Noah Wolf Box Set 2

by David Archer

  “Relax, Sarah, sweetie,” Jenny said. “Didn’t you hear what he was saying? He broke up with Lacey because she was too bossy, right?”

  Sarah narrowed her eyes and looked at Jenny closely. “Yeah. So?”

  Jenny let out a sigh. “Let me tell you something,” she said. “This job, I love it, because it lets me let out all this violence and rage inside of me. Without it, I’d probably end up in real trouble, and there wouldn’t be any Allison to come and rescue me, you know what I mean?”

  “Yeah, I think I do. But, about Neil… Jenny, you’ve got to understand that while he may see himself as a tough guy, he’s really pretty much a softy. Every time he has to use a weapon, every time he actually has to kill someone, he spends hours crying about it. He’s just not as tough as you are.”

  “Sarah, he doesn’t have to be. See, I have to go out there and run my team with an iron fist. I can never, ever let them see any kind of weakness, or I’ll lose their trust and their respect, and then they won’t be there when I need them.” She sighed deeply once again. “When I come home, though, all I really want to do is leave that behind. See, I can go out there and be Ms. Tough Bitch on the job, but that’s not who I really am.”

  “It’s not?” Sarah asked. “You sure have everybody else fooled, then.”

  Jenny chuckled. “Comes with the job, right? We have to be whoever we have to be in order to do what we have to do, but like I said, that’s not who I really am. Who I really am is a girl who would love to have a man simply take charge, somebody I can cook for and take care of and lavish a lot of love on, but most of the guys I meet only see me as Cinderella. Neil doesn’t want a girl who’s bossy and dominant, and I want a guy who will let me be the submissive I am on the inside. Would it really be so bad if he and I were to get together?”

  Sarah opened her mouth to say something but then closed it. She tried once more, but still, nothing came out.

  Jenny came and put her arms around Sarah and pulled her close. “Like I said, you can relax. If there is one man in the world who is absolutely safe from me, it would be the one guy that I think could accept me for who I am and still insist on putting his foot down when I get annoying.”

  “And you think maybe Neil is that guy?” Sarah asked.

  Jenny shrugged, and then they both began giggling. “There’s only one way I’ll ever know, right?”

  Sarah fought down her giggles as much as she could, then pulled back and looked Jenny in the eye. “Okay,” she said after a few seconds, “but I need you to understand one thing. I’m pretty protective about Neil. If you hurt him, you’ll have to be more scared of me than anyone you’ve ever faced out there in the field. You got that?”

  They stared at each other for a few seconds and then both began laughing so hard they could barely stand. They were still laughing when they rejoined the two men outside.

  The four of them sat around and talked for another half hour, but then Neil said he was tired and would see them all later. He got up and walked across the yard to his trailer, and then Sarah told Noah about the conversation she and Jenny had had.

  Noah only shrugged. “They’re both adults,” he said. “If Jenny’s serious and wants to be able to let down her guard at home, I think Neil is the kind of guy who could appreciate that. My only concern would be if the two of you got into a fight. Jenny, you live with violence almost every day. Are you sure it wouldn’t come out if you were arguing?”

  “I’m sure, Noah,” Jenny said. “I’ve had a couple of boyfriends since I’ve been here, but it never worked out. They were either too scared of me to tell me what they thought, or they wanted a mama to tell them what to do, and neither one of those things is going to work for me. I’m not saying Neil is the right guy for me, I’m just saying I like him. He’s tall, he’s good-looking, he’s close to my age, and I really get the feeling that he could handle having a submissive girlfriend. Of course, that doesn’t mean he’s attracted to me—he might not be. I’m not going to go chasing him, but I might make a point of letting him know I wouldn’t turn down a chance at a date.”

  Noah looked over at Sarah. “I can’t say I see any harm in it,” he said. “This life has plenty of risks in it, but they’re both aware of what those risks can be. As long as it didn’t interfere in either team, I don’t see a problem.”

