Noah Wolf Box Set 2

by David Archer

  Neil, who was still in his clothes from the night before, sat up and looked at him. “Sorry,” he said. “Guess I needed the sleep.”

  “We all did,” Marco rumbled. He tossed off his blanket and rolled himself up to a sitting position, then took a look out the window. “Damn, is it an eclipse?”

  “No, just clouds.” Noah looked around and picked up the remote for the television, turned it on, and found a channel showing a weather report. The weatherman was speaking Chinese, but it was captioned in English, as he explained that the clouds were expected to linger throughout the day, resulting in a thunderstorm in the late afternoon.

  Noah looked out the window again, then reached for his phone. He dialed the number McDermott had given him and waited. When it was answered, he asked to speak to McDermott himself, and the man came on the line a moment later.

  “Ross Duncan,” Noah said. “I’m thinking about stepping up my timetable. You said you had some helpers I could use?”

  “Sure do,” McDermott said. “How soon you want them?”

  “We’ll be ready in an hour. Can you have them meet me out front?”

  “No problem,” came the reply. “Look for our delivery van, the same one we brought the motorcycles in last night.”

  “Sounds good,” Noah said, and then he ended the call. He looked around at Neil and Marco. “Get yourselves awake,” he said. “We’re going after Sarah this morning.”

  Marco looked at him, and seemed confused. “In broad daylight?”

  “That doesn’t look like broad daylight to me,” Noah said. “Something about that sky makes me want to get her out of there. I don’t want to wait until tonight.”

  Marco made a sleepy grimace. “You’re the boss,” he said. “If you want to move that quick, I’m not even gonna worry about a shower. Just going to get all sweaty, anyway, might as well wait till later.”

  “What about breakfast?” Neil asked.

  “There's a McDonald’s downstairs,” Noah said. “I’m sure they’ve got something you can eat.”

  Noah and Marco each hit the bathroom, then got dressed while Neil took his turn. Ten minutes later they walked out the door of the room, saddlebags and helmets in hand. They rode down the elevator and went directly into the McDonald’s that was just outside the front door, and Marco watched all their gear while Noah and Neil went to pick up their food.

  By the time they finished eating, the truck had arrived and was parked just outside. Noah walked up to it and saw that McDermott himself was driving.

  “You sure you want to be in on this?” Noah asked.

  “Standard procedure on this type of thing,” McDermott said. “I’ll drive, and man the truck while y’all do your thing. I took a look at a satellite map this morning, and I got a good idea where to park this rig while I wait. You want to ride with us?”

  Noah glanced at the motorcycles, then looked up at the sky again. “I think we should,” he said. The three of them walked around to the back door and it swung open, and they climbed inside to find eight men dressed in combat gear and carrying the same submachine guns McDermott had given them.

  The door closed, and the truck moved out. Noah walked up to the front and leaned into the cab.

  “How close is your parking spot to where the trail crosses the road?”

  “Quarter-mile,” McDermott said. “The way I got it figured, you’ll be able to jump out the back of the truck and move into the woods, then it should be about another half-mile to the estate. By the way, lean back in there and holler for Jonesy.”

  Noah pulled back and looked around. “Who is Jonesy?”

  A young black man sitting just behind the cab raised his hand. “That’s me,” he said. Noah suddenly noticed that he was wearing a vest with a lot of pockets.

  Noah looked back at McDermott. “Jonesy,” McDermott said, “is a very talented young man. All that extra gear he’s carrying is to make sure nobody inside can call for help. There’s no landline phone into the place, but it has a satellite uplink and there are two cell towers within range, so Jonesy is going to put them out of commission. He’s got the neatest little gadgets that will send a signal full of pure rubbish to any cell phone or satellite receiver within half a mile. All he’s got to do is hang ’em on a tree and turn them on.”

  “Glad you brought him along,” Noah said. “The last thing we need is for them to get reinforcements.”

