Lone Wolf (30 page)

“No, I understand,” Noah said. “Let's get the flight crew on board, and get this plane in the air as soon as we can.”

The flight crew had been in the terminal when the shooting occurred, and were among the people who had come rushing out afterward. The copilot gathered up the team's luggage and carried it to the storage compartment, while the flight attendant worked to rig up something to hold the IV bag high enough for gravity to make it work.

Fifteen minutes later, they were in the air. Both Moose and Neil were out cold from medication, leaving Noah and Sarah awake.

Sarah looked over at Noah. “It just occurred to me,” she said, “but I haven't thanked you for coming after me. Thank you, Noah. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

Noah looked her in the eye. “I had to,” he said simply.

Sarah grinned at him. “I know, I know, don't tell me. It was the
logical
thing to do, right? Take care of your team, and all that?”

Noah tilted his head in a half shrug. “Yeah, it was the logical thing to do. That was part of the reason I did it.”

Sarah's eyebrows rose. “Part of the reason?”

Noah nodded his head. “Yeah. Part of the reason.”

Sarah stared at him for a moment, and it dawned on him that her breathing was getting rapid. “What was the rest of it?”

Noah looked at her for almost a full minute, then smiled. “The rest of it is because it dawned on me that I don't want to live in this world without you.”

Sarah's eyes were wide and her mouth was hanging open. “Noah...”

“Don't ask me to explain it,” he said, “because I can't. I wish I could tell you that I feel something, emotionally, but I still don't. The truth is plain and simple; I simply didn't want to go on living in this world if you had died. Therefore, the only thing I could do was see to it that you didn't die. I know that's not what you want to hear, and I wish I could say those words to you, but this is all I can offer. Something inside me has decided that I need you in my life. I want to be with you for as long as you can stand to have me around, however long that may turn out to be. I don't want to be apart from you anymore than I absolutely have to be—and if it ever happens that we could actually be together, like really together, then I would be more than willing to have children with you. Sarah, if that's not enough, or if I'm going about this the wrong way, I'll understand, but...”

Sarah unbuckled her seatbelt and all but threw herself across the narrow aisle. She dropped to her knees beside him and reached up to take his face in her hands, then kissed him as passionately as she could.

“It's enough,” she said, with tears of happiness streaming from her eyes. “It's enough, Noah. Just don't expect me to keep my own feelings quiet. I love you, Noah Wolf, I really do.”

She sat on the floor beside him throughout most of the flight, only getting back into her seat when the flight attendant told her they were getting ready to land. The two of them had talked over many different things, and while Noah's emotionless condition hadn't changed, he had come to recognize some part of his own humanity in acknowledging his need for her. To Sarah, that was close enough to those three little words, but she couldn't help believing that he would finally say them to her someday. Until then, she would wait and love him enough for both of them.

The ambulance was waiting at Heathrow as promised, and all four of them were taken to the London Bridge Hospital, reportedly one of the finest hospitals in all of England. Moose was rushed into surgery, but Neil was admitted and placed in a room. A doctor named Billingham cleaned and redressed his wound, complaining the entire time about the incompetence of Russian doctors. When he saw Noah and heard what had happened to him, he insisted on admitting him as well and ordered x-rays and blood tests to be sure “those Russian idiots didn't stitch up their own fingers inside you!”

Since Sarah didn't need to be admitted, even after the doctor checked her own injuries and redressed them, and since she told the doctors that she was Noah's fiancée, at which he only smiled, a spare bed was wheeled into his room for her. Moose would have to be there for a couple of days, at least, and Doctor Billingham saw absolutely no reason to release any of the others any sooner. Noah started to complain, but Sarah hushed him with a kiss.

“Hey, you want a vacation, right?” Sarah asked him, so Noah stopped complaining. The two of them lay in his room all that day, watching British television programs.

