by David Archer
“I don’t think Allison being a target is really all that big a surprise,” Noah said. “As head of the E & E, she’s undoubtedly expected to be on somebody’s radar at some point. My concern is how they got their information. It could point to a leak inside the organization, and if there is one, we need to plug it as soon as possible.”
“Shouldn’t you mention that to Allison?” Sarah asked.
“I don’t need to,” Noah said. “She will have figured it out for herself. What we need to do is continue with our mission. That’s our priority.”
“Okay,” Jenny said. “We just have to finish faking Whitcomb’s death, then start this round of meetings with the PRA. It’s just frustrating that we can’t get them all together at one time, that would make it so much easier.”
“Yes, but since Newsom is not the top man,” Noah said, “we have to figure out who’s running the organization, and who he answers to. Those meetings are the only way we’re going to identify everyone necessary, but once we know who they are, they won’t be hard to take out. We can put every team on it if we have to, and even split them up. The whole bunch of these people needs to go down all at once, if possible.”
Sarah nodded. “Every team has someone like Marco, so that gives us more potential assassins. Hell, even Neil and I could make a hit if we absolutely had to.”
“It could come to that,” Noah said. “We’ve got four active teams, so that’s potentially as many as twelve people. If this Board of Directors isn’t bigger than that, then we can leave somebody on each one as you meet them.”
“Why do you think they want to kill Allison?” Jenny asked. “Newsom said it’s because they think the organization will be somehow handicapped if she’s gone, but that doesn’t really make any sense. It’s a government outfit, it’s going to have contingency plans, a way to keep going if something happens to its leadership. That’s standard operating procedure for any government organization.”
“I would imagine there would be a short time where things were in an uproar,” Noah said. “Look at what happened when Andropov attacked Neverland, or when Allison was arrested. The whole place was shook up, and even Doc Parker had a hard time keeping his hand on the reins.”
“Well, at least we were lucky enough to intercept this thing,” Sarah said. “If Victoria hadn’t gotten herself killed, Allison might have been in real danger.”
Noah looked at her. “If the PRA doesn’t believe Jenny really is Victoria,” he said solemnly, “she still might be.”
TWELVE
Allison hung up from talking to Noah and pressed the intercom button on her phone. “Susan,” she said, speaking to her secretary, “get Don and Molly in here.”
“Yes, ma’am,” came the reply. Three minutes later, Molly arrived only a split second before Donald Jefferson. Jefferson was the first to speak.
“What’s going on, Allison?”
“I just heard from Camelot,” she said. “Jenny has managed to get the identity of the next target that the PRA wants eliminated. Surprise, surprise, it’s me.”
“You?” Molly said with a gasp. “They’ve got to be kidding.”
“Somehow I doubt it,” Allison said. “Noah said they know an awful lot about me, such as how I got this job. I hate to say it, but you know what that means.”
“It means we have a leak,” Jefferson said. “And it’s got to be somebody high enough in the organization to be able to give them that much info. Any suspects?”
Allison looked at him with a grin. “Besides you? Not at the moment, but I’m counting on you to put a list on my desk by the end of the day.” She turned to Molly. “As long as they keep thinking that Jenny is Victoria, I’m probably not in any real danger. However, Donald can tell you that I have always planned for this eventuality. Should anything happen to me, he takes over as director immediately. At that time, Molly, you will step in as his deputy. Understood?”
Molly’s eyes went wide. “Me? Ma’am, that would put me in the position of being third in command. I’ll be blunt and honest, and tell you that I don’t know that I could make the kind of decisions that job could require.”
“Nonsense, you’re perfectly capable of it. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about you in the time you’ve been with us, it’s that you understand the necessity of our existence and of the things we do. If it ever comes down to you having to order a sanction, you’d do it because it has to be done. Trust me, Molly, I’m a very good judge of character. I wouldn’t put you in this position if I wasn’t certain you can handle it.”
Molly swallowed. “Well, then,” she said hesitantly, “I suppose I would do my best.”
