Lone Wolf (15 page)

Noah parked the Corvette just outside his garage door, and Neil pulled the Hummer in behind him. They met up at the door, and Noah reached out to unlock it, but then suddenly froze. He had carefully locked the door behind him as they left, but now it was open by half an inch.

Not one of them was armed, so Noah whispered to the others to stay outside for a moment. He stepped inside the house and reached out for the light switch. When the lights came on, he looked around and saw that nothing had been disturbed near the front door, so he began moving through the rest of the house.

After a few moments, he went back and told Sarah and Neil that it was all right to come in. “I can't find anything missing, and nothing seems to be disturbed. I'm sure I locked the door behind us, but I can't see any sign that the lock was picked, either.”

“You locked it,” Sarah said. “I saw you, it was locked. Who would be stupid enough to try to play games like this? I mean, especially with you?”

“It was probably Moose,” Neil said. “Remember, he's got muscle, not brains.”

Sarah shook her head. “Moose wouldn't do that, he's got more respect for Noah than to do that.” She looked at Noah. “Noah? Do you think there's any chance they've actually tracked us down?”

Noah scowled. “The Russians? Nicolaich? No way. Even if we concede that it's possible, it would take weeks to crack through all the subterfuge that went into that mission. There isn't even anyone who could have sold us out, because no one we dealt with had any idea who we really are. No, I think this is somebody around here, and maybe it was just a prank. Still, I'm going to let Allison know about it, and I'm going to install a security system.”

“Well, we can do all that tomorrow,” Sarah said. “For this evening, let's just go find a decent movie and pretend we're just normal people, okay?”

A
llison was in her conference room when they arrived the next morning, with Donald Jefferson and Stan Decker. They all got up to shake hands with the team, and there were some mutual congratulations before they got down to debriefing. The debrief went smoothly, and took only a short time.

“Once again, you've got everybody in the organization talking about how brilliant I was to recruit you,” Allison said. “Of course, we all knew that already, but it's nice to get some confirmation once in a while.”

“I spent a good part of this mission,” Noah said, “feeling like maybe things were going too easy, too smoothly. I mean, we found Pendergrast so fast that it just seemed almost like it was set up. Couldn't Habib's security people have found him just as easily?”

“Not necessarily,” said Jefferson. “I'm not sure they have access to the voice recognition databases that you ended up using. Of course, if we had put even regular CIA on this, they would have tracked him down, so in one sense, the answer to your question would be yes. Our people would have cooperated with theirs, and shared that information.”

“But for some reason, they didn't want CIA involved, right?” Noah asked.

“That's correct,” Allison said. “And I completely understood where they were coming from, because the normal intelligence agencies are all full of interconnections that could conceivably leak something important like this. They couldn't take a chance that someone from SVR would find out that they were digging into it. Maybe they wouldn't really have killed the girl, but no one knew that for sure. Hell, we still don't.”

She turned to Jefferson. “Donald? What do you think?”

Jefferson chewed on his bottom lip for a moment, then leaned his head to the left. “It's quite possible that Noah is correct,” he said. “It does seem that somebody left some big clues, and made sure we had a way to get to the girl's location. If that's true, then I have to say that the whole thing may have been nothing but a fishing expedition. If the Russians got wind of what we're doing, here in our outfit, it's quite possible that this was set up specifically to draw us, or some of our people, out into the open.”

Allison looked at him. “Do you suspect that Habib might have been in on it?”

“I have my doubts about that, mostly because he acted genuinely like a frantic father. That doesn't mean that someone else in the Mauritanian government might not have been involved.”

“The Prime Minister,” Noah said. “According to President Habib, he only discussed it with the Prime Minister and our ambassador. If the PM was part of it, he could have been the one to suggest not letting the CIA get involved. If they didn't want any of the standard agencies involved, then it was a pretty safe bet that the president would turn to us, right?”

Allison was nodding. “I think you hit it,” she said. “We were called in on this one, even though we don't normally get involved in anything investigative. The others do all the snooping work, and we just go in to clean up the messes.”