  The ride took about forty minutes, simply because the truck couldn’t take all the curves the way the motorcycles could, but finally they pulled up and parked at the spot McDermott had chosen. He and Noah watched in the mirrors and out the windshield for a moment to be sure there was no other traffic coming, and then all of them spilled out the back doors and hurried across the road into the forest. They went far enough in to be out of sight from the road, then stopped.

  “Who’s your unit commander?” Noah asked, and one of the men stepped forward.

  “Davidson,” he said. “I run the squad. You tell me what you want us to do, and we’ll do it.”

  Noah reached out and shook his hand. “We’re going wide,” he said. “There are a few men likely to be scattered around in the forest, and we want to neutralize them as quickly as possible. When we get to the house, you will find one soldier on guard on each side, but there are more inside the building. I want to hit them hard and fast.” He pointed at Marco. “He and I will be going inside as soon as possible. The tall skinny kid needs to cover our six when we do, but I wouldn’t mind if a couple of your boys follow us in.”

  Davidson looked around at his men. “Morgan, Lewis,” he called out. “You guys shadow these two,” he said, indicating Noah and Marco. He looked at Neil. “Do you know how to handle that weapon?” he asked.

  Neil looked at the gun in his hands, then looked up. “It’s a little different from what I’m used to, but they all work pretty much the same.”

  Davidson nodded. “Okay, but I get the feeling your boss wants you out of the line of fire as much as possible. When he gets ready to make his move, why don’t you hang back with us?”

  Neil looked at him and nodded, and they all started moving. Davidson sent four men to move around the front of the property, while he and the rest followed Noah. Noah took them along the same general route he and Marco and Neil had used the night before, and they hadn’t gone 200 yards before they spotted the first of the patrol guards.

  The man was about 100 yards away, walking nonchalantly through the woods as if there were no possibility of anyone being within a mile of him. Davidson pointed to one of his men, then swept his hand around to point at the guard. The man he had indicated stepped forward silently, dropped to one knee and raised his weapon. The gun made a coughing sound, and the guard dropped like a stone.

  They moved up quietly to where the soldier had fallen, and Noah saw that the shot had blown out the back of his skull. The man had died instantly, and hadn’t even made a sound. They checked him over and found a radio, a simple walkie-talkie style. Davidson took it and shoved it into a pocket.

  “I speak Mandarin,” he whispered. “If they call this guy and he doesn’t answer, things could get nasty in a hurry.”

  Noah nodded, and they moved out again. Ten minutes later they found another man on patrol, and he met the same fate as his compatriot. His radio was taken and shoved into another of Davidson’s pockets, and they moved on.

  Thirty minutes later, they encountered the other group coming toward them. They had also taken out two of the guards, but had not seen any others.

  “Maybe they didn’t feel the need for so many men on patrol during the day,” Noah said. “Now we’ve got the four men up close to the house to deal with, but we’re not going to be able to get that close to them. Jonesy, you got your toys set up yet?”

  Jonesy grinned. “Try making a phone call,” he said.

  “Okay. Then let’s get ourselves into position around the building. If we can put a couple of men on each side, hidden in the trees, then we ca
n hit all four of them at once. As soon as they are down—”

  Davidson interrupted him. “How about this? Your idea is going to alert whoever’s inside, and we don’t want to do that until the last possible moment.” He turned and motioned for one man to come toward him, a short, thin fellow. “This is Wendell Liu, about as Chinese as anybody they got here except he grew up in Chicago. Those guys aren’t dressed much different than we are, so how about if Wendell takes himself a stroll right up to the man we can see from here and puts him down? That’ll give you guys a clear field to the house, and then we can move around it and take out one of them at a time. Nice and quiet, nobody the wiser.”

  “I like it,” Noah said.

  Davidson reached into a pocket and pulled out one of the radios, then handed it to Wendell. “Wave it like it’s not working,” he said. Wendell took it, then moved off to the left a dozen yards before standing up straight and walking toward the house.

