, so she lay down on the bed and tried to relax.
Her mind was racing, though. Just the thought of someone betraying her, someone she had worked with and trusted, was more than she could take, but if it was anyone close to her, she was convinced it had to have been Marco. Noah would never do such a thing, and it was impossible to even entertain the thought that Neil might.
Of course, there were other possibilities. The local station chief was going to be aware of their mission, and who knew how many others? That thought made her feel a little better, at least; perhaps it wasn’t someone she knew, but a perfect stranger who had done this to her.
The huge diesel engines started up and the big vessel moved away from the dock. Wherever she was going, she was on the way. Between the vibration of the engines and the rocking motion, Sarah’s thoughts finally wound down and she drifted off to sleep.
She woke suddenly and found herself in her own bed, with Noah, and the relief that it had all been only a dream washed over her like a wave fifty feet high. She rolled over and wrapped her arms around him, and he turned his face toward her.
It wasn’t Noah! The man she had wrapped her arms around was Lom, and he was laughing as he saw her pulling back. “Where is he?” she screamed at the thin old man, but he only laughed harder.
She tried to get up out of bed, but the sheets and blankets were tangling around her, pulling her back down, and then they were wrapping themselves around her face so that it was hard to breathe...
TWO
Jenny Lance walked into Allison’s meeting room precisely on time, and sat in the same chair Noah had used earlier. Allison smiled at her as she took her own.
“Report, Cinderella,” Allison said.
“My team and I arrived in Hanoi on schedule, and I made contact with the target that evening. His reputation as a ladies’ man proved to be quite accurate, so I had dyed my hair blonde and dressed in the youthful styles he seemed to like. He invited me to a party and I agreed, then pretended to be drunk when it was time to leave. He took me to his home, and as soon as I was sure that we were alone, I cut his throat, disemboweled him, then removed his penis and put it in his mouth. I then signaled my team for pickup and returned to my hotel.”
