Lone Wolf (16 page)

Sarah turned around and caught him watching her. “What?”

Noah shook his head. “I don't know,” he said. “Sometimes—sometimes I just like to watch you as you're moving around. I can't explain it, it's not like I'm watching you in a sexual way, it's just—appealing, maybe.”

Sarah stood and stared at him for a moment. “Is this something new? Have you watched girls like that before?”

Noah hesitated for a second, then shook his head. “No. No, I don't think I have.”

She shrugged. “Well, maybe it's a step in the right direction.” She walked over to him and reached up to put her arms around his neck, clasping her hands behind it. “I like watching you, sometimes, too. You move so purposefully, like you can't stand the thought of wasting a motion. It's very appealing.”

Noah cocked his head slightly, looking down at her face. “You're the first girl I've ever been with who really knew what I am, at least since I was a teenager. Molly used to tell me that I was doomed to be lonely, because I'd never find a girl who could deal with it, but I don't know what it feels like to be lonely. Being alone never bothered me, and when I had a girlfriend it was just sort of a different situation. She was right, though, and it never lasted very long. No matter how I tried to pretend to be normal, I'd make mistakes that would upset them, and when I couldn't explain it, they'd leave.”

Sarah grinned. “That was different from us, though,” she said. “I do know how you are, and it's not like we're married or anything. I started this because Queen Allison made it clear that we weren't allowed to have any normal relationships outside the agency, so being with you seemed like a compromise. No strings, no emotional attachment—all I wanted then was the comfort of having somebody touch me, and hold me.” She brought her hands down and put them around his back, drawing him closer to her and laying her head against his chest. “Am I going to ruin things if I tell you that it's different, now? That I'm here because I want to be, because I want to be with you?”

Noah raised his eyebrows. “Ruin things? What do you mean?”

Sarah stood there and held him for a moment, then leaned back slightly to look up at him again. “I'm not like you,” she said, “I do have emotions. Is it going to cause problems between us if I'm—if I'm getting attached to you? Emotionally attached, I mean?”

“It doesn't cause a problem for me,” he said, “but you have to know that it doesn't change anything on my end. I still don't have any way to return those feelings. It's not that I don't want to, it's just that I don't seem to have them inside me.”

“I know,” Sarah said softly. She rose up on her toes and brushed his lips with hers. “I didn't want to feel anything, it just sort of hit me one day that I did. You may be a robot to everybody else, but to me you're just the most incredible man I've ever known. I won't rub it in your face, I won't tell you I love you or anything like that, don't worry. I just needed to let you know, so that if you wanted out...”

Noah looked into her face, his expression as blank as ever. “I don't want out, but sooner or later you're going to.”

Sarah grinned. “Maybe,” she said. “But until then, I plan to enjoy being with you as much as I can. That okay?”

“That's okay,” Noah said.

The oven beeped to say that it had reached the right temperature, and Sarah let go of him to turn and put the corn dogs into it. She set the timer for eighteen minutes, as it said on the box, and the two of them took their glasses and walked into the living room to find something on the television. Noah found an old episode of
Star Trek
, and they watched until the timer went off.

Noah paused the television as Sarah went to get their lunch. She was back a moment later with all of the corn dogs on a single plate, carrying the bag of chips under her arm. “I figured we could just eat in here,” she said.

“Sounds good to me,” Noah said. He picked up a corn dog, dipped it into the puddles of mustard and ketchup she had put on the plate, and took a bite while she opened the bag. He picked up the remote and started the program again.

The show ended and they started a movie, a recent action flick with a lot of older action stars. Sarah watched intently, enjoying all of the violence and action, while Noah paid close attention to the way the members of the mercenary team interacted with each other.

When the movie ended, they flipped through the list of movies and programs, looking for something else to watch, but didn't find anything that caught their interest. Instead, they decided to go for a walk in the surrounding forest. Both of them enjoyed being out in nature, watching the wildlife and discussing the things they saw. Noah noticed when Sarah's fingers entwined in his own, but didn't say anything.

