Noah Wolf Box Set 2

by David Archer

  “Neil, here,” Neil said unnecessarily. “Hey, I was messing around with your computer and you got a message about the car you posted online, I guess. I’ve got a number for you.”

  The message was a code, telling Noah that there had been a message from the mole. “I’m just leaving R&D,” Noah said. “Text me the number, and I’ll give him a call.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  It took Noah a little more than ten minutes to get out of the high-security area, and then he called up Neil’s text message and tapped the number with his thumb. He heard ringing a moment later, and then the phone was answered by the distorted voice of the mole.

  “It’s about damned time,” Noah said. “I did what you want—Mitchell is dead.”

  “I’m aware of that,” said the voice. “I have another job for you. When can you get away from your associates for a couple of days?”

  Noah thought quickly. He was scheduled to leave for Arkansas the following day, but keeping the mole happy might justify being a day or two late on his arrival there.

  “Probably tomorrow,” he said. “I’m supposed to be going out on a mission in a couple of days, but I can shake loose for a little bit. Where would I be going?”

  “I have a situation in Texas that needs to be handled by someone with your talents. You will be going to Odessa. Can you manage to get a flight there without anyone knowing it?”

  Noah hesitated, trying to give the impression that he was thinking about how to accomplish what the mole wanted. “Yes,” he said after a few seconds. “I have some IDs that no one knows about. Sometimes I just need to get off the reservation for a little while, get off by myself, know what I mean?”

  “Excellent. Get to Odessa and call this number again. It won’t be active, but I’ll be notified that you called it. You’ll get a new number by text message immediately after, and we’ll talk then.”

  The line went dead, and Noah put his phone back in his pocket. There was no doubt in his mind that the “situation” was going to mean someone was supposed to die. Noah knew that he might have to actually kill the target, since the executive order that established E & E authorized its agents to use lethal force whenever necessary to complete an assigned mission. In this particular case, the mission was to identify the mole. If necessary, Noah would actually carry out an assassination on his orders in order to maintain the fiction that the mole was able to control him.

  Somewhere in the background, Noah was aware, Molly and her team of brilliant people were trying to trace the messages from the mole. Unfortunately, he—or she, Noah reminded himself—was particularly adept at blocking every such attempt. Each message through the forum site came from an account that was inactive only seconds after the message was sent, and the IP address always led to a server that turned out to be a dead-end offshoot from the information superhighway. The phone numbers that came in the messages were always dead, basically nothing more than a redirect routine in some obscure third-world telephone company’s computers. Once Noah dialed the number and the conversation ended, that number would vanish and almost certainly would never be active again, or else it would go back to being some mundane phone number with no connection to the world of espionage.

  It occurred to Noah that identifying the mole was probably going to require some sort of initiative on his own part, sooner or later. The only question in his mind was how to go about it. No matter what he tried, there were going to be risks involved.

  Sarah was home already, of course, her session with Doc Parker having ended before noon. She came out the door quickly when he parked the car in front of the garage, and threw her arms around him as he stepped out.

  “What am I gonna do for the next week?” she asked. “How am I gonna handle you being gone, not being with you, and not even knowing what’s happening to you?”

  “I’ll be fine, Sarah,” he said. “I’m going to take it pretty easy at first, not try to push anything. I’m not going to give them any reason to suspect me. By the time you get there, I’ll have us a house and everything. It’ll be okay.”

  Sarah nodded, but he could hear the soft sniffles. He held her for a moment longer, and then they started toward the house.

  “Hey, lovebirds,” Neil called out. “Want some company?”

  “Sure,” Sarah called back. “Come on over. Where’s Jenny?”

  A scowl appeared on Neil’s face. “She left this morning,” he said. “Going out on a mission. Am I crazy to get mixed up with her? I mean, what am I going to do if she gets herself killed out there?” He realized instantly what he had just said, and his face registered embarrassment.