  “Unless she gets it in her head to try to steal him away from our team,” Sarah said. “There’s no way I…”

  “Hey,” Jenny said, “let’s just put that problem to bed right now. You guys have a good situation, now that you’re married and still working together, but there’s no way in the world I could have a guy I was dating on my team. It would just be too confusing. You don’t ever have to worry about me trying to steal him away.”

  “Well, that pretty well takes away my last objection,” Sarah said. “Just remember what I told you, all right?”

  Jenny smiled. “I won’t forget,” she said as she got to her feet. “Oh, speaking of forgetting, I almost forgot something important. I’m supposed to let you know that Randy sent word to you know who that he’s got the information you know who has been after. The asshole insisted on having it delivered digitally, but he did agree to let Randy off the hook in exchange for it.”

  “Then I should hopefully be hearing from the mole one day soon. Thank you.”

  “Just relaying the message. See you guys later.” She walked away and got into her car, and Noah and Sarah were alone.

  The two of them got up and gathered up the leftovers, then picked up all the trash and threw it into the big can that sat beside the garage. They carried the food inside and put it away in the refrigerator, then headed for bed.

  Sunday broke bright and sunny, and the air was warmer than usual for late fall. The happy new couple spent most of the morning in bed, but then Noah decided to take the boat out one last time for the year. While he went down to get it ready, Sarah made them sandwiches and loaded soft drinks into a cooler with ice and brought it all down a few minutes later. Noah already had the boathouse door open, so he helped her climb aboard and then fired up the engine and backed it out onto the lake.

  Air that felt warm on land was considerably cooler over water, and it wasn’t long before they both were wearing windbreakers. Noah let Sarah take the helm for a while, and she shoved the throttles forward to their stops. The boat shot ahead, its bow rising as it planed across the water, and she laughed as she enjoyed the wind in her face.

  “We need a faster boat,” she yelled over the engine noise and wind.

  “Why? This one does pretty good.”

  “Because I love to go fast!”

  They raced around the lake for a while and then found a quiet spot to stop for their lunch. Fish were jumping out of the water all around them, and Noah commented that he wished he’d brought his fishing tackle.

  “We can go back and get it, if you want,” Sarah said, but Noah shook his head.

  “No, I’m just enjoying being out here with my wife,” he said.

  Sarah giggled and smiled at him. “Mmmm, I love the sound of that.”

  They stayed out on the water until it was getting close to dinnertime, then headed back in and put the boat away. Neither of them felt like going out for dinner, so they microwaved some burritos and opened the bag of chips, then settled in front of the TV once again.

  The rest of the week seemed to pass by quickly. Their mornings were spent with Sarah at Doc Parker’s office, while Noah ran his group of new recruits. In the afternoons, they tended to simply stay home, and when they got tired of watching movies, they decided to explore other hobbies. Noah took Sarah out to the big barn, where he was gradually restoring an old Ford pickup truck that had come with the place, and wasn’t terribly surprised when Sarah enjoyed getting greasy with him. After all, she had grown up around cars and probably knew as much about them as he did.

  And then everything changed. On Friday morning, Noah received an email that included several pictures of the couple who w
ere supposedly his parents. Each of them had crosshairs drawn over the faces, and Noah knew that the mole was making his move.

  Sarah was looking over his shoulder, and she instantly took off out the door. She was back only a couple of minutes later, and Neil arrived less than a minute after she did, carrying his own laptop.

  “We have contact,” Noah said. “These are the same kinds of photos that Randy Mitchell got. No doubt in my mind this came from the mole in the CIA.”

  Just as he said those words, the computer chimed the arrival of another email. This one contained only a telephone number, and Noah stared at it for a moment.

  Neil took out his cell phone and used its camera to snap a photo of the computer screen, then set it to record video and pointed it at Noah. Noah nodded and took out his own phone, then dialed the number.

  “Tell me who you are,” said a digitally distorted voice that answered the phone. Noah sat silently for a moment, then said, “Camelot.”

