by David Archer
“Ugh!” Jenny said. “Thank you, thank you. Catherine is okay, but the rest of those people all act like they’ve got corncobs stuffed up their butts.”
Allison snickered. “Wow, what a mental image. Anyway, don’t worry, I don’t loan you out unless it’s on a mission I have personally approved.” She looked at the newest member of the team. “How are you doing, Renée? Getting used to being part of the field team?”
“I guess so,” Renée said. “I haven’t really done much of anything, yet.”
“Enjoy it,” Molly said quickly. “When it comes time for you to do something, that’s when the pressure will really be on. I’ve never been out in the field, but I’ve seen a lot of what Noah and the team go through. I personally thought it was a great idea to add you in, if for no other reason than to give the team somebody who can serve as a communications overwatch.”
“I agree,” Allison said. “Don’t worry about it, Renée, you’ll know what to do when you need to do it.”
They talked for a few more minutes, then Jonathan came in with a cart loaded down with their food. He took a moment to pass it all out and then left them.
Lunch at Charley’s was always good, and they all admitted that they had been missing it from time to time. It didn’t take long for them to finish eating, and then Allison signaled Jonathan to come and clear the dishes. When he was gone, she looked at Jefferson.
“Donald?”
Jefferson cleared his throat. “Just a quick recap,” he said. “You’ll be going to Galveston, Texas to identify and eliminate the operators of a human trafficking organization that is selling human organs on the black market, as well as human slaves. Each of you has been assigned an identity that is compatible with this mission, and we need to get you into place as soon as possible. It’s Friday morning right now, and we would like the mission to begin in earnest by Monday.”
Jefferson reached down beside his chair and picked up a satchel. He reached inside and withdrew six large envelopes, which he passed out to all of the team members. In each one were wallets, jewelry and cell phones.
“When you get the chance,” Jefferson said, “turn on the cell phones and look in the secure documents folder on each of them. Inside that folder, you’ll find specific information for each of you regarding this mission. That will save a little time on the briefing, and there are relevant bits of information for each one of you. The password for each of them matches the last five digits of your E & E ID number. Go ahead and review your identities now.”
They all took a moment to look at their IDs and poke through the wallets and such to learn more about who they were supposed to be for the mission.
Noah’s new identity was Robert Townsend, who was an organ transportation specialist originally from Sacramento, California. The wallet he’d been given contained a driver's license, several credit cards and a few hundred dollars in cash, along with several photos. Some of them showed Noah with Sarah, even though he was fairly certain they had never posed for them. It also contained quite a bit of typical wallet trash, such as business cards, scribbled notes, receipts and other things.
There was also a key ring in each package with a couple of keys on them. Noah held his up and looked at Allison questioningly. “Keys?”
“Yes,” Allison said. “We already made arrangements for your living quarters. You’ll all be staying at the Seawall Apartments, so you’ll be right on the beach. A couple of the victims have disappeared off that beach, so it seemed like a good place to start. And incidentally, Noah, you will be working at the Galveston University medical center. You start there Monday morning, and hopefully it will let you get close to Doctor Linden.”
“That should work fine,” Noah said.
“We hope so,” Allison said. “And there’s something else. Donald?”
“Noah, as always, we’ve done a lot of work on your cover identity. It goes all the way back to childhood, and you will find all the information about where you grew up, where you went to school, all those things in the documentation. However, we added something that might make you a little more valuable to our targets. First, we made you an organ transportation specialist at the Galveston University Medical Branch, which means that you will be replacing the man who had the job previously. While we believe he was involved, there is no evidence to support that belief at this time. In order to clear the way for you, he was arrested a few days ago on drug charges and will be denied bail for the duration of this investigation.”
“All right,” Noah said. “So he’s out of the way?”
“Yes. Now, in order to do this job, you need to have the skills and knowledge to arrange safe transportation of human organs, and all the information you need has been provided. It’s not really that difficult a job, so you should be able to pull it off with no problem. However, we are hoping that the organization will recruit you into their illegal operation. Toward that end, we added something that we believe will make them think you are exactly the man they need. According to your complete background, you were charged with murder two years ago. According to the detectives who investigated, you deliberately cut the throat of a man who was stalking your wife, and there was no doubt of your guilt. However, the case was thrown out on a technicality, being that the only evidence against you was the murder weapon and it was found during a warrantless search. As such, it was inadmissible as evidence and there was nothing else they could use against you. Inadmissibility was revealed during the final day of your trial, and the judge had no choice but to direct the jury to return a verdict of not guilty.”
“So they’ll see me as a killer,” Noah said. “I can see where that might be attractive to them. If I’m willing to commit murder, I’m probably also willing to look the other way when it happens.”
“Exactly. When it comes out, be sure to act smug about it. You got away with murder, and you’re sort of proud of that fact.”
Sarah had sat quietly during all this, but she grinned when she glanced at his ID and then showed him her own. She was Marsha Townsend, his wife. That was usually the case since they had actually gotten married, and Allison had once told her it was because she couldn’t stand to see Sarah pouting. There were no indications of a business affiliation, so she was apparently a housewife.
