by David Archer
“I think the most critical factor,” Neil said, “is for Whitcomb to pull off his act. After all, he’s got to play dead in front of hundreds of witnesses.”
“He’s a politician,” Marco said. “He’s got plenty of practice, he shouldn’t have any problem acting that role at all.”
“And he doesn’t have to play dead,” Noah said. “All he has to do is be unresponsive, even groan a little bit. That shouldn’t be very difficult for a politician to do.”
“Well, whatever we do, we need to get this show on the road,” Neil said. “We’re supposed to be the backup, so we need to get there.”
“He’s right,” Noah said. “Marco, you and Sarah head on out. Neil and I will follow in a couple of minutes, and will be close enough for subcom communication.”
Sarah grabbed Noah and gave him a kiss, then followed Marco out the door. Noah turned to Neil.
“No matter how this goes down,” he said, “you have to remember that the mission comes first. If anything goes wrong, if Jenny were to be arrested or anything, we stay on mission. We’ll get her out, no matter what it takes, we never leave anyone behind, but the mission has to come first, Neil.”
Neil looked at him, his face soured. “I know that,” he said. “I guess I’m just learning how Sarah must’ve felt all this time. Being part of the team doesn’t make it any easier when we have to watch one of you walk right into a potentially deadly situation.”
“Jenny can handle herself. Now, come on. Let’s go be ready to snatch her away from there when she calls.”
* * * * *
Marco and Sarah were early enough that the lunch rush had not yet begun, so Marco pointed out a booth that was close to where Whitcomb would be sitting. The hostess smiled and put on a hip-wiggling display as she led them to it, and a waitress appeared instantly to take their drink orders. Marco ordered a beer for himself and Sarah opted for sweet tea. The girl hurried away to fetch them.
Whitcomb and Bradley arrived a few minutes later, followed by an entourage that included Agent Lingenfelter. Some of the security officers remained standing, while Whitcomb, Bradley and Lingenfelter sat down around the table.
Jenny came in only a moment after they were seated, and asked the hostess to put her toward the back of the room. She was led to a table and sat down, then picked up a menu while the waitress went to fetch the drink she had ordered.
A block away, Noah parked the Land Rover at the curb, and he and Neil settled in to wait. Neil turned on a tablet he was holding and activated the video player. A second later, they were seeing the inside of the restaurant through Jenny’s eyes.
“Neil to Jenny,” Neil said through the subcom. “I’ve got video.”
Inside the restaurant, Jenny smiled. “Hey, baby,” she said to Neil. “How you holding up?”
“I was fine till we got here,” he said. “I’m okay, I guess, but I won’t be right until we get this over with and you out of there.”
“Relax, I’ll be fine.” She put down the menu as the waitress brought her a glass of lemonade. “Everything should go off the way it’s supposed to, I’m not really expecting any kind of problems. Lingenfelter has already spotted me, so he’s ready for the excitement.”
Noah raised an eyebrow. “He acknowledged you?”
“Not exactly, but I saw him glance at me, and I can tell recognition when I see it. He looked at Marco and Sarah, too, but anybody else would think he was just evaluating potential threats. I don’t think there’s any possibility he’s giving anything away, so we’re good to go. Any specific moment you want the fun to begin?”
“Noah to Jenny,” Noah got in. “What about the rest of the crowd? Are people noticing Whitcomb? This will work best if there are several people paying attention to him when the shock goes off.”
“Oh, he’s getting some attention, all right,” he said. “He’s apparently well enough known that people are recognizing him, and I can see several people snapping selfies with him in the background. I can’t tell if anyone is taking video, but there are a few phones pointed toward him.”
“That’s excellent. Try to choose a moment when people are watching, then make it happen.”
“You got it. Should be in the next few minutes.”
Neil was watching the video display on the tablet as Jenny looked around the room. It was obvious that several of the people recognized Whitcomb, and Jenny had been correct about people pointing phones at him. In fact, there were several people holding the phones up steady, the way most people only do when taking video footage.
