Highest Order

by David Archer

  Catherine’s eyes bounced from Allison to Noah and back several times. “If I agree,” she asked, “can I trust you to keep me informed about the progress? I want to be certain that I’m made aware of every detail, including both successes and failures.”

  “I’ll agree to that,” Allison said. “Noah can keep you advised.”

  “And you understand that, should I deem it necessary, I will go to my superiors?”

  “You know how important this is,” Allison said. “If you decide that telling your superiors becomes necessary, then it probably means you believe we’re failing anyway, so I’ll agree to that, as well.”

  Catherine sat there in silence for a few seconds, then turned and looked at Marco.

  “I don’t know you so well,” she said. “I know that you replaced a man who gave his life trying to protect Noah and the others. Do you support him in this?”

  “I absolutely do,” Marco said. “In the time I’ve been with him, Noah is the only person I’ve ever known whose judgment I trust absolutely. If he says we are taking out the president, the only question I ask is where he wants me standing at the time.”

  Catherine nodded and turned to look at Sarah. “I’m sure he has your support,” she said. “I’m fully aware that you married the man, so I would imagine you go along with what he wants.”

  “Of course,” Sarah said. “But it’s more than just the fact that I married him. There’s also the fact that I’ve seen him walk into the jaws of death more than once just to keep me safe. I know that he’ll do whatever it takes to keep these people from doing what they want to do, especially to all those children.”

  Catherine pressed her lips into a thin line, and slowly shook her head. “All right,” she said after a moment. “I’ll keep this to myself until such time as I feel it absolutely necessary to bring my superiors in on it.” She looked at Noah. “One more thing. If you get any kind of information that specifically involves the U.K., I want to know about it as soon as possible. Agreed?”

  Noah glanced at Allison, who nodded. “Agreed,” he said.

  “Very bloody well,” Catherine said. “Then I need to get back to London. I’m going to play hell coming up with an excuse for my absence, even now.” She turned to Allison. “While I wish it was under better circumstances, I am glad we finally got to meet. At least now I can put a face to the name of the person I’m cursing when I have to deal with issues like this.”

  Allison grinned. “I’ll send you a picture, so you can have it made into a dart board,” she said.

  “That’ll do,” Catherine said, but she grinned back. “As I say, I’ve got to go. Noah, I’ll be waiting for your reports, and I’ll relay messages via email as soon as I get them. Tell your lad to get me an email addy to use, one that won’t set off any alarms back at my office.” She got to her feet and held out a hand to Allison. “Again, I’m glad we met. I wish you all the best in this effort, and I’ll do anything I can to help, of course.”

  “Thank you, Catherine,” Allison said, shaking with her. “Don’t think for a moment that I don’t know how much I’m asking of you.”

  “Of course you do,” Catherine said. “It’s your job, and this is mine.” She turned to Noah, Sarah, and Marco and made her goodbyes, then walked back toward the house and her car.

  Noah looked at Allison. “She’s tough,” he said, “but she’s also loyal to the Queen. I wouldn’t bet that she won’t go to the palace tonight and tell Elizabeth.”

  “I trust Queen Elizabeth a lot further than I would anyone at MI6. That old woman has been through some of the worst times in history and survived. If anyone understands the necessity of secrecy and eliminations, it would be her.”

  * * * * *

  “All done,” Molly said. “The books we used, Ivanhoe, Frankenstein, Wuthering Heights, and Robinson Crusoe, are all loaded digitally into the program, so it can randomize which page it wants to key a letter from.”

  “I do know how it works, Molly,” Neil said. “In fact, I think it was my idea, wasn’t it?”

  She stuck her tongue out at him. “Smart ass,” she said. “Okay, well, it’s done. I don’t suppose you have a blank CD? An extra thumb drive?”

  “Sure,” Neil said. He reached into his computer case and produced a USB drive. “Here you go.”

  Molly stuck it into the USB port on Neil’s laptop and copied the program onto it, then slipped it into her pocket. “Thanks,” she said. “This should be extremely difficult for anyone to figure out. Without knowing the key books in the order of rotation, it would be just about impossible.”

  Jenny, who had been sitting on the couch beside Neil while Molly worked, got to her feet and pulled Molly into a hug. “I’m glad you got to come along,” she said. “I was actually beginning to wonder if I would ever see any of you folks again. Now, if only you could tell my guys what’s going on, but I know you can’t. If you happen to run into them, just tell them you’re sure I would want them to go on without me if anything happens.”

  “I will, if I get the chance. Come on, Allison is probably getting impatient. We need to get on the way back so this plan can go into action.”

  The three of them walked down the stairs and found Noah, Sarah, Allison, and Marco sitting in the Great Hall. Allison looked up as they approached.

  “Everything set?” she asked.

  “Yes,” Molly said. She patted her pocket and smiled. “The program is on Neil’s computer, and I have a copy on a thumb drive. We can simply type a message and run it through the program, and it comes out the other end fully encrypted.”

  Allison nodded. “That’s what we need,” she said. “Okay, let’s get our stuff. Marco is going to drive us back to the airport, and I already called Barbara to arrange a plane. It’ll pick us up in a couple of hours, so we got plenty of time.”