  The guard by the wall spotted him almost instantly, and Wendell held up the radio and shook it. The guard kept his weapon pointed downward as Wendell approached, but just as Wendell got close enough to be out of sight from either end of the house, the guard appeared to become suspicious. He took a couple of steps toward Wendell and started to raise the muzzle of his weapon, but Wendell was quicker. There was a burst of smoke from his silencer, and the guard fell flat.

  Noah, Marco and their two shadows broke into a low run and hurried to the house. Noah and Marco went toward the front, while Wendell and the other two started around the back. Wendell stepped around the corner and fired once, then took off at a jog. The other two men followed him, while Noah leaned out to look around the corner at the front of the house. There was one guard on duty there, as well, and Noah flipped the selector on his gun to single-fire and squeezed the trigger once. The guard dropped, and Noah and Marco stayed close to the wall as they hurried toward the front door.

  A moment later, Wendell and the other two men came from the other side and flanked the door. Noah and Marco stood and started up the steps, and that’s when they heard the scream. Noah took two more steps and kicked the door, and it flew open. A dozen feet down the hall, two men turned to see what was going on, and Noah’s gun coughed twice more. Both of them went down, and then Noah and Marco rushed inside, followed by the other two. Wendell stayed just outside the front door, ready to cover them from the rear if they had missed anyone.

  The two men Noah had shot had fallen just in front of an open doorway, and there was sudden shouting from inside that room. Marco hurried past Noah and looked into the room, then fired a couple of quick bursts. The shouting stopped, but there was more noise coming from deeper inside the house. Noah and Marco pushed forward and had almost reached the stairwell leading down when three men suddenly boiled up out of it carrying assault rifles.

  Noah and Marco instinctively dropped to their knees and began firing, while the two men behind them fired over their heads. All three of the guards fell instantly, and Marco hurried forward and threw himself flat at the head of the stairs, with his gun aimed down them.

  Morgan, one of Davidson’s men, ran up the stairs to look for anyone who might have been hiding there, while Lewis stayed with Noah. At that moment, another scream rang out, and this time they could tell that it was coming from the basement. Noah went right over the top of Marco, descending the stairs three at a time. As he got to the bottom, he saw four soldiers come running out of the room where they had apparently been sleeping, because they were holding their rifles by the barrels and still trying to get their shirts on. He flipped the selector to auto and sprayed them with lead. They fell, all of them dead but one, and Noah quickly put him out of his misery.

  A man suddenly stepped out of another room, his hands high and empty. Noah raised his weapon but didn’t fire, and the man looked him in the eye.

  “She’s in that room,” he said, pointing at a door just behind where he stood. He dropped to his knees and put his hands on his head, as Noah hurried past him. Marco pushed the man down flat on the floor, as three more soldiers ran out of the bunk room. They looked at their comrades lying dead on the floor, looked up at Marco and the two men behind him, and dropped their weapons.

  Lewis looked into the bunk room and declared it clear, just as Noah reached the door behind which Sarah was still screaming. He reached out and tried the knob, but it was locked, so he stepped out and kicked it as hard as he could.

  The door frame shattered, and the door flew open to reveal Sarah strapped naked to a table. For a brief second, that was all Noah saw, but then a man spun out from behind the door with a pistol in his hand. The gun was aimed directly at Noah’s face, the end of the barrel less than four inches from his nose, and the look in the man’s eyes was one of glee.

  Noah expected the shot to come, but the man simply held the gun pointed at him and stared into his eyes. Noah stood frozen, slowly lowering the muzzle of his gun, keeping his own eyes on those of the man in front of him. He let the submachine gun fall free, hanging from his shoulder by its strap, as he slowly raised his hands.

  The man was still looking him directly in the eye, and then he spoke. “You,” he said softly. “You are Camelot.”

  And Sarah screamed again. This time, it wasn’t the scream of someone in pain, but a scream of pure rage, a scream of hate and anger and fury, and it was so loud and so shrill that Mr. Xiao instinctively turned his head to look back at her, and that’s when Noah swept the gun away from his face with his left hand. The pistol went off, but the bullet sailed past Noah’s ear and thudded into the wall behind him. His right hand struck Xiao’s elbow and he snatched away the pistol, spinning it instantly to point it back into its owner’s face.

