Thriller: Code Name: Camelot - An Action Thriller Novel (A Noah Wolf Novel, Thriller, Action, Mystery Book 1) (12 page)

Allison looked at him for a moment. “Just when I think I’m beginning to understand you, Noah, you throw me a curve ball.” She looked back at her desk, and then back up at his face. She leaned back in her chair. “Noah, after the reports I got on you yesterday, I’ve decided to accelerate your training. Mr. Jackson says you can keep up with his best, and only need some good workouts to help you build some stamina, and you’re already quite proficient in most of what we teach our people here. I’m comfortable that you can handle what we do, and you’re probably going to be better at it than anyone else we’ve ever had.”

Noah looked at her, his face blank. “You’re the boss,” he said, and she smiled.

“How do you feel about it?” she asked, but then she started laughing. “Right, I should know better than to ask that, shouldn’t I? Even I haven’t actually come to grips with your—I don’t know what to call it. What I’m actually trying to ask is whether you’d be willing to meet your team, today, since it’s a foregone conclusion that you’re going to pass and end up in the field.”

Noah blinked. “Are they already here? Here at the facility, I mean?”

“Oh, yes,” she said. “I hand-picked them from our current crop as soon as I knew we had you locked in. They’re the best we’ve had in each of their specialties, and in my personal opinion, they are the ideal team for you. I think there could be some advantages in having you go through some of your training together.”

Noah got up and walked over to the window, and looked out over the cityscape outside. In the distance, he could see mountains and forests, even though the terrain closer in wasn’t quite so rough. There were also storm clouds in the distance, and he wondered if they might be some sort of sign for himself. His grandfather had been a minister, and had tried very hard to instill in Noah the belief that God was always in control.

Well, God,
he thought to himself,
have you got storms headed for
me?

“Let’s do it,” Noah said.

TWELVE

“
G
ood,” Allison said.
“Come with me.” She rose from her desk and walked out of her office, shushing her secretary who was trying to catch her attention. “Not right now, Jenny,” she said. “I’ll be back in a bit, and you can grouch at me then.” She kept on walking to the elevator with Noah on her heels.

She pushed the button for the basement, which was the garage area. “Incidentally, your Corvette is parked here and waiting for you. You can pick it up when we get done today. Right now, we’re going to go over to another office, and get you officially assigned to your team and introduced to them. And just so you know, most of our people don’t meet their teams for at least three months. That give you an idea of how much confidence we’ve got in you? Not that we want to add any pressure, of course.”

“No problem,” Noah said. “I still haven’t quite figured out what pressure is.”

They got back into her car, and she drove out of the garage and across a large part of the downtown district, parking on the street in front of another office building. She got out of the car and Noah followed her through the front door, and to yet another elevator. This one only went to the fifth floor, and he followed her down the hallway to a door marked Davis and Johnson, Accountants.

“We’re here to see Mr. Johnson,” Allison said to the secretary, who looked absolutely terrified when she walked in. The woman was heavyset, and Noah wondered for a moment if she was going to have a heart attack as she fumbled with the phone to tell Mr. Johnson that he had a visitor. A moment later, she managed to stammer out that Mr. Johnson would be happy to see them if they would just go through the door to the right. Allison smiled, and Noah wondered why the secretary looked even more frightened.

Allison led the way through the door, and a tall, balding man appeared in the hall ahead, obviously waiting for them. He ushered them into what appeared to be a conference room, with a large table and many chairs.

Allison pointed at Noah. “This is him, Russell,” she said. “Noah Wolf.”

Johnson let his eyebrows go up a bit as he looked Noah over. “Mr. Wolf,” he said. “I have heard so much about you, sir. Some of it, I’ve got to say, is downright unbelievable.”

Noah looked him in the eye. “Then don’t believe it,” he said. “After all, that’s your choice.”

Johnson smiled, and looked at Allison. “Okay, so he’s every bit as brassy as you said he was. What are we up to, today?”

Allison had seated herself in one of the chairs around the table, and she leaned back and locked her fingers across her stomach. “Russell, I’m going to speed up Noah’s training. He doesn’t need all this crap—he’s ready to go just about anytime. Let’s go ahead and set up his team, now. Bring them in so he can meet them.”

For a moment, Noah thought Johnson was going to argue, but he seemed to think better of it before any of the words that were forming behind his forehead could make it out of his mouth. “Certainly,” he said, and then he got up and walked out of the room.