It was almost six by the time they got back to the house, and they were looking at options for dinner when Noah's phone rang.

“Hello,” he said, and he heard Allison's voice.

“Camelot,” she said, “I need you in my office in one hour. Is Sarah with you?”

“Yes, she's right here.”

“Bring her along,” Allison said, and then the line went dead.

Noah turned to Sarah. “Allison wants us at her office in an hour. You need anything before we go?”

Sarah's eyes were wide, but she shook her head. “No, I'm good. Maybe we can grab something to eat on the way.”

Noah nodded, and they went out the door and got into his Corvette. The drive into Kirtland only took about twenty minutes, so they stopped at one of the taco shops and went inside. The place had an all-you-can-eat taco bar, with a selection of meats and toppings so that they could make their own tacos. They made their plates quickly and sat down to eat.

Thirty minutes later, they were parked in the garage under Allison's office building, and rode the elevator up to her floor. Jenny, her secretary, was already gone for the day, but there were lights on inside. Noah tapped on the door and heard Allison call out, “Come in.”

They stepped inside, and Noah was surprised to see no one else there. Allison was fumbling with some papers on her desk, and pointed at the chairs in front of it. “Sit,” she said. They sat, and waited for Allison to finish what she was doing. It took her another minute or so, and then she looked up at them.

“Sorry for the sudden roust,” she said. “I just made a whirlwind flight to DC and back, and I learned a couple of things you need to know. It seems that the Mauritanian Prime Minister may well have been working with the Russians. NSA and CIA both picked up chatter that indicates he was likely involved with the plot to use the girl against President Habib. They've got at least eight clandestine meetings between him and the Russian ambassador, Pavel Gregorich, over a three-month period leading up to her disappearance. In at least one of them, the topic of discussion was the alliance the Russians have been pressuring for, and Ndiaye was heard saying that the only thing standing in the way was the president's opposition.”

Noah shrugged. “Well, we beat him,” he said. “You don't think they'll try to use the girl again, do you?”

Allison shook her head. “Very doubtful,” she said. “And this doesn't really pertain to us, anyway, except that it seems you may well have been correct when you said the whole thing seemed too easy. Our intelligence analysts are examining the possibility that this entire situation was contrived with the sole purpose of drawing E & E out where the Russians could find something leading back to us.”

Noah sat there and looked at her for a moment, letting all that she was saying run through the logical filters in his mind. “Why would Russia give a fig about us? Have we taken out some of their people lately?”

Allison's face wore what could only be considered a sarcastic smile. “We're in the assassination business,” she said. “Of course we've taken out some of their people. We almost always try to make it appear to be accidental or natural, but just the timing of some of these deaths alone would be too coincidental for a cynical intelligence agency to believe. I'm sure the same is true for other countries, that they know we have cleanup crews, but don't know the details.”

“So Russia wants details, then?” Sarah asked. She glanced at Noah, then back at Allison. “What does that mean for us? Would we be exposed, would that get us shut down or anything?”

“I don't think we're in any danger of being shut down; American diplomacy can't get by without us, and we're a deeper secret than the stuff that goes on in the back of Area 51. There are already conspiracy theorists who have stumbled across hints of our existence, but we have a whole division that does nothing but play smokescreen. Every time we get mentioned or described in an article or blog post, they plant plenty of disinformation and start campaigns to discredit the writers.” She leaned back in her chair and steepled her fingers under her chin. “As for Russia wanting details, however, that's a bit more serious. They're not going to worry about trying to expose us, they'll be looking for some way to counter us, keep us from getting to those of their people who become targets for us. That means they want to identify any of our operatives they can, which is why our analysts believe that we were drawn into this mess.”

“They used the girl as bait to draw us out, then,” Noah said. “That's why it was so easy to find Pendergrast. They were undoubtedly watching him, and knew when we took him. As soon as he called his Russian contact, they knew we were coming. All they had to do was follow Pendergrast the same way we did, and see who followed him.”