  Noah grabbed Xiao by his throat and pushed him into the room, looking at Sarah lying there immobile and exposed, and realized instantly that he was holding the man who was torturing her. Sarah was still screaming, but her eyes were going from his face to Xiao’s, and Noah understood instantly. He yanked Xiao around so that Sarah could see him clearly, then looked the man in the eye again.

  “Yes,” he said. “I am Camelot.” He pushed the barrel of the pistol against Xiao’s forehead, then, and squeezed the trigger.

  TWENTY-TWO

  Noah dropped Xiao’s lifeless body and hurried to Sarah. It took him only seconds to release all the straps, and then she was sitting up in his arms. She clung to him as she wept, ignoring her own nakedness and the torment she had been going through for over three hours, just holding on to the one rock that was always solid in her world.

  Marco looked into the room, then pulled the door shut. He looked down at the man who had surrendered to them and considered putting a bullet through his head, but he had heard what this man had said. He had told Noah precisely where to find Sarah, but whether he thought he was helping or trying to send Noah into a trap, Marco wasn’t sure. He’d leave that for Noah to decide.

  A moment later, the door opened and Noah stepped out. He was bare to the waist, while Sarah was wearing his shirt. She was having trouble standing, so Noah was supporting her with his left arm while holding his gun with his right.

  And then she saw Marco. Days of speculation that he had betrayed her suddenly rushed to the forefront of her mind, and she leapt at him with her fingers curled into claws. Marco’s eyes flew wide as he stumbled back from her, and Noah wrapped an arm around her to hold her off him.

  “Easy, easy,” Noah said. “It wasn’t him, Sarah, it wasn’t him! I’ll tell you all about it later, but it wasn’t Marco, he’s been risking his life right beside me every day since you were taken, helping me track you down so we could get you back.”

  Sarah continued to growl and gasp for a few moments, but finally Noah’s words got through to her, and she turned to look at him. “You’re sure?”

  “Yes,” he said, “absolutely certain. Marco is part of the team.”

  Sarah looked at Marco for a moment, then nodded. A second later, she pointed down at the man on the fl
oor. “Is he hurt?” she asked.

  “Nope,” Marco said.

  “He told me where you were,” Noah said. He looked at Marco and motioned with his chin for Marco to pull the man to his feet.

  “It’s Chung,” Sarah said. “He tried—he tried to keep me from being tortured…”

  Noah looked at Chung, and the Chinaman met his eyes.

  “I am Chung,” he said. “I was sent here to interrogate Sarah, but I prefer less—egregious methods than others do. I did all I could to prevent this, but it was beyond my control.”

  “For what it’s worth,” Noah said, “I appreciate that. Unfortunately, you leave me with a dilemma. This is an unsanctioned mission, so I cannot leave witnesses.”

  Chung nodded sadly. “I completely understand,” he said. “I am only glad that I was able to see you come for her. About the only thing I was able to learn from her about you is that she loves you, Mr. Camelot. She loves you more than she loves her own life. I have been monitoring what was happening to her, and I can tell you that she endured everything Xiao could do to her, and never revealed anything. Neither of us could break her, by any method.”

  Noah looked at Chung, and then at Sarah. There were tears in her eyes as she looked at the man who had tried to protect her, because she understood what Noah had said. An unsanctioned mission could be considered an act of war, so witnesses could not be allowed to testify.

  Noah turned back to him. “Run,” he said.

  Chung looked at him in confusion for a moment, then smiled and shook his head. “I would prefer to die as a man,” he said. “I will not run from you.”

  Noah nodded. “That’s exactly what I thought you would say,” he said. “I have a problem. I can’t leave witnesses to testify that Americans did all this, but I don’t want to kill you. Any ideas?”

  Chung blinked a couple of times, glanced once at Sarah and then stared at Noah. “Ideas? I—I don’t know what to say.”

  “Defect,” Sarah said suddenly. “Maybe you’ll meet that beautiful woman who can make it worthwhile.”