Noah looked at Allison, and his left eyebrow managed to go up half an inch above the right. “He doesn’t seem too happy about your plan,” he said.

“Of course not,” Allison said. “He’s a bean counter. His job is to make sure that everything we do here pays off. That doesn’t just mean monetarily, since we don’t actually make any kind of profits, but every expenditure we make has to be justified, and that’s his job. If I overrule him and say you’re ready to go when his bookkeeping doesn’t show that he’s gotten his money’s worth on your training, then it leaves open the possibility that something could jump up and bite him in the butt. That scares a bean counter, trust me on that.”

Noah shrugged. “I’m just here to do what you tell me,” he said. “If I have to listen to him, or anyone else, then you’re going to have to point that out to me. One of the first things I learned when I began taking jobs was to find out who the boss is, and then do what the boss told me to do. As far as I can tell, you’re the boss, so if there are any other bosses around here I need to know about, please make sure I do.”

Allison laughed. “No, I’m your boss,” she said. “That’s not anything you gotta worry about. Johnson just likes to make sure his own ass is covered, that’s all. He does his job, though, which is why he’s still here.”

Johnson returned a few moments later, and announced that Team Camelot would be assembled in the conference room within a few minutes. “Do you need me to stick around for this introduction?” he asked Allison.

“Not particularly,” she said. “This is out of the ordinary, I know, but it’s the way I want to do things in this case. They all know me, so I can handle this.”

Johnson nodded, then turned around and left the room. A moment later, a tall, thin young man stuck his head into the room.

“Ma’am? I was told to report here?”

Allison smiled at him. “Yes, Neil, come on in. We’re having a little get together, and you’re part of it.”

The young man came in and took a seat, and Noah looked him over. He barely looked old enough to be out of high school, and was probably a star on his high school basketball team, to judge from his height. Noah guessed him at around six foot five, but he was thin enough that a best guess of his weight put him around one fifty.

Neil was looking him over, as well. Noah wondered if the kid knew that he was looking at his new team leader.

Another man suddenly opened the door and poked his head inside. This one was not as tall, but he was definitely bulkier. He saw Allison, grinned and walked in. “Well, it looks like I’m in the right place,” he said. “Johnson called and said I was supposed to be here, like ten minutes ago.” His eyes flicked to Noah, but then he looked back at Allison.

“Yes, Mr. Conway,” Allison said. “Please come in and have a seat; we’re waiting for one more person.”

The man she’d called Mr. Conway sat down, and nodded at the skinny kid named Neil. Noah took note that they obviously knew each other, and suspected from this that they were both guessing he was to be the new member of their team. Neither of them said a word to Noah, or to each other, for that matter. They seemed content to just wait quietly for whatever Allison had in store.

“Is this where I’m—oh, I guess it is,” said a young woman at the door, just before she stepped inside. She nodded at Allison, then at the other two men, and took a seat.

Allison sat forward and smiled. “I’m doing something that breaks our usual protocols,” she said, “because we’re dealing with an extremely unusual situation.” She indicated Noah with a flick of her head. “I want you all to meet Noah Wolf, who is going to be your team leader. Noah, let me introduce you to Sarah Child, who is your transportation specialist. Sarah came to us about eight months ago, right after she and her father were arrested for running one of the biggest chop shops in the Dallas area. Don’t let her small size and pretty face fool you—she can drive anything that has wheels and can probably tear it apart and rebuild it even while it’s moving down the road. When you’re out on a mission, it will be her job to make sure you get where you’re going, and hopefully back again.”

Noah leaned over and extended a hand, and Sarah shook it. “Nice to meet you,” he said, and the girl rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, charmed, I’m sure,” she said.

Allison pointed at the tall, skinny kid. “This is Neil Blessing,” she said. “Neil is one of the most accomplished computer hackers we’ve ever run across, and he was so good that we recruited him straight out of high school. Of course, that had a little bit to do with the fact that he was going to complete his senior year at the Chicago Youth Authority Special Education Division. Like you, Neil is an orphan who spent the majority of his teens in foster care, and he seemed to like the offer we made him.”

“Yes, I did,” Neil said. “Especially since she’s leaving out the part about how I was to be transferred to a federal prison on my eighteenth birthday, to begin serving a sixty-year sentence without possibility of parole, just for making some minor adjustments to, oh, well, my bank account. Let’s see, sixty years in prison, or work for the government and help them kill people? Hmm, not that hard a choice.”