“Of course you would,” Allison said. She turned back to Jefferson. “Donald, talk to Parker. We need to start looking for the leak, and we need to find them as soon as possible. When we do, I don’t want any specific action taken. We just need to identify the leak so that we can use them to our own advantage.”
“Naturally,” Jefferson said. “Sometimes, knowing who the spies in your midst are is the most powerful weapon in your arsenal.”
Allison grinned. “Exactly.”
* * * * *
Marco and Neil were gone for almost two hours, but Neil was obviously happy when they returned. Marco dropped a big bucket of fried chicken onto the table in Neil and Jenny’s room while Neil started digging things out of bags. Noah picked up the chicken and took a piece while Neil started talking.
“I got everything we need,” the skinny kid said. “And, just for the record, Kendall is a freaking genius. Jenny, check this out.”
He held out a small box, and Jenny took it from him. When she opened it, her face broke into a smile.
“Is this what I think it is?” she asked. She reached into the box and took out what looked like a large electronic cigarette, then turned it over and over in her hands. “Wait a minute, I don’t see any openings.” She looked up at Neil.
“That,” he said with a grin, “is a single shot, twenty-two caliber pistol. It’s also a fully functional vape unit, just push the button and take a puff.”
Jenny stuck the tip in her mouth and pushed the button on the side of the unit, inhaled for a second and then blew out a stream of water vapor. “Tastes like ice cream,” she said with a chuckle. “But how do I fire it?”
“Press the button five times in rapid succession, and the bottom cap opens up. When it’s open, that exposes the barrel. The next time you push the button, it fires, and then the cap closes. Kendall said the reason it’s so thick is because it’s got a sound suppressor built into it. It shouldn’t be much louder than the sound of a firecracker.”
Jenny grinned. “This is pretty sweet. I’ve seen things like it before, but nothing I could get away with carrying openly.”
“It’s got enough vapor fluid and battery for about half an hour of puffing away, so you can be using it while you wait for the chance to shoot. Of course, it’s loaded with a blank cartridge, so there’s no risk of you actually shooting the poor guy. You just have to remember to turn on the app on your phone a couple of minutes before you fire off the blank.”
“You just get it set up,” Jenny said. “Trust me, I know what to do.”
“I’m on it,” Neil said. He sat at the table and started working, connecting small electronic components to various other parts. The rest of them munched on chicken while they watched, until Neil finally inserted his contraption into a small balloon. He then used a syringe to fill the balloon with a thick, red liquid that looked for all the world like real blood.
“That’s it,” he said. “We hide this up under the guy’s hair, and when Jenny hits the button, it goes pop and blood starts running down the back of his head. It doesn’t really make any noise to speak of, but he’ll feel it. As soon as he does, all he’s got to do is fall forward and start groaning. As long as he doesn’t sit up and start talking, it’s going to look like a very well-planned assassination.” He leaned in toward Noah. “You know, she wouldn’t really
even have to fire that blank cartridge. Just the fact that blood flies around all of a sudden is going to make it obvious he was supposedly shot. I could just rig it up on a simple remote control.”
Noah shook his head. “That’s exactly why she has to fire it,” he said. “The idea is for Jenny to be close enough to be spotted in video of the shooting, but to be able to get away before anybody catches on that it was her. That way, the PRA will see her in the news footage and be convinced that she really is Victoria.”
“You expect to have news cameras there?” Jenny asked.
“He’s a bigwig,” Noah said. “There will be some kind of camera trained on him, you can count on it. It may only be cell phones, but the footage will make it to the news pretty quickly. We just have to hope that none of the other patrons of the restaurant realize it was you and try to restrain you. The last thing we want is for anyone to actually get hurt.”
Neil looked at him. “Hey, I could help with that a bit. I can make a few other little explosives go off at the same time the squib does, louder ones that will sound like a gunshot. One of us could place them around the restaurant, so there will be a lot of confusion about which direction the shot came from. They’d even be louder than the little vapor gun, so almost nobody would think she did it.”
