by David Archer
They cleaned up the kitchen quickly and headed out to the car. Noah slid behind the wheel of the Corvette and hit the key, but all it did was click. “Battery must have gone bad,” he said.
“No problem,” Sarah said, “we haven’t taken my car anywhere in a while, anyway.” They got out of the Corvette and walked over to her Camaro, and Noah held the driver’s door open for her. She slid in, and then he walked around and got into the passenger side.
Getting to Dr. Parker’s office took only a few minutes, and Sarah tossed Noah the keys as she got out of the car. He climbed out and walked around to give her a kiss, then spent almost a minute getting the seat back far enough for his longer frame and adjusting the mirrors. Two hours, Allison had said, and Noah thought her suggestion to visit Mr. Jackson was a good one. After two weeks of relaxation, a heavy workout would do him good.
He got to the physical training facility just as another group was about to take off, and Jackson invited him to run along. E & E’s idea of physical training involved few of the standard exercises; instead, every person who might end up in the field was put through a parkour course, running and using obstacles in their way to help them get where they were going even more quickly. Most of the people in this group were newbies, so Jackson was happy to have Noah set the pace for them.
Noah was glad he got to set the pace, as well. Most of the time when he ran with one of the groups, it was one of the regulars who was leading, and a few of them were capable of giving Noah a serious workout just trying to keep up with them.
This time, he took off at slightly more than a leisurely jog, just enough to make the rest of the group work a bit. The route they took normally went through a bit of the forest and into downtown, where they might run right through the middle of office buildings at times, and Noah had been known to run across the tops of desks more than once. Today he decided to take it a little bit easier and just let his followers get a good taste of working up a sweat.
That didn’t mean it was going to be a picnic, though. He took them up fire escapes, across buildings, had them jump down onto semitrailers and into dumpsters and a dozen other stunts that most of them had never dreamed they might have to try. Each run usually lasted about an hour and a half, and by the time they got back to their starting point, a few of the stragglers were at least a mile behind.
“You lost a couple,” Jackson said. “Are they going to survive?”
“They’ll be along shortly,” Noah replied. “I took it a little easy on them, but some of them are going to need a few weeks of exercise before they’re ready for the whole course.”
Jackson threw back his head and laughed. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell them,” he said, “but they keep insisting they’re ready for anything I can throw at them. That’s why I jumped at the chance to throw you. How was the honeymoon?”
“Pretty great, but now I have to try to get back in shape. I think you’ll be seeing me often for the next couple weeks.”
Jackson nodded. “Cool. I’ll put together a group for you to lead. How about mornings, say around ten?”
“I’ll be here.” Noah wiped his face down with the towel Jackson handed him, then turned and walked back to the car and drove back toward Parker’s office. Sarah was still inside when he arrived, so he sat in the car and waited.
It was almost twenty minutes later when the door opened and she stepped out of the building. Noah’s first glance up at her told him that she had been crying, but he wasn’t surprised. Parker had a knack for seeing right through any attempt you might make to hide feelings or problems, and there was little doubt in his mind that she had been in some stage of denial over what happened to her. Parker would have seen that and forced her to face it. He got out of the car and was waiting when she reached him, and pulled her into his arms.
“I hate him,” she said softly. “Why is it he always has to be right?”
“What happened, babe?” Noah asked.
She simply held on to him for a moment, with her face buried in his shoulder, but then she looked up into his face. “I wasn’t letting myself remember,” she said. “I was telling myself that it wasn’t as bad as it really was, and that’s not good, I guess.”
“No. You have to feel what happened; you have to accept the pain and the fear and everything else that came with it. Those things have to become completely real to you before you can honestly put them behind you, but they’ll also become a part of who you are. This is why I thought it would be good for you to come and see him.”
Sarah looked at him for a moment and then stuck her tongue out at him. “Then I hate you, too, even though I love you. Come on, I’m hungry.” She walked around the car and got into the passenger seat, so Noah got back in behind the wheel and they drove down to Charlie’s for lunch, instead of breakfast.
Lunch at Charlie’s was never something that happened quickly. Every order was prepared individually so that the food was always as fresh as possible. Both of them ordered burgers and fries, and by the time they were finished eating, it was time to head for Allison’s office.
Luckily, the office was just down the street a few blocks. Noah drove them into the underground garage, and they rode the elevator up.
Allison’s secretary simply pointed toward the conference room when she saw them, so they waved and went inside. Allison and Mr. Jefferson were there waiting, along with Neil and Molly.
“Parker says you’re going to be fine,” Allison said to Sarah, “but he thinks it would do you good to come in once a day for a week or two.” She turned and looked at Noah. “Jackson says you’re going to be working with the newbies for a while, in the mornings, is that right?”
“Yes, ma’am, ten o’clock every morning.”
“Good. I’ll tell Parker to keep that same slot open for Sarah.” She turned to Jefferson. “Go ahead.”
Donald Jefferson simply pointed at Molly, and she got to her feet.