Noah leaned forward again, and shook hands with Neil Blessing. “I completely understand,” Noah said. “Good to meet you.”

He looked at Allison, who flicked her eyes at the other man. “This big lug is Moose Conway. Moose will be your muscle, the backup man. Like you, he’s got a military background, and just barely failed to make the cut for Navy SEALs. He’s been here for about a year and a half, now, and actually graduated, but he asked to be recycled and go through all the training again. Since we didn’t have a team to assign him to at that moment, I agreed, and he’s probably the best possible man to have in that position on your team.”

Noah extended a hand to Moose, but the big guy just looked at it. “You may be the team leader, and I may have to take orders from you, but that doesn’t mean I have to like you,” Moose said. “I know who you are—I read all about you in
The Army Times
. I don’t know how anyone can give you a second chance after you killed your own men and even your platoon leader. You keep your hands to yourself, understand? I’ll do my job, and you can count on me to do it, but don’t ever expect me to sit down and have a beer with you. You’re a mad dog, and you should have been put down.”

“Mr. Conway,” Allison said, “you will stand down, right now. As it happens, there is a large mountain of evidence that proves that Noah was completely justified in the actions he took. You of all people should know that things are not always as they seem, and this is one of those cases. I’m not going to bother trying to explain it all to you, but get this through your head. Noah Wolf acted honorably when he killed Lieutenant Gibson and the other men who died that day. If he hadn’t, he would not be sitting here, right now, because I would agree with your assessment. Do I make myself clear?”

Moose nodded once. “Yes, Ma’am,” he said. “I’ll just keep my opinions to myself.”

Noah stood up. “Allison, if Mr. Conway does not feel comfortable being on my team, then I believe you should release him from it. I cannot count on a man who harbors animosity toward me.”

Allison looked at him and grinned. “Then, if I were you, I would find a way to eliminate that animosity. He stays on your team, because he’s the best man I’ve got for the job.” She looked at all four of them. “You four will make up our newest team, which will be Team Camelot. Camelot—that’s Noah—will be going through an abbreviated training course, and you’ll be going through some of it with him. It’s quite possible that you may find yourselves out on your first mission within just a few months. Keep yourselves sharp, and stay ready. At this point, I don’t know what your first mission will be, so I can’t give you any tips on how to prepare for it. Just be ready, because you’ll probably have to move quickly when it comes.” She looked at each of their faces in turn. “Any questions?”

Sarah raised a hand. “I have one,” she said. When Allison nodded at her, she looked at Noah. “All I want to know is are you going to get us all killed?”

Noah’s left eyebrow popped up. “I’m certainly not planning to,” he said. “Can I ask what prompted that question?”

Sarah looked at him for a minute, then shrugged her shoulders. “A friend of mine says he knows who you are,” she said. “He says you don’t think like a normal person, that the things most of us worry about don’t seem to mean much to you. Is that true?”

Allison started to interrupt, but Noah put a hand on her arm. “According to a small army of psychiatrists, I suffer from an unusual form of PTSD that leaves me without emotions. I don’t get angry, I don’t get scared, I don’t love and I don’t hate. I’ve spent almost all of my life pretending to be normal, but you four deserve to know the truth. If you tell me a joke, I may not realize it unless somebody else starts laughing. If you share some bad news with me, I’m going to offer sympathy, not because I feel it, but because I’ve learned that’s what you’re supposed to do in that situation. I’ve spent my entire life studying how humans act, so that I can pretend to be one of you. That’s the reality I live in.” He took a deep breath. “As to the value I place on things like human life? Let me put it this way. The reason I have bothered to study the way humans act is so that I can do what other people would consider the right thing, when it’s time to do it. Sometimes, however, I have to do what I believe is right, and that may not be exactly what everyone else wants. Instead, it will be based not on fear or anger or any other emotion, but solely on a logical conclusion drawn from available facts. Now, what that should mean to each of you is that I’m going to naturally want to do whatever I can to protect you. However, if protecting you means the failure of the mission, then I’m going to put the mission first. Does any of that make sense to you?”

Sarah sat there and just stared at him, and Moose busied himself with looking at the ceiling, but Neil leaned forward, put his head in his hands and muttered, “Oh, God help us, we’re all going to die.”