Noah sucked in his cheek and chewed on it for a second, then nodded. “Do it,” he said. “You and I are probably the most recognizable of our team, but Marco and Sarah could pose as tourists who stopped in for lunch. If they put some of those in different spots, it should add to the confusion and make it easier for Jenny to slip away.”
“Which is exactly why I thought of it,” Neil said, grinning. “The last thing we need is for anybody to start pointing the finger at her, or the police showing up too quick and trying to hold onto her for any reason. If the PRA were to think she was compromised, they could go looking to hire somebody else to go after the Dragon Lady.”
“Gee, thanks,” Jenny said. “And for a moment there, I thought you were just trying to take care of your best girl.”
“But isn’t that exactly what I’m doing?” Neil asked, holding out a hand toward her.
Jenny grinned and took it, then threw both arms around his neck and kissed him.
“Okay, get a room,” Marco said. “Hey, Noah, what’s the chance I can get Renée added onto our team?”
Noah glanced at him. “You have to ask Allison,” he said. “To be honest, I can’t think of any particular talent she has that we could use out here in the field.”
Marco grinned. “I can.”
“Ignore him, Noah,” Sarah said. “He’s just jealous because he’s the only one who doesn’t have a sweetheart along with him.”
Marco opened his mouth to make a retort, but Noah’s phone rang at that moment. He picked it up and saw that it was Catherine Potts calling, and put it on speakerphone.
“Catherine?”
“Yes, Camelot,” she said. “I hate to bother you, but I just got off the phone with my man who’s handling Whitcomb, and it seems Mr. Whitcomb is demanding to speak with you tonight. I believe he simply wants some kind of reassurance that the assassination isn’t going to be a real one, but he also wants to speak with me about the security arrangements that will go into effect for his wife and children. Would it be possible for you and your team to join us for dinner, seven-ish?”
“Yes,” Noah said. “Where?”
“There’s a restaurant called Round Table,” she said. “You can look it up for the address, I can’t think of it off the top of my head, but just be sure that nobody follows you.”
“No problem,” Noah said. “You want the entire team to be there?”
“I’m afraid so,” Catherine said with a sigh. “Whitcomb is demanding to meet all of you.”
“We’ll be there. See you then.”
“Cheers,” Catherine said, and then the line went dead.
“Noah? Is this really a good idea?” Marco asked. “If Newsom had somebody following Jenny before, he probably still does.”
“Probably,” Noah said. “But that’s why we won’t be leaving by the usual exits. Neil, can you hack into the building security here? We need to know that no one is watching when we leave, because we’re going down to the basement and leaving through the service exits.”
Neil turned to his computer and opened it up, then started tapping on the keyboard. Less than a minute later, he held up a thumb. “I’m in,” he said. “There’s nobody in our hallway, but there are quite a few people just lounging around the lobby. No way to know if any of them are watching for us, so I suggest we assume one of them is. The elevator goes all the way to the basement, but if I were spying on us, I’d probably have a camera hidden in the elevators. Security cameras in the stairs show no activity, so that’s probably the best way out.”
“What about the basement itself?”
“This place has more cameras than anywhere I’ve ever seen,” Neil said a moment later. “The only people I see in the basement are doing the laundry, washing the sheets and such. I would guess they are just about done for the day, but they may have another shift coming on duty. On the other hand, where the laundry area is located is nowhere near the back service entrance. We should be able to go right past them without ever being noticed.”
“All right,” Noah said. “If we had a tail, they probably saw you coming with the chicken, so it won’t be terribly surprising if we don’t go down to the restaurant for dinner. Check out this Round Table restaurant, see how fancy it is. Can we get by with the way we’re dressed?”
Neil called up the website for the restaurant and scanned through it, then turned to Noah. “Looks like a casual place, to be honest. It’s got a lounge connected to it that even has a dance floor.”
“All right, then,” Noah said. “It’s almost five thirty, and we still need to find a taxi. Let’s head out, and everybody keep your eyes peeled for anyone trying to follow us.”
