Lone Wolf

by David Archer

  The night wore on, and finally, Pendergrast stopped yelling and just hung there. His head was drooping onto his chest, and it dawned on Moose that the man had actually managed to fall asleep. Don't think I could do that, Moose thought to himself. How can a guy sleep when he's hanging by his wrists like that?

  The answer, apparently, was that he couldn't sleep long in that position. The nap lasted about twenty minutes, before Pendergrast began groaning and woke up. He tried weakly to yell for help, but it was obvious that his spirit was not in it.

  After another hour, he seemed to drift off again. Moose didn't know exactly what time it was, and he didn't want to light up his phone to find out, just in case Pendergrast were to look in his direction at that moment.

  When the sun began to rise, peeking over the horizon, Moose went down the ladder again just as quietly as he had come up it. Pendergrast was still hanging where they had left him, and seemed to be nearly catatonic.

  Moose slipped into the house, being quiet so that he wouldn't wake the others, but it was too late. They were already up, having coffee and breakfast at the table. Moose poured himself a cup and grabbed the plate with two big pancakes that Sarah had set aside for him on the warmer. He sat down at the table and smothered it with butter and syrup, then began eating.

  “Since you're calm enough to eat, I gather that our guest is still hanging around,” Noah said. “Am I right?”

  Moose nodded, his mouth full. He chewed and swallowed quickly, then said, “Yep. Would you believe the guy actually managed to get some sleep? Dozing off, sleeping for about twenty minutes or so and then waking up.”

  “I'm not surprised,” Noah said. “I would imagine it's pretty exhausting, just hanging there. Did he yell much?”

  Again, Moose's head bobbed up and down. “In between naps, like clockwork. Kept yelling for help, even though I'm pretty sure he could tell nobody was coming.”

  “It's the survival instinct,” Becker said. “Even when we know it's hopeless, we always try to hold onto some kind of hope. Somebody trapped in a ravine will continue to call for help until they die of dehydration, somebody facing a firing squad will imagine a sudden, last-minute reprieve, right up to the moment when the guns go off. It's just human nature.”

  “I don't know,” Moose said. “I don't think I could go to sleep like that.”

  “You would if you hung there long enough,” Noah said. “Exhaustion sets in, and there's nothing you can do about it. You get depressed, because you start to feel like there's no way out, and that's when the exhaustion will get you. I was counting on it.” He shoved the last bite of pancakes into his mouth, and washed it down with coffee before getting to his feet. “I think it's time to pay him a visit. I want the rest of you to come out to the barn and stand underneath him, just looking up. Don't say anything, just stare at him.”

  Everyone but Moose was pretty well finished, and he shoved the rest of his own breakfast into his mouth as quickly as he could. When he was done, they all rose to follow Noah out to the barn.

  The barn where Pendergrast was hanging was about a thousand yards from the house, so it took them a little while to walk out there. When they arrived, Moose, Sarah, Neil and Decker all went to stand just underneath the man while Noah climbed the ladder.

  Pendergrast was awake, and began yelling at them to let him down. None of them responded, but just continued to stare up at him, keeping his attention while Noah moved as quietly as he could across the loft floor. He came up behind Pendergrast, out of the man's line of vision.

  “You see those people down there?” Noah asked, startling Pendergrast. “They asked me to give you one more chance to be straight with me. This is the only chance you're going to get, and I want you to understand that. When I ask you a question, I want a straight answer. Do you understand me?” He moved around the hole in the floor so that Pendergrast could see him.

  Pendergrast's lips were covered in spittle, and there was a dark stain on the front of his pants. The man had pissed himself. “Yes, yes, whatever you want,” he shouted. “I'll tell you anything you want to know, I swear it!”

  “That's good,” Noah said, “because whether you live through this or not depends on how honest you are with me right now. So tell me, Jeremy, old pal, where is Selah Habib?”

  “Look, they just hired me to deliver a message, okay? I never had anything to do with the girl, I just had to make a phone call, that's all.”

