In Sheep's Clothing

by David Archer

  “That’s all I can ask. Right now, though, I need someplace I can set up some equipment.”

  “Our TOC is in the same room where you briefed us yesterday. Let’s head up there.”

  When Noah stepped out of the car and turned toward the trunk, Hayes saw that he was limping and offered to help carry in whatever Noah needed. Noah thanked him, and pulled Moose and Neil’s bags out of the trunk so that Hayes could grab the big case with the printer.

  “I need that inside, and set up on a table. Then we’re going to hope I can figure out how to use it.”

  “Damn thing’s heavy,” Hayes said. “What is it?”

  “That’s a self-contained 3-D printer that makes high explosives, forming them into any shape and color. I need to make a few accessories for my little rendezvous tonight.”

  Hayes put the case on a table and Noah opened it up. The rest of the men gathered around as the printer extended itself upward and the control computer unfolded from the side.

  “Here’s what I’ve got in mind,” Noah said. “I’m meeting someone at Windmill Hill Park at eight o’clock tonight. That person will take me to where my people are being held, so that I can see them. Andropov will be there as well, so that he can try to get me to commit to doing what he wants. Since I don’t know where I’m going, there’s no way for me to prepare anything on site in advance. That means that the only things I’m going to have available to me are things I can carry in on my person.” Noah pulled the chair over to the table and sat down in it. “I need a Colt forty-five, the old army style. Any idea where I can get one in a hurry?”

  “I’ve got one,” Hayes said. He went to a pile of gear on the floor near the wall and returned with it a moment later. He handed it to Noah, who laid it on the table beside the printer.

  “I’m going to make some things with this printer that I’ll be able to carry in with me. My plan is to be able to place them around the area where my team is being held and use them to take out Andropov’s men and create a diversion. Then, if we can figure out some way you can follow me, I’m hoping you guys will come charging in to the rescue.”

  Hayes frowned. “I could put a tracer on you, but these guys you’re dealing with are also pros. If they caught the signal, they’d either take it away from you or kill you.” He chewed his bottom lip for a moment, then turned and called one of his men. “Jimbo! What’s the range on your camera drone?”

  Jimbo, a short but lanky Asian man, screwed up his face and thought for a moment. “Around here, all this city around us, I’d say about four miles for signal distance, but it can stay in the air for over three hours.”

  “Could you follow a vehicle through the city with it at night?”

  Jimbo grinned. “I can follow a firefly with it if you want me to. What’s up?”

  Hayes indicated Noah with his head. “Our friend here is going to meet someone in a while and be taken to an undisclosed location. We need a way to follow him so that we can show up to save the day.”

  “Easy as pie, man. Just get me on site a little early and I’ll park my baby where I can keep an eye on you. This little puppy is dead silent, I could be ten feet over your head and you’d never know I was there.”

  Noah looked up at him. “What about speed? I’m assuming our destination will be somewhere within the area, but we may be doing interstate speeds.”

  “No sweat. She can do better than a hundred miles an hour, ain’t no car going to get away from her. I can follow you until you get in a vehicle, and then keep that vehicle in sight until it stops. All we’ve got to do is cruise along behind her, not even close enough for anyone to see us.”

  Hayes looked at Noah and shrugged. “Jimbo got tapped for drone training a couple months ago. He’s been dying to give it a try.”

  “Sounds like he just got the chance.” Noah was scanning through the saved items in the 3-D printer’s database of designs. He selected a pair of clip-on holsters, one that would fit the .45, and another the right size for Sarah’s Beretta, which was still in his pocket, and told the printer to make them. They would be thick and heavy, but he didn’t expect Andropov’s men to take them from him once they relieved him of his guns. “Now, here’s the other part. These things have a detonator inside them, and they’re far more powerful than any explosive you’ve seen before. I can program them to go off at a certain time, but I have no way of knowing when would be the best time to use them. They can also be detonated by remote control and I’m going to give that to you. You have to be within a mile of them for it to work, so when you see that I’ve gotten where I’m going, you wait fifteen minutes and then set them off. I’ll find a way to put them somewhere in the room or the area before then. Then, as soon as they go boom, I need you guys to come in as fast as you possibly can. I’ll be unarmed when I go in, of course, but I’m hoping to be able to relieve one of Andropov’s men of a weapon after the explosion.”