“It might have been even simpler than that. Once Pendergrast was on his way to Moscow, they probably started watching everyone in our embassy over there. When you met with our station chief at Sheremetyevo Airport, they were probably watching you then.”

Noah's expression did not change. “I should have seen that,” he said. “I should have realized it was a setup.”

Sarah reached over and took his hand, a comforting gesture that was wasted on him, but he didn't resist. “Noah, you did,” she said. “You told us all that it was going too smoothly, too easy, but you also said we had to follow through with the mission, anyway. Remember?”

Allison leaned forward again, bracing her arms on top of her desk. “Which was absolutely correct. CIA and NSA are both convinced that the unholy alliance between Russia, Syria and Mauritania would have been a disaster for the whole Western world, and if you had not recovered the girl, it probably would have become a reality. Frankly, I would have sent you in to retrieve her even if I had known it was a trap.”

Noah was continually running all of this information through his mind, and he reached a conclusion. “This is Nicolaich,” he said. “You said he's their version of you, so he's trying to identify our agents in order to be able to target us. That's why he was using his own son in the operation; I don't think he expected you to kill Vasily. Even a man like this wouldn’t put his own son out there as a sacrificial pawn.”

“That could be true, but he isn't above using it to his advantage.”

“Of course not,” Noah said. “Since I killed his son, he's going to call in every favor he can, get everyone possible to help him find us. He's got the perfect scenario. He can claim a father's rage as his motivation for coming after us, and an awful lot of intel operatives are going to either be afraid to get in his way, or want to score points with him by helping. He's not going to pass up a chance like this, even if he's still in mourning. I wouldn’t.”

Allison and Noah looked into each other's eyes for a few seconds, and then Noah broke the silence.

“Going in and rescuing that girl just painted a target on all of our heads. Nicolaich Andropov isn't just out to identify us, he's out to track us down and destroy us.”

“I
think you're right,” Allison said. “The only question is what we do about it.”

Noah shrugged his shoulders. “Why is that a question? The only logical course of action is to take Nicolaich out of the equation. That may not stop his organization from coming after us, but it will send a message that we're not that easy to take out.”

“Camelot, Nicolaich Andropov is a ghost. According to many sources, there's never even been a photograph taken of him that we are aware of. The SVR considers him one of the most dangerous men in the world, which is why he is nicknamed the Boar, after the wild hogs that rip people to shreds in the Russian forests and swamplands. He's not going to be easy to locate, and he's probably as deadly as anyone we've got. A mission to go after him would take an awful lot of our resources.”

“No, it won't,” Noah said. “I'm the one who killed Vasily, his son; if I put myself on his radar, I won't have to track him down. He'll come to me, and when he does, I'll kill him.”

Sarah squeezed his hand. “Noah, you're talking about using yourself as bait! That could be suicidal!”

Once again, Noah shrugged. “Leaving him out there would probably be even worse. I'm the one he wants most, so I'd be the irresistible target. If I were him, I wouldn't come at me for the kill, I'd be looking to capture me, try to break me and get information about the rest of the agency. He'll be expecting a trap, but that doesn't mean I can't spring it.”

Allison stared coldly into his eyes. “And what if he does manage to capture you? He would break you eventually, and you'd give up everything you know about us. We've managed to keep this whole operation a secret. We can't risk Neverland being hit by an SVR death squad. A single assassin can devastate an organization. Imagine what several of them, working together, could do.”

“Body bomb,” Noah said. “Give me an explosive belt. Have it made so that it can be triggered remotely, and keep a bug on me. If I'm captured, detonate it. I can't give up secrets if I'm dead, and maybe we'll get lucky and take out Nicolaich along with me.”

The woman behind the desk kept her face a mask of stone. “I'd be losing a pretty valuable asset,” she said. “We've got an awful lot invested in you, you know that, and we have half a dozen missions in the planning stage right now that count on Team Camelot carrying them out. If we do this, we risk losing you, potentially compromising those missions.”