Thriller: Code Name: Camelot - An Action Thriller Novel (A Noah Wolf Novel, Thriller, Action, Mystery Book 1) (19 page)

Jefferson seemed to think it over. “It might be, especially if you could convince people it was something natural. An accident? People like Ortiz don’t have accidents, so that would look suspicious, anyway. No one would believe that he died in an auto accident, for instance, because his drivers are too well trained and his vehicles are designed to make sure he survives. Same problem with poisons: they’ll turn up in toxicology, so somebody will know he was assassinated. That word gets out, and suddenly we’ve got an international incident, even if they can’t prove we were behind it.”

Shortly after lunchtime, a man walked through the front door and carefully looked at the place over. He bore such a striking resemblance to the real Henrique Valdes that Noah was certain this was the actor playing that part. The man looked carefully at the table full of
gringos
, then to the bartender, who nodded. He turned and walked back out the door, to return a moment later with six other men. One of them was obviously in charge, and Noah was sure he must be the one playing Ortiz.

Noah examined the situation from every angle he could think of, and saw almost no opportunity to eliminate Ortiz without taking out Valdes, as well. Valdes had five goons, all of them obviously armed and dangerous. If Noah could get into the right position, he could probably manage to take them all down, but then there was the danger of the bartender and other customers. People who frequented a place like this were likely to be part of the criminal element, themselves, so when one of their own was attacked, there was a good chance they would get involved in the fight. Noah would likely end up stuck right between a number of different killers, and even he wasn’t optimistic enough to expect to survive.

Taking advantage of his limited ability to do so, Noah asked the men playing Valdes and Ortiz a number of questions about the way they did things. Assuming the intelligence they had studied was correct, he learned a great deal about the two men, and developed a healthy respect for the technique that was being employed, that of having actors portray the target and answer questions about themselves. He could have read all of the information he learned out of a dossier, but it would not be as alive to him as it became on hearing it out of the subject’s mouth.

Noah got up and walked around the bar, looking at every aspect of it. At one point, he turned to Jefferson. “How accurate are the little details in this place?”

“We had a man in there a few days ago with a micro video camera, and he got shots of everything. He’s a local, so we get updated footage every few days. As soon as we see a difference, we’ll match it here, so it’s pretty accurate.”

Noah nodded, and continued his exploration. At two o’clock, he told Jefferson that he had his plan laid out.

Jefferson looked surprised. “Already? Most team leaders take at least two or three days, trying different scenarios out to see what is most likely to succeed. Sure you don’t want to give it a little more time?”

Noah shook his head. “I don’t need to. I know how I want to take Ortiz out, and it will look like nothing but natural causes. There won’t be anything to suggest assassination, or any connection to an outside influence.” He looked around the bar, then back at Jefferson. “This setup has been helpful, believe me. I couldn’t have worked out a plan nearly as well without seeing this, but knowing that it’s bound to be an almost perfect replica of the real tavern tells me I can pull this off the way I want to. All I got to do is find a way to do a little business with Mr. Ortiz, and I’m sure that won’t be too difficult. I understand he used to run drugs, so I’m confident he still knows where to get them.”

Jefferson stared at Noah for a moment, then looked around at his teammates. “Your team leader says he’s ready to go. Any of you have any objection to that?”

Moose, Neil and Sarah all looked at each other,, and each of them shook their heads. “If the boss says we’re good to go, then we’re good to go,” Moose said. Neil rolled his eyes, and said, “I’m still stuck on that part about how I won’t actually have to be in the bar, so I’m good. I’m good.”

Sarah glanced at Noah, then turned to Jefferson. “I’d like to spend a little time driving around here, get a feel for what the real city will be like. Can I do that on my own, or does the whole team have to be here?”

“Actually, you can come out here on your own. Each of your phones has GPS, and I can send you each a special code, so that you can use it to get back out here. Your phones will also trigger the security gates, once you got those codes.”

“Oh, God, you mean this outfit has its own cell phone apps?” Neil asked sarcastically. “Awesome, just awesome.” He rolled his eyes, and Sarah laughed at him.