“And that leaves the question of how they might have found out about us,” Jefferson said. “Who in the intelligence world would know enough about us to be able to tip them off?”

Allison shrugged her shoulders. “There are a few people at Langley, and a few at DHS, maybe even a few at NSA. We’re talking about people with the highest possible clearances, though, people who would be highly unlikely to ever give out anything like this.”

“Somebody did,” Noah said. “Or have we pulled off enough missions that it would become obvious we exist?”

“Not likely,” Allison said. “Most of our missions look like genuine accidents, or natural causes. It's a very rare case when we actually want anyone to know that the target was assassinated. Normally, we just want them to go quietly into that good night.” She shook her head. “I'm afraid Noah is correct; somebody has sold us out.”

“There's something else,” Noah said. “Last night, Sarah and Neil and I all went out to the Sagebrush Saloon for dinner, and when we got back, my door had been unlocked. It was open just a tiny bit, even though I locked it securely when we left, but I couldn't find any sign that anything had been disturbed.”

Allison's eyes went wide. “Good Lord, Noah, why didn't you call it in last night?” She turned to Jefferson. “Get somebody out to sweep that house, today! Noah, did you discuss anything about the mission after you got back home and inside the house?”

“Only briefly,” Noah said. “Sarah asked if I thought there was any chance that Nicolaich might have tracked us down, and I mentioned his name when I said I didn't think so. I had considered the possibility, at that point, that we may have been sold out even before this mission began.”

“I think we have to consider that possibility now,” Allison said. “I'm going to demand a security shakedown of everyone outside of our organization who knows anything about us. We'll find out who it could've been.”

“Just a question,” Noah said, “but can we be certain it came from outside our organization? Is it possible someone inside might have tipped the Russians off?”

“I sincerely doubt it,” Allison said, “but we won't discount the possibility until we're sure. I think that everyone is going to be taking a polygraph test. We'll get that set up, and let everyone know.”

Neil and Moose had been whispering in the background together, and they suddenly sat forward. “You know,” Neil said, “it's possible that the setup wasn't before the mission. If the Prime Minister was in on this, then the president probably told him about meeting with Noah, so he would've had a chance to let the Russians know about it. It could be that finding Pendergrast so easily was just a fluke, one they didn't expect, but it gave them a way to tail us. If they followed Noah all the way to Russia, and let him get away with taking the girl back, then they could also follow him all the way back home. That could explain the break-in at his house.”

Allison looked at Neil for a moment, then turned to Jefferson again. “Donald, I'm afraid it's going to be up to you to try to get to the bottom of this. We need to know what's happening, and we need to know as soon as possible. I'm leaving it in your hands, because I'm going to be leaving today for DC. I plan to sit down and ask the president exactly who knows that we exist.”

S
ince they were already in Kirtland, Noah and the team decided to get in a workout. They drove out to Allie Town, the area on the outskirts of Kirtland where most of the E & E facilities were located, heading to the PT field. Jackson, the PT instructor, smiled when he saw them all piling out of Neil's big yellow Hummer.

“Come for a run?” Jackson asked as he shook Noah's hand.

“Yeah,” Noah said. “We thought we'd come down and see what your newest batch is like. Got anyone that can give us a run for our money?”

“Nah, all I got is a bunch of pansies this time. You want to run with them, or go out on your own?”

Noah, Moose and Sarah all decided to run the parkour course on their own, but Neil, who for all his long legs couldn't seem to run very far, headed into the gym. It was state-of-the-art, with many of the finest exercise machines. Neil enjoyed lifting weights, so the gym was more his speed.

The other three set out at a jog, not pushing themselves too hard. Their run took them downtown, as always, and Moose and Sarah enjoyed the looks of startlement on the faces of the people they passed. Most of those people were accustomed to the intrusions, believing that the runners were athletes preparing for competition, but they still found it annoying.

