by David Archer
“Thank you, Lester,” she said. “I’m glad you were available today. You are absolutely my favorite pilot.”
Lester broke out into a big grin. “Well, you’re undoubtedly one of my favorite passengers. All comfortable?”
She said she was, and Lester went into the cockpit. The flight attendant—the man who had taken her bags—pulled the door, shut and she heard the engines start to whine as they were started.
Ten minutes later, exactly on schedule, the plane leapt into the air.
* * * * *
It was almost two o’clock when Noah got to the airport. He put the car into long-term parking, locked it and set its alarm, then carried his bag into the terminal. He had left his gun locked in the trunk, inside the safe with his money, although he had a couple of thousand dollars in his pockets. He glanced up at the sun and then pulled the sunglasses out of his pocket and slipped them onto his face. They cut some of the glare but weren’t so dark that he would have to remove them inside.
Once inside, he found a chair off by itself, took out his phone, and called the number Monique had used. It rang twice, and then her voice came on the line.
“Good timing,” she said. “Do you know where the charter desk is?”
Noah looked around. “I see a sign,” he said.
“Good. I’m waiting for you there. I prefer to fill you in on the details of this trip in person.”
The call ended, and Noah got up and followed the signs toward the charter counter. It was about a ten-minute walk, hampered at times by crowds of people, but he saw her as soon as he entered the area. She was sitting all alone, in a chair near the windows that looked out over the airport. He sat down in the chair beside her and let his peripheral vision focus on her hands. They were indeed quite small, and noticeably smaller than he would’ve expected.
“We’re going to Nassau,” she said without looking at him. “This job will be very simple. I have to take care of some business there, and I need someone I trust to make sure I am not interfered with.”
“I’m a bodyguard?”
She looked up at him then and smiled. “Yes. Is that a problem?”
Noah shrugged. “I work for you,” he said. “I do what you tell me.”
Monique nodded. “Very good,” she said, still smiling. “Relax, Noah. If you’d chill out a bit, we might even get to be friends.”
“Friends aren’t a luxury a guy like me can afford. I’ll settle for just being an employee, okay?”
She made what could be considered a facial shrug. “Suit yourself,” she said. “Come on, I’ve got the plane waiting. I think the flight is only about two, two and a half hours.” She got up from her chair and started walking, and Noah picked up his bag to follow.
They stepped outside and she pointed at the plane, a small Learjet that was sitting only a couple of hundred yards from the building. A flight attendant was standing beside it. He smiled as they climbed inside, then followed them in and closed the hatch behind him.
“Jordan,” Monique said to the flight attendant, “this is Mr. Fox. He’s an associate who travels with me from time to time.”
Jordan smiled at Noah. “Mr. Fox,” he said. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. Just let me know if you need anything during the flight.”
Jordan turned away, and Noah looked at Monique. “You have your private jet?”
“Oh, no,” she said with a smile. “I use JetBlue. They can get a plane to me within four hours, just about anywhere in the world I might want one. Costs a whole lot less than buying my own, and I don’t have to worry about having my own flight or maintenance crews. Besides, you have to jump through so many hoops when you own an airplane that can travel internationally. Being a client of JetBlue allows me to remain more anonymous, but I can still go anywhere in the world on very short notice.”
Monique took a seat, and Noah took the one facing her. He buckled his seat belt and waited, and then the engines came to life. The flight attendant took a seat and buckled his own belt, and then the plane began to taxi toward the runway. Noah took the opportunity to reach up and adjust his sunglasses, snapping a photo of Monique by doing so.
Once they were in the air and had accepted soft drinks from the flight attendant, Monique looked at Noah. “So, here’s what’s going on,” she said. “I’ve got some accounts in Nassau that I manage, and I need to transfer money to a few other locations. There really isn’t a lot of risk involved, but the particular bank I use is one that gets a lot of, shall we say, international business.”
“Espionage or criminal?” Noah asked.