TWENTY

J
enny, Allison’s secretary,
hung up the phone and looked over at Noah, who had been sitting there waiting for almost twenty minutes. “Mr. Wolf? Ms. Peterson will see you now. If you just go through this door…” She pointed to a door beside her desk.

Noah stood up and nodded, then walked through the door into Allison’s office. She was obviously busy behind her desk, but she looked up and smiled when he came in.

“Well, you’ve definitely got this place in an uproar,” she said. “Donald Jefferson threw an absolute fit when you said you had your plan worked out the first day. We’re not used to that around here.” She pointed at a chair across the desk from her, then looked deeply into his eyes. “Noah, are you really sure?”

He nodded. “Yes, I am. I’m going for a ‘natural causes’ death for Pablo Ortiz, one that should be accepted without a lot of questions. If I do it right, which I will, the only one who might have any suspicions will be Valdes, but I don’t think he’ll be complaining or raising too big a fuss. If all the Intel is right, he stands to take Ortiz’s place, and if anyone thinks his predecessor was murdered so quietly, they’re probably going to be looking at him.”

Allison tilted her head slightly, acknowledging the logic of his thoughts. “Just so you know, I’ve got people running a betting pool on whether you pull this one off. We’ve never let an agent get out into the field as quickly as you, so it’s got everyone pretty concerned. Luckily for you, it’s my decision and no one else’s, because I’ve got people who already want to see you eliminated.”

Noah shrugged. “That’s pretty much been the story of my life,” he said. “There’s always somebody who wants me gone, or out of the way, or dead. So far, I’ve proven to be pretty hard to kill, but I owe this last attempt directly to you. If for no other reason than that, I intend to make this mission a success.”

“Well, if you do, you’ll shut up a lot of your detractors, and I’ll take care of the rest of them. I understand Sarah has been spending the last couple of days driving around Hollywood? How do you feel about her?” She waved a hand, dismissing her own question. “Sorry, let me rephrase that. Do you have confidence in her abilities?”

“I went out with her the day before yesterday, and rode along. That girl can definitely drive, I’ll say that. On the other hand, if everything goes according to plan, she’s not going to have to play Jeff Gordon. We should be able to drive out just as pretty as you please.”

Allison smiled. “What about the rest of your team? Still holding it all together?”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Noah said. “Neil and I are getting to be pretty close, and Moose has come a long way. I’m absolutely confident that he’ll do what I need him to do, and he’s even started loosening up and acting more friendly, lately. I think dating the Jefferson girl has helped a lot.” He cocked his head to one side and looked at Allison. “I’m still curious about that situation,” he said. “It’s really hard for me to believe that so many people who know about us can live out in the world, but the secret doesn’t leak.”

Allison held her smile, but then she winked at him. “Noah, sometimes it pays for us to have one of our own in places like The Sagebrush. It doesn’t happen often, but occasionally one of our people, especially a new recruit, tends to brag a bit. Needless to say, we discourage that, to the point that if one of our people, like Miss Jefferson, were to overhear such bragging, that recruit might very well disappear.”

“Is that what happened in this case? Did Moose go out there and run his mouth?”

“On the contrary, not a bit. Quite the opposite, in fact. Miss Jefferson was here one day when Moose had to come in, and her father told me that she asked about him that day. From what I understand, when she saw him out at the Saloon, she actually went out of the way to make sure he knew that she was aware. You’ll remember, I’m sure, but I told you she was one of our computer whiz kids, so it wasn’t hard for her to get into his bio. I would imagine she was delighted when she found that she is precisely the type of girl he seems to be drawn to.”

“Well, good for him, then,” Noah said. “I guess it just worked out.”

Allison grinned. “Yes, I guess it did,” she said. “Sort of like you and Sarah; that seems to be working out pretty well itself.”

Noah raised his eyebrows and looked at her. “Is that a problem? If there’s a rule against it, I never heard about it.”

