In Sheep's Clothing (12 page)

“Thank you, sir, I appreciate it. Any word on Mr. Jefferson?”

“Yes. Donald is currently in intensive care at our local hospital. He survived surgery to remove two bullets from his left lung and one that struck him just above and slightly behind his left ear. The doctors say the damage was not as devastating as it could have been, but he is likely to have little or no physical sensation after this. The part of the brain that was damaged is the part that interprets the sense of touch and recognizes pain. They do expect him to survive, but we won’t know the extent of the damage for some time, yet.”

“That is good news, sir. On our end, we’ve come to the conclusion that Nicolaich may very well be planning to try using one of my old friends against me, and so we'll be traveling to the area where she resides starting in the morning. I'll let you know if we learn anything else.”

“Who is she?” Parker asked. “I can get security on her right now.”

“Her name is Molly Hanson,” Noah said, “but she’ll already have security, and I don’t want to tip Nicolaich off, anyway. She works for Dexter Reedy in DC and lives in a secure, gated community in Alexandria.”

“In that case, I’ll put discrete surveillance on her. If anything happens with her before you arrive, we can let you know about it.”

“That sounds like a good idea, sir,” Noah said. “It’s a long way from here to Alexandria, and we don’t know for sure whether Nicolaich is even interested in her. Tomorrow is Sunday and we’ll spend it on the road. If he makes a move on her before then, it’ll only be to try to draw me in, and we could be completely off target on this. It’s just a theory, but it’s the only one we’ve got to go on for right now.”

Doc Parker was quiet for a moment, and then he cleared his throat. “Camelot,” he said, “I’ll get surveillance on her tonight. As for Nicolaich Andropov, if you do find that son of a bitch, I want you to kill him as slowly and painfully as you possibly can. Will you do that for me?”

“Sir,” Noah said. “For once, I can honestly say it will be my pleasure.”

Noah ended the call and looked up into the faces of the others. “Allison made it through surgery. Apparently she was hit once in the thigh and twice in the gut, but the fourth bullet hit the side of her head hard enough that she may be paralyzed. Doc Parker says they won’t know anything more than that for a few days. Donald Jefferson is also alive, but he actually took a bullet in the brain. They’re not sure yet how much damage was done, but they think he’ll lose the ability to feel pain or have a sense of touch.”

“Well,” Sarah said, “at least they’re alive.”

N
oah’s GPS told them it would take twenty-two hours to get to Alexandria, so they were up at five AM to shower and pack. When they left their rooms at five forty-five, Sarah surprised them all by handing the keys to Noah as they got into the car.

“I didn’t get nearly enough sleep last night,” she said. “You can take on some of the driving today while I kick back and relax. When you get tired, I’ll take over.”

Noah shrugged and slid behind the wheel. There was a small truck stop situated where the two-lane road met up with Interstate 70, so he stopped there so they could grab some breakfast. The food and coffee were both good and the service was quick, so they were finally on the way at just before seven.

The road was just as boring as it had been the day before, and it wasn’t long before Noah was the only one awake. He listened to Neil and Moose snoring in the backseat for a few minutes, then set the cruise control at seventy-five and turned the radio on low so that he could listen to the news reports.

The national news services were almost going into fits. Between the massive explosion in Columbia and what seemed to be some sort of terrorist attack on a small town in Colorado, the announcers were using up all of the most horrific adjectives they could think of.

The FBI had issued a statement the day before regarding the explosion, announcing that all of the victims who’d died in the blast had been identified as members of the Angelos Michoacan drug cartel, and that the explosion was suspected of being the work of a rival cartel. They also found the wreckage of the van in the quarry and were speculating that the perpetrators may have accidentally blown themselves up. The blast was so hot that it was difficult to determine whether anyone had been within range of it.