  She and Molly went back upstairs to get their things, and returned only a few minutes later. They hadn’t really unpacked anything, so it was mostly a matter of closing up their bags. They had started to carry them down, but two of Thomas’ sons spotted them and rushed to take them. They carried them out and put them into the car, and then vanished again.

  “Well, it’s that time,” Allison said. She pulled Sarah into a hug, then did the same with Jenny, and Molly grabbed each of them as she let go. “Noah, I’m sorry to have dumped so much on you, but there’s no one else I can trust enough to handle it. My thoughts and prayers are going with you throughout this entire mission.”

  “I appreciate it,” Noah said. “I’m sure I’ll do what has to be done, but I hope to be able to gain enough information to keep this from taking too long. The last thing we need is to let them manage to pull off even one of their so-called ‘events.’ Even without knowing what’s behind it, the thought of our own elected officials doing something like this to the American people is just beyond comprehension. They’ve got to be stopped, no matter what I have to do.”

  “I could not agree more,” Allison said. “Sarah, you take care of him.”

  Sarah smiled. “I try, but sometimes he makes it difficult.”

  “Oh, honey, that’s just because he’s a man.” She turned and nodded to Marco, who led the way out the door and opened the passenger doors of the Bentley for them. Thomas’ sons had already put their bags into the trunk of the car. Once they were inside and seatbelts were fastened, he walked around and got behind the wheel and started out of the long driveway.

  “This is going to be a nightmare, isn’t it?” Sarah asked. “And probably a long one.”

  Noah nodded solemnly. “I’m pretty sure you’re absolutely right,” he said.

  Chapter SEVENTEEN

  Forty-Eight Hours Later

  Senator James Lindemann and Congressman Anthony Borden stepped out of the limousine and through the door that was being held open for them. This was the first time they had ever visited the so-called Lockdown House, the ultra-secure facility where extremely dangerous, high-level prisoners could be held at government orde
r. They had been trying for almost 3 days to get this meeting set up, and they were in no mood for any further delays. They stopped past the guards that stood in the doorway, and waited impatiently to be escorted to their destination.

  “We’re here to see Allison Peterson,” Lindemann said. “We’ve been stuck in traffic for the last two hours, so we’re running a little late.”

  “That’s not a problem,” said the lead guard. “She’s ready to see you. If you follow me this way, I’ll take you right to her.”

  They walked through the long hallway, and the guard finally stopped just outside one door. He produced a key and unlocked it, and held it open for the two politicians to step through.

  There she was, the famous Dragon Lady. Lindemann privately thought that she didn’t look nearly as ferocious as her reputation seemed to suggest.

  “Allison Peterson?” Lindemann asked.

  Allison looked up from where she was sitting on the bed. She did her best to look broken and contrite as she nodded.

  “Yes, that’s me.”

  The two men stepped toward the table and chairs, and Lindemann motioned for her to follow. She got slowly off the bed and walked to the table, sinking into a chair without being invited to do so.

  “I understand you know why we’re here,” Lindemann said. “Is that correct?”

  “Yes,” Allison said. “It’s like I told Senator Duckworth, I’m more than happy to do whatever it takes to serve my country.”

  “You damn well should be,” Borden said. “You sure as hell have been living high on the hog off the government for the last few years.”

  Try as she might, Allison couldn’t keep the look of disgust out of her face. “I beg your pardon,” she said. “If you’re under the impression I’m getting rich at my job, you need to go back and take a good look at the accounting for my department. I’ve got technicians in our research division who make three times what I do.”

  “I’m not talking about money,” Borden spat out. “I’m talking about power. You got half the people in Washington scared to death of you. They all seem to think you know something about them, something that could get them into trouble. It’s almost like you’ve been blackmailing people, trying to make sure they know not to doublecross you.”

  “Who the hell is afraid of me? I’m a public servant, just like everybody else. I’m just not one that they talk about on PBS.”

  “None of that really matters at the moment,” Lindemann said, glaring at Borden. “What we need to do is determine whether or not we believe we can trust you to continue running your division. You’ve been enjoying an awful lot of autonomy for quite some time now, and some of us don’t believe that’s necessarily a good thing.”

  I can’t give in too easily, Allison thought. They have to work for it, or they’ll never believe it’s real.

  “How many times do I have to explain this? The reason the president gave me autonomy was so that no one would ever be able to order me to approve a sanction. It was so that no one could ever use the inherent power of my department to favor themselves in any way. That includes, just so you know, even people like me. While the decision on whether to approve a sanction is mine, I have to report each and every one after it’s done for review. That’s to make sure that even I can’t personally benefit from an assassination.”

  Lindemann nodded, his face condescending. “We know, we know,” he said. “Allison, the problem isn’t that we actually think you got anything wrong. The problem is that you have the potential power to do so. Can you understand that?”

  Allison let contrition settle into her face again. “I suppose so,” she said, “though I still don’t know where this came from. I mean, no one ever talked about this sort of thing before, right?”

  “Perhaps not in front of you,” Lindemann said. “However, I can tell you that the subject has been discussed many times on Capitol Hill. There’s always been the concern that, should you ever decide to use the power you have with your position, it could be quite detrimental to everyone in Washington.”