Moose came through surgery with no problems, and it turned out that the bullet had only damaged a small part of his pancreas and intestines. The pancreatic damage was negligible, once it had been cleaned, and repairing his intestines had only required the removal of a four-inch section. Other than that, he simply needed rest and time to heal. He would be sore, the doctor said, for a couple of months, but he should be able to return to work within four to five weeks.

Neil had finally awakened, and nearly panicked at finding himself in the hospital. Sarah heard him yelling, since he was in the next room, and went to calm him down. He finally chilled out when he was allowed to get into a wheelchair and visit Noah and Moose.

When Moose awakened, Noah, Sarah and Neil were all in the room. He looked at Noah and Neil in their wheelchairs and raised his eyebrows. He started to speak, but found his throat was sore.

“The doctor said you'd have a sore throat for a day or so,” Sarah told him as she raised the head of the bed so that he could see them more comfortably. “They stuck a tube down your throat to make sure you could breathe during surgery, that's why. You're going to be fine, there's no permanent damage that will cause you any trouble. The doctor will be in to explain it to you himself when he gets time.”

Neil willed himself up close to the bed and looked up at Moose. “Hey, lug nuts,” he said. “Remind me to do something special for your next birthday, okay?”

Moose narrowed his eyes and looked at him. “Why?” His voice came out as a croak, but it wasn't too hard to understand what he was saying.

Neil rolled his eyes. “Oh, as if you didn't know. You only saved my life! When the bullets started flying and I got hit, you came back down the stairs to get me. You picked me up and carried me up the stairs, even while they were shooting at you, that's how you got a bullet in the back. Yeah, I'm thinking I need to do something really special for you.”

Moose managed a small smile. “Gotta take care of the little brother, right?”

Neil suddenly fell into sobs, and reached up to grab Moose by the hand. He tried to say something, but words just wouldn't come out.

“I think he's trying to say he loves his big brother,” said a voice from the doorway, and they all turned to look. Allison Peterson stood there, her arms crossed, leaning against the doorjamb. She looked at Noah. “Camelot, I don't know how you did it, but you took this team and turned it into a real family. I got your after-action report from our station chief in Moscow, and I've got to tell you, you did a helluva job over there.” She looked at Sarah. “Sarah, I know you might not believe this, but I'm awfully glad he brought you back alive. Camelot is my favorite team, but don't tell any of the other teams I said that or I'll call you all liars.”

Sarah smiled at her. “You know what, Dragon Lady? You're not half as ferocious as you have everybody thinking you are.” She walked over and opened her arms, and the men were astonished when Allison spread her own and embraced the girl in a hug.

“Well,” she said afterward, “this is a first. I've never had an entire team get shot up and beat up in a single mission. Usually it's one or two who get hurt, and then a few missions later one of the others. But Team Camelot does everything in a big way, I guess. Can I hope that you've gotten your quota of injuries out of the way for a while?”

“Yes!” Neil and Sarah said together.

Allison nodded her approval. “Good. I'm putting you all on recuperation leave for the next six weeks. The doctors say you'll all be fine in a month, but I want you all to be working out and back in shape before I send you back into the field. When you're released here, we'll fly you all home so that you can start getting yourselves back into operational condition. Everyone is now convinced that you are our best team, and there are some things happening in the world that will be needing your attention sometime soon. I had to come over here on some other business anyway, so I moved it up on my calendar just enough to let me come and visit you in the hospital. And incidentally, that's something else you don't tell anyone. This is the first time I've ever gone to visit any of our people when they were laid up. We don't want anyone thinking I'm playing favorites, now do we?”

“No, Ma'am,” Neil said. “But since you're here, can I ask a favor?”

Allison's eyebrows shot up her forehead. “Depends. What is it?”

“Well, I know we're not supposed to use our operational cell phones for personal use, but there's this girl back home who really wants me to call her...”

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D
avid Archer was born and raised in Bakersfield, California. He is a fiction author and novelist, writing in the mysteries and thrillers genre. His approach to writing is to hit deep, keep you entertained, and leave you wanting MORE with every turn of the page. He writes mysteries, thrillers, and suspense novels, all of which are primed to get your heart pumping.

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