  Hayes nodded. “Fifteen minutes,” he said. “Just be sure you get those off by then.” He looked at Noah’s wrist. “No watch? How are you going to know when to duck?”

  “One of the weird little habits I picked up over the years,” Noah said, “is that I’m always counting seconds in the back of my head. It gives me kind of a built-in alarm clock—I always wake up exactly when I want to, that sort of thing. In this case, I can sort of ‘set’ myself an internal timer for fifteen minutes. I’ll do that a few seconds before I step inside, so I should be ready to hit the ground just before you push that red button.”

  TWENTY-THREE

  Noah drove up to the park ten minutes early, and parked on the north side of Gibbon Street, the southern boundary of the park. He got out of the car and unlocked it, then began walking across the grass to get to the paved octagon with a single tree growing in the center of it. He reached it in about three minutes and stood on the pavement while he waited for a sign of his escort. He had left his Glock with Hayes, but the weight of the two guns and holsters on his belt was at least somewhat reassuring.

  A couple of minutes passed and he began looking around to see if he could spot anyone. The only people in sight seemed to be teenagers, but then he saw two men approaching from the opposite end of the park. He watched them carefully and became certain that they were the ones he was looking for.

  The two of them walked up to him and one of them asked, “Are you Mr. Wolf?”

  “I am. Let’s get on with this.”

  The man looked at one another and then motioned for him to follow them. They led him through the playground and across a concrete bridge over a stream, and stopped when they reached a large Mercedes cargo van. One of them opened the back door and motioned for Noah to get in, and the other one followed him inside. The doors closed and a light suddenly came on.

  “I gotta pat you down,” the man said. Noah grinned and opened his jacket to show a holstered Colt forty-five on his right side and a Beretta on his left. The man reached slowly to take both guns from him, then slipped them into the pockets of his own heavier jacket before frisking Noah the way a policeman might do.

  The sides of the van were lined with seats and the man pointed at them. Noah didn’t need any further invitation; he sat down and waited for the truck to begin moving. He didn’t have to wait long before he felt the big van pull away from the curb and head down the street.

  “So where are we going?” Noah asked.

  The man grinned and shrugged. “I don’t have any idea,” he said. “The guy up front, he’s the driver. He knows where we’re going, but I don’t.”

  Noah grunted and leaned back. He closed his eyes and tried to visualize the distance and turns.

  Surprisingly, the ride only lasted about twenty minutes before the van came to a halt. A moment later, the back door was opened again and Noah saw three men with automatic rifles aimed at him. It was obvious they wanted him to follow, so he did so without asking any further questions.

  The van had stopped in front of a run-down concrete building. There were only a co
uple of cars in its parking lot, and only one door was open. He followed his escorts through it and found himself in a dark hallway. There was barely enough light to see at all, and he found himself brushing the wall with his fingertips to be sure he was going straight.

  A door opened ahead of him and light flooded the hall. Surrounded by his escort, Noah stepped into a room that had obviously once been used in manufacturing.

  Nicolaich Andropov was sitting in a chair at a small table in the middle of the floor. He smiled when he saw Noah and pointed to the chair across from him.

  “Mr. Wolf,” he cried. “It is good to see you again. Come, I have vodka waiting for us.”

  “This isn’t a social visit, Nicolaich,” Noah said. “First I want to see my people and then we can talk about whatever it is you want.”

  Andropov laughed. “Oh, it is as I told you before. You Americans never cease to amaze me. Here you are, surrounded by my men with their weapons trained on you, and yet you presume to make demands. Come, I must insist. Join me for a drink while your friends are brought in.”