Allison sat there and looked at him for a long moment, then shook her head. “Normally, I would say it would be a bad idea for a team leader to become romantically involved with a teammate,” she said, “but you are an entirely different case. I’ve already spoken with Sarah about it, and she seems genuinely aware that you’re not likely to have any kind of feelings for her, and she insists that that’s exactly what made you so attractive to her.”

“That’s what she told me, too.”

Allison grinned. “I did caution her about one thing, that sex is actually something that we use as a tool in this business, so there may be times when you seem to be involved with other women. She assured me that her relationship with you is purely physical, and that she won’t let jealousy become an issue. Noah, if it does, I want to know about it immediately. I would try removing her from your team, but if she can’t be salvaged…” She let the rest of the sentence hang in the air, unsaid.

Noah nodded. “I understand,” he said. “I won’t let anything affect a mission, and especially not that.”

She looked at him for another moment, then nodded as if dismissing the issue. “Okay, then, we need to go ahead and get this show on the road. I’ve already sent Jefferson to El Paso to make sure everything is ready for you when you get there. He’ll provide you with your burner IDs, phones, weapons and anything else you need. We’ve got you booked into the Holiday Inn, each of you with your own room.” She looked meaningfully at him for just a moment, and said, “For the record, we do discourage any kind of intimacy between teammates when you’re out in the field. That doesn’t mean we’ll be watching, but it’s just a guideline to prevent problems.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Noah said.

Allison laughed once, then went on. “You and your team will fly out of Denver tomorrow afternoon, and meet Jefferson in El Paso tomorrow evening. He’s got vehicles and everything waiting for you, so just let him know what else you need for your plans.”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

“Noah, this is the part where I have to say that if you or any of your team is compromised, as in captured or killed, our government will deny any knowledge of you. You don’t exist, so there won’t be a rescue mission. As far as Mexico would be concerned, you would probably be treated as a criminal, which could mean anything from prison time to execution, depending on what the charges are. Unfortunately, I can’t even offer you the chance to back out. This is the reason we recruited you, and I’m hoping, really, really hoping, that you will turn out to be as good as I think you will.”

Noah gave her his best grin. “Relax,” he said. “I’ll be even better than that.”

She grinned back. “Good. Now, go prove that to me.” She handed him an envelope. “These are your plane tickets. Everything else you’ll need, you’ll get from Jefferson. Noah, I want you guys to be careful down there. This is your first mission, but that doesn’t mean it’s not an important one. It’s got to be successful, but I want you all to come back. I have high hopes for this team.”

“I appreciate that,” Noah said, “and I promise you I’m going to do my best to make sure we all come back safe.”

She nodded once. “Excellent,” she said, and then picked up the file from her desk and began reading through it.

Noah recognized a dismissal when he saw one, so he rose from the chair and walked out of the room. Jenny looked up at him and smiled as he passed her desk again, and he returned it out of habit. When he got to the elevator, however, there was no sign of a smile on his face.

He rode the elevator down to the parking garage, and walked to his Corvette. He fired the powerful car up and backed it out of its space, then made his way out to the street and turned right. That took him out to the road that would let him head for home, and since he had nothing else to do for the day, home sounded like the place he wanted to be.

He took out his phone, and sent a message to each of his team members to meet him at his place for dinner. By the time he got to the county road, all three of them had replied that they would be there. Since it was only a little after three, he decided to fire up the grill for some barbecued chicken.

Neil was already at home, in his trailer, so he wandered over to the house when Noah got there. “Hail, Caesar,” he said. “How goes it with Queen Allison?”

“Pretty good,” Noah replied. “We got the final go-ahead; we fly out tomorrow afternoon. You got everything ready on your end?”

Neil broke into a big smile. “I have got things so ready that I’m making every bank in the world nervous,” he said. “I’ve written a program that can get into every financial computer network in the world, and make fake transactions appear in any bank account I want to play around with. What that means is that Uncle Sam doesn’t have to spend any money for all these drug buys you’re planning to make. All you do is tell me where you want money to appear, and I’ll make it appear there.”

Noah’s eyebrows almost met his hairline. “Are you saying you found a way to create money out of thin air?”