Monique laughed. “Both, I’m sure,” she said. “Anyway, I don’t think it’s necessarily prudent for me to go into such areas without backup. Did you bring weapons with you?”
Noah frowned. “I didn’t know if I was going to be flying commercial,” he said, “so all I have at the moment are some knives that can get through metal detectors.”
“That’s no problem. I have an extra Glock in my bag.” She took a sip from her glass and then looked him in the eye. “I was expecting a bit more animosity from you.”
“What good would that do me? It’s not going to change anything, is it?”
The look she gave him reminded Noah of the look a mother might give a mischievous child, part annoyance and part amusement. “Well, no,” she said, “but it might make me feel better if I knew you were at least irritated with me. After all, it’s not often somebody just takes over your life, is it?”
Suddenly, the dots that had appeared over her face blinked red, and the text box appeared. “Deception detected,” it read.
Noah cocked his head to one side and looked at her. “That’s interesting,” he said as the display cleared itself. “You have no problem manipulating people’s lives, ordering deaths and orchestrating God only knows what kind of political disasters, but you need my anger to justify to yourself the things you’ve done to me on a personal level.”
“You’re surprised? I’m human, aren’t I?” She looked at him for a moment, then shrugged. “I learned something a long time ago, Noah. People are crazy, pretty much all of them. That also includes me, but I have the advantage of being aware of my craziness. That allowed me to put it to work, to use it, and it didn’t take me long to realize that the biggest difference between me and everybody else is that I didn’t bother trying to hide my craziness. Most people, they don’t want anyone else to know just how crazy they can be, so they put on an act for the whole world to see. They act the way they think other people expect them to act, because that’s how they expect to be judged. I could frankly give a flying fig what anyone else thinks I should do, because I’m only going to do what I believe is of benefit to me.”
The dots had remained orange and steady until the final sentence. They blinked red, and the text box said, “Deception probable.”
Noah was quiet for a moment, then went on. “And you think that makes you crazy?” he asked. “Take a look at the animal world. You’d be hard-pressed to find any other creature on the earth, other than humans, who worry about what other creatures think. The only exception is when it comes to mating; there are many animals that participate in some sort of courtship ritual that is designed to attract a mate, but other than that the only thing they want other animals to think is that getting into a fight with them might not be a good idea. Genuine self-interest is not a sign of insanity; it’s simply a natural instinct we all possess.”
“So that’s why you’re not angry?” Monique asked.
Noah gave her his most vicious grin. “I never said I wasn’t angry. I simply asked you what good it would do me to express any anger, and we both agree that it wouldn’t do me any good at all.”
She looked at him for a long moment, then shook her head and chuckled. “Then I guess everything is okay with the world,” she said. “I’d feel like I was doing something wrong if you didn’t want to kill me. You do, don’t you?”
“Yes. I most definitely do want to kill you, but you’re not
the only one who can govern your own actions according to self-interest. You offered me a way out of a life I don’t want to be in; you offered me the chance to have a family and perhaps even find some kind of happiness. For now, your survival enhances my chances of achieving the goals of my personal self-interest, so my own desires get put on the back burner.”
There was something in her eyes that Noah couldn’t quite interpret. It almost looked like she was in awe of him. “What an amazing man you are, Camelot. No wonder your superiors consider you their best asset. You seem to have the ability to analyze a situation almost instantly. How did that happen?”
Noah laughed. “Everybody asks me that,” he said, “but nobody ever wanted to believe my answer. Did you ever watch Star Trek? Well, I was always fascinated by Mr. Spock. He could, as you say, instantly analyze any situation he went into. I spent most of my childhood and teenage years learning to act like him, and that led to a study of logic and psychology. Between the two, I can usually get a fair idea of what makes people tick and what’s likely to happen from a given scenario when it’s applied to particular personality types.” He leaned forward with a conspiratorial smile. “In high school, I even used to put on this mentalist routine, where I could make people think I was reading their minds. It was a lot of fun, because all I was really doing was watching how they reacted to the things I said.”