Marco's new name was James Coolidge, and Renée was his wife Diana. James was a paramedic, which fit with training Marco once had. He and his wife were from Louisiana, which also fit. Marco, though he usually suppressed it, was capable of the thick Cajun accent he had grown up with.
Neil’s IDs said Brett Wilson, and he was listed as a commercial computer security consultant. He glanced over to see what Jenny’s ID had to say, then frowned.
“Hey, why aren’t we married?” he asked. Jenny’s ID listed her as Jennifer West, and she was apparently a college student. “Everybody in England thinks we’re married.”
Jefferson grinned at him. “That’s because Jenny is going to be out there as bait,” he said. “Several of the female victims have been of her general physical type, and we’ve added in details to her identity that are more likely to make her attractive as a possible victim. She is an orphan with no living relatives, and something of an introvert. You know what I mean, the kind of person who is unlikely to be missed if she happens to go missing.”
Noah looked at Jefferson. “All right,” he said. “What’s the rest of the briefing?”
“You already know the basics,” Jefferson replied. “The most important thing for you to remember is that there is a strong possibility that a number of these victims are alive and could possibly be saved. If you can learn anything about where they might be, we can put the FBI on standby to rescue them once you have taken out the organizational participants. Eliminating them has to be the mission priority, or this problem is only going to continue and get even worse.”
“I'll do all I can,” Noah said. “I take it the information about this doctor is in the documents in the phone?”
“Everything we k
now,” Molly said. “And I mean that literally. His background, references for medical school, everything. What makes this so strange is that the guy has never even had a parking ticket. He volunteers his time as a surgeon for children who need surgery but don’t have insurance, he spends two weeks every year in one of the poorer countries volunteering with Doctors Without Borders, the guy almost seems like a saint.”
Noah nodded. “I’ll get as close to him as I can,” he said, “and see if he has a halo or not. Like I said before, I believe that when you see smoke, there’s probably a fire somewhere. His name got connected to this somehow, and I want to know how.” He looked back at Allison. “Did you mention the Charger to Wally?”
Allison suddenly laughed. “Yes, I did,” she said. “He said it was waiting for you, but that they’ve added a new feature that you might like. I told him you would be out sometime this afternoon to pick it up, and he can’t wait to see you.”
Noah glanced around at the rest of the team, then turned back to Allison. “Then, unless there’s something else…”
“I think it’s all covered,” Allison said. “As Donald said, check the documents in the phones. Those will give you all the rest of the information you need, and that way you have it all with you.”
“Then, I think it’s time to head out. If we are driving to Galveston, I’d like to get started today. It isn’t that far, and we can be on the road and headed there by tonight.”
“I agree,” Allison said. “And, Noah? Best of luck on this one.”
Noah rose to his feet and the rest of the team followed. Howard, who had sat quietly through the entire exchange, got up with them and hurried out to the van. He retrieved it from the parking lot and was waiting at the front door of the restaurant when they came out.
“Where to, Noah?” Howard asked when they were all seated inside.
“R&D,” Noah replied. “I think we might as well pick up the vehicles we’ll be using.”
“And I want to see what the new feature is,” Sarah said, “on that big, beautiful Charger!”
Noah and the rest of them showed their IDs at the guard shack that stood at the entrance to the restricted area of the gigantic compound. While it looked a lot like a major industrial park, the restricted area was where the top-secret aspects of E & E could be found, and those not connected with the organization simply thought it was some sort of military complex. Howard drove them through the maze of steel and concrete buildings, headed toward the largest of them, at the center of the area.
The van pulled up in front of the R & D building and Noah told Howard to wait there. He and the rest of the team got out and entered the building, going directly to the front desk, which was manned by security officers. They had to produce their IDs again and the guard studied them intently for several seconds, comparing the photographs to the faces in front of him before giving them back and picking up a telephone.
“Mr. Lawson?” he said. “Sir, Team Camelot is here to see you.”
He pulled the phone away from his ear when Wally gave an excited shout, and then grinned as he replaced the handset. Wally Lawson could be heard running up the hallway, and then he burst into the foyer, saw Noah and broke into a big grin.
“Camelot!” Wally shouted, and then he reached out and grabbed Noah's hand, pumping it vigorously. “It's about damn time! We have certainly missed you around here, you’ve got to come see us more often.”
He threw his arms around Sarah and gave her a hug, grabbed Neil by his shoulders and shook him a bit, turned to Jenny and pulled her into a hug, then shook hands with Marco. He turned then to Renée, who had been working for him for quite some time, smiled broadly and then took her hands and kissed her on the cheek.
“We really miss you around here,” he said to her. “Is this big ape treating you right? I can fix him, if he’s not.”
Renée laughed with delight. “He treats me great, Wally. I miss you guys too, but I’ve never been happier in my life.”
“Well, that’s what’s important.” He turned to Noah. “Have I got some surprises for you!”