One of those people was Sarah, and Neil pointed her out to Noah. “Sarah’s shooting it,” he said.
“Noah to Sarah, you guys ready?”
“Sarah to Noah, we are. Decoy explosives already dropped. We’re ready when Jenny is.”
“Noah to team, the mission is go. On your mark, Jenny.”
Suddenly, they heard, “Jenny to Sarah, keep filming. Here we go, gang.”
The point of view on the video suddenly rose as Jenny got out of her chair. She was less than ten feet from Whitcomb, looking directly at the back of his head. The view got closer as she took three quick steps, and then her hand appeared in the view holding the vape unit.
Everything seemed to happen at once, but also in slow motion. On the tablet, they saw the puff of smoke from the clandestine pistol and the spurt of fake blood as the squib went off. Through the subcoms, they heard the loud pop of the blank going off, and what seemed like an echo as the decoys exploded at the same time. Jenny had timed it perfectly, firing off the blank, which triggered the app that set off the squib and explosives.
Whitcomb grunted and fell forward, his face dropping directly into his plate of salad. His body seemed to jerk around a bit, as if he was having a small seizure, but then he became still. The men around him jumped up quickly, but passed from view as Jenny walked right on past them.
There was shouting, and then suddenly people were screaming. Neil and Noah could hear it all through the subcoms of Marco and Sarah, and Jenny was rapidly putting distance between herself and the events in the restaurant. She had spotted a back door that led into the kitchen, and walked calmly through it before picking up the pace and rushing toward the back of the building.
The kitchen employees were all running toward the dining room, trying to see what was happening. Only one or two of them glanced her way, but neither tried to stop her. Eleven seconds after firing the blank, she stepped out the back of the building into an alley.
“Jenny to Neil, I’ve come out the back into the alley. I’m cutting through the shopping center so that I can get to the street on the other side of it. Meet me there.”
“Neil to Jenny, on our way.”
Noah started up the Land Rover and put it in gear, then drove inconspicuously down the street and around the block. Jenny was standing on the sidewalk just in front of the shopping center when they got there, and she slid into the back seat as soon as Noah pulled the car to a stop. Once she was in, he stepped on the throttle again and drove off.
“Where did leave your car?” Noah asked.
“There’s a public parking garage five blocks east,” Jenny replied. “I put it in there, so it wouldn’t be noticed close to the restaurant. You can drop me off in front of it, and I’ll meet you guys back at the hotel.” She leaned forward and tugged on Neil’s ear. “Come with me, baby? We can have a little time to ourselves.”
Neil turned pink, but nodded his head. When Noah stopped in front of the car park, they both got out of the Land Rover and walked hand-in-hand into the big garage. Noah watched them for a moment, then drove back toward the restaurant.
As soon as he was within range, he reached out to Sarah on the subcom. “Noah to Sarah, Jenny is clear. What’s happening?”
“Everyone’s being held for questioning,” she replied. “Marco and I may be here for a while. They already took all the cell phones, especially from those of us who said we were filming when it happened. Don’t worry, I
had that little key ring thing on, so it should have a copy.”
“Okay. Do you see Catherine around there anywhere?”
“She’s here, now. She missed the fireworks, though.”
“All right. Neil and Jenny have gone back to their hotel, so I’ll wait here in case you need me for anything.”
“Okay, baby,” Sarah said. “Love you.”
“Marco to Noah and Sarah. Get a room, guys.”
* * * * *
Noah turned on the radio in the Land Rover and scanned through the stations until he found a news report. The announcer seemed almost in tears as he reported an assassination attempt on Lord Whitcomb, and another had to take over when the word came fifteen minutes later that Whitcomb had been pronounced DOA at the hospital. The Prime Minister’s office promised a statement would be forthcoming within the hour, and Buckingham Palace announced a period of mourning to begin immediately. The British government was playing it well, just as they would’ve done if the assassination were real.