Once again, she simply stared into his eyes for a time. “You, Noah, are probably one of the most dangerous men I have ever known. I’m quite glad that I have you under my control.”
* * * * *
Allison looked up from her desk when Donald Jefferson walked into her office. “Anything new?”
Jefferson plopped into the chair in front of her, shaking his head. “Everyone at R&D has been vetted with the deception-tracking glasses,” he said, “and absolutely no flags went up. I took Elaine with me and we each wore a pair while we interviewed everyone, and the only indicators of deception we found led us to determine that a couple of the men are hiding the fact that they’re gay, and there are at least six couples who are dating in violation of the stated policies of the department.”
Allison threw the pen she was holding down on the desk. “Then how the hell has this bitch been getting materials out of our research facility? That little bomb they took out of Noah’s arm had our freaking detonator microchip in it. Wally said there’s absolutely no doubt that it came from the ones his people made right here.”
“I know, I know,” Jefferson said. “Allison, I don’t know what to say about this. There has to be some other way that it got into her hands, because there’s nobody working out there who’s been compromised. I’d bet my life on it.”
“That’s wonderful, Donald, but it isn’t your life we’re betting. It’s Noah’s. If she’s got someone inside R&D that we haven’t found, then she undoubtedly knows we got that bomb out of him.” She glanced at the clock on the wall. “He would have gotten to Memphis more than an hour ago, so he’s probably in the air right now, headed into some kind of a situation that she’s in control of. If we’re wrong, he may not come back alive.”
Jefferson pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers. “Then we need to figure out how that chip could possibly have gotten away from us. If we can find any other reasonably feasible answer, then there’s still a good chance she doesn’t know.” He closed his eyes and sat quietly for several seconds.
“Okay,” Allison said. “Assuming for the moment that everyone in R&D is clean, what other possible way could she have gotten hold of that chip?” She leaned back in her chair and looked at the ceiling for a few seconds, then suddenly blinked. “Wait a minute,” she said. “Donald, have you asked Wally that question?”
Jefferson’s eyes popped open, and he stared at her. “I was under the impression you were going to be the one speaking with Wally,” he said.
“I did,” Allison said, “but all I was thinking about was finding out who might have stolen a chip and given it to her. It never occurred to me to ask if there was any other way one might have left his facility.” She picked up the phone on her desk and dialed the number from memory. “Wally,” she said when he answered, “it’s about those detonator chips. Besides you guys at R&D, who else has access to them?”
Allison’s eyes seemed to glaze over for a moment, and then she leaned back in her chair with a sigh of relief. “Thank you, Wally,” she said. “No, no, it’s okay. You couldn’t have known that I would forget to ask the right questions. Just relax, everything’s okay. I’ll talk to you soon.” She dropped the handset back into its cradle and looked at Jefferson with a weak smile.
“I’ll bet you couldn’t guess in a million years,” she said.
Jefferson stared at her, his mouth partly open as he tried to think of something to say. “Um… I give up.”
“Senator Charles Wiggins heads up a senate committee on counterterrorism. Six weeks ago, the president authorized him to visit Neverland, and Wally in particular, to discuss the adaptation of some of Wally’s inventions for use by Delta Force and the Navy SEALs. Among the things Wally showed him was the bomb printers and the detonator chips. The son of a bitch put in a requisition for two of the printers and a thousand chips while he was here, and I guess I authorized it without even really paying any attention. Wally got the order to ship them the next day, and he had enough made up in stock so they went out by UPS that afternoon.”