  Sarah looked at him blankly for a moment, then forced herself to smile and shook her head. “No, you’re not crazy,” she said. “I’ve watched the two of you together this past few days, and I think you each give the other something you need. But, Neil, don’t get too wrapped up in her just yet. I mean, you barely even know her. This might grow into something serious, but take your time. Don’t rush it—I think that might be a mistake.”

  Neil just nodded and ducked his head, then followed them into the house. The three of them went to the kitchen and sat around the table, and that’s when Noah looked Neil in the eye.

  “You made me a promise,” he said. “I’m going to hold you to it. When I leave tomorrow, I want you to stay over here with Sarah until it’s time for her to come join me. I don’t want her alone.”

  Neil nodded and started to speak, but Sarah cut him off.

  “Noah! I don’t need a babysitter.”

  “I know you don’t,” Noah replied. “But you might need someone to talk to, even just for simple conversation. Aside from that, Neil is going to be posing as your little brother. You two already have a pretty good brother-sister kind of relationship, but I think it might be a good idea to sort of practice it, especially now.”

  “I’ll be over here,” Neil said. “Don’t worry. And, Sarah, to be perfectly honest I could use the company probably as much as you could. We can play cards and stuff, keep both of us from doing too much thinking right now.”

  Sarah gave him a mildly dirty look, but after a few seconds, she nodded. “I guess so,” she said. “Besides, we both start our training with Gary day after tomorrow. I might need Neil to hold my hand through that; I’ve never been hypnotized. The whole idea kind of makes me nervous.”

  “You’ll be fine,” Noah said. “I promise you, it can’t hurt you in any way. You come out of it feeling like you had a good night’s sleep, but all of a sudden you know things you didn’t know before.”

  There was an awkward silence for a few seconds, but then Neil broke it. “So, what time do you leave tomorrow?”

  “I've got to go out to R&D and pick up some wheels first thing in the morning,” Noah said. “Molly doesn’t think the Corvette fits Rex’s personality, so I’m getting a ’69 Dodge Charger. It’s one of those cars they built with ridiculous horsepower, but Molly believes it will help me fit in down there. After that, I’m supposed to hit the road by noon, but I’m going to have to make a detour. I received contact from the mole and have to fly down to Odessa, Texas, and contact him again from there. He’s got something for me to do there, but I don’t know yet what it is.”

  Sarah’s eyes had gone wide as he spoke. “Have you told Allison yet?”

  Noah shook his head. “Not yet. I don’t want to do it over the phone, and it might not be smart for me to try to go see her right after getting that call. If he’s got anyone watching, then anybody connected with me that goes to see Allison or Mr. Jefferson right after he makes contact with me could give our game away. My plan is to simply pick up the car like I’m supposed to in the morning and send them a message through Wally. I’ll drive to the airport at Kansas City, fly from there to Odessa and take care of whatever he wants there, then fly back and head for Arkansas.”

  Sarah was quiet for a moment, but then she nodded. “And you’ll be staying with your sister?” she asked, with emphasis on the last wo
rd.

  “Yes, but not for long. Gary called and got her on the phone today, so I’ve actually spoken to her now. We played it just the way he wanted, with her grudgingly agreeing to let me come and stay with her for a few days while I look for work and a place of our own. When I get there, I have to check in with the federal probation officer in Fayetteville. His name is Craig Roberts, and he has no idea about what’s really going on. After that, I’m pretty much on my own. The story is that Katie doesn’t want me hanging around her place all the time, so I’ll probably try to find a way to get connected to the Morgan Mafia while I’m looking to rent a house.”

  Sarah looked at him for a moment. “Have you seen a picture of her yet?”

  Noah reached into his pocket and pulled out a wallet, then flipped through some photos inside until he came to a particular one. He held it out to Sarah, and she looked at it critically for a moment, then seemed to relax. “She looks okay, I guess,” she said. “Kind of chubby.”

  “That’s probably why nobody pays a lot of attention to her,” Noah said. “I’ve read that a lot of female undercover agents tend to be moderately overweight. It makes them kind of invisible; nobody thinks they could be someone they need to worry about.”