  “It’s good to see that you are not a fool, Camelot,” the voice said. “I gather you received my little gifts?”

  “If you’re referring to the pictures of my mom and dad, yes. You want to tell me who you are and what this is all about?”

  “Who I am is not important,” the voice said, “other than that you know I am the one to whom you will answer from now on. If you fail to do what I ask or in any way attempt to defy me, if you tell anyone about this contact, your parents are dead. If you look closely at those pictures, you’ll know that I can reach them at any time I choose. You wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to them, now, would you?”

  Noah hesitated, making it seem that he was honestly thinking it over. “No,” he said simply. “Now what do you want?”

  “I want you to understand that you belong to me now,” the voice said. “I want you to know that there is absolutely nothing you can do to stop me, and that failure to obey my orders will result in the death of one or both of your parents. Do you understand that?”

  “Yeah, I understand, but I need you to understand,” Noah said, sounding nervous. “Do you have any idea who I work for? If they ever find out…”

  “I know exactly who you work for, and I know exactly who you are. The only way your employers could ever learn about this contact is if you tell them, so you need to be more afraid of yourself than of me. I’m certainly not going to reveal anything about it, and the messages I sent you will vanish from the servers any second now. There’s no possible way you can prove this conversation ever took place, because even the number you dialed is untraceable. After we get off the phone, it will revert to being the private number of a doctor in Alabama.”

  “Then what was the point of all this? What good is it for you to threaten me if…”

  “The point is that you know what you must do. I will contact you when I need your services.”

  The line went suddenly dead, and Neil stopped recording. Noah looked up at him.

  “So, were your bugs able to trace the email origin?”

  Neil opened his computer and woke it up, then started tapping on the keys. He stared at lines of data that streamed across the screen, then suddenly struck the table with his fist.

  “It was bounced too many times,” he said. “We didn’t get enough data to trace it back.”

  Noah nodded. “Then we wait for him to contact me again. Neil, we don’t discuss this on the phone with anyone. I need you to go to Allison’s office today and let her and Jefferson know about this one. You probably ought to get hold of Molly, too.”

  Neil nodded as he closed his computer and stood. “I’ll head that way right now. It’s always possible he left some kind of trail when he hacked that phone number, too. We’ll try everything we can think of.” He walked out the door.

  Noah leaned back in his chair and looked at Sarah. “Well, the plan seems to be working. For now, we just keep on acting as normal as we can. Let’s get ready for our usual morning routine.”

  Sarah smiled sadly at him. “I guess the honeymoon really is over, isn’t it?”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  The rest of the day and the weekend passed with no further development, and Noah and Sarah continued acting as if nothing had happened. Nothing about the mole was ever discussed over telephones, and it was considered too risky for members of the team to keep making appearances at the office.

  On Monday, Doc Parker was brought up to date and became part of the information relay. The next time Noah was contacted by the mole, Sarah would tell Parker, who would then visit Allison. This way, since Parker was often in and out of the offices, it was less likely anyone would pay any attention, while Allison and Jefferson were kept fully in the loop.

  It wasn’t until that Thursday that Noah heard anything further. He received another email message from the same automotive website, but this one contained only a phone number, a different one. With Sarah beside him, he took out his phone and dialed.

  The same distorted voice answered. “I have a job for you,” it said. “Do you understand what will happen if you refuse?”

  “Yes, I do, dammit,” Noah said, sounding angry. “But you need to understand that I can’t jeopardize my job, and I won’t betray my country.”

  “You will do whatever I tell you to do,” the voice said, “or your father will suffer the consequences. There is a man in your organization who is aware that you would be working with me. This makes him a danger to both of us, and so I want you to eliminate him. He should not be hard for you to find, and I’m certain you will be able to take care of the situation. His name is Randy Mitchell, and just in case you feel some kind of loyalty to him, you should know that he was the one who gave me your identity. He must be eliminated within the next forty-eight hours. I will make contact with you again after that is done.”

