The eyebrows popped back upward, and Noah got out of the car without response. The rest of them followed and they walked into the restaurant.
The next two hours were occupied with eating. Sarah surprised herself again by eating more than she had expected, but all three of the men made multiple trips through the line. Yankee pot roast, fried chicken, pork chops, beef ribs and several different varieties of fish made it onto their plates, along with generous helpings of mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans and sweet corn on the cob, and all of them finished up with ice cream, brownies and banana pudding.
There was no talk of missions or enemies, because the place was just too well packed. Noah had cued the rest of them to use their cover names by looking at Sarah and asking, “Rosie, baby, would you get me some iced tea, please?” From that moment on, they referred to each other as Wyatt, Rosie, Jimmy and Lenny.
They were finishing up dessert when Noah’s phone rang. The caller ID said the call was coming from Brigadoon, so Noah answered instantly. “Yes, Sir, this is Wyatt,” he said.
Parker chuckled. “Well, hello Wyatt,” he said. “Doc Holliday, here. I thought you might like an update on Annie Oakley.”
“Yes, Sir, I sure would. How’s she doing?”
“Meaner than a striped-ass snake! The doctors say the swelling in her brain has gone down, and she’s regaining most of what she lost. I can tell you that her tongue is definitely back to normal, because she’s been lashing me with it for the last two hours. Her abdominal surgery went through without a hitch, and the bullet in her leg didn’t do a whole lot of damage, so those aren’t much of a concern, right now. They’re going to keep her a few more days for observation, but she’ll probably be back in her office within a week.”
“Tell her we’re all glad to hear it, Sir. How about Mr. J?”
“He’s at home, now. I did find out that he lost about a third of his left lung, but he’s in good enough shape in general that it shouldn’t affect him too much, according to the doctors. He’s been ordered to stay off work for at least a month, possibly longer.”
“Again, good news. Things are going okay out here. I’ll call in a report later today, if that’s okay.”
“Yes, as soon as you can. I’m curious about a report we got of three known mercenaries who seem to have met an untimely end out your way.”
“You know my business motto, Sir, eliminate the competition.”
“I thought that might be how it was. Call me later with more details.”
“Yes...” Noah didn’t get any further because the line went dead. Everyone else had finished up while he was talking—even Neil, who literally scraped the minute bits of banana pudding from the bowl—so they got up and left.
As soon as they were in the car, Noah filled them in on Allison and Jefferson. All three of the others expressed delight that their bosses were doing so well, and then Noah called Doc Parker back.
“Report, Camelot,” the old man said.
“Yes, Sir,” Noah replied. “Three of Nicolaich’s men followed us this morning after we left Molly’s office. I decided it was time to send Nicolaich a message of my own, so we allowed them to trail us out into the countryside. I spotted an abandoned industrial building and instructed Sarah to pull in suddenly and drive behind it. Moose and I jumped out of the car and waited for our shadows to appear, and I took out the driver first. The car crashed and the other two climbed out. By the time they got to their feet we were able to disarm. One was Pasquale Morabito, who refused to tell me anything, and the other was a man named Tom Bridger. Bridger offered to reveal Nicolaich’s location if I would kill Morabito, so I did. Afterward, Bridger admitted that he didn’t know where to find Nicolaich, but said that Nicolaich calls his daughter every Wednesday at precisely 11 local time. Neil said that he could trace the call to get a location, and I killed Bridger to ensure that he could not warn Nicolaich.”
“Excellent work. Of course, I’m certain you considered the possibility that this is part of Andropov’s plan, that he may have deliberately planted this Bridger with such a suggestion. He’s quite capable of sacrificing his own pawns for a chance to capture a king.”