  “I get that,” Sarah said. “I’m just glad I look better than her.”

  Noah just looked at her for a couple of seconds, but then the sound of a car turning into the driveway made him rise and look out a window. “Marco and Renée,” he said. “I don’t want to say anything to them about the mole. We’ll keep that between ourselves, until I get a chance to talk to Wally.”

  Sarah nodded, then got up and went to let them in while Noah looked at Neil and raised his eyebrows. “She means she doesn’t think she needs to be jealous of your new sister,” Neil whispered, and Noah nodded.

  “I know,” he whispered back. “I just don’t understand why she’d be worried about it.”

  “That’s because you don’t understand women. You don’t, not even a little bit.”

  The five of them decided to go out to the Sagebrush Saloon for dinner, since it was the last time they would all be together for quite some time. Neil rode with Marco and Renée, while Noah and Sarah followed in the Corvette.

  The hostess met them at the door and showed them to a table. Sarah asked if Elaine was working, but the hostess frowned.

  “I’m afraid not,” she said. “Elaine quit a couple of days ago. I understand she’s going to be working with her dad in his office, now.”

  “Well, that sucks,” Sarah said as they took their seats. “I’m gonna miss her here.”

  “She probably quit because of us,” Neil said. “Every time we came in, it kind of smacked her in the face that Moose is gone, you know? I guess quitting was easier than feeling that pain every time we came through the door.”

  “You’re probably right,” Noah said. “Most people who lose a loved one tend to sever ties with people they were close to. I suspect we’ll only be seeing Elaine by chance or when it’s unavoidable from now on.”

  Sarah looked at him for a moment but didn’t say anything. When the waitress approached and passed out menus, she managed to smile again. They each ordered their favorites and enjoyed dinner together.

  Afterward, since Noah was scheduled to be leaving in the morning, Marco and Renée invited Neil out for the evening. Noah urged him to accept, then took Sarah home to spend a quiet evening together. Instead of watching television like usual, though, the two of them sat and talked until midnight, and then made their way to the bedroom and simply cuddled.

  When morning came, they rose together. Noah had already packed a bag for his trip and loaded it into the back seat of Sarah’s car. For once, it would be Sarah dropping Noah off instead of the other way around. They made a quick stop at a fast-food place for breakfast and then drove out to R&D. Sarah kissed Noah goodbye as he grabbed his bag and got out of her car, and then drove carefully back toward Doc Parker’s office. Noah pretended not to see the tears in her eyes.

  He stepped into the R&D building, and the security guard checked his ID, just like always. Wally was actually waiting for him this time and led him back toward the automotive section as soon as security cleared him.

  “Camelot,” Wally said as they made their way down the central hall of the building, “you’re gonna love this car! I told the auto shop to give you something that can help you accomplish your mission, and they went all out. Just wait till you see it; you’ll know what I mean.”

  “Sounds good,” Noah said. “Molly told me it’s a Charger?”

  “Yep, a ’69, but with a few special options the Duke boys never had,” Wally said. “Just wait, you’re gonna love it.”

  They came to a large double door, and Wally led the way into the automotive garage, a cavernous room with a dozen different workstations. This is where the organization’s cars were built and maintained, and it was put under Wally’s supervision because some of the cars needed special capabilities, especially those used by the teams when they were on mission.

  Wally waved, and a short man in mechanics’ coveralls smiled and waved back. “That’s Rodney,” Wally said. “Rodney’s my right-hand man in the automotive section. I tell him what I want; then I just turn him loose. In this case, I told him I wanted a car that could help you accomplish an extremely difficult mission and gave him the general parameters. Let’s go see what he came up with.”

  Noah followed Wally over to where Rodney stood waiting beside a beautiful Dodge Charger that had been painted in a flat black. The windows were tinted so dark that it was almost impossible to see through them at all, and a chromed blower and scoop sticking up through the hood told Noah there was some serious power in its engine. Wally made the introductions, and Noah and Rodney shook hands.