  Noah shook his head, and started to turn away. “That's not the answer,” he said as he took the first few steps back toward the latter.

  “Wait! Wait, please! I never saw the girl, myself, that's the truth, I swear, but you need to know that she was never really kidnapped! She made a deal with the Russians, to help her run away with her boyfriend. He's a Russian, from the embassy there in Nouakchott. She'd been keeping it a secret, because her father would never approve, but I guess it got pretty serious. They're living somewhere in Russia, but I have no idea where, I swear I don't.”

  Noah had stopped when he began talking, and turned back to face him. “Who hired you?”

  “He was SVR, Russian foreign intelligence service. I've known the guy for years, his name is Vladimir Sokoloff, he works as an attaché in the Russian Embassy in London. He called me up a couple of weeks ago and told me he wanted me to negotiate a deal for him. It was all set up, already; the girl and her boyfriend were loaded onto a diplomatic flight back to Moscow, and all I had to do was deliver the message. It was just a pressure move—no one's really going to hurt the girl.”

  Noah stood still and stared at him for a long moment, then stepped back up to the edge of the hole. “Can you arrange a meeting with Sokoloff?”

  “Yes, yes, all I got to do is call him. We've done business together for a few years, now; if I ask him to meet with me, he will. I don't have to tell him what it's about, I can say I've got a lead on some new information they might want.” He licked his lips with a very dry tongue. “Just one thing, though—you can't let him go when you're done with him. You've got to kill him, promise me that. If you let him go, he'll know I set him up, and I'll be a dead man.”

  Once again, Noah just stared at him for a moment. “What if it turns out that he's more important to me than you are? Maybe it would be worth it to me to let him have you.”

  “Oh, come on, man,” Pendergrast said frantically. “Do you have any idea how much information I can provide you? You keep me safe, and I can get you just about anything you want!”

  Noah crossed his arms and looked into Pendergrast's eyes. “Can you get me the location of the girl?”

  Pendergrast opened his mouth, but then closed it again. He licked his lips once more, then said, “I can, but you'd have to trust me. You'd have to leave Vladimir alone and let me handle him.”

  Noah smiled, the kind of smile a shark might wear just before it bites you. “What makes you think I would ever trust you, Jeremy?”

  Pendergrast burst out laughing. “Right now, whoever you are, you got my life in your hands. Do you think I'd be stupid enough to cross you? You took me in broad daylight, right out of my apartment! You're obviously an American, but you're not CIA or NSA, so I got a hunch you're somebody a lot darker than that. I know that both of those keep tabs on me, so the chance I could ever hide from you would be pretty slim, right? Yeah, you can trust me. You can trust me because I know damn well that if I get sideways with you, you're going to make me a dead man, yourself, and I suspect it wouldn't be anything I'd want to experience on the way. Good enough?”

  Noah stood there for a moment longer, then nodded. “I think you're being sincere,” he said. “Hang tight for another minute, and I'll let you down. Just remember what you just said, though, and understand that if you cross me, your death will be as slow and painful as I can possibly make it. Got that?”

  “I've got it, believe me, I've got it.”

  Noah traced his steps back to the ladder, and made his way down to the ground floor. He untied the rope from the h
ook that locked it in place, then slowly let the rope play through his fingers until Pendergrast's feet touched the floor. The man collapsed, unable to stand, and Moose moved in to pick him up.

  Noah walked over and unhooked him from the block and tackle, and then Moose tossed Pendergrast over his shoulder and carried him up to the house. It was a long walk again, punctuated now and then by grunts and groans from Pendergrast.

  Moose dropped him into a chair at the table, and then cut the zip strips to release him. Sarah went to the sink and got him a glass of water, cautioning him to sip slowly at first. Pendergrast nodded, but even by taking small sips, he emptied the glass within a minute.

  “I think I'm getting some circulation back,” he said. “Would it be possible to get to the bathroom?” He looked down at himself. “And could I maybe borrow a pair of pants from someone?”