It took almost two hours of questioning to clear all the witnesses, and then Sarah and Marco were allowed to leave. It was getting close to three in the afternoon, so Noah drove to where he could meet up with them and let Sarah climb into the car with him.
“They’re definitely making it look real,” Sarah said. “Every one of us got searched, and anything that even looked suspicious was enough to get you separated for special treatment. Thank goodness I didn’t have anything on me, but Marco got hassled over having a Swiss Army knife.”
“It has to look real,” Noah said. “Otherwise, all of this was for nothing.” He took out his phone and looked at the time. It was almost 3 PM. “Time to check in with the boss lady.”
He dialed the number and put the phone on speaker. It was answered only a moment later.
“Brigadoon Investments, how may I direct your call?”
“Allison, please.”
“Just one moment.” They listened to the canned hold music for a few moments, and then Allison came on the line.
“Camelot, report. You’re on speaker, Donald and Molly are here with me.”
“Hi guys,” Molly said.
“It went well,” Noah said. “Everything worked exactly as planned, and Jenny made it out of the building with no problem. All of the official offices are doing what they would normally do, so I don’t think there’s anything to indicate this wasn’t a real assassination.”
“Very good. When is Jenny supposed to make contact with Newsom again?”
“She has a number to call,” Noah said. “I’m going to have her wait until tomorrow, let the news circulate around the world, first. It seems they got some good video footage of what happened, so that will turn up on all the international news channels. Sarah also got footage of it, clear footage that shows Jenny taking the shot. She can send that one directly to Newsom.”
“Excellent work, Camelot,” Allison said. “And be sure to let Jenny know we said that.”
“Noah,” Jefferson said, “I thought you’d like to know that Efraim Nelson was picked up in questioning last night, based on a rumor that he was supposedly bragging about having once hired a professional assassin. He is unlikely to be discussing Victoria anytime in the future, but we did pick up some new intel that will help to bring him down at a later date.”
“That should help convince Newsom that Jenny is for real,” Noah said. “They will almost certainly think he was behind it, and he’ll think they were the ones who leaked what he said. That’s probably better than just killing the guy.”
“It was Molly’s idea,” Allison said. “She’s a pretty smart girl.”
“Yes, she is,” Sarah said. “Good job, Molly.”
“Thank you,” Molly said. “Hey, you guys be careful out there. We haven’t all gotten together in quite a while, and it’s time for a party when you get back.”
“Hey, I’m all for that,” Sarah said. “Hopefully, the rest of this mission won’t take very long.”
“Well, the next step is identifying Newsom’s associates,” Allison said. “Keep us up-to-date, Noah.”
The line went dead and Noah put the phone back into his pocket.
FOURTEEN
It was only moments later when Noah’s phone rang again, and he saw that it was Catherine Potts calling.
“Camelot,” he said. “How did it go on your end?”
“Would have gone lovely, except that Whitcomb is a spoiled brat. As soon as he got inside the trauma room at the hospital, he bloody started demanding to be taken to his wife. Fortunately, the physician I had arranged was smart enough to know that could be a disaster, so he sedated the mouthy bastard. Anyone who heard it probably thought it was the ramblings of a dying man, so we pulled it off. The problem now is that we’ve got only a week before we have to produce the body for funeral. Are you going to be able to complete the mission in that short a time?”
“I think so,” Noah said. “A lot depends on the PRA and how long it takes to set up the meetings with their Board of Directors. In a worst-case scenario, Lord Whitcomb may have to be brought back from the dead in a few weeks.”
“Oh, Lord,” Catherine said, “I can imagine what a disaster that will be. You know how many journalists will be accusing the government of having some sort of immortality potion? They’ll claim it’s something only available to the royal family and the peerage, and the whole thing will start a riot.”