  Noah glared at him for a moment, then walked over and sat down. Andropov poured vodka into a glass and set it in front of him, then picked up his own. “Let us make a toast,” he said. “To a future of cooperation between us.”

  Noah picked up his glass and held it close to Andropov’s. “I’ve got a better one. To the day I get to put a bullet through your other eye.” He clinked his glass against the other, then tossed it back and swallowed it down.

  Andropov grinned and shrugged, but drank.

  * * * * *

  “Somebody’s coming,” Sarah whispered. “You had any luck?”

  “Nope. Whoever tied us up knew exactly what he was doing. Just keep your cool, don’t give them any excuse to rough you up. Neil, keep that sarcastic mind of yours under control.”

  “You don’t have to worry about that,” Neil said. “I hate to admit it, guys, but I’m pretty much scared shitless right at the moment.”

  A key rattled in a lock and the door was pushed slowly open. Light came into the room and they could see three men step inside.

  “Nicolaich said to bring you all to him,” one of them said. He and one of the others stood back with small machine guns pointed at them while the third man quickly cut them loose. Once their hands and feet were unbound, he helped them stand.

  “Follow me,” said the man who had freed them. The other two stood out of reach as Sarah, Moose and Neil followed him out the door. When they had gotten into the hallway, the two armed men fell in behind.

  They made a couple of turns and suddenly found themselves in a large open bay. Sarah barely bit back a shriek of happiness when she saw Noah, but she couldn’t resist glancing smugly at Moose and Neil. The look in her eyes told them that she was trying to say, “I told you he’d come for us!”

  Noah looked them over quickly and decided that they had not been tortured or beaten since he had seen them last. He nodded to them once and turned back to Andropov. “Bring them closer, I want to talk to them.”

  Andropov grinned and motioned for the guards to bring them closer. When they were about eight feet away, he held up a hand for them to stop.

  “You guys doing okay?” Noah asked.

  “Well, the accommodations aren’t as luxurious as I prefer,” Moose said, “and I can’t say much for the entertainment, but at least we’re still kicking.”

  Noah nodded. “That’s the important thing,” he said. He leaned back in his chair and then winced. Sitting forward again, he reached down and took off the holsters and held them up for Andropov to see. “These are digging into my cracked ribs,” he said as he dropped them on the table. He leaned back again and looked at Sarah. “You okay, Babe?”

  “I’m better now that I’ve seen you,” she said with a grin. “Any chance you’ve come to rescue a damsel in distress?”

  He shrugged. “You might say we’re in negotiations on that.” he turned back to Andropov. “Okay, Asshole, who is it you want me to kill?”

  “It’s actually one of my competitors,” Andropov said. “If I were younger and had both of my eyes, I could handle him myself. Unfortunately, that is not the case. This man is very well guarded and never allows himself to be exposed. It will not be an easy assignment, but I feel strongly that you can accomplish it.”

  “I’ll need every bit of intel you can gather on him. I mean everything, from what he has for breakfast to how many sheets of toilet paper he tears off. Can you give me that kind of information?”

  “It’s being gathered as we speak. Can I assume from your questions that we have reached an agreement?”

  Noah waggled a hand in the air. “That depends,” he said. “I’ll agree, provided you let the girl go with me today. Otherwise, I’m afraid we’re at a stalemate, Nicolaich, because I don’t trust you not to kill them as soon as I leave here.”

  Andropov nodded, his evil grin still plastered on his face. “I suspected that would be your demand,” he said. “However, I’m not ready to give in on that point just yet. First, I want you to show me the plan you come up with to accomplish the mission. If the plan seems viable, then I will agree to your request. You will, of course, remain as my guests until then.”

  Noah leaned forward in his chair again. “Damn,” he said. “Next time you blow up my room, tone down the explosives a bit, will you? You cracked a couple of my ribs and my freaking pelvis. Makes it hard to sit for more than a few minutes.” He slowly got to his feet, and stretched his back and rubbed his hip as he did so.