The girls went into the bathroom to freshen up their makeup, and they were ready to go less than ten minutes later. Neil checked the hallway security cameras once more and declared it clear, and then they walked out of the room and down to the emergency stairwell.
Because the stairs were sometimes used by hotel staff, there was no fire alarm on the door leading into the stairwell. It was unlocked, and they simply opened it and walked through, then made their way down the stairs. When they got to the basement, Noah glanced through the window on the door to make sure there was no one in plain sight, and then they quickly made their way through the hallways between the various rooms used for hotel service operations and to the back service entrance.
The door was locked, and was connected to the alarm system. It took Marco less than a minute to disable the alarm, and only thirty seconds more to pick the locks. They stepped out into the evening and found themselves in an alley behind the building. A short distance away, another alley led directly away from the hotel, and they walked through it quietly to emerge onto a busy street.
There was another hotel just a block away, so they walked toward it. A taxi pulled in to discharge passengers just as they got there, and the driver was happy to pick up another fare so quickly.
“Round Table restaurant,” Noah said.
“You got it, Guv’ner,” the driver said. He pressed the start button on his meter and drove away, and delivered them to the restaurant a half-hour later. Noah paid the fare and added a generous tip, and the five of them walked inside.
“We’re a little early,” Sarah said. “Think we should wait?”
“Probably,” Noah said. There were some benches near the front of the restaurant, and they all sat down to wait for Catherine and Whitcomb to arrive.
They didn’t have to wait very long. Catherine showed up with Whitcomb and another man just a few minutes later, and wasn’t a bit surprised to see Noah and the team waiting for her.
“You could’ve gotten us a table,” she said with a grin.
“I wasn�
�t sure how many were coming with you,” Noah said. “I figured it would be better to just wait.”
“That’s fine. We occasionally have meetings here, so the staff is accustomed to us. They have a small private dining room toward the back, and that’s where we’ll be going.” She stepped up to speak to the maître d’, and he smiled as he led the way back to the private room.
The waiter came in and took their orders, and Catherine waited to make introductions until he was gone. As soon as they were alone, she turned to Whitcomb.
“Mr. Whitcomb,” she said, “allow me to introduce Mr. and Mrs. Lightner, Mr. and Mrs. Jamieson, and Mr. Davis. Gentlemen, and ladies, this is Randall Whitcomb and Albert Lingenfelter. Albert is one of my agents, and very good at what he does.”
“It’s good to meet you both,” Noah said.
“Yes, well,” Whitcomb said, gruffly, “I’m not 100% certain I can say the same. Albert has explained to me what the situation is, but I’m a bit flabbergasted. Is it true that a gang of terrorists is trying to have me assassinated?”
“Yes, sir,” Noah said. “In fact, they reached out to hire the most capable assassin they could find. Considering your line of work, I’m sure you’ve heard of the assassin known only as Victoria?”
“Victoria? Bloody hell, of course I have. They actually sent her after me? Surely I’m not that important, or that hard to get to.”
“Well, it seems that the people who wanted you killed consider the job difficult enough to make a good test case for Victoria. They actually have another target they want eliminated, but they wanted to see if she had any difficulty getting to you, first.”
“But she’s not actually going to take the job, is she? I’ve been given to understand that you blighters are going to simply make it look as if I’m dead. Is that right?”
“Unfortunately, Victoria is no longer available to take any jobs. Our friends in the Mossad saw to that, and so we’ve got one of our own people pretending to be her.” He pointed at Jenny. “Mrs. Jamieson will be the one posing as Victoria, and we’ve got a device rigged up that will go into the hair on the back of your head and make it appear that you’ve been shot. I was planning to brief you on all of this tomorrow morning, but it doesn’t hurt to do it tonight. The key you need to remember is that you don’t have to play dead or hold your breath. Once the squib goes off, you simply fall forward on your face and continue breathing naturally. You can moan periodically, as if you’re in pain, but be careful not to respond to questions or anything else. Make yourself as limp as possible, so that you have to be lifted off the table and laid on the gurney.”