Jefferson narrowed his eyes for a moment. “Delta Force and the SEALs only do CT work when they’re under the direction of CIA. That’s how she would have learned about the chips.” A look of relief began to spread on his face, but then it stopped. “Wait a minute,” he said. “She would’ve also learned about the explosive 3-D print material, but the microbomb we pulled out of Noah was made of low-grade explosive in a soft plastic shell, with a separate pressure sensor and a common miniature battery. Why wouldn’t she have simply had the whole thing made in the bomb printer? Those chips are powered by an ultra-miniature diamond betavoltaic battery that can last for thousands of years, and the pressure sensor could have been tied right into it. Why wouldn’t she have used all of the new technology?”
Allison’s eyes were wide and bright. “That, Donald, is an excellent question. Obviously, she didn’t get access to everything, or didn’t understand exactly what it was. This could be important, Donald.”
“Yes, but I’m also thinking that we now know she has some connection to the CT operation of the CIA. That’s the only way I can think of that she might have gotten hold of one of these chips.”
“And yet, nobody at CIA has any idea who she could be. That’s what blows my mind. How could she be so close to the counterterrorism groups and still have nobody know who she is?”
Jefferson leaned his head back, puffed up his cheeks, and blew air. “Could we be looking in the wrong direction? What if it isn’t the CIA she’s connected to?”
He could see Allison’s mind racing, and he imagined it scurrying along many different tracks, like a dog sniffing for a scent it knew was there, somewhere. Her eyes were scanning the room, but he was certain that what she was seeing was something far away.
“Who else would have access to the counterterrorism committee’s intelligence? I suppose the joint chiefs, possibly even the various branches of military intelligence. Who else?”
She sat there for another moment, then reached over and picked up the phone again. Her fingers flew over the dial pad, and she smiled a moment later. “Molly? It’s Allison. I need your brains.”
CHAPTER TEN
Noah stood quietly behind Monique as she sat in front of the desk of the director of the Caribbean Royal Bank of Nassau. His presence seemed to unnerve the man, but he was making every effort not to let it show.
“I believe that’s everything,” Monique said. “How long will it take, do you think, to get all of these transfers completed?”
Mr. Dunlevy, the director, glanced at Noah for a split second before he replied. “The A
ustralian banks will take the longest,” he said. “I would expect both of those to be completed in about three days, but everything else—the ones in Berlin, Abu Dhabi, and Johannesburg—will almost certainly be finished within twenty-four hours.”
Noah had been watching his face and wasn’t surprised when the sunglasses indicated he was being deceptive.
Monique frowned. “Well, I suppose there’s no help for it. I’ll try to plan further ahead for any future transfers to Melbourne.” She shook off the frown and replaced it with a smile. “Now, I had also requested a substantial withdrawal in US dollars.”
Dunlevy matched her smile with his own. “Yes, and I have it ready.” He pressed a button on his desk and a voice came from a speaker in the ceiling.
“Yes, Mr. Dunlevy?”
“Have Mr. Washington bring in the parcel for Ms. Lancaster, please,” Dunlevy said. A moment later, a large man entered the office with a briefcase, which he set on the desk. He opened it and then turned it so that Monique could see its contents.
“And it’s all there?”
“Yes, Ms. Lancaster,” Dunlevy replied. “Two million, four hundred thousand US dollars in one-hundred-dollar bills.”
Monique nodded, and Mr. Washington closed the briefcase, then set it on the floor beside her chair before turning and walking out of the room.
“I suppose that’s all I need for today, then,” Monique said. “I thank you for your time, and for taking care of everything so promptly.”
Dunlevy stood and bowed stiffly. “As always, Ms. Lancaster, it has been my pleasure.”
This time, the “Deception detected” was in glowing red.
Monique got to her feet and picked up the briefcase, which she then handed to Noah. “Goodbye, then,” she said. She turned and walked out of the office with Noah on her heels, which clicked across the marble floor. A doorman opened the front door for her, and they stepped out onto the street.
A limousine was parked at the curb, and Noah opened the rear door for her, then climbed in beside her after she entered. The driver put the car into gear and pulled away, sliding smoothly into the traffic.