  “Okay, Rodney,” Wally said. “Tell Noah what you built for him, here.”

  Rodney grinned as he looked at the car. “Well, you can see that it’s a 1969 Dodge Charger, but it’s been built for speed. It’s powered by a supercharged and fuel-injected 540-cubic-inch hemi crate motor cranking out over nine hundred horsepower. I backed that up with a six-speed automatic transmission that’s been built to handle it, and some bulletproof rear gears that will let you hit two hundred miles per hour if necessary, while still giving you enough off-the-line torque to leave just about any other car sitting still. I built it with a keyless ignition system, so everything is controlled by the remote.” He handed Noah something that looked like a fancy cigarette lighter with a number of buttons on it. “We used the standard icons. You can see which button unlocks the car or locks it, opens the trunk—there is a safe in the trunk, by the way, one that is already programmed to your right thumbprint. But the car has one really special feature that I’m kind of proud of. See the button down there that has an icon that looks like a whistle? You push that button anywhere within fifty miles of that car, and it will come to you. It has self-driving capability built into it, even better than Google’s, and you can even use it when you just want to relax and let the car do the driving. Just put in the address of where you’re going, and a little icon of a driver will appear on the screen. If you touch the icon, the self-driving application turns on and you can kick back and get some rest. If you touch anywhere else, it just cancels it and leaves it under your control.”

  Noah nodded appreciatively as he opened the driver’s door and tossed his bag into the back seat, then looked around the interior. Even there, he felt a sense of perfection, as if every aspect of the car had been carefully done by a master craftsman. “It’s incredible,” he said. “It ought to be in a museum somewhere.”

  “Why?” Rodney asked. “It’s a car, not a statue. I built it to get you where you need to go and help you accomplish what you need to do. If people want to admire it, let them admire it at a hundred and fifty miles an hour, that’s how I feel about it.”

  Noah’s eyebrows went up a half inch. “Okay, then,” he said. “Wally says it’s got some other special features?”


  Rodney grinned broadly and nodded. “Oh, boy, does it ever,” he said. “The body is made entirely of Kevlar, rather than the normal sheet steel. Slide in behind the wheel, and let me give you the full tour.”

  Noah sat down in the car and looked over the dashboard and console.

  “Wally said he wanted you to have a car that would help you accomplish your mission, sort of like James Bond and his Aston Martin,” Rodney said, as he sat down in the passenger seat. “To me, that means he wants the car to have lots of features you can use to get things done or keep you safe. Slip your right hand down alongside the seat, and you’ll find a row of buttons hidden down there. Go ahead, you need to know where they’re at.”

  Noah reached down between the seat and the console and found the buttons Rodney was talking about. “Five buttons, right?”

  Rodney nodded. “Exactly. Push the first button and watch what happens.”

  Noah looked him in the eye for a moment, then pushed the first button as he was told. A video display in the dashboard had been showing stereo and satellite radio controls, but suddenly it changed. It showed the scene directly ahead of the car, and Noah looked at it for a moment before turning back to Rodney.

  “Touch the screen on something that moves,” Rodney said.

  Another technician was walking across the garage in front of the car, so Noah touched his image on the screen. Instantly, he was surrounded by two bright red concentric circles, with crossed lines centered over his body. The image stayed on him as he walked, keeping him centered.

  “Crosshairs?” Noah asked.

  “Yes,” Rodney replied. “Tapping an item on the screen tells the targeting computer to lock onto it. Now, on the back of the steering wheel there’s a button on each side—feel them? Those are the triggers: if you squeeze one while targeting is activated, the headlight doors open silently, and there’s a small machine gun mounted on gimbals between the bulbs of the right headlight that will unload on whatever you targeted. It fires 9 mm bullets at fifteen rounds a second, and it’s loaded with two thousand of them. It has a forty-five-degree field of fire and will keep firing as long as you squeeze the trigger.”