  Noah nodded, and Moose grabbed the man by one arm and helped him stand. He was still weak, and his legs were unsteady, so Moose had to help him all the way to the bathroom. Stan Decker went to his room and got a pair of his own Dockers and brought them to him, and stayed in the bathroom with him as he stripped and showered, leaning against the walls of the stall to stay on his feet. When he was finished, he managed to walk back to the table with only minor support from Decker.

  “So, what's your plan?” Noah asked him. “How are you going to give me that location?”

  “I'll need a phone,” Pendergrast said. “I'll call Vladimir and tell him that the Israelis are on me, and I need to prove to them that the girl is unhurt. I can convince him that I have to go to her and get a photo of the two of us together in order to keep the Mossad off our backs. Israeli intelligence scares the hell out of him, I don't know why, but they do, and even though Israel and Mauritania don't maintain diplomatic relations, Israel would be dead set against this alliance with Russia and Syria. If they got wind of it, I guarantee you they really would be on top of me and anyone else they thought might know something. Vladimir would know that, too, so he'll believe me.”

  Noah cocked his head to one side and squinted at Pendergrast. “But why would they only want proof the girl is alive and unhurt? Wouldn't they be working to stop the alliance?”

  “Not publicly, not right now. Once it's announced, then you'll see Israel all over it, but not till then. For now, they would just want to know whether the leverage is intact. If it is, meaning that the girl is safe and still in Russia's custody, then Israel would have to sit back and wait to see what happens. On the other hand, if they found out that something bad had happened to her, they could leak that information to President Habib and scuttle the whole deal. That's exactly what the Russians would be afraid of, and that's why I can use it this way. I'll get on a plane to Russia, to go get that supposedly necessary photograph, and all you have to do is follow me.”

  Noah shook his head. “That sounds like such a stupid plan that it's bound to work.” He nodded to Neil, who produced a cell phone and handed it to Pendergrast.

  “I hope you know the guy's phone number,” Neil said.

  “Trust me, it's embedded in my memory.” He dialed a number quickly, then held the phone up to his ear. “Vladimir? It's Jeremy. Listen, buddy, we got us a problem. You want to guess who just paid me a visit? Yeah, Abner Ben Yousef! Well, what do you think he wants? I guess their people got wind of what's going on in Mauritania, and somehow they found out I was involved.” He listened for a moment, then scowled. “I didn't leak anything,” he said emphatically. “As far as I knew, only you and I knew that I was involved in this at all, but knowing how many leaks your organization has, I'm not surprised they found out about it. Well, it had to come from your place, nobody else knew! Okay, okay, calm down! All he wants is to know that the Habib girl is still alive and well, and they want me to get them proof of that. I'm supposed to go to her and come up with a photo of me and her together, or they're going to blow this whole thing wide open on us.” He paused and listened again for a couple of minutes. “Yeah, yeah, I'm free right now. I don't have anything going on, so it's good timing. Just tell me where she is and I'll go get the photo, get these bastards off our backs.”

  He suddenly motioned for something to write with, and Sarah quickly produced a pen and notepad. Pendergrast clamped the phone between his ear and his shoulder, while he scribbled notes on the paper. “Okay, yeah, I've got it. I'll get on the next flight out to Moscow. You're sure that's where I'll find her, right? Okay, good enough.”

  He hit the end button on the phone and handed it back to Neil, who confirmed with a glance that the call was ended. Pendergrast looked at Noah.

  “They're in a small town called Kubinka, about thirty-five miles southwest of Moscow. I've got to fly out as soon as possible, and he'll have someone meet me at the airport in Moscow to take me to them. You can follow me, but you got to figure out how you're going to cover me. If you're going to go in and take the girl, I don't want anyone thinking I led you to them. Can you manage that?”

  Noah grinned. “That won't be a problem,” he said. “We'll make sure no one suspects you. For right now, though, we need to get you back to your place so you can get cleaned up and ready to go. Ready for another ride?”

  Pendergrast shrugged. “Sure, I guess so.”