“Okay,” she said. “With Neil’s help, we’ve come up with a plan to smoke out the CIA mole. We’ve created a dummy file on you, Noah, one that incorporates just enough truth to make it convincing, such as some of your legitimate missions and after-action reports, but everything else was created. We’ve given you a personal history completely unlike the real one, down to living parents. There is a couple in Texas who had a son who would be around your age, and who was beaten to death in prison after being sentenced to death for a couple of gang-related vengeance murders. They’re pretty deeply involved in drug trafficking, so we built the file to show that you were actually their son, recruited from prison and your death faked. He was exactly the kind of person we sometimes recruit, so it’s believable.”
Noah nodded slowly. “So, the idea is to let the mole think that threatening them will secure my cooperation?”
“Yes,” Jefferson added, “and of course, it will. At least as long as it takes for us to identify him or her, you’ll pretend to be doing exactly what he wants. Now, we’re hoping that we built in enough traps that it will expose the mole as soon as he tries to contact you, but we may have to let him see cooperation to some degree.”
“I can do whatever I need to,” Noah said. “It’s absolutely critical that we identify and catch this person.”
“I agree completely,” Allison said. “Originally, I wanted you to simply identify and terminate the mole, but we need to find out just how much damage has been done to national security before that happens. It’s imperative that this individual be taken alive.”
“I’d come to the same conclusion,” Noah said. “We need to find out everything we possibly can about what he or she has been doing, who the contacts are, everything.” He looked at Neil and Molly, then turned back to Allison. “How soon are we putting this into play?”
“Immediately,” Allison said. “We expect it to take some time before any contact is actually made with you, so the sooner we launch the plan, the better. Randy Mitchell is still under absolute observation, but Doc Parker is convince
d that he wants to fully cooperate. Let’s face it, you’re probably the only chance he’s ever got for getting out from under this monster’s thumb.”
“Where is Mitchell now? If he’s not going out into the field with his team, it might look…”
“He is,” Jefferson said. “Team Cinderella was sent out on a mission eight days ago, and they’re due back today or tomorrow. Everything went according to plan, and Mitchell was contacted twice by the mole, both times to respond to questions about what happened in China. Our mysterious mole seems to have stepped up his efforts to track you down, Noah, and so we hope this will play right into our plans. The day after Team Cinderella returns, Mitchell will ‘inadvertently’ gain access to a file archive—a fake one, of course—where copies of active files are kept against the threat of data loss or compromise. He’ll manage to copy your file onto one of those little gadgets that plug into a computer and will hold it until he is contacted again.”
“At which time,” Molly went on, “he’ll let the mole know he has it and offer to trade it for his own freedom and the safety of his sisters. We decided on that ploy, rather than have him ask for money, because it would be more in character. He has followed the mole’s orders all along only because of the threat against those girls, and has protested each time that he wanted out. Something this big, it would look fishy if he simply asked for money instead.”
Noah nodded. “Absolutely, that makes sense. So, once that’s done, all I have to do is wait for the mole to use whatever means you set up to contact me. How will that happen?”
“What we anticipate,” Molly said, “is that one or both of your fake parents will probably be threatened, and you’ll receive a message about it. The message will probably tell you that they will be killed if you don’t cooperate, and will undoubtedly include a way for you to respond. It’s the way you should receive the message that we hope will lead us back to the mole, though. Neil?”
“We studied the prison file on the guy who supposedly became Noah Wolf, and he was something of a car nut. We built you a series of profiles on different automotive forum sites, all of them tied to an email address we created for you. We also planted tracking bugs into the software on every one of those websites, so when a message is sent to you through one of them, the bug will go looking for the hard IP address of the computer it was sent from. Trouble is, there are ways to mask the IP of an originating computer, so we also gave them all a bug that will attach a hidden file to any message you send in response. That hidden file will hijack even the most secure email server and send us back a message containing the IP address of any computer he uses to view it. We’ll also be recording your phone and everything that goes into or out of it.”
“And there’s no way he can get around that part?” Noah asked.
“Well, I could, so we have to assume that it’s possible. If all of our little bugs fail, then it will be up to you to find some way to make this character meet you face-to-face.”
“Wait a minute,” Sarah put in. “I thought Randy was supposed to demand a face-to-face meeting in order to turn over the file.”
“We had thought of that before,” Molly replied, “but both Neil and I are afraid it would seem suspicious. The last thing we want is for the mole to cut off contact with Randy, because he’s the only one we know for sure is under his thumb.”
Sarah glared at her. “So instead, we’re going to put Noah in danger? What if China or whoever the mole is working for decides they want Noah dead?”
Allison leaned toward Sarah and caught her attention. “Sarah, Dr. Parker runs our own version of the FBI’s criminal profiling division. Based on everything we know about the mole, we’ve come to the conclusion that we’re dealing with an analyst, not a field agent. This person is probably a career intelligence analyst who has become disillusioned, so he’s likely to be in his late fifties or early sixties, probably approaching retirement. This isn’t someone who would ever attempt to take on somebody like Noah.”
“No, he’d just send someone he’s already controlling, somebody who might have a chance of getting it done.”
