“No, honey, we don't. I was calling to see if you might know something.”
“I don't know a lot,” Lacey said. “I know somebody walked into the offices and just started blasting away. I heard there were seven dead, one of them was Jenny Atkins, the Dragon Lady's secretary. Ms. Peterson and Mr. Jefferson were both wounded, but I don't know how bad it is. They're in the hospital, but nobody is saying much of anything about it.”
“Allison was wounded?” Noah asked suddenly. “Who's in command?”
“I'm not sure, at the moment,” Lacey said. “I haven't heard anything more since it happened a few hours ago. I tried calling my dad, but he hasn't gotten back to me yet. He was supposed to go to the office sometime today, but I don’t know if he was there when the attack happened or not. Oh, Neil, I’m so worried.”
Noah glanced at Moose, who was holding his own burner phone in his hand. He nodded once, and Moose got up and walked outside, dialing Elaine's phone number.
“Lacey, where are you?” Neil asked. “Are you at home?”
“Yeah,” she said. “I was off today, mom and I were going to go do some shopping this afternoon, but when this happened we decided to just stay home and wait.”
Noah leaned forward. “Lacey, is anything on the news about this?”
“Yes, but they're just calling it a random attack at the moment. The Kirtland police are actually some of our people, but they have to stay in their characters. The FBI is here, doing whatever they do. That's all I really know right now.”
Noah nodded, and Neil took the phone off speaker. He moved to the other side of the room so that he could have some privacy, and Noah turned to Sarah.
“Noah, who could have done this?” Sarah asked. “I mean, you don't think it was...”
“We don't know enough to even make a guess,” Noah said, “but I wouldn't put it past Nicolaich. We know he's out there, operating on his own now. I'd have to say it's possible he blames E & E, and me personally, for his little regime falling apart. He's probably the only one I could imagine right now who would have the balls to make an attack like this, but we just don't know enough to even really speculate.”
Moose stepped back inside, the phone to his ear. “Noah, Donald Jefferson is in critical condition at Kirtland Regional. Elaine says they don't know right now if he's going to make it at all. Allison Peterson was taken by life flight to Denver, nobody knows anything since then. Her secretary was killed in the attack, along with six other people. Doc Parker is in temporary command, but that's just because they can't find John Hackett. John is actually the number three, after Allison and Donald.”
Noah nodded. “Tell her we appreciate it, and we hope the best for her father.” He took out his cell phone and dialed the number to Allison's office.
“Brigadoon Investments,” answered a voice he didn't recognize. “How may I direct your call?”
“Doc Parker, please,” Noah said.
“And may I ask who's calling?”
“Yes, tell him it's Noah Wolf.”
The operator placed him on hold, but he was only there for a moment. Doc Parker's voice came on the line after only a few seconds.
“What was the first thing I ever told you?” Parker asked, his voice gruff and challenging.
Noah thought for only a second, then said, “You told me I was late, and when I said I was new, you told me that didn't matter.”
“Very good,” Parker said. “Are you on a secure line?”
“Yes, sir, an agency phone. I realize I'm breaking protocol but I'm hearing that we've had some losses up at the top. Is there anything I can do?”
“Well, for right now, you can stay out of here. I'm not going to ream you for checking in, I wasn't going to wait much longer before I called you myself. I've got three teams down right now, and all the others are in the field and can't be reached. You're the only one I've got available right now. We're trying to figure out exactly what hit us, and then I need you to get on it.”
“Yes, sir,” Noah said. “You said three teams are down?”
“Oz and Unicorn are down for good, dead. Aladdin is alive, but he'll be out of the field for a while, may not ever go back out. Cinderella, Robin Hood and Hercules are out on missions out of the country. That leaves me you. I want you to stay low until I, or someone who replaces me, gives you the word to move. Wait a minute, belay that. I want you to stay low until you have a target to go after, whether you get it from us or find it on your own.”