Noah's eyebrows rose slightly. “So I heard,” he said. “I’m curious about what’s new on the Charger, but we need some additional vehicles, as well.”
Wally's face lit up in a gigantic smile. “Oh, you are gonna love it! Come on, follow me!”
Wally took off down the hall without another word and they all fell in behind, hurrying a bit keep up with him.
“Now, before we get to the car,” Wally said, “Leo has been working on the subcom systems, and he wants to tell you about the latest upgrade.”
They followed him to the Clandestine Communications Lab, where they had originally gotten the subcoms. Leo was waiting when they entered and looked up at them with a smile.
“Hey, you guys,” he said. “When I heard you were coming, I wanted to get the chance to let you know about some new features we’ve added into the subcoms. Have they been working well for you?”
“They’ve been working wonders,” Noah said. “They saved lives at least a few times, already.”
“Well, this might help them accomplish that in the future, as well. You see, we got to thinking about the way they connect to Wi-Fi. That’s a great feature, but suppose your people are someplace where they can’t get the password. Every Wi-Fi router has a backdoor, digital access that allows certain devices to log on without a password at all. It’s mostly for repair technicians and such, but it can also be used by government law enforcement agencies and such, when they get a warrant to check your Internet activity. We found out how to use that logon and included it in the latest update to the subcom software. If you guys will go ahead and upgrade, your subcoms will be able to log on to the nearest Wi-Fi in the future, even if it is supposed to be secure. If you tell it to log on to Wi-Fi, it will grab the strongest Wi-Fi signal nearby and connect to it.”
Noah nodded. “And we can upgrade it right now?”
“Yep,” Leo said. “Just like before, just say ‘activate software upgrade,’ and the computers do the rest.”
All six of them whispered the command, and a moment later, the subcoms beeped to let them know the upgrade was complete. Leo smiled and shook their hands once again, and then it was time to go choose their vehicles.
Wally led them through the facility and out into a parking area behind the building. There were quite a few vehicles there of all types, shapes and sizes. It was surrounded by a chain-link fence with concertina wire on top, and a couple of security guards sat in a raised booth to watch over everything. Wally waved at them and they waved back.
He led them to a steel building that sat at the back of the lot, where he used a keypad to enter a combination. The overhead door rolled up and Wally waved them all inside.
“Ta-da!” Wally said. There in front of them was a black ’69 Dodge Charger convertible. With the exception of the soft, retractable top, it appeared to be almost identical to the Charger that Noah had used once before. The tinting on the windows was so dark that it was nearly impossible to see through them at all, and the blower and scoop sticking up through the hood had been painted in satin black, as well.
Noah stared at the car for a moment, then looked at Wally. “What happened to the one I used before?” he asked. “This one is a convertible.”
Wally giggled. “Oh, boy, is it ever,” he said. “It’s the same car, but Rodney has been making some changes and improvements. Making it a convertible was necessary to some of those new features we were telling you about.”
Noah walked up to the car and looked it over, then turned back to Wally. “The paint looks a little different. A bit shinier.”
Wally’s head bobbed up and down. “Yes, it’s been repainted. Do you remember about electroluminescence? The car that changed colors?”
Noah nodded and Sarah smiled. She had once driven a Chrysler with the special, electrical current-controlled paint that changed colors depending on the amperage applied to it.
“Well,
my boy Rodney got together with Keisha, the one who developed that paint, and they came up with some improvements. Since the Charger is Rodney’s favorite of all the cars, he wanted it to be the first one to get the new system.” Wally walked to a door in the wall of the building, right next to the big overhead doors that led into the R&D garage, opened it and shouted inside, “Hey! Rodney! He’s here!”
Rodney came hurrying out a second later, jogging up to Noah with his hand out and a big smile on his face. Noah shook hands with him and Rodney said, “Oh, man, you are gonna love this!” He opened the door on the Charger and motioned for Noah to look inside. “Right there, on the center console. See the color bar? Black on this end, white on the other?”
Noah looked where he indicated and saw a narrow rectangle stretching across the console. It was made up of a strip of small blocks of different colors, running from black to gray to green and so forth, all the way down to white. “Just touch it anywhere, and you can slide your finger side to side until you get the color and shade you want.”
Noah touched the bar and the car quickly turned red. He stepped out and looked at the car and his eyebrows went up.
“The convertible top turned white,” he said, “and where did the pin striping come from?”
Sure enough, the soft top had turned from black to white, and the car suddenly had black pinstriping and a wide stripe across the back end that was marked “R/T.”
Wally giggled again. “Tell him, Rodney.”
Rodney grinned. “It’s a new feature,” he said. “Whenever the car is any color except black, pinstriping and trim in a complementary color appears, and it’s different for each main color. It adds another visual difference, so a witness who saw you doing something in the car five minutes ago won’t be able to say it’s the same vehicle, even if they got video. As for the top, it changes from black to white and back every time you alter the color of the car. Oh, and by the way, the top is made of Kevlar reinforced by nanotube fibers. It’s every bit as bulletproof as the rest of the car. Isn’t that awesome?”