  “So, what is it you want me to do? Whose ass do I have to kiss?”

  “Oh, good grief,” Borden said. “Do you honestly expect us to believe that you’re stupid? There’s a new paradigm, a new kind of power in Washington. Ever since President Andrews was elected, things have been shifting, becoming more dynamic. Are you trying to tell us you haven’t noticed?”

  “New paradigm?” Allison turned to Lindemann. “Just where did you find this monkey? Did you steal him from an organ grinder somewhere?”

  “That’s it,” Borden said. “I’ve heard enough, I cannot go along with…”

  “Tony, shut up,” Lindemann said. “Allison, we’re here to try to get you back to work as soon as possible, but we need to know that you understand that there will be a few limitations on you in the future. From now on, any sanction requests have to come through the committee, rather than directly to you. The committee will decide which ones to pass on, and then you will continue to do the job you’ve been doing. Is that really going to be such a problem?”

  Allison looked at him for a moment, then squared her shoulders. “You want the flat, honest to God truth? I’ll be delighted to have someone else take some of the pressure. Do you know what it does to you, when you spend every day having to play God and decide who lives and who dies? It eats at you, it tears away parts of your soul. I’ll be more than happy to let you people make those decisions. I take it you’re just going to leave me with the logistical problems of getting my teams out there to do the job?”

  “I would say that’s a fair assessment,” Lindemann said. “You are certainly the most qualified to decide which of your people to send out on a mission. And speaking of your people, I understand that one of your teams has gone missing. Do you know anything about that?”

  “Missing? Who?” Allison demanded.

  “It’s the team you call Camelot,” Lindemann said. “We were able to determine that they were the ones who handled the Arkansas mission, and the committee was trying to find them to answer some questions. It appears that someone in your organization tipped them off, because they have disappeared completely.”

  Allison rolled her eyes. “Probably because they heard I was locked up,” she said. “Camelot was the worst team I had about following orders. If they got the word that I was removed from my office, then I suspect they took the opportunity to vanish. It’ll be a damn long time before we ever hear from them again, and they’ll probably be rogue independents. Camelot is Noah Wolf, and if he hires out as an assassin, I pity whoever he’s paid to kill.”

  “But wouldn’t you have some idea of where he would go? And what about his team? According to some information in your files, he actually got married to his driver. You’ve got to have some idea of where he might go if he wanted to disappear.”

  Allison screwed up her face in a frown. “Well,” she said, “maybe. I know that he had a thing for Russia. He’s been there on three different occasions, and he’s made the comment several times that he would have loved to live there.”

  “In Russia? That would be surprising. Why do you think he would choose to live there?”

  Allison grinned at him. “One of the most effective assassins who ever lived? Can you imagine a better place for him to establish himself as a freelancer? The bratva would go absolutely nuts over him.”

  “Hmm,” Lindemann said. “I guess that could be a good point. Does he actually speak Russian?”

  “Oh, fluently. I didn’t know that until his last mission, when he actually managed to get himself arrested in order to rescue another team. He pulled off a Houdini-quality escape that time, and it was only in the after action debriefing that I heard he was speaking fluent Russian. He could probably pass himself off as a native, if he wanted to.”

  Lindemann frowned. “This bratva, what do they do with somebody like him?”

  Allison’s eyebrows shot up. “With an assassin? What the hell do you think they would do wit
h him? He’d make a fortune working for them.”

  Lindemann stared at her for moment. “Forgive me, but you don’t seem all that concerned that he might have deserted you. Is there a reason for that?”

  “Did you ever read his after action reports? Do you know how many times he went off orders, did things his own way? Now, sometimes it paid off, but other times he left us with a mess we had to clean up. That Arkansas mission you mentioned; he actually brought back a teenage boy that he thought would make a good assassin. Can you imagine what I went through, trying to justify all that with the paperwork?”

  “This is bullshit,” Borden said. “Let’s just get down to the serious business. Are you going to accept the oversight of the committee, or not?”

  Allison continued looking at Lindemann. “The monkey is making noise again,” she said. “Apparently he didn’t hear me when I said I’d be glad to let you guys make the hard decisions for a while.”

  “It’ll be more than a while,” Borden shouted. “We’re talking about a permanent…”

  Allison turned and looked him in the eye. “Do you think so? Do you honestly think that any of you really have what it takes to make those decisions, day in and day out? I give it six months before you’re ready to hand it all back to me again. Hell, maybe less than that.” She turned back to Lindemann. “I’m willing to play ball however you want me to. My biggest concern is taking care of my teams, and I can’t do that from a jail cell. Not even one as luxurious and nice as this.”

  Lindemann looked at her for a moment, then nodded his head. “Okay, that’s good enough for me. I’ll be reporting back to the committee this afternoon, and we should be able to make arrangements to get you back to your office by tomorrow morning. And don’t worry, you’ll be dealing mostly with me or Barbara Holloway. We’ll be the co-chairs of the new oversight committee for your division.”

  Allison let out a sigh. “That,” she said, “I can live with. Let’s get this show on the road.”