The attack in Kirkland, on the other hand, seemed to be something of a mystery. The E & E offices were publicly known as the headquarters of Brigadoon Investments Corporation, a privately held company that administered investments of retirement funds for many different companies. The agents handling the investigation had come to the conclusion that Brigadoon had been targeted because of its investments in military technologies. They had no specific suspects, and had not yet managed to tie the attack to any known terrorist groups. Nevertheless, the attacks were being treated as acts of terrorism, which kept them firmly under the jurisdiction of the federal government. Colorado state investigators were complaining that the feds were not bothering to share any information, but the FBI reiterated that acts of terrorism fell under United States jurisdiction, rather than that of any particular state in which they might occur.

“Brigadoon CEO Allison Peterson,” said one announcer, “and CFO Donald Jefferson were both wounded in the attack and are currently listed in critical condition at separate hospitals. Nineteen people died in the attacks, and an additional forty-eight were wounded. The military-style attack took place in broad daylight, and authorities believe there were at least fifteen attackers involved. Seven of them died during the attack, after exchanging gunfire with local police and security personnel.”

There was no mention of the three attackers who were captured, which told Noah that Doc Parker was keeping that information to himself. He had mentioned to Noah that they had been turned over to E & E’s interrogation team, so it was highly unlikely that the FBI even knew they existed. The thought made Noah wonder if the interrogation was making any headway, and he reached into his pocket for his phone.

“Brigadoon Investments, how may I direct your call?”

“Doc Parker, please, Noah Wolf calling.”

“Yes, sir, one moment, please.” The hold music began playing, but it was less than thirty seconds before the call was picked up.

“Parker,” the old man barked. “Little early for you to be calling, isn’t it? Or have you got something for me?”

“Just checking in, sir,” Noah said. “We’re currently on the way to Alexandria, Virginia. That’s where my old friend lives, so it’s the most logical place to start our search for Nicolaich. I was wondering if your interrogation has turned up any new information.”

“Nothing yet. So far, our three guests are proving to be as stubborn as we expected. We do these things in stages, to break down their reluctance, rather than their resistance. The idea isn’t to force them to say something they think we want to hear, but to persuade them to tell us what they truly know.”

“Yes, sir, I understand. I don’t suppose there’s any other news?”

“Well, one thing. Allison got her hands on a telephone somehow this morning and called me while I was still in bed. Took me ten minutes to figure out what she was trying to say, but what it boiled down to was to tell you to keep your head down. I explained that you were actively looking for Andropov, and that he’s our most likely suspect. She agrees, but she’s afraid you’ll be walking into a trap.”

“I’m glad to hear she’s able to talk at all,” Noah said. “The way you talked last night, I thought she was paralyzed.”

“Only on the right side, but her left hand seems to be working normally. Her speech problem has to do with the fact that only the muscles on the left side of her face are responding at the moment. Like I said, it took a little time to understand her, but there’s no doubt that her mind is as sharp as ever. She’ll be back in this chair eventually, don’t you doubt it.”

“That’s good news, sir. Please let me know if your interrogators come up with anything. For now, we’re just going to proceed with the plan we came up with last night.”

“That’s fine, and keep me apprised.” The line went dead and Noah slipped his phone back into his pocket. He glanced into the rearview mirror and saw that Moose and Neil were still sleeping, then flicked his eyes at Sarah.

She was awake and looking at him. “What’s good news?”

“Allison can talk, but she’s having problems because her right side is paralyzed. Apparently it makes it hard to understand her, but she got her left hand on a telephone and called Doc Parker at home this morning. She wanted him to tell me to be careful because I’ll be walking into a trap.”

Sarah’s eyes widened and she stared at him for a moment. “I’m assuming the good news you referred to is the fact that she can talk at all, right? Because the thought that she thinks we’re going into a trap doesn’t sound like very good news at all, not to me.”

Noah nodded. “Right. Parker says her mind is as good as it ever was, and that’s the important thing. E & E can’t afford to lose her. She’s not only the brains of the operation, I think she’s also its soul. She comes off as coldhearted and dangerous, but I can tell that she agonizes over every decision on whether or not to sanction a hit. It’s not that human life doesn’t matter to her, it’s just that she’s strong enough to know that sometimes you just have to eliminate the problem.”

