“I think I’ll leave farming to the farmers. Fishing, however, I do enjoy.”
“Well, you can do plenty of it from your back yard,” Allison said, “since it overlooks the lake. I’m told our lake has the best fishing in the whole state, but I haven’t had time to go and try it, yet. Let me know if it’s really that good, and I’ll come out sometime and give it a try.” She looked down at her desk. “Okay, now let’s move on to other matters. By the way, you’ll note that there are a number of keys on the key ring. You’re going to need a car, and because you’re a young, single, successful guy, Doctor Parker said we needed something expensive and powerful, so he chose a ‘72 Corvette. The car has been rebuilt from the frame up, and is extremely powerful. He says you can handle it, so don’t prove him wrong and kill yourself in it, okay? You also have a pickup truck, but from what I understand, it’s an older Ford that just sort of came with the house.”
Noah shook his head. “That old couple I lived with? They had this old Ford truck, it was like a 1969, I think, and it looked like crap, but it would outrun everything around there. They used to let me drive it to school and around town, and I always felt like that truck and I were a lot alike. Neither of us was what we seemed to be, but we were both ready for whatever the world threw at us.”
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
“Good,” 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.”