  He looked over at Sarah. “Still in negotiations, Sweetheart,” he said, and then he turned and looked at Andropov again. “Mind if I at least get a kiss from my fiancé?”

  Andropov’s eye went wide and his grin turned into a smile. “Fiancé? Well, then I can see why you are so insistent on taking her with you.” He shrugged and flipped a hand in the air toward Sarah. “Be my guest, of course.”

  Noah turned and walked stiffly and slowly toward Sarah and the men, keeping his eyes focused on her own. He could see tears beginning to run down her cheeks as he approached her, and he spread his arms when he was still a couple of feet away.

  Suddenly, he slapped a hand to his hip and let himself fall forward, grabbing Sarah and crashing into Moose and Neil on the way. The armed men jumped backward, and Noah could hear Andropov getting to his feet, his chair skittering backward.

  Inside his head, he was counting seconds as he tried to make all three of them stay down on the floor. According to his mental clock, he had now been within the building for just over fifteen minutes, and he was wondering when Hayes...

  The explosion was deafening! Hayes was right on time, and the blast and heat rolled just above them, throwing the half-dozen men in the room into the walls. Windows up high on the walls blew outward and large pieces of the tin roof came crashing down. As soon as the initial blast was over, though, Noah scrambled to his feet and went after one of the guns that had been blasted out of the hands of Andropov’s men.

  He wasn’t surprised to see Moose leaping for one of the others. He snatched up the first one he reached and spun, looking for Andropov, but dust and debris made it almost impossible to see in that direction. He moved forward carefully, watching for any sign of movement, and suddenly he saw it.

  Andropov had watched him fall onto the others, and realized instantly that Noah was trying to protect them, shield them with his own body. That had meant there would be a blast, and so he had dived for the floor himself. He’d been a few feet closer to the table when the explosive holsters had gone off, but he was getting to his feet as Noah approached him.

  And then he heard it, even over the ringing in his ears, the shrill siren sound of a scream of rage. Andropov was up on his knees, facing Noah, and at first Noah thought the sound had come from him, but then Sarah flew past. She had also gotten hold of one of the machine pistols, but she wasn’t aiming it at Andropov. She was swinging it by the barrel, like a baseball bat, and its sh
ort, stubby stock hit him precisely in his ruined left eye. He fell back and she followed, swinging again, catching him on the ear this time. He dropped back to the floor and Sarah fell to her knees beside him, raising the gun up over her head and bringing it down again with all the strength in her athletic little body.

  A dozen times she must’ve struck him, until his face was nothing but a bloody mass. When all of her rage was spent, she fell back, and that was when Noah realized that she was no longer screaming, but was sobbing. He knelt down beside her and put a hand on her shoulder, and she spun and threw her arms around his neck. She was crying so hard that she made him lose his balance and fall down beside her.

  A three-round burst erupted, and Noah jumped away from Sarah to see who had fired—and then lowered his gun once more when he saw that it was Neil. He had picked up one of the guns and followed Sarah, adding three bullets in the chest to the fatal wounds that Nicolaich Andropov had already suffered.

  Suddenly there were other gunshots, and moments later Captain Hayes and two of his men came rushing into the room. Moose had already rounded up the surviving mercenaries, and Hayes’s men brought in several more that were found throughout the old building.

  Hayes spotted Noah sitting on the floor beside Sarah and walked over to him. “Hell,” he said plaintively, “you could’ve saved a little fun for us.”

  “Sometimes,” Noah said, “people just need to do things for themselves.”

  Hayes looked at the ruined face of Nicolaich Andropov and then glanced at Sarah, who was still clinging to Noah and crying her eyes out. He turned his eyes to Noah’s own and nodded silently.

  * * * * *

  The cleanup took a couple of days. Under questioning, some of the mercenaries who had been working with Andropov gave up the address of the house he had been using as a base of operations, and the FBI found evidence linking them all to the raid on Neverland.