by David Archer
TWENTY-FIVE
With keys they found on Schlatter’s body, Noah and the women were able to locate more than thirty other people who were held in the building. Many of them were in shock, and several were in need of medical attention. Three of them had already had a kidney removed, and another had lost his eyes.
FBI agents, sheriff’s deputies and ambulances began arriving only twenty minutes later. The Special Agent in Charge, whose name was Joel Harrison, took Noah aside.
“We are rounding up everybody we know of that was involved in this mess,” he said. “There were at least two dozen people mixed up in it, and our surveillance over the last few days managed to identify some of them. We got lucky today, when one of those we picked up decided he wanted to make a deal. In return for giving up the rest of the people involved, the AUSA has agreed to immunity.”
“What was his function?” Noah asked. “I’m glad he talked, but I do have my orders.”
“Apparently he was just a security guard at their main office,” Harrison said. “He was never actually involved in any of the abductions or the gory parts, and the AUSA thinks we might have lucked out. Frankly, I’m surprised these people trusted him enough to even have him around them. The guy looks like a loser to me.”
“Criminal organizations sometimes have to take what they can get,” Noah said. “They probably didn’t think he was smart enough to actually learn anything. All right, I’ll leave him alone.”
“At least you got them shut down,” Harrison continued. “We didn’t know anything about this place. According to Johnson, the agent who was abducted, Schlatter knew he was being followed from day one. Too bad we didn’t put a tracer on him, we might have gotten here sooner.”
“It’s over for this outfit,” Noah said. “Our people have dealt with the one in Texas and the one in New Jersey, and we’ve got people headed for Europe right now. Both the British and German intelligence services are working with us, so the people behind it all will be suffering the same fate pretty soon.”
Sarah, Jenny and Renée had managed to find some jumpsuits to put on, but their own clothing was never found. When they were finally released after giving their statements, nearly three hours later, a deputy sheriff drove them, Noah and Esmeralda back into Las Vegas, to the hotel they had been staying at. Esmeralda took up a position near the door of the suite while all three of the women got showers and fresh clothing. Noah sat on the sofa in the sitting room until Sarah came out and flopped down beside him.
“The next time,” she said, “that I volunteer to go handle this part of the assignment, I want you to chain me to a bathroom sink or something.” She snuggled in close and Noah put an arm around her. “I can do what I have to do, but I don’t think I’m really cut out for that part of the job.”
“That’s why it’s my job, and not yours,” Noah said. “From what Jenny says, though, you held up very well. That was a gutsy move, you and Renée rushing out almost naked to distract those guys.”
She shrugged. “All we had to do was act like we were panicking,” she said. “To be perfectly honest, I’m not sure how much acting was really involved. I was feeling pretty panicky by then.”
“Don’t believe her,” Jenny said. She had just come out of the other shower and was rubbing at her hair with a towel. “She wouldn’t let me go after them on my own, kept insisting that we had to stick together. What was it you said, Sarah? If we die, we die as a team?”
“Oh, shut up,” Sarah said. “You’re the one who saved the day.”
“Not me,” Jenny said. “That was Renée. If it wasn’t for her, I’d be dead right now.” She cocked her head, as if listening to something they couldn’t hear. “Yes, Neil, I know how upset you would be. But I’m not dead, right? Everything is okay now, honey.” She looked back at Noah. “I think he’s a little upset with me.”
“He’ll get over it,” Noah said. “How is Renée holding up?”
“She’s a lot tougher than you give her credit for,” Jenny said. “And for the record, Noah, when it came time to fire the shot, she did not hesitate at all.”
Noah nodded. “That’s good,” he said. “It means she can be trusted as a backup, if we ever need her in that position again.”
They waited until Renée came out of her own shower, then Noah called Allison.
“Camelot, report.”
“FBI is rounding up all of the ancillary personnel in the Vegas operation,” Noah said. “The girls are doing fine, and we’ve been cleared to leave. I’d like to get back to Galveston as soon as we can, get back together with Marco and Neil.”
“Approved. I’ll have a plane waiting at the airport for you by the time you can get there. You’ll be coming back to Neverland?”
“I’d say we have to,” Noah said. “Wally would never forgive us if we didn’t bring these cars back.”
“Good. Let me know when you’re going to arrive, so that I can arrange to have dinner with you.” The phone went dead.
“You heard the lady,” Noah said. “Pack it up, we are going home.”
It took the women about an hour to get everything packed and ready, and then they took a shuttle to the airport. True to her word, Allison had a charter flight waiting and they were in the air ten minutes after climbing aboard the plane. The flight was too short for much of a nap, but Noah noticed both Jenny and Renée curled up and sleeping in their seats.
Sarah, sitting beside Noah, was wide awake. She was looking at Esmeralda, who was sitting straight across from her with a slight smile on her face.
“Noah,” Sarah said, “she’s just a little bit creepy.”
Noah looked at the robot for a moment, then turned back to his wife. “Creepy?”
“Yes. Creepy. All she ever does is smile. That would be enough to tell me she wasn’t really human, even if I didn’t know she was a robot.”
Noah looked at her for another second, then turned to Esmeralda. “Esmeralda, why do you smile all the time?”