Sarah made a sound that Noah took for a snort. “She isn’t that cold,” Sarah said. “Sometimes, when we’re in briefing, she acts more like my big sister than a boss. I mean, look at this engagement ring. I can guarantee you the idea to have us pose as being engaged on this last mission was all hers. She knows I’m crazy about you, so she gave me a little chance to fantasize about what things might be like if we were normal. Somebody coldhearted wouldn’t even think of it.”

“As long as it doesn’t leave you dissatisfied when things go back to the way they are. I’m comfortable with our relationship the way it is, but I’m willing to explore where it could go, if you want. I just don’t want to be disappointed if it doesn’t feel like that fairytale ending you dreamed about when you were a kid.”

Sarah watched him for a moment, then reached across and laid her hand on his arm. “Well, it’s like you said. You ain’t no Prince Charming, but I’m not exactly Cinderella, either. I’m okay with the way things are; just don’t hold it against me if I daydream now and then, okay?”

“Everybody daydreams,” Neil said suddenly from the backseat. “What are we daydreaming about today?”

Sarah leaned into the gap between the front seats and smiled at him. “Noah and I are daydreaming about getting married and adopting you. We decided we want children, and you’re the most childish person we know.”

Neil stared at her for five seconds, and then stuck his tongue out at her. He closed his eyes and leaned against the door and was snoring again only a minute later. Sarah turned her attention back to Noah.

“So, did the old man have anything else for us?”

Noah shook his head. “Not yet. He thinks it will take a little time for the captives to talk. One of the things I like about him is that he doesn’t try to torture information out of people, or at least not in any way most people would think of as torture. He said they try to break down reluctance rather than resistance, so nobody’s trying to just say what they think we want to hear.”

“That makes sense, I guess,” Sarah said. “I just wish they’d tell us something, anything to let us know whether we’re on the right track or not.” She rubbed her hand on his arm for a moment. “So, tell me about this girl we’re going to see. You said she was your best friend, but was she more than that?”

Noah glanced at her and then turned his eyes back to the road. “In a way,” he said. “We were both unusual, neither of us was the normal teenager. I was the guy who went through puberty without even noticing it, and she was so wrapped up in trying to learn everything she could that she didn’t want to take the time to deal with boys. She came up with the idea that if people thought we were a couple, they wouldn’t bother either of us, and then she had to explain to me how a boyfriend was supposed to act with his girlfriend.”

Sarah’s eyebrows were as high as they could go on her forehead. “And how did that work out for you?”

“Pretty well, actually. She taught me about kissing and holding hands and such, and then we started going out on dates together with some other kids who were dating.”

“Oh, really? So, this girl we’re going to check on was your girlfriend. How long did that last?”

“It was about three-and-a-half years, from the time I was thirteen up until just before I turned seventeen and would have started my junior year in high school. We were together in the same foster home for a couple of years, and then I got sent to live on a farm, so we only got to see each other in school and on weekends after that.”

Sarah sat quietly for a moment, and Noah looked over at her briefly. “If you’re wanting to know if it was a real relationship, it wasn’t. Each of us was just the convenient way out of a bad situation for the other one. She wanted someone to hang out with and do girlfriend things with, and I needed to cover up the fact that I didn’t need a girlfriend at all. It was a workable solution. And if you’re wondering whether it was a sexual relationship, yes, it was.”

Sarah lowered her eyes to her lap. “Did you—I mean, was it like us? Did you love her, the way you were talking about loving me the other night?”

Noah didn’t say anything for a moment, and Sarah finally looked up at his face. “Noah?”

“I’m trying to figure out how to explain it,” he said. “Molly was my friend, nothing more. When we were pretending to be a couple, it was just that, a pretense. We each needed a camouflage to cover up how we were different from everybody else, so we were obviously the ideal solution for each other.” He looked over at her and smiled, then turned his eyes back to the road again. “When I was busy and couldn’t see her, it didn’t bother me a bit. With you, I’ve come to the point that when you’re not around, I find myself wondering where you are and what you’re doing. That may not seem like much of a difference, but from my perspective it’s pretty profound.”