“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.”