Sarah was quiet for a moment, and Noah waited for her to speak. “One of the reasons Allison wanted you was because you don't have any emotional attachments. If you—if you are starting to have some kind of feelings for me, is that going to interfere? Is it going to make it harder for you to do your job?”
Noah shook his head. “No,” he said. “I don't see why it would.”
Sarah sat up and leaned against the wall so that she could look straight at his face. “Noah, we haven't talked about it, but you know you broke the rules when you came to rescue me. We're all expendable, remember? I think Allison is afraid that our relationship is going to cause a problem.”
“I disagree. My mission at that time was to locate Nicolaich Andropov, and he had you. From a strictly logical standpoint, you could say that I didn't come to rescue you, I came to try to kill him. Bringing you out alive was simply a bonus.”
“Remember the debriefing? You told Jefferson that you came after me because you didn't like the idea of the world not having me in it anymore. In absolutely anybody else, that would be a sign of love. With you, I'm just not sure what it means, but I'll happily take what I can get.”
Noah lowered his eyebrows, and then turned to face her. “I read a book once, a long time ago. One of the characters was trying to define what love means, and I always liked his definition. He said that love was the condition that exists whenever another person's happiness and well-being is necessary for your own happiness and well-being.” He chewed his bottom lip for a few seconds. “I don't have a clue what it feels like to be in love, but if we look at that definition and accept it, then I guess we can say that I love you. I like it when you smile, I like it when you laugh—I don't like it when you're hurt or unhappy. It seems to me that your happiness and well-being are essential to whatever equivalent of those I might have, so that fits.”
Sarah stared at him for a moment, then smiled. “I love you too, you big jerk,” she said, and then she leaned against him again as they watched the movie. When it ended, they slid down into the bed and found other ways to express how much they enjoyed being together.
By six thirty the next morning, they were all up and ready to go. Noah opened the door to find Moose and Neil just about to knock, so they all went to the car together. Denny's, as Neil had said, was only a short distance away. Sarah pulled in and parked and they all filed inside for breakfast.
They spent an hour over pancakes and sausage and eggs and coffee, then got back into the car and headed for the warehouse. Neil had brought his own computer along, and set it up on another table near the 3-D printer, along with his own portable inkjet printer and a police scanner. He laid his copy of the target files beside it and began studying the individuals in the file.
Alejandra Gomez and her husband Enrique were first. While both of them were involved in the cartel, it was Alejandra, the youngest member of the branch, who seemed to be in charge of the group in Columbia. According to the limited intelligence that had been gathered on them, Alejandra called all the shots. This made her, of course, Noah's number one target, with her husband and other family members on the list simply because of their association with her.
Eduardo Menendez was a widower, but he had three of his sons and two of his brothers living with him. All of them were actively involved, and he was number two on the list.
Ramon Hernandez was next. Besides his wife and one adult son, he was accompanied by two uncles and their wives. All of them were deeply entrenched in the cartel, and Ramon was number three.
Armando Rodriguez seemed to be the man who dealt most with the dealers, and his two brothers and an uncle represented the muscle in his organization. While all of the cartel members were involved in various aspects of the drug business, it was the Rodriguez group who tended to hand out discipline. Usually, it came in the form of beatings, but several people had been obviously executed.
Last, but far from least, was Carlos Perez. Carlos, along with his wife and two daughters, handled the business end of their venture. Mrs. Perez was an accountant, and reportedly kept track of the many millions of dollars that flowed through their branch. Their daughters assisted her, but it was rumored that they had been involved in a couple of murders, using feminine charms to lure at least two men to their deaths.
The home addresses of each of them had been provided, along with a list of each and every occupant. Neil began looking for ways to spy on them, and it didn't take him long to discover that all of the homes were clients of a single local security company. An hour later, he had hacked his way into its security video server and could watch in real time as people entered and left.
Noah sat beside him as he went over what he was seeing.
“This is the Gomez household,” Neil said. “They've got security cameras on every entrance, and several around the yard. I can get a complete, three hundred and sixty-degree view of the house and grounds.”