“I was programmed to smile so that I would not appear to be any kind of threat. One of the biggest cautions programmed into me was to avoid frightening citizens, especially children.”
“Then close your eyes and pretend to sleep,” Sarah said. “Sitting there looking like some kind of cheerful zombie is enough to scare anybody.”
Esmeralda looked at her for a moment, then turned to Noah. “Should I comply?” she asked.
“Comply,” Noah said, and Esmeralda’s eyes closed immediately, her head slumped to the side of the seat, and her mouth fell slightly open.
Sarah stared at her for a couple of seconds, then shook her head. “Creepy,” she said. “Just plain creepy.”
The flight to Galveston was not very long, and Marco was waiting with the SUV when they arrived. They all climbed into the vehicle and went to the apartment building, gathering in Noah’s apartment.
“I’ve got the latest update,” Neil said. “Teams Angel, Unicorn and Goliath took care of the European partners. All indications are that the operation is completely shut down, but Donald Jefferson told me that the Joint Chiefs of Staff are pretty upset about you leaving a hundred million dollar airplane with broken landing gear in the desert.”
“They can sue me,” Noah said. “Better yet, they can argue with Allison.”
“I don’t think they have enough balls for that,” Jenny said.
They made themselves a simple dinner of frozen pizza and then gathered their personal belongings and packed them. Noah planned to let them all get a good night’s sleep, and they would be leaving the following morning to return to Kirtland.
They left at nine in the morning, but didn’t get in a hurry on the way back. They stopped in Lubbock, Texas for dinner, and then got a room at the local Holiday Inn. They were up early the next morning and back on the road, and finally rolled into Kirtland before four p.m.
Noah called Allison.
“Camelot, report.”
“We’re back,” he said. “We are all going out t
o my house to drop off our things, and then we’ll grab Neil’s Hummer and take the cars back to R&D.”
“That’ll be perfect,” Allison said. “I’ll meet you at the Assassin’s Club at six.”
The phone went dead and Noah led the way to his house. Neil and Jenny put their things into the trailer, and the rest of them left their bags in Noah’s living room. They took a few minutes to freshen up, then Renée got to drive the GTO while Noah fired up the Hummer and followed them all out to R&D.
“Camelot!” Wally said when they arrived. “How did things go with Esmeralda?”
Noah turned and looked at the robot, which followed him into the building. She had ridden back from Texas with Jenny, who insisted that she found the mechanical woman fascinating.
“She did just fine,” Noah said. “And she’s one hell of a pilot.”
Wally giggled. “Oh, yes,” he said. “We actually used flight simulator programming for that. By connecting her brain directly into the computer of a flight simulator, she was able to learn every possible function of all the aircraft in the simulator, and it didn’t even take an hour. Of course, that was the first time she ever actually flew a plane.”
He turned to Esmeralda. “Esmeralda, did you experience any problems during your field test?”
“Only one,” Esmeralda said. “It appears that my programming makes me appear creepy.”
Wally’s eyebrows shot up. “Creepy? Who said you were creepy?”
Sarah hastened to explain, and Wally listened intently. When he started making notes, Sarah started to feel silly.
“I guess it really wasn’t that bad,” she said. “It just—I don’t know, it didn’t seem natural.”
“And you’re absolutely right,” Wally said. “I’m making notes to send to the programmers. We’re about to put three more robots online, and I want to get this taken care of now, before they ever go out in the field.”
They turned in the cars and weapons, then drove to the Assassin’s Club in the Hummer. Allison was waiting when they arrived and looked up with a smile as she waved them over to where she had put two tables together. Donald Jefferson was sitting beside her.
“It’s good to be sitting together again,” Allison said. “Order whatever you like, dinner is on me.”
“You’re actually going to say that with Neil sitting here?” Sarah asked. “I’m not even sure you can afford to feed this kid.”
“I’ll charge it off as an expense,” Allison said. “Go for it, Neil.”
Neil was already looking at the menu, so Noah looked at Allison.
“I believe the mission was a success,” he said. “Are there any loose ends we need to take care of?”
“Not that we know of as yet,” Jefferson said. “So far, it looks like all of the principal participants have been eliminated, and we don’t anticipate they’ll be able to resume any of the operations.”
“I got a question,” Neil said suddenly. “One of the things I was never able to find out was the identity of Doctor Ghoulie. Who the hell was that?”
“That,” Allison said, “turned out to be one of the people Noah killed in New Jersey. Charles Faulkner was the name, and the FBI found a secret room in his house that held the computers running the dark web auction.”
Neil looked at her for a moment, then shrugged. “I was really hoping it was one of those bastards in the helicopter,” he said.
They sat and talked while they had dinner, and Allison asked about their plans for returning to England. Noah looked around the table at the others, and then turned back to his boss.
“I think we might stick around here for a little while,” he said. “I get the feeling you might have another mission coming up for us pretty soon.”
Allison grinned, and turned to Jefferson. “See? I told you he’d figure it out.”
“Wait, what?” Marco said. “We have another mission right away?”
“We aren’t certain yet,” Jefferson said. “We are monitoring a situation, however, and it would have to be your team if it turns out we’re sending anyone to handle it.”
Noah nodded. “Care to give us a little advance warning?”
“Noah,” Allison said, “how do you feel about the existence of little green men?”
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