  Noah looked at Sarah. “Can you rig up a blindfold for him? I don't want him to know how to get back here.”

  She grinned. “Sure, no problem.”

  SEVEN

  Following Pendergrast's lead, Noah, Moose and Sarah had booked tickets on the same flight to Moscow, scheduled to depart early the next morning. They had driven the man back to his apartment and stayed with him while he reserved his own ticket, planting some of the nearly invisible, high-tech bugs that Neil had provided to them. The computer geek would be able to listen to everything that went on in the apartment, and had already rigged a tap on Pendergrast's cell phone.

  “Why aren't we all going?” Neil asked that evening, as they had dinner.

  “Well, you're not going because I don't want you away from your computer for any length of time,” Noah said. “You're my intelligence division, remember? If anything is going on, you'll spot it before anyone else, and I need you to be where you can get word to me quickly. Decker is going to stay here with you, just in case Mister Pendergrast decides to pull a double cross and has any idea of this location.”

  “So what's your plan in Russia?” Decker asked him. “You won't be able to carry weapons on a commercial flight, you know that, right?”

  “That's why I called the boss lady a while ago,” Noah said. “Turns out our outfit has people in every major city, even though some of them don't know what we really do. Our station chief in Moscow will be waiting with a vehicle when we get off the plane, and everything we need will be inside. Depending on what we run into, it may be a simple snatch job or could boil down to a small-scale invasion. Whatever we have to do, he'll make sure we got the equipment for it.”

  Neil tossed a napkin onto the table angrily. “Doggone it,” he said, “I get left out of all the fun! Why don't I ever get to play cops and robbers with you guys?”

  “Because you have the worst firing range scores of anybody the organization has ever seen,” Moose answered him. “You'd be more likely to shoot one of us than the enemy!”

  The tall, skinny kid rolled his eyes. “Now that's not fair, not all of us can be Wyatt Earp. Some of us have to have real brains, y'know?”

  “Hey, just relax, Neil,” Noah said. “Maybe one of these days on a mission, the rest of us will get killed off and you'll have to go complete it yourself.”

  Decker started laughing, but Neil, Moose and Sarah just stared at Noah. “Holy crap,” Neil said, “boss man, did you just make a joke?”

  Noah looked at each of them in turn. “Well, I tried,” he said. “Wasn't it funny?”

  Sarah shivered. “Out of anyone else, it might have been, but out of you? Noah, that was downright terrifying.”

  Decker stopped laughing and looked at them al
l. “Well, I thought it was funny.”

  Moose shook his head. “That's only because you're not used to working with the human computer,” he said. “If you'd been around him as long as we have, it would've scared you, too.”

  They finished eating, and retired to the living room to watch some television, but all of them went to their bedrooms before nine. Decker would get up with Noah, Moose and Sarah in the morning, to drive them to Heathrow, and they had to be through security and at the gate before eight AM.

  Sarah followed Noah into the room they were sharing, and stepped out of her clothes as he did the same. “I wish we knew more about what's going to happen when we get to Russia,” she said. “I hate to think this could be our last night together.”

  “Then don't think it,” Noah said. “Believe me, I have every intention of coming out of this alive, and bringing Moose and that girl with me. I plan to spend a lot more nights making music on that beautiful body of yours.”

  She smirked at him as she slid under the covers. “I thought you didn't know beauty when you saw it?”

  “Not really, but I know it when I touch it. Shut up and come here.”

  Noah's alarm went off at five AM, and he had to extricate himself from Sarah's arms and legs. Doing so woke her up, and she mumbled something about getting the first shower as she stumbled out of the bed. Noah watched her walk into the bathroom, then followed her and climbed into the shower with her.

  “Hey,” Sarah said, “I thought you were gonna let me go first?”

  “This'll be faster. We don't have a lot of time this morning, so every minute we can save is a good thing.”

  Twenty minutes later, they walked into the kitchen to find Moose and Decker sitting at the table nursing cups of coffee, and there was a fresh pot on the counter. They each grabbed a cup and sat down with the two men.