Neil squinted at him, and sneered. “Why would I do that? The Federal Reserve has been doing that for years; that’s not new. Hell, every bank in the country, probably the world, can do that. No, I’ve done something even better. I can make money appear in any bank account, looking just like it came from a normal transaction, but sometime later, depending on how long I set it for, it automatically disappears. Poof! Gone like it never existed, which it didn’t. Of course, the beauty of it is that you’ll be long gone before anyone notices what happened.”

Noah looked at him for a moment. “What happens if they spend the money before your time limit runs out and it disappears?”

Neil grinned. “Then, suddenly, a whole lot of bank examiners and federal agents from every country involved are looking for whoever owned that account, because it will be so deep in the hole that they may never figure out just how much money is really missing.”

Noah nodded. “And somehow, the banks are aware of this program of yours? You said they’re all scared, right?”

Neil blinked a couple of times. “Well—okay, they’re not really scared, because they don’t know about it, but if they did know about it, they’d be terrified. I mean, like, shaking in their boots, that kind of terrified. Holy crap, Noah, in the wrong hands, this program could destabilize the economies of some fair-sized countries!”

Noah stood there and looked at him for a moment. “Have you told our bosses about this program, yet?”

Neil blinked again. “No, not yet. Why?”

“Do me a favor,” Noah said. “When you do tell them about it, don’t mention that part about destabilizing economies. If the wrong people got hold of that idea, you might disappear, and I don’t want to lose you.”

Neil opened and closed his mouth three times, but nothing came out. He dropped into a chair close to where Noah was prepping the grill. “Have I ever mentioned that you come up with some of the most unsettling notions? Do you really think I could be in danger over that?”

“I think there are people who would decide that was a useful program, and wouldn’t necessarily want its author hanging around. If you wrote the program, you could probably write one to defend against it, am I right?”

Neil nodded, but didn’t say anything.

“Seriously, dude, let’s just keep that part between us, okay?”

Once again, Neil only nodded.

Noah put him to work a few moments later, helping him to get the chicken cut up and marinating in a wine sauce. Noah put potatoes on to boil for potato salad after that, while Neil shucked a dozen ears of corn, coated them in butter and wrapped them in foil so they could go right onto the grill.

Sarah pulled in just a little after four, and volunteered to make coleslaw. By this time, she knew where everything was in the kitchen, so Noah simply nodded and got out of her way.

Moose showed up a half hour later, so Noah decided to move dinner up by an hour. The coleslaw and potato salad were already done, so he carried the chicken and corn out to the grill and started laying it all out, basting the meat with his own homemade barbecue sauce.

“So, I’m curious, but where on earth did you learn to cook like this?” Moose asked.

“One of the foster homes I lived in,” Noah said. “The lady who ran it had a grill, and in the summertime, she liked to cook on it about once a week. I was always the one who volunteered to help, so she taught me a lot about it.”

Moose nodded. “I want her name and address, so I can send her a thank you card.”

“Yeah, I wish I could send her one, too. Hey, you want to get us a beer? There’s a case in the fridge, and I could use one.”

“I’ll get them,” Sarah said, and she hurried inside. Moose had started to rise, but he settled back into his chair.

“So, is this just a social dinner, or is there more to this meeting than meets the eye?” Moose asked.

“Bit of both,” Noah said. “I met with Allison today, and found out we’re flying out of Denver tomorrow afternoon. We’ll be in El Paso tomorrow night, meeting with Mr. Jefferson.”

“What did I miss?” Sarah asked as she came back and passed bottles of beer around to everyone.

“That the balloon went up,” Neil said. “It seems it’s time for us to stop playing games and get down to business.”

Noah nodded. “I was just telling Moose. I found out today that we’re flying out of Denver tomorrow afternoon, and meeting Jefferson in El Paso tomorrow night. He’s supposed to have everything ready for us when we get there. I got our plane tickets. Our flight departs at twenty after four.”

Noah had the grill parked close to his patio table, so that he could watch it from his chair. The four of them were sitting at the table, looking at each other. The mood was somber, and each of them was lost in their own thoughts.