  The line went dead. Noah looked at Sarah. “I’ve just been ordered to kill Randy Mitchell within the next forty-eight hours.”

  Sarah’s space took on a crestfallen expression. “Oh, Noah,” she said. “How do you plan to handle this?”

  “I’m leaving that up to Allison. It’s possible she’ll tell me to go ahead and do it, but I want it to be her decision.”

  Sarah nodded. “Yeah, really. Well, I’ll tell Parker this morning. Forty-eight hours isn’t a lot of time, so hopefully they’ll get back to you pretty quick.”

  They got dressed and headed out to their usual morning, with Sarah visiting Doc Parker and Noah taking his group of trainees for yet another run. He had been pleased to note that no one had dropped out of his group when he gave them the chance, and they were all managing to keep up with him to some degree.

  When the run was finished, he drove back to pick Sarah up as usual, but she stepped out the door and motioned for him to come inside this time. He climbed out of the car and followed her in, and she led him into Parker’s office.

  “I have a secure line to the main office,” Parker said without preamble. “Allison wants to speak with you.” He picked up the handset of a wireless phone and handed it to Noah. “She’s already on the line—go ahead.”

  Noah put the phone to his ear. “Camelot,” he said.

  “About time,” Allison said. “Sarah filled me in on your phone conversation this morning. I’m a little concerned about how to handle this, to be honest. We know that he had Randy, and apparently he had the girl in North Korea, under his thumb, so it’s quite possible he’s got someone else within our organization. In fact, it’s almost certain, so it’s doubtful he’ll believe you if you simply tell him it’s done. The problem is that we have no idea who else might be tied to this bastard, so it won’t be easy to fake Randy’s death.”

  “I agree,” Noah said. “He’ll have someone who can absolutely confirm Randy’s death, and for all we know it could be someone in the morgue.”

  “Exactly. I just hate the idea of having to kill him after he’s done everything he possibly could to help us bring this son of a bitch down. Any ideas?”

  “Assuming the mol
e does have someone else inside, I don’t know how we could actually fake his death in a way that wouldn’t be found out. The only other possibility would be to eliminate him, or appear to, in such a way that there isn’t a body to examine. I’ve got no idea how to do that, but if I come up with one I’d need Marco and Neil in on it. The only problem with that would be how to make it convincing.”

  Allison was quiet for a couple of seconds, then spoke. “Do what you can. I don’t want to lose Randy right now, not if we can avoid it. But, Noah, if you can’t come up with a foolproof way to fake it, then he is expendable. It’s absolutely imperative that you gain the mole’s confidence, even if it means you have to eliminate Randy.” The line went dead, and Noah handed the phone back to Parker.

  The old psychiatrist looked into Noah’s eyes. “I could hear most of that,” he said. “I don’t know the details, but there’s more than one way to make someone appear to be dead, even allowing the body to be examined, but still let them survive it. Talk to that whiz kid of yours—he’s got a mind like a walking encyclopedia. If anybody can figure it out, I’d bet on him.”

  Noah nodded. “That was going to be my next move. I’ve heard of things like that but usually just in movies. I figure if there’s really a way to do it, Neil would be the one to find it.”

  He turned to Sarah. “Let’s go,” he said to her. “I’ve got to move fast if I’ve got any chance to pull this off and get away with it.”

  Parker said nothing more as they walked out of his office, and they were in the car and moving only seconds later. “Tell me exactly what you think of Renée,” Noah said suddenly. “Can she be trusted?”

  Sarah looked at him, her eyes wide. “Renée? I don’t know her all that well, but she seems pretty nice. Well, as nice as anyone connected to this outfit can be, anyway. Why?”

  “Because she works at R&D, and I’m probably going to need some things from out there. Trouble is, I can’t go out and ask for them, so I need someone on the inside there. Call Marco and tell him we’re playing cards tonight and to bring her along. Try to let him know, without coming out and saying it, that it’s absolutely urgent they show up. I’ll get hold of Neil when we get back home.”