“There’s always going to be conspiracy theories,” Noah said. “I don’t think the world can get by without them.”
“Yes, well,” Catherine said. “I just wanted to give you a report. By the way, I thought I might do you a favor. A lot of the video that they collected from people with their cell phones actually caught your girl as she made her move. Since allowing that video to get out would mean launching a global manhunt for her, I thought it might be best to suppress those. The video we’re releasing to the news has her edited out. Please, if you can possibly complete this before the funeral…”
“Catherine, I promise you we’ll do our best.”
Jenny was impatient. As soon as they were all together in Noah and Sarah’s room two hours later, she wanted to make a call to Newsom.
“I think we should,” she insisted. “The sooner we can get these meetings started, the sooner this mission can be finished.”
“She’s getting impatient,” Neil said. “While everything looked good and realistic to everybody else today, she knew she didn’t really get to kill anybody, and she’s getting antsy.”
“Look, I can’t help it,” Jenny said. “It’s like an addiction, and once in a while I just have to have a fix. It’s not my fault, Doc Parker even thinks it’s something genetic. Apparently he found out that my paternal grandfather murdered a bunch of people back in the fifties, and he thinks the damned gene may have skipped a generation with my dad. I ended up with it, so once I got a taste of it, I was hooked.”
“I was planning to have you wait until tomorrow,” Noah said. “On the other hand, the global news networks have been going crazy with this story. Having the head of the British law enforcement community assassinated in public with absolutely no leads on who the assassin might have been, that’s got a lot of the world pretty well shook up.” He seemed to think for a moment, then slowly nodded his head. “All right, go ahead and call. If they have any further doubts, get an email address. We’ll send them the video that Sarah got, the one showing you making the shot.”
Jenny burst into a smile, and giggled as he took out her phone and dialed the number Newsom had given her. She put the phone to her ear and listened to it ring several times, but then it was answered.
“It’s Victoria,” she said. “Have you been following the news today?” She quickly put the phone on speaker, so that the rest of them could hear.
“Oh, yes,” Newsom said. “What amazes me is that you actually managed to get away. From the look of the video we saw on the news, there must have been a hundred people in that place.�
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“That’s sort of my trademark, wouldn’t you say?” Jenny asked. “Now you see me, oops, now you don’t. Now, are we ready to proceed to the next mission?”
“We’re ready on our end,” Newsom said. “Here’s the situation. I can get you face to face with each of our board members, but only by taking you to them personally. Only you, nobody else goes along. I can pick you up as early as tomorrow, and we can take care of all of it over the next five to seven days. The board definitely wants to use your services, but it has to be on our terms. Nobody but you will be allowed to meet them, and the only reason you are getting the opportunity is because I’m willing to stick my neck out for you.”
Jenny grinned into the phone. “I never go anywhere without Neil,” she said. “He goes along, or you can forget the whole thing.”
“Then let’s forget it,” Newsom said. “We really want to work with you, Victoria, but we have to protect ourselves. If you cannot do things the way we want, then we can’t do business together.”
“I’m willing to do the meetings alone,” Jenny said, “but Neil goes with me when I travel, and that’s non-negotiable. He can sit at a hotel room and wait, can’t you bend at least that far?”
Newsom was quiet for a couple of seconds, then spoke again. “He can ride along with us, but he’ll be stuck with our security people whenever you and I go to make the meetings. They’ll make sure that he isn’t doing anything that might compromise us. If that’s agreeable, we can get started.”
Jenny glanced at Noah, who nodded. “Perfectly agreeable,” Jenny said. “How do you want to proceed?”
“I’ll be at Heathrow tomorrow morning at 10 AM your time. If you can be there waiting, I’ll notify you when the plane has landed and is ready for you to board.”
“We’ll be there,” Jenny said. “Is there anything you want us to bring along?”
“No,” Newsom said. “Nothing but clothing. No weapons, no electronic devices, nothing else.”