“Which is why,” Allison went on, “Noah is going to be under constant guard until this is over. That’s already begun, by the way; Teams Unicorn and Hercules have had you both under surveillance since you arrived back at the airport last night. You won’t see them, but one of them is on duty and watching at all times. If a meeting is set up, they’ll be there.”
“Sarah,” Noah said softly, “this is our best chance to get the bastard who sold you out. Trust me, baby, if it comes down to a shootout, I’m going to walk away alive.”
CHAPTER FIVE
The meeting ended, and Noah took Sarah home, stopping along the way at an auto parts store to pick up a new battery for the Corvette. Neil and Marco showed up a few minutes later, Marco with his girlfriend, Renée, in tow. She and Sarah disappeared into the kitchen for some girl talk, while the three men changed the battery and stood around talking.
Noah looked over at Neil. “Lacey coming?”
Neil’s face became a scowl. “No,” he said bitterly. “We, uh, we sort of went our separate ways.”
Noah nodded. “I had a feeling that was coming,” he said. “You doing okay?”
“Hey, yeah, I’m fine. She just had too many issues for me.”
Marco chuckled. “What that translates to, boss,” he said, “is that our little boy is growing up. Lacey seemed to think he was supposed to let her hold on to his balls and ask for them anytime he wanted to do something out of her sight.”
“Shut up, Marco,” Neil said. He turned and looked at Noah. “It wasn’t exactly like that, but she definitely has control issues. She wanted me to try to get transferred off the team and over to R&D or data analysis. You believe that?”
Noah looked at him. “Would that be something you’d want?”
“Oh, hell, no,” Neil said. “You are not getting rid of me that easily! Noah, I—I was scared to death when all this started, but even though it gets to me sometimes, I belong on this team. I don’t know what I’d do without you, without Sarah, even without this big dumb lug over here.” He hooked a thumb at Marco.
“Good,” Noah said. “I’m not ready to give you up, either. This team is my family, now, so I’m glad you’re sticking with us.”
In the kitchen, Sarah and Renée were talking about Sarah’s honeymoon, and both girls were smiling.
“After you guys left,” Renée said, “Marco actually asked me if I would want us to get married.”
“Oh, my gosh,” Sarah said, gushing. “What did you say?”
“I—I said I’d have to think about it. I mean, he’s on a team; every time you guys go out, I have to wonder if I’m ever going to see him again.”
Sarah nodded. “Renée, I understand what you’re saying,” she said, “but isn’t that a reason to have whatever happiness you can? I mean, if you love him. Or have you guys not gotten to that point, yet?”
Renée shrugged and looked down at the bottle of root beer Sarah had given her. “I honestly don’t know,” she said. “Marco isn’t real big about talking about his feelings, and I’m not completely sure about my own. I mean, I like him a lot, and there’s nobody else I want to be dating, but…”
Sarah smiled and patted her hand. “One day at a time,” she said.
A little while later, all of them gathered in the kitchen while Sarah made dinner, her own particular favorite, lasagna. Noah had broken out some beer and wine coolers, and they turned it into a small “Welcome Home” party for the honeymooners. They sat and talked together through dinner, then played a few hands of rummy and followed that up with Monopoly. It was after midnight by the time the party ended and their guests went home.
Noah helped Sarah clean up, and then the two of them went to their bedroom and cuddled together until they fell asleep.
The following morning, they rose at seven thirty to shower and get dressed for the day, then drove into town to the Waffle House fo
r breakfast. The Waffle House had only opened recently and was staffed almost entirely by civilians who knew nothing of E & E, so they kept their conversations to mundane things while they ate. The service was good and the food was better, and they lingered as long as they could over coffee after they finished eating.
At last, though, it was time for Sarah to make her appointment with Doc Parker, and Noah dropped her off. She leaned through his window to kiss him goodbye, and then he drove on over to the PT area.
Jackson, true to his word, had a group of twenty people waiting. He led Noah up in front of where they were lounging around and called them to attention.
“All right, people, listen up,” he said loudly. “This is Noah, and he’s going to be your group leader for a few days. He’s going to push you a little harder than you been used to, but he won’t overdo it. Just follow him no matter where he goes, and do your best to keep up. If you get lost, just find your way back here and wait, got it?”
They all agreed that they understood, and Jackson turned them over to Noah. He smiled at them all for just a moment and then turned and started running without saying a word. It took all of them a moment to realize what was happening, but then they all took off after him.
Noah veered into the forest and followed a path for about three hundred yards, then suddenly cut to the right and leapt up onto a stump. He used it to launch himself a bit higher, caught an overhanging branch, and swung himself forward so that he landed on his feet five yards farther. When he hit the ground, he started running again and heard a number of frustrated sounds behind him as various members of the group missed the branch or simply fell.
He stopped and looked back to give them a moment to catch up, then turned and sprinted off again. The group did their best to follow, although several of them started cursing him when he ran up an inclining tree and used it as a launching pad to jump across a small creek. A few of his group landed in the water, but this time he didn’t stop to wait until he came out of the forest on a two-lane road.