Parkour, of course, is the science of getting from one place to another by using every obstacle in your path to help you move more quickly than usual; they ran through stores, office buildings and even leaped from roof to roof. As a workout, it was intense and satisfying, but it also kept them ready and able should they ever have to pursue a target or flee from attackers.

The run lasted a couple of hours, ending back at the PT field. Neil was already finished with his own workout and was sitting on a bench outside, nursing a soft drink. Moose and Sarah collapsed onto the bench beside him as Noah went to the vending machine to get drinks for the three of them.

“It just ain't fair,” Moose said. “It's all I can do to breathe, and he ain't even winded.”

“That's because he does this almost every day, when we're around home,” Sarah said. “I gave up trying to keep up with him. I come running with him a couple of times a week, but most of the time I stay in bed while he does this.”

“Hey, I can run steadily like this for two solid hours, and all I do is run this course once a week. I figure that's good enough; if somebody can catch me within that two hours, fine, then, we'll just fight it out. I don't need to be able to run for a week straight.”

Sarah accepted the bottle of Coke from Noah and clinked hers against the one he gave to Moose. “I hear ya,” she said. “Besides, I don't plan on having to do any running on foot. If I have to race somebody for my life, I want wheels under me and a big engine.”

“At least you can run,” Neil interjected. “I make it about fifty yards and my feet forget which order they're supposed to operate in. All of a sudden, my left foot will try to take two or three steps in a row, while the right foot is sort of waving in the breeze. You know what happens then?”

“Yeah,” Moose said. “You end up on your face, and we all laugh.”

Neil glared at him. “You do realize, don't you, that I'm a genius? That means I can devise ways to kill you in your sleep, and you won't even see it coming. Keep picking on me, I dare you.”

“He isn't picking on you, Neil,” Sarah said. “He's just trying to tease you so that you'll keep working at it until you get better.”

“Nope. I'm picking on him.”

Noah stood a few feet away, just watching the repartee. A part of him wanted to be able to join in the banter, but he didn't want to have to plan out his comments. Since they knew about his emotionless nature, they would realize that he was faking it. Noah yearned to know what it felt like to truly be part of their friendly camaraderie.

His phone rang, and he pulled it out to see that the caller was Donald Jefferson. “Donald?”

“Just got the report from the sweep team,” Jefferson said. “Your house seems to be clean, no bugs or any other kind of electronic equipment. I had them look for unknown fingerprints or any other sign that someone had been in there, and they found nothing. Are you certain you locked the door behind you?”

“Yes, I'm sure I did,” Noah said. “It's possible it didn't latch all the way, I suppose.”

“Well, I guess we'll just have to go with that for the moment. Let me know if you find anything else, or if anything like this happens again.”

“I will.” Noah ended the call as Moose, Sarah and Neil started walking his way.

They climbed back into the Hummer and headed home, dropping Moose off at the office building so that he could pick up his car. He and Elaine were planning a short, romantic getaway. With the debriefing finished, they would have at least a few days to enjoy before another mission might call them back to action.

Back at Noah's place, Neil decided it was time for him to do some housekeeping in his trailer. Sarah said it was about time, since Neil was the consummate bachelor; his kitchen had more empty pizza boxes in it than pots and pans, and there were probably dirty clothes scattered from the front door all the way back to his bedroom. She made a comment about his housecleaning skills and got his middle finger as a response.

She and Noah went straight to the shower, ready to wash off the sweat of their exercise, but that led to exercise of another sort. An hour later, the two of them made it to the kitchen to prepare lunch. Sarah opened the refrigerator, but nothing in the leftovers looked either appealing or edible, so she closed it and opened the freezer.

“Corn dogs okay?” Sarah asked, and Noah nodded. She set the oven to preheat, then took the box out of the freezer and put five of them onto a cookie sheet. “You want french fries with them, or we could just do chips?”

“Chips is fine,” Noah said. He reached up into a cabinet and pulled out a big bag of rippled potato chips and set them on the table, then stood and watched Sarah for